Q.1 A) What are the key methods for tracking and identifying opportunities in the macro environment?

· Although every manager in an organization needs to observe the outside environment, the major responsibility for identifying significant marketplace changes falls to the company’s marketers. They have two advantages, they have disciplined methods for collecting information, and they spend more time than anyone else interacting with customers and observing competition and other outside firms and groups. Some firms have developed marketing information systems that provide management with rich detail about buyer wants, preferences and behavior.

· Marketers also have extensive information about how consumption patterns vary across countries. Nevertheless may business firms are not sophisticated about gathering information. Many do not have a marketing research department. Others have a department that limits its work to routine forecasting sales analysis, and occasional surveys. Some managers complain about not knowing how to get hold of critical information getting important information too late

· The companies marketing information system should be a cross between what managers think they need, what they really and what is economically feasible.

· Enterprising individuals and companies manage to create solutions to unmet customer needs. The air-travel industry in South-Asia is witnessing an unprecedented boom. Several new low cost entrants such as Spice Jet, Simplify Deccan, and GoAir in India. Airblue in Pakistan and GMG Airlines in Bangladesh have entered the domestic air circuit, and some of these airlines have even started operating international flights. By offering low prices, these new airlines companies are drawing in new customers as well as increasing the usage rate.

· We distinguish among fads, trends and mega trends. A fad in unpredictable short-lived and without social, economic and political significance. A company can cash in on a fad A trend is a direction or sequence of events that has some momentum and durability. Trends are more predictable and durable than fads. A trend reveals the shape of the future and provides many opportunities.Mega trends have been described as large social, economic, political and technological changes are slow to form and once in place, they influence us for some time between seven and ten years or longer.

· Companies and their suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer, competitors and publics all operate in a macroenvironment of forces and trends, increasingly global that shape opportunities and pose threats. These forces represent “noncontrollables,” which the company must monitor and to which it must respond.

· The beginning of the new century brought a series of new challenges the steep decline of the stock market, which affected savings, investment and retirement funds increasing unemployement, corporate scandals and of course, the rise of terrorism. These dramatic events were accompanied by the continuation of existing trends that have already profoundly influenced the global landscape.

· Within the rapidly changing global picture, the firm must monitor six major forces i.e. demographic, economic, social-cultural, natural, technological, and political-legal. We will describe these forces separately, but marketers must pay attention to their interaction, because these will lead to new opportunities and threats. For example, explosive population growth (demographic) leads to more resource depletion and pollution (natural), which leads consumers to call for more laws (political-legal), which stimulate new technological solutions and products (technological), which, if they are affordable(economic), may actually change attitudes and behavior (social-cultural).

B) Explain the three Additional Ps.

· Marketing has often been defined in terms of satisfying customers’ needs and wants. A critic, however, maintains that marketing does much more than that and creates needs and wants that did not exist before. According to these critics, marketers encourage consumers to spend more money than they should on goods and services they really do not need.

· The term "marketing mix" was coined in 1953 by Neil Borden in his American Marketing Association presidential address. However, this was actually a reformulation of an earlier idea by his associate, James Culliton, who in 1948 described the role of the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients", who sometimes follows recipes prepared by others, sometimes prepares his own recipe as he goes along, sometimes adapts a recipe from immediately available ingredients, and at other times invents new ingredients no one else has tried.^[1] A prominent marketer, E. Jerome McCarthy, proposed a Four P classification in 1960, which has seen wide use.

Four P's

Elements of the marketing mix are often referred to as the "Four P's", a phrase used since the 1960's

1. Product

It is a tangible object or an intangible service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. Intangible products are service based like the tourism industry & the hotel industry or codes-based products like cellphone load and credits. Typical examples of a mass produced tangible object are the motor car and the disposable razor. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass produced service is a computer operating system. Packaging also needs to be taken into consideration. Every product is subject to a life-cycle including a growth phase followed by an eventual period of decline as the product approaches market saturation. To retain its competitiveness in the market, product differentiation is required and is one of the strategies to differentiate a product from its competitors.

2. Price

The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product.

3. Place

Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.

4. Promotion

Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketeer may use in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements: advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion. A certain amount of crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principal elements together, which is common in film promotion. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and Internet adverts through print media and billboards. Public relations are where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations (see Product above).

Any organization, before introducing its products or services into the market; conducts a market survey. The sequence of all 'P's as above is very much important in every stage of product life cycle Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline.

In recent years the addition of a 5th P has become common place. The 5th P being people. This is to represent the people who you are targeting but also the people who will physically conduct each part of the campaign. Some people even go up to as many as 10 P's.

Extended Marketing Mix (3 P's)

More recently, three more Ps have been added to the marketing mix namely People, Process and Physical Evidence. This marketing mix is known as Extended Marketing Mix.

5. People

All people involved with consumption of a service are important. For example workers, management, consumers etc. It also defines the market segmentation, mainly demographic segmentation. It addresses particular class of people for whom the product or service is made available.

6. Process

Procedure, mechanism and flow of activities by which services are used. Also the 'Procedure' how the product will reach the end user.

7. Physical Evidence

The marketing strategy should include effectively communicating their satisfaction to potential customers.

C) How do institutional buyers & government agencies do their buying?

· Much of what we have said also applies to the buying practices of institutional and government organizations. However, we want to highlight certain special features of these markets

· The institutional market consists of schools, college and university hostels, hospitals and nursing homes and other institutions that provide goods and services to people in their care. Many of these organization are characterized by low budgets and captive clienteles.

· For example, hospitals must decide what quality of food to buy for patients. The buying objective here is not profit because the food is provided as part of the total service package nor is cost minimization the sole objective, because poor food will cause patients to complain and hurt the hosptial’s reputation. The hospital purchasing agent must search for institutional food vendors whose quality meets or exceeds a certain minimum standard and whose prices are low. In fact, many food vendors set up a separate division to sell to institutional buyers because of these buyers special needs and characteristics.

· In most countries, government organizations are a major buyer of goods and services. They typically require suppliers to submit bids ad often award the contract to the lowest bidder. In some cases, the government unit will make allowance for superior quality or a reputation for completing contracts on time. Governments will also buy on a negotiated contract basis, primarily in case of complex projects involving major R&D costs and risks, and in cases where there is little competition.

· A major complaint of multinationals operating in Europe was that each country shoed favoritism towards its nationals despite superior offers from foreign firms. Although such practices are fairly entrenched, the European union is attempting to remove this bias.

· Because their spending decisions are subject to public review, government organizations require considerable paperwork form suppliers, who often complain about bureaucracy, regulations, decision-making delays, and frequent shifts in procurement personnel.

· The governments and its different departments and organizations of various countries of South Asia constitute the largest customer in their respective countries. Contracts for a diverse range of products and services are needed by the government. The government follows a set of well laid out procedure for buying.

· In India, for example the Director General of Suppliers and Disposals (DGS&D) is the central purchasing organization of the government. This organization has the responsibility of procuring and purchasing the supplies required by various departments including defense and railways. The criteria to qualify as a supplier of specific items are prespecified by the DGS&D and they enter into “rate contracts” with suppliers for materials, stores and equipments. The suppliers include both Indian and foreign firms. These contracts cover the standard type of materials and supplies required in bulk quantity whose prices do not fluctuate appreciably.

· The procedure followed by the government to buy products and services is very elaborate and these procedures have to meet legal requirements. For example, one government organization adopted a procedures for purchase of prefabricated construction materials for a housing project in the following manner

· An advertisement was published inviting “prequalification offers from reputed, competent construction agencies having expertise in ‘prefab technology’ for building construction and approved by DGS&D for having a rate contract”. The announcement further noted that the technical bids would be first evaluated and the commercials bids of only those who meet the predetermined technical benchmarks would be opened.

· Inspite of these reforms, for a number of reasons many companies that sell to the government have not used a marketing orientation. Some, though, have pursued government business by establishing separate government marketing departments. Many government needs and projects, participate in the product specification phase gather competitive intelligence prepare bids carefully and produce strong communication to describe and enhance their companies reputations.

D) How do we market services? How can we improve services quality?

To market services successfully, first we need to understand the nature of services. According to Wolak, Kalaftis & Harris, the characteristics of services are intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity and perishibility.

So what are the 4 characteristics of services

Intangibility the service cannot be touched or viewed, so it is difficult for clients to tell in advance what they will be getting:

Inseparability (simultaneity) of production and consumption, the service is being produced at the same time that the client is receiving it (eg during an online search, or a legal consultation)

Heterogeneity (variability): services involve people, and people are all different. There is a strong possibility that the same enquiry would be answered slightly differently by different people (or even by the same person at different times). It is important to minimise the differences in performance (through training, standard-setting and quality assurance)

Perishibility unused capacity cannot be stored for future use. For example, spare seats on one aeroplane cannot be transferred to the next flight, and query-free times at the reference desk cannot be saved up until there is a busy period.

Marketers also need to understand the services marketing mix framework. The services marketing mix is an extension of the 4Ps framework. The essential elements of product, promotion, price and place remain but 3 additional elements - people, physical evidence and process are included to the 7Ps mix.

The need for the extension is due to the high degree of direct contact between service providers and its customers, the highly visible nature of the service process, and the simultaneity of the production and consumption. Although it is possible to discuss people, physical evidence and process within the 4P framework (for example people can be considered part of the product offering) this extension allows a more thorough analysis of the marketing elements necessary for successful services marketing.

People - because of the simultaneity of production and consumption in services the company’s staff occupy the key position in influencing customer’s perceptions of product quality. In fact the service quality is inseparable from the quality of service provider. An important marketing task is to set standards to improve quality of services provided by employees and monitor their performance. Without training and control employees tend to be variable in their performance leading to variable service quality. Training is crucial so that employees understand the appropriate forms of behaviour and trainees adopt the best practices.

Physical evidence

This is the environment in which the service is delivered and any tangible goods that facilitate the performance and communication of the service. Customers look for clues to the likely quality of a service also by inspecting the tangible evidence. For example, prospective customers may look to the design of learning materials, the appearance of facilities, staff, etc.

Process

This means procedures, mechanism and flow of activities by which a service is acquired. Process decisions radically affect how a service is delivered to customers. The service in organisations includes several processes e.g. first contact with customers, administrative procedure regarding delivery, preparation and evaluation of service offerings. The following guideline can be useful for successful services management:

ensure that marketing happens at all levels from the marketing department to where the service is provided

consider introducing flexibility in providing the service; when feasible customise the service to the needs of customers

recruit high quality staff treat them well and communicate clearly to them: their attitudes and behavior are the key to service quality and differentiations

attempt to market to existing customers to increase their use of the service, or to take up new service products

set up a quick service recovery system to customer problems and complaints

employ new technology to provide better services at lower costs

use branding to clearly differentiate service offering from the competition in the minds of target customers

Due to the nature of services, potential customers will always face various forms of risks such as functional, financial, temporal, psychological, social and sensory risks. Risks can be reduced in the form of:

provide as much information as possible

references & testimonials

firm's reputation

provide guarantees or warranties

standardize the service

internet search

Be visible. Give speeches, write articles, and attend functions where you will meet prospective clients.

offer the first one or two hours of service for free

offer trial or pilot project

When marketing services, marketers must keep in mind that reputation, value, delivery of service and follow-through are keys to keeping a customer satisfied and thus achieving a successful services marketing.

Q.2 A) What are important trends in marketing practice?

· Approximately every two years, my company undertakes to determine the best practices of the world's leading service marketing organizations. We literally search the globe for the best performers and document their techniques so that readers of our study can upgrade their own processes. We are currently finishing such a study, to be published in January of 1998. Out of the dozen case studies being developed, we can detect some common themes that disclose trends in marketing services that I am reporting in this article.

· The companies selected represent many different market segments of high-technology, including computers, software, medical equipment, broadcast television equipment, analytical instruments, independent service providers and distributors. That we should find some commonality among such a diverse group is not entirely surprising. It is a reflection of marketplace challenges that cut across this broad spectrum of companies; challenges such as increasing product reliability that makes the need for service contracts less apparent to customers, and the increasing difficulty of selling services, whether you are marketing break/fix maintenance or professional services.

· Issues like these cut across all segments and have provoked many responses. Our study identifies the techniques that are working and have proven results. Adapting them to your situation can help you to avoid the wasted effort of techniques that may not bear fruit and to swiftly implement solutions that have a high probability of success. While this year's study is not quite completed, and a few more trends may be identified in our final report, we have enough information to report on five specific trends:

Applying product marketing techniques to services.

Branding services.

Internal marketing of services and service organizations.

Niching service.

Direct sales of services internationally.

Applying Product Marketing Techniques To Services

· This is a very important trend that we sincerely hope continues. It is not necessarily something that marketers set out to do specifically, but is a byproduct of using good marketing practices and trying to use better marketing communications to coworkers and customers alike. Probably none of the companies we spoke with said to themselves, "Let's use product marketing techniques to market services." They just did it in response to their needs. Having the opportunity to observe several companies using similar techniques, we are in a unique position to label this trend and report it to you as a recommended technique.

· What do I mean by product marketing techniques? Things like branded product lines (described in more detail later in this article), packaging, good data sheets and brochures, articulate presentations, simple and consistent pricing, and good competitive positioning and information. As mentioned, these are all just good marketing practice. So what's the big deal? Well, we have discovered an amazing result when such techniques are used. The product sales force responds enthusiastically! Think about it.

· They are used to product information flowing to them in certain ways and having some consistency in approach. When services are marketed like products, sales people understand them better and are more comfortable with them. We always have the challenge of our services being intangible. That does not disappear with this approach, but some of the sales force confusion is dissipated and they respond better. This is not the holy grail, but it is a big help.

· Studies and our own experience have found that the major cause of new service program failures is the lack of buy-in by the sales force. The product marketing approach can greatly increase your success rate when launching new services. It can also help improve the effectiveness of marketing and selling of existing programs. Customers are affected in the same way.

· Your company probably has a fairly consistent product marketing approach. Aligning service marketing with product marketing allows you to gain strength from synergy and leverage from each other's efforts. This does not translate into a recommendation that you let product marketing take over service marketing. Experience has found that to have a dismal track record. Just tie into their techniques. Try it, you'll like it!

Branding Services

· One of the techniques mentioned above is branding. This has become such a hot topic among service marketers that it merits its own special section. While there is still more talk in the industry than action, we are seeing companies brand their services with exciting results. The best programs we have seen have established an umbrella identity and name for their entire service product line.

· When used most effectively, the company announces the services product line by name ( Sony Electronics uses SupportNet, Waters Corporation uses Connections) right along with its branded product family names. This gives equal weight to services as to products. It also helps to make services more tangible to salespeople and customers. We have heard compelling testimony from salespeople who have related that service organizations are finally making their programs lucid and understandable to the sales channel.

· Successful implementation requires work on two levels. Service marketers must craft a careful, detailed branding campaign. Some important elements include good naming, consistent reinforcement at every opportunity, inclusion of all or most services under one umbrella (more than one creates confusion, negating the positive effects), strong marketing communications and clever packaging. Put the brand on everything! On parts boxes, brochures, data sheets, hats, T-shirts and Web sites. I haven't seen tattoos on technicians yet, but I wouldn't be totally surprised! Don't forget to serve some sizzle with your steak, either. Most service presentations, particularly from executives that have risen from the ranks, are too factual and boring. Presenting your new program to the sales force should be accompanied with the same kind of fanfare and fun as other products (see above). The same exciting approach should be extended to PR campaigns, borrowing yet another product marketing tactic.

· On another level, branding strategies require buy-in at the highest levels within a company. Many CEOs don't truly understand the strategic value of services, and we need their sponsorship. Instead of the usual 15 minutes at the week long sales kickoff, we need equal time and status with tangible products. Sales execs have to be on our side for this to happen. Certainly service marketers can work with their product marketing peers to gain cooperation, but high-level support is essential, which leads naturally into our next trend.

Internal Marketing of Services And Service Organizations

· The need for better positioning of services within companies is well established. What has been lacking is some good ideas on how to accomplish this. Service organizations and our leaders are part of the problem. Those of us who have risen from the ranks tend to be conservative, solid and process-oriented. When we reach the executive level, we tend to be regarded the same way as accounting executives. Solid and reliable, but not noted for our strategic leadership.

· We need help. In an article in this past October's edition of The Professional Journal entitled "How To Avoid Becoming Roadkill on the Services Superhighway," I suggested that service marketing could assist us in becoming more strategic and in selling ourselves and our organization. Working together with our leaders we can elevate our position in the company and get the attention to our efforts that we need.

· Working with one of our clients to develop a strategic plan for their services organization recently, we came to the conclusion that we had no hope of achieving the plan without repositioning the whole services organization within the company. We would never get the resources we needed, nor the cooperation of different departments. What we needed, we decided, was an internal marketing plan. This is constructed much the same as any marketing plan, but is directed at the internal customers, such as company executives and other departments. By the way, they should be researched much like external customers, i.e., What are their needs? Most service organizations have missed this step.

· They are thinking only of their own needs, not what other departments might be trying to do. Aligning service with other departments will produce remarkable results. This does not mean that you actually provide everything they might want. It means taking the time to understand others in your company and using this insight to better sell them on your programs. Let them know how cooperating with you will benefit them and the rest of the company. Generally, sales will want to know how you can help them sell products. Finance will want to know about your financial contributions. The CEO will want to understand how supporting service will help him or her achieve their goals. We all compete for resources. Service organizations can use internal marketing to better compete and reposition themselves internally.

Niching Service

· Niche marketing has been around for a while. Recently we have seen it applied well to service providers, especially in professional services. The key element has been in deciding what not to do. It is easy for some manufacturers' service organizations: they just service what the company sells. For others, there has been a confusing array of opportunities including multivendor service, asset management, systems integration, consulting and a slew of others. The temptation is to go after too much. This is one reason that many service providers have failed to successfully launch professional service programs. It is also one of the reasons that professional services, on average, are about half as profitable as traditional services.

· International Network Services (INS), one of the participants in our Best Practices study, has niched themselves well. They only provide professional services for networking applications. As an independent services company, they sell no tangible products and do not offer maintenance services. Recently named as one of the fastest growing technology firms in Silicon Valley with over $100 million in revenues, INS has disciplined themselves to routinely turn away from opportunities that would take them out of their chosen market. Burrowing deeper into their niche allows them to focus all their energies and resources very tightly. Given the breadth of networks, it is clear that they would not have achieved their success without this focus.

· In the marketing and selling of professional services, we have learned from experience that it takes dedicated efforts to succeed. Trying to have the same people sell tangible products and professional services, for example, does not seem to work. The selling cycles are different, and so are the buyers. In addition, you can demo products, but that doesn't work for services. Niching your services makes a lot of sense for some providers, and we are seeing companies like INS and others forego traditional services completely.

Direct Sales of Services Internationally

· As services have gotten more challenging to sell, we have seen many companies responding by adding both telesales groups and field located service sales specialists. At first, this was just a U.S.-based phenomenon. Lately we have found some spectacular successes in other geographies. Despite local objections that "it will never work in France (or Germany, Japan, Taiwan, etc.)," telesales of service and support contracts is working just about everywhere that it is being seriously tried. One company convinced their dubious French counterparts to try it in just one small product area for one month—December, no less.

· The results were absolutely convincing—on the order of a 40 percent increase in this admittedly small market. The same company convinced their German peers to try a more expansive six-month test, with similar results across a much broader front.

· Oracle has used telesales very aggressively to sell support contracts, to the tune of millions of dollars per year per person. At the same time, their European counterparts, who had gone a different route, were very successful using dedicated field-located people to sell support directly. Recently they have been teaching each other their techniques and setting up groups in Latin America, the Far East and Europe that are using blends of both methods. The results have been gratifying and Oracle sells over a billion dollars worth of support each year.

· We first noticed this trend to have dedicated sales people sell services a few years ago when preparing our first Best Practices report. The longevity, extension into other geographies and growing pervasiveness of this activity cause us to label it as one of the most significant trends in marketing services today. If you have not tried it, we urge you to consider it. Telesales, in particular, is relatively inexpensive and easy to set up. Even if you are not fully convinced it would work for your business, try a test. Chances are you will become convinced.

B) According to you how do marketers identify primary competitors?

Introduction

The current business environment requires vigilance, strong reactions to external markets and extra product offerings. Gone are the days when business would only focus on the needs of their clients; this approach is no longer viable in the market today. Companies need to keep a close eye on their competitors.

How marketers identify primary competitors

· Companies need to identify their competitors through two major perspectives; thy can choose an industrial outlook or alternatively utilize a market approach. Marketers using the industrial outlook need to realize that all companies providing similar products or services fall in the same categories. Marketers need to ask themselves whether their companies represent the monopolistic structure, oligopolistic structure, monopolistic competition structure or pure competition structures since each of these structures will have different primary competitors.

· The first structure is made up of only one company providing a particular good or service. Such companies may not need marketers as they dominate the market. Oligopolistic structures may have some competitors in the market but they are few in number. On the other hand, monopolistic competition applies to those who specialize in certain products. This category has to identify their competitors. Lastly, there is the pure competition structure where all competitors offer the same products. The automobile industry can be classified under the pure competition sector but there may be instances when it also falls under the monopolistic competition structure.(Brown, 1995)

· After marketers have determined the kind of structure which they operate in, they now need to look at specific factors that affect their industry in order top identify which competitors are the most important o them. An industry that has low entry barriers and high exit barriers, then it will most likely have numerous competitor who may be struggling to stay afloat. Most of them may be surviving on the basis of covering their operating cots. However, others may have the ability to cover their daily cost and even meet their capital cots too; these are the kinds of competitors that marketers need to watch out for.

· Marketers also need to be careful about their cost structures. Companies that seem to have firm control over their cost especially in relation to industry requirements are the primary competitors. Also, if a company operates in an industrial that is largely international, then chances are that the most competitive companies are the ones who have a well established global markets and they qualify as primary competitors. On the other hand, some companies maybe operating in industries with high levels of vertical integration. For instance, a company liaises with its suppliers to create a larger market force. Such companies end up dominating the market and therefore qualify primary competitors. (Hope, 1997)

· The automobile industry is affected by cost structure. It can be argued that they spend most of this cost on production and advertising. In the nineties, Honda managed to establish a name for itself especially in the US market because it invested in new technologies. Consequently, its products were superior to those ones offered by other competitors such as Toyota and it became a primary competitor for Toyota.

· The second approach that companies can use to identify their primary competitors is through marketing. In this approach, companies need to look out for those companies that satisfy the same needs that they do. The current market has changed drastically. Primary competitors are not just those companies offering the exact same things offered by the company; they are firms that can serve similar needs.

· This approach requires that marketers trace all the captivities involved while using their product and then examine what other firms perform the same activities. The closest match will be the primary competitors while the next category of firms will be called indirect customers.(Porter, 1985)

· In the automobile industry, some of the central activities include; driving in dangerous terrains, preventing accidents while driving, having some sort of entertainment when driving, filling up the car with fuel, sitting in comfort and others. Based on these features, Toyota would identify its primary competitors on the basis of these features. The Subaru Forester is a primary competitor because it has lash seat belt, airbags, door locks and mirrors for safety or for prevention of accidents. It has an FM/AM/CD player for entertainment.

· The Nissan is also a primary competitor because it version of the Forrester has dual transmission plus AM/CD/FM player, air-conditioning, cruise control, storage space and central locking for prevention of accidents. On the other hand, the Honda model is also primary competitor because it has a picnic table that can be pulled out after driving; it has dual airbags for comfort among other things.

Ways of analyzing competitor’s strengths weaknesses objectives and strategies

· Competitor’s strategies need to be analyzed by examining the kind of product they offer to the market (where product on this case refers to the tangible good and the services that are offered beside it. Thereafter, marketer needs to examine the level of vertical integration adopted by a given company. These two features form the backbone of any competitors’; strategy. It should be noted that companies that have these to feature in common also fall under the same group and will be subjected top the same level of entry barriers.

· Some companies may be offering a wide range of products for instance, in the automobile industry, Toyota, Honda, Subaru and Nissan happen to follow similar product offerings such as the SUVs, Jeeps and others. Additionally, marketers must ask themselves what kind of services o their competitors offer to attract clientele. Also, marketers must know the kind of prices offered by their competitors. All these will give a hint of the kind of strategies adopted by the competitor.

· Competitor’s objectives are analyzed by the kind of financial approach adopted by a company. If a company is constantly chasing after profits, then itis likely that the company is in the business on a short term basis. On the other hand, competitor’s objectives are also subject to their history. A company like Toyota has operated for a long period of time in the automobile industry. In the mid nineteenth Century, Toyota was responsible fro producing another company called Honda through one of its workers. During the formative stages of Honda, the company was trying to fulfill objectives based on its mother company and its competitor’s had acknowledged that. However, after breaking away, the company became independent and its objectives changed.(Hope, 1997)

· Competitor’s strengths need to be analyzed through the kind of share that they possess in the market. If a company has a large share in the market, then chances are that it is a force to reckon with. For example, in the automobile industry, specifically in the 4WD wagon models, the company with the largest share is Honda, followed by Toyota, Subaru and Nissan is the newest candidate in this market segment. Consequently, Honda is the strongest.

· Company’ strengths and weaknesses can also be analyzed by the kind of images that the draw from people’s minds. For instance, when one is asked to name the most influential firm in a certain industry, they are likely to mention one particular company; such a company can be considered as a strong company. Additionally, some companies may be more influential in that they have the highest form of loyalty from customers. For example, when one is asked what kind of company they would choose in order to buy a product then most of them will choose a particular company.

· A company’s weaknesses may be indicated the nature of its product availability. Additionally, if the company provides minimal additional services for its products, then chances are that that it can be considered weak.

How market leaders can expand total market and defend total market share

· Market leaders can expand their market share through a number of platforms.They have the option of using marketing penetration approaches. Here, a companywill try to convince the consumers of other similar products to try theirproduct. On the other hand, companies have the option of creating a new marketsegment. By doing this, companies will be approaching customers that areunaware of the product at all. Lastly, market leaders have the option ofexpanding into geographical locations that have never been reached before.(Jaworski & Rayport, 2001)

· Most of the major companies in the automobile industry have applied one ofthe following strategies to expand their market share. For instance, Toyota andHonda applied geographical expansion after starting their operations in Japan.They marketed their vehicles in Asian countries first and this later on spreadto other regions such as the United States and even Canada. Expansion intomarkets that have never used company product before can also be quiterewarding.

· This can only be achieved after a company has convinced theirpotential users about the quality of the brand or product. On the other hand, companies have the choice of making their products more convenient and available to their final consumer. For instance, there are numerous Subaru outlets in its mother country and this has contributed to increased market share because consumers need to invest too much money in the process of transporting the vehicle.

· However, before companies can contemplate expansion, there are a number of issues that need to be ironed out. For instance, they need to make their share are in line with other players in the industry. When certain competitors feel threatened by a strong company, they may file legal suits claiming that their competitor is trying to monopolize the industry.

· Besides this, sometimes expanding market share may not be economically feasible especially when economies of scale do not allow it. In the automobile industry, Nisan Company has been trailing Toyota in term of new product lines and expansions because of its labor intensive economy. Toyota is quite efficient at employing technologies in production thus explaining the expansion strategies characteristic of the latter. (Brown, 1995)

· Market leaders can defend their total market here by ensuring that their pricing strategies are always ahead of the rest. They need o refrain from getting too comfortable with their position in order to avoid most of the inefficiencies that come with it. Additionally, they also need to be on the frontline when it comes to product innovations.

· Other companies should be trying to catch up with the continuous improvements otherwise market leaders face the danger of being thrown out of business for becoming complacent. Further more, market leaders can defend their place in the market by establishing a strong distribution line. They need to be constantly looking out for new market segments in order to expand their products. Also, market leaders can defend their place by setting the pace in the advertisement and promotion sector. Their promotional efforts need to be above all the rest in order to have substantial market shares.

Conclusion

It should be noted that the very definition of a competitor has changed. Firms should keep abreast of small brands that provide similar goods at lower prices. They should also watch for expansion strategies among huge companies. Market followers can adopt leaner production strategies and reduce prices of common products. Market challengers can use price, distribution, promotion and product innovation as ways of maintaining competitive advantage.

Q.3 A) Explain product life cycle of marketing strategies?

A new product progresses through a sequence of stages from introduction to growth, maturity, and decline. This sequence is known as the product life cycle and is associated with changes in the marketing situation, thus impacting the marketing strategy and the marketing mix.The product revenue and profits can be plotted as a function of the life-cycle stages

Introduction Stage

In the introduction stage, the firm seeks to build product awareness and develop a market for the product. The impact on the marketing mix is as follows:

· Product branding and quality level is established, and intellectual property protection such as patents and trademarks are obtained.

· Pricing may be low penetration pricing to build market share rapidly, or high skim pricing to recover development costs.

· Distribution is selective until consumers show acceptance of the product.

· Promotion is aimed at innovators and early adopters. Marketing communications seeks to build product awareness and to educate potential consumers about the product

Growth Stage

In the growth stage, the firm seeks to build brand preference and increase market share.

· Product quality is maintained and additional features and support services may be added.

· Pricing is maintained as the firm enjoys increasing demand with little competition.

· Distribution channels are added as demand increases and customers accept the product

· .Promotion is aimed at a broader audience.

Maturity Stage
At maturity, the strong growth in sales diminishes. Competition may appear with similar products. The primary objective at this point is to defend market share while
maximizing profit.

· Product features may be enhanced to differentiate the product from that of competitors.

· Pricing may be lower because of the new competition.

· Distribution becomes more intensive and incentives may be offered to encourage preference over competing products.

· Promotion emphasizes product differentiation.

Decline Stage

As sales decline, the firm has several options:

· Maintain the product, possibly rejuvenating it by adding new features and finding new uses.

· Harvest the product - reduce costs and continue to offer it, possibly to a loyal niche segment.

· Discontinue the product, liquidating remaining inventory or selling it to another firm that is willing to continue the product.

The marketing mix decisions in the decline phase will depend strategy. For example, the product may be changed if it is being unchanged if it is being harvested or liquidated. The price may product is harvested, or reduced drastically if liquidated.

B) Describe How to manage the integrated marketing communication process.

· "Integrated marketing communication simply recognises the need to plan and build-up all relevant marketing communications so that they work together in harmony to greatest effect with greatest efficiency"

· In its simplest form, it is the "process of integrating all elements of marketing communications mix across all customer contact points to achieve greater brand coherence"

· Major corporations and their partners have adopted IMC, and according to the Advertising Age, a recent survey called it the single most important influence on strategic decision-making today.

· "The principal benefit derived from the integration of marketing communication is the synergy. Synergy has been described as the 2+2=5 phenomenon. By bringing together the various facets of marketing communications in a mutually supportive and enhancing way then the resulting 'whole' is more then the simple sum of its parts." (Pickton and Broderick 2001). This can be seen when looking at a television advertisement and the images and messages carried through it. "Each element enhances and supports the other."

· "Linton and Morley (1995) list ten potential benefits of integrated marketing communications." The benefits are not always easy to achieve because of "difficulties in implementation"
· Creative Integrity
· Consistent Messages
· Unbiased Marketing Recommendations
· Better Use of Media
· Greater Marketing Precision
· Operational Efficiency
· Cost Savings
· High-calibre consistent service
· Easier working relations
· Greater agency accountability
Pickton and Broderick (2001)

· IMC has an increasingly central role to play in today's market place, because if offers companies a way to strategically coordinate messages and establish a meaningful dialogue with customers. In short, IMC provides organisations with a strategic method for both establishing and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders. And this is essential for marketing success in the twenty-first century.

· The marketplace is changing. What was once a single audience has fragmented and companies have to establish and maintain brand relationships with a variety of groups of people-customers, as well as other stakeholders, such as employees, investors, suppliers and distributors, local communities, and the media

· Organisations now have to communicate with these groups using a wide variety of media. Consequently there are more kinds of messages than ever before and inconsistency can become a company-wide problem. That is why IMC is also needed to coordinate communication consistency

· Because the mass media now have considerably less importance than they have had in the past, dialogue is becoming increasingly critical in this marketplace. That means that companies can no longer rely only on one-way communication targeted to large groups of customers. To be successful now, organizations must not only be able to target messages to individual customers, but also to listen and respond to all their stakeholders. That means they must know who these people are, and the key to that is database-driven communication.

· IMC is critical to brand relationship programs, because it provides the skills and new ways of thinking that are necessary if organizations are to create and successfully manage dialogue with customers and other key stakeholders.

· We all know the importance of branding out product or service, we also know the importance of maintaining a dialogue with our stakeholder relationship marketing, one-to-one, the voice of the customer, and most of us believe in communication consistency. However, these are only techniques that often fail to when practised without clear philosophy, or if not supported by integrated process. At a minimum, IMC provides and underlying model by:

· Identifying your Stakeholders
· Identifying your Brand contacts
· Analysing Communications amongst Customers At Each Brand Contact
· Encouraging Dialogue At Each Brand Contact
· Aligning Brand Contact Communications

· IMC encourages you to identify all customers both internal and external - employees, management, owners, shareholders, clients, suppliers, regulators, the community, and of course, "the buyers" - current, past and present.

· IMC also seeks to identify all the ways in which our stakeholder come into contact at each contact point, including:
· Employee to Employee
· Employee to Customer
· The Product Packaging
· External and Internal Marketing Communication (Advertising, PR, Brochures, Policy Manuals, The Mission Statement etc)
· The Store, Office, Vehicles etc

· While dialogue is communication, not all communication is dialogue. IMC attempts to maximise two-way communication and IMC driven research should identify and be a part of the potential for dialogue whenever possible. Some of the basics include:
· Using your database to not only sell to your customers, but to listen to your customers - Database Research
· Providing the mechanism for and encouraging all customers to communicate with the organisation, then integrate this feedback into the market research function.

· In order to maximise its value, market research should integrate the auditing of internal communication on several levels:
· Is there an agreement across the functional areas regarding the mission of the organisation? Its values? Its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? (SWOT analysis)
· Are the various functional areas communicating with each other regarding marketing messages?
· Are there clear policies for handling suggestions, complaints, inquiries and other forms of customer communication?
· What are the actual messages being sent via marketing, advertising, signage and promotion? (Content analysis)

· If one accepts the view that there are many customers, many brand contacts, and that there is communication of some type at every customer-brand contact point, then the role of market research within the framework of Integrated Marketing Communication is clear - market research should be the centrepiece of an IMC effort. Effective market research should provide your management team with the data necessary to align your organisations communications across all brand contacts, thereby strengthening your brand.

· To be effective, marketing has to be part of a larger whole - it is not enough these days to print a corporate brochure and expect significant results. To design an integrated marketing communications, you need to collaborate with the management team to ensure every part of the operation is brought together to build your brand. IMC will help you to:
· Assess your markets and set your objectives
· Hone your communication messages and target key stakeholders
· Leverage your resources
· Build you internal databases and marketing resources
· Tie together the tone and style of all your corporate communications, collateral and advertising.

B) What is the communication’s mix & how should it be set? What is an Integrated marketing communication program?

Introduction

In terms of the general perception of all of the marketing mix elements that a firm may employ, it is perhaps ‘promotion’ that is the most prominent ‘P’ in the ‘4 P’s’. In fact to many people promotion is marketing. Promotion is a part of a firm’s overall effort to communicate with consumers and others about its product or service ‘offering’. Both the company and the consumer have needs which they aim to fulfill; the profit making company wishes to improve or maintain profits and market share, and gain a better reputation than its competitors, and the consumer aims to reach his or her personal goals.

The total product offering allows each party to move towards these goals, offering a ‘bundle of satisfactions’ which fulfill needs in an instrumental and a psychological sense. The phrase ‘Marketing Communications’ is generally preferred to the term ‘promotion’, this term being reserved for a branch of communications called ‘below-the-line sales promotion’.

Promotion or Marketing Communication?

In a sense all marketing communication activity is a form of promotion, that is in one way or another is attempting to promote the interest of the brand, product range and/or company. What differentiates ‘above the line’ activity from ‘below the line activity’ is a somewhat arbitrary division. There is no universally accepted definition of either. Below the line activity is loosely classed as non-media advertising. Basically if an advertisement is submitted to a publication and a commission is paid to the advertising agency to feature the piece then this is deemed to be ‘above the line’ communication. If no commission has been paid, for example in the case of a public relations press release, a trade exhibition or a sponsored sports event, this is referred to as ‘below the line’ activity. This distinction is accepted by most and is the distinction adopted here.

Real and implied product attributes

The role of marketing communications is to communicate the benefits of the product, service or firm to potential consumers and indeed the same process is undertaken in ‘not for profit situations’ like political parties. The benefits marketing communicators try to convey can be ‘real’ although many of attributes are implied through association or suggestion. This has been described as a ‘total bundle of attributes’ that the consumer perceives in a holistic manner. In other words, consumers see the product or service offering as a unified whole, rather than a bundle of separate component parts such as it’s price, packaging, shape and so on. In this way, marketing communications conveys the meaning of the company’s total product offering, helping consumers attain their goals and moving the company closer to its own goals.

Many products, particularly in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) category, are very similar to other products in their class. For example margarines are basically similar no matter what brand is selected, and the same goes for many fmcg products. In times of shortage, such as during the war years, goods were treated as homogenous commodities, and basically soap was soap! In less developed countries the same is true today.

From the study of buyer behaviour it was noted that Maslow described the different needs of human beings as being hierarchical in nature. At the bottom of the pyramid physiological needs such as hunger and thirst are of primary concern to the individual, almost to the exclusion in fact of anything else. Marketers can make use of this phenomenon and this can be witnessed in advertising soft drinks such as Coca Cola or fast food such as Burger King, McDonalds or KFC.

Only when these basic, but important, physiological needs are satisfied will the individual turn his or her attention to the next category of need in the hierarchy. Their next need is safety and that of their family. In modern society these needs are reflected in goods and services such as burglar alarms, car locks and alarms, double glazing, external lighting, insurance, saving schemes etc. Marketers use the motive of fear in order to market such products. Thereafter loftier concerns assume more importance. People need to feel part of a group, appreciated by others and have the opportunity to both give and receive love.

Fashion items like perfume, supporting the same ‘pop’ group or sports team are all examples of how marketing uses social needs to sell products and services. Esteem needs can be translated into products and services through high status marquee cars, designer clothes or expensive holidays. Finally we reach the higher order need of self-actualisation. Only in very wealthy countries is it possible to have large sections in this category. The best example here is probably in California, especially in cities such as San Francisco where people can indulge in a variety of alternative life styles. Books by ‘self help’ gurus, health supplements exercise videos are examples of products aimed at this motive.

The marketing communications mix

Promotion describes the communications activities of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity/public relations. Advertising is a non-personal form of mass communication, paid for by an identified sponsor. Personal selling involves a seller attempting to persuade a potential buyer to make a purchase. Sales promotion encompasses short-term activities such as giving coupons, free samples, etc. that encourage quick action by buyers.

The company has control over these three variables, but has little control over the fourth variable, publicity/public relations. This is another non-personal communication method that reaches a large number of people, but it is not paid for by the company and is usually in the form of news or editorial comment regarding a company’s product or service. Companies can gain some control over the publicity it receives by the release of news items.

Put together, these promotional activities make up the promotional or communications mix with varying emphasis on each element according to the type of product or service, characteristics of consumers and company resources. Company size, competitive strengths and weaknesses and style of management all influence the promotional mix.

Other communications elements with which promotion must be coordinated are the product itself, price and distribution channels used.

Product communication, including brand name, design of packaging and trade-marks are all product cues which convey a message about the total product offering. Price can communicate different things under varying circumstances, for instance conveying ‘prestige appeal’ for those buyers who perceive that a high price is equal to quality and prestige.

The place in which the products are to be found also has notable communications value. Retail stores have ‘personalities’ that consumers associate with the products they sell. Products receive a ‘halo effect’ from the outlets in which they can be found and two stores selling similar products can project entirely different product images. For example, a perfume sold through an upmarket store will have a much higher quality image than one sold through supermarkets

The Marketing Communications Process

Effective communication means effective marketing. Buyers’ perceptions of market offerings are influenced by the amount and type of information they receive as well as their reaction to that information. There must be a good flow of information between seller and buyer to assist decision-making that precedes a purchase. An effective marketing communications system also allows feedback from the consumer to the seller.

Some people have a psychological predisposition to buy products and services that are ‘new’ to the market.

This predisposition can be modeled with the use of a normal distribution. Certain people derive a great deal of pleasure from acquiring new products and being first in the market. Such people have a low level of perceived risk and in fact they positively like the risk and excitement associated with the purchase of new, innovative products. These people are referred to as ‘innovators’ and, according to Everett Rogers account for about 2.5 % of the population. The next group of people displaying a tendency to buy new products are known as ‘early adopters’ and account for approximately 13.5 % of the market. These are still highly adventurous purchasers and the possession of innovative new products gives them a high present value.

They still have a low level of perceived risk but are slightly more risk adverse than the ‘innovator’ category. The next two groups, ‘Early Majority’ and ‘Late Majority’ account for the bulk of the potential market, 64% in all. Most people fall in to one of these categories. Finally the ‘Laggards’ are people who are not really infested in new product development and tend to purchase products only when their old product is worn out and stops working. This theme is returned to later under product issues.

A key question for the marketing communicator is: Are the innovators and early adopters also opinion leaders? The majority of potential customers are too risk adverse or too disinterested to be ‘first in the market’ for an innovation. They are largely unaffected by the media communication about the innovation. Instead, they are influenced by people that they know who they regard as opinion leaders. Although some individuals my be innovators for many products and services, it is more likely that they will be classified as such for a limited range of products.

For example a computer enthusiast may be regarded as a ‘innovator’ for new computer products’. Similarly, someone who is interested in photography may be regarded as opinion leaders in relation to this product but not others.

A new brand of toothpaste containing baking soda is not really that new to people; after all, it is still just toothpaste. A vacuum cleaner for your garden is on the other hand quite a radical innovation.

These products have recently come on to the market although most people, even keen gardeners seem a little unsure as to whether they should buy one or not. If these products are good, then the message will soon circulate by word of mouth and soon most households will own one, just as most own a lawn mower or a lawn edger and indeed these latter products were considered to be a radical innovation only a few years ago.

Integrated Marketing Communications

(IMC) is the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, functions and sources within a company into a seamless program that maximizes the impact on consumers and other end users at a minimal cost

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a process for managing customer relationships that drive brand value primarily through communication efforts. Such efforts often include cross-functional processes that create and nourish profitable relationships with customers and other stakeholders by strategically controlling or influencing all messages sent to these groups and encouraging data-driven, purposeful dialog with them. IMC includes the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, and sources within a company into a seamless program in order to maximize the impact on end users at a minimal cost. This integration affects all firm's business-to-business, marketing channel, customer-focused, and internally directed communications.^[2]

^{Q.5 A) How can companies more accurately measures & forecast demand?}

· Demand forecasting is the activity of estimating the quantity of a product or service that consumers will purchase. Demand forecasting involves techniques including both informal methods, such as educated guesses, and quantitative methods, such as the use of historical sales data or current data from test markets. Demand forecasting may be used in making pricing decisions, in assessing future capacity requirements, or in making decisions on whether to enter a new market.

· A demand forecast is the prediction of what will happen to your company's existing product sales. It would be best to determine the demand forecast using a multi-functional approach. The inputs from sales and marketing, finance, and production should be considered. The final demand forecast is the consensus of all participating managers. You may also want to put up a Sales and Operations Planning group composed of representatives from the different departments that will be tasked to prepare the demand forecast.

· Determination of the demand forecasts is done through the following steps:

a. Determine the use of the forecast

b. Select the items to be forecast

c. Determine the time horizon of the forecast

d. Select the forecasting model(s)

e. Gather the data

f. Make the forecast

g. Validate and implement results

· The time horizon of the forecast is classified as follows:

Description	Forecast Horizon
Short-range	Medium-range	Long-range
Duration	Usually less than 3 months, maximum of 1 year	3 months to 3 years	More than 3 years
Applicability	Job scheduling, worker assignments	Sales and production planning, budgeting	New product development, facilities planning

How is demand forecast determined

There are two approaches to determine demand forecast – (1) the qualitative approach, (2) the quantitative approach. The comparison of these two approaches is shown below:

Description	Qualitative Approach	Quantitative Approach
Applicability	Used when situation is vague & little data exist (e.g., new products and technologies)	Used when situation is stable & historical data exist (e.g. existing products, current technology)
Considerations	Involves intuition and experience	Involves mathematical techniques
Techniques	Jury of executive opinion Sales force composite Delphi method Consumer market survey	Time series models Causal models

· Qualitative Forecasting Methods

Your company may wish to try any of the qualitative forecasting methods below if you do not have historical data on your products' sales.

Qualitative Method	Description
Jury of executive opinion	The opinions of a small group of high-level managers are pooled and together they estimate demand. The group uses their managerial experience, and in some cases, combines the results of statistical models.
Sales force composite	Each salesperson (for example for a territorial coverage) is asked to project their sales. Since the salesperson is the one closest to the marketplace, he has the capacity to know what the customer wants. These projections are then combined at the municipal, provincial and regional levels.
Delphi method	A panel of experts is identified where an expert could be a decision maker, an ordinary employee, or an industry expert. Each of them will be asked individually for their estimate of the demand. An iterative process is conducted until the experts have reached a consensus.
Consumer market survey	The customers are asked about their purchasing plans and their projected buying behavior. A large number of respondents is needed here to be able to generalize certain results.

· Quantitative Forecasting Methods

There are two forecasting models here – (1) the time series model and (2) the causal model. A time series is a s et of evenly spaced numerical data and is o btained by observing responses at regular time periods. In the time series model , the forecast is based only on past values and assumes that factors that influence the past, the present and the future sales of your products will continue.

On the other hand, t he causal model uses a mathematical technique known as the regression analysis that relates a dependent variable (for example, demand) to an independent variable (for example, price, advertisement, etc.) in the form of a linear equation. The time series forecasting methods are described below:

Time Series Forecasting Method	Description
Naïve Approach	Assumes that demand in the next period is the same as demand in most recent period; demand pattern may not always be that stable For example: If July sales were 50, then Augusts sales will also be 50

Time Series Forecasting Method	Description
Moving Averages (MA)	MA is a series of arithmetic means and is used if little or no trend is present in the data; provides an overall impression of data over time A simple moving average uses average demand for a fixed sequence of periods and is good for stable demand with no pronounced behavioral patterns. Equation: F 4 = [D 1 + D2 + D3] / 4 F – forecast, D – Demand, No. – Period (see illustrative example – simple moving average) A weighted moving average adjusts the moving average method to reflect fluctuations more closely by assigning weights to the most recent data, meaning, that the older data is usually less important. The weights are based on intuition and lie between 0 and 1 for a total of 1.0 Equation: WMA 4 = (W) (D3) + (W) (D2) + (W) (D1) WMA – Weighted moving average, W – Weight, D – Demand, No. – Period (see illustrative example – weighted moving average)
Exponential Smoothing	The exponential smoothing is an averaging method that reacts more strongly to recent changes in demand by assigning a smoothing constant to the most recent data more strongly; useful if recent changes in data are the results of actual change (e.g., seasonal pattern) instead of just random fluctuations F t + 1 = a D t + (1 - a ) F t Where F t + 1 = the forecast for the next period D t = actual demand in the present period F t = the previously determined forecast for the present period • = a weighting factor referred to as the smoothing constant (see illustrative example – exponential smoothing)
Time Series Decomposition	The time series decomposition adjusts the seasonality by multiplying the normal forecast by a seasonal factor (see illustrative example – time series decomposition)

^{B) What is brand? And how does branding work?}

If you own or operate a business then you should know that branding is part of the formula that will ensure your business’ success. It is important that you know something about branding, how it works and how it can contribute towards your success.

In this article you will find a simple guide to branding. Like all of o5.com’s recipes for life, the tips are practical and to-the-point.

what is branding

Simply defined, branding is the process of giving your product or service a unique identity or brand that people will be able to recognize and identify as yours. A brand will make sure that your product or service is unique from the same products or services being sold by other manufacturers or businesses. A successful brand is able to give the product or service its unique personality and can evoke specific emotional or subliminal reactions that may not even be found on the company or the product itself.

How do I develop branding

A brand is developed by taking into consideration many things. This includes:

a. Target market. What are its preferences or interests? What are the things that would attract them to look at a product or service and buy it?

b. The geography. What is the culture in a particular area? What is the weather? What is the population composed of?

c. The marketplace. How does the marketplace work or operate? What are the quirks of a particular market? What buying habits should be considered? Is there a product or service gap? Is a product saturated in the market?

The factors above are just some of the many things that come into play when creating a brand. The data taken from the factors are assessed and analyzed, and from there the following steps are taken.

Creating the Brand Name

This is usually done by the owner himself, or if he has a larger organization, his marketing department. For companies that have a bigger budget, they usually hire specialists like advertising agencies. (You can also read our article on choosing a business name.)

Creating the Brand logo

A professional is usually hired to do this. By thinking of the name and what the company wants the brand to invoke or represent, the logo is created. The creation of a logo is oftentimes given to an advertising agency or a design company. There are now design companies that specialize in the creation of logos.

Developing the brand personality

Alongside the brainstorming sessions for the brand name, the personality of the brand is usually discussed. Creating the personality is as important as creating the brand and logo. This responsibility is often given to the marketing department or the advertising agency. The marketing strategies are also handled by the marketing department or advertising agency.

The combination of market studies, brainstorming and the efforts of the company and the third party contractors help build the brand. The branding efforts will help in sales and in bringing a large customer base for the product or service.

Many business-to-business (B2B) CEOs view marketing as the domain of consumer goods brands. They are wrong. Among Interbrand's 10 most valuable global brands, we find Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and GE. All generate far more B2B revenues than sales to end consumers.

An HBS research team recently conducted a study of top B2B global brands. These brands shared the following characteristics:

The CEO is a willing brand cheerleader, loves the brand heritage, and is a great storyteller. The CMO sees his or her purpose as helping the CEO achieve this role.

The CEO understands that building brand reputation reduces commercial risk, insulates the company in a crisis, and provides the common purpose that can bond all the company's stakeholders.

Efforts are focused on a single, global corporate brand rather than individual product brands.

The payback on marketing expenditures is measured rigorously to the satisfaction of the hard-nosed engineers and finance staff who run the typical B2B enterprise.

Coordination of company websites worldwide to present a consistent face to stakeholders is the best way to get control of marketing communications that may have become too decentralized.

Why should brand-building be important to B2B CEOs

First, most B2B marketers have to address thousands of small businesses as well as enterprise customers. They cannot do so economically using the traditional direct sales force.

Second, if left unattended, individual managers will each do their own ad hoc marketing. The result will be a hodgepodge of corporate logos, taglines, and packaging. Customers will be confused and the company will look disorganized.

Third, B2B marketers are realizing that developing brand awareness among their customers' customers can capture a larger share of channel margins and build loyalty that can protect them against lower-priced competitors.

Consider these examples:

Intel is the ultimate ingredient brand. It makes zero sales to end consumers, yet Intel built a consumer demand pull for its chips that required every PC manufacturer to incorporate them and to advertise Intel Inside on their products and in their ads. Other ingredient brands include Gore-Tex, Teflon, and even the Boeing 787 Dreamliner (as a differentiating ingredient for early adopter airlines).

GE and Microsoft are hybrid brands with some direct-to-consumer sales that have helped to build the reputations of what are primarily B2B firms. But these enterprises, although selling to businesses, want to be in touch with end consumers—with their aspirations and needs. That is a source of competitive advantage in driving their innovation agendas.

Accenture sells nothing to consumers. But its "Performance Delivered" campaign, backed by the advertising presence of Tiger Woods, has created a positive awareness of the brand among hundreds of thousands of people who may be working for the enterprises to which Accenture consults (or is seeking to consult). And the motivational value of inviting top customers, prospects, and employees to golf events involving Woods cannot be underestimated.

D) What do you understand by Herzberg's Theory.

· The two-factor theory (also known as Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory) states that there are certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction. It was developed by Frederick Herzberg, a psychologist, who theorized that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction act independently of each other

· Attitudes and their connection with industrial mental health are related to Maslow's theory of motivation. His findings have had a considerable theoretical, as well as a practical, influence on attitudes toward administration.^[2] According to Herzberg, individuals are not content with the satisfaction of lower-order needs at work, for example, those associated with minimum salary levels or safe and pleasant working conditions.

· Rather, individuals look for the gratification of higher-level psychological needs having to do with achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and the nature of the work itself. So far, this appears to parallel Maslow's theory of a need hierarchy. However, Herzberg added a new dimension to this theory by proposing a two-factor model of motivation, based on the notion that the presence of one set of job characteristics or incentives lead to worker satisfaction at work, while another and separate set of job characteristics lead to dissatisfaction at work.

· Thus, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not on a continuum with one increasing as the other diminishes, but are independent phenomena. This theory suggests that to improve job attitudes and productivity, administrators must recognize and attend to both sets of characteristics and not assume that an increase in satisfaction leads to decrease in unpleasurable dissatisfaction.

· The two-factor, or motivation-hygiene theory, developed from data collected by Herzberg from interviews with a large number of engineers and accountants in the Pittsburgh area. From analyzing these interviews, he found that job characteristics related to what an individual does — that is, to the nature of the work he performs — apparently have the capacity to gratify such needs as achievement, competency, status, personal worth, and self-realization, thus making him happy and satisfied.

· However, the absence of such gratifying job characteristics does not appear to lead to unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Instead, dissatisfaction results from unfavorable assessments of such job-related factors as company policies, supervision, technical problems, salary, interpersonal relations on the job, and working conditions. Thus, if management wishes to increase satisfaction on the job, it should be concerned with the nature of the work itself — the opportunities it presents for gaining status, assuming responsibility, and for achieving self-realization.

· If, on the other hand, management wishes to reduce dissatisfaction, then it must focus on the job environment — policies, procedures, supervision, and working conditions. If management is equally concerned with both (as is usually the case), then managers must give attention to both sets of job factors.

· The theory was based around interviews with 203 American accountants and engineers in Pittsburgh, chosen because of their professions' growing importance in the business world. The subjects were asked to relate times when they felt exceptionally good or bad about their present job or any previous job, and to provide reasons, and a description of the sequence of events giving rise to that positive or negative feeling.

· Here is the description of this interview analysis: Briefly, we asked our respondents to describe periods in their lives when they were exceedingly happy and unhappy with their jobs. Each respondent gave as many "sequences of events" as he could that met certain criteria—including a marked change in feeling, a beginning and an end, and contained some substantive description other than feelings and interpretations…

· The proposed hypothesis appears verified. The factors on the right that led to satisfaction (achievement, intrinsic interest in the work, responsibility, and advancement) are mostly unipolar; that is, they contribute very little to job dissatisfaction. Conversely, the dis-satisfiers (company policy and administrative practices, supervision, interpersonal relationships, working conditions, and salary) contribute very little to job satisfaction

· Two-factor theory distinguishes between:

Motivators (e.g., challenging work, recognition, responsibility) that give positive satisfaction, arising from intrinsic conditions of the job itself, such as recognition, achievement, or personal growth, and

Hygiene factors (e.g. status, job security, salary, fringe benefits, work conditions) that do not give positive satisfaction, though dissatisfaction results from their absence. These are extrinsic to the work itself, and include aspects such as company policies, supervisory practices, or wages/salary

· Essentially, hygiene factors are needed to ensure an employee is not dissatisfied. Motivation factors are needed to motivate an employee to higher performance. Herzberg also further classified our actions and how and why we do them, for example, if you perform a work related action because you have to then that is classed as movement, but if you perform a work related action because you want to then that is classed as motivation.

· Unlike Maslow, who offered little data to support his ideas, Herzberg and others have presented considerable empirical evidence to confirm the motivation-hygiene theory, although their work has been criticized on methodological grounds.

Validity and criticisms

In 1968 Herzberg stated that his two-factor theory study had already been replicated 16 times in a wide variety of populations including some in Communist countries, and corroborated with studies using different procedures that agreed with his original findings regarding intrinsic employee motivation making it one of the most widely replicated studies on job attitudes.

While the Motivator-Hygiene concept is still well regarded, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are generally^[who?] no longer considered to exist on separate scales. The separation of satisfaction and dissatisfaction has been shown to be an artifact of the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) used by Herzberg to record events.^[6] Furthermore, it has been noted the theory does not allow for individual differences, such as particular personality traits, which would affect individuals' unique responses to motivating or hygiene factors

A number of behavioral scientistshave pointed to inadequacies in the need hierarchy and motivation-hygiene theories. The most basic is the criticism that both of these theories contain the relatively explicit assumption that happy and satisfied workers produce more. Another problem is that these and other statistical theories are concerned with explaining "average" behavior and, on the other hand, if playing a better game of golf is the means chosen to satisfy one's need for recognition, then one will find ways to play and think about golf more often, perhaps resulting in an accompanying lower output on the job. Finally, in his pursuit of status a person might take a balanced view and strive to pursue several behavioral paths in an effort to achieve a combination of personal status objectives.

In other words, an individual's expectation or estimated probability that a given behavior will bring a valued outcome determines his choice of means and the effort he will devote to these means. In effect, this diagram of expectancy depicts an employee asking himself the question posed by one investigator, "How much payoff is there for me toward attaining a personal goal while expending so much effort toward the achievement of an assigned organizational objective? The Expectancy theory by Victor Vroom also provides a framework for motivation based on expectations.

This approach to the study and understanding of motivation would appear to have certain conceptual advantages over other theories: First, unlike Maslow's and Herzberg's theories, it is capable of handling individual differences. Second, its focus is toward the present and the future, in contrast to drive theory, which emphasizes past learning. Third, it specifically correlates behavior to a goal and thus eliminates the problem of assumed relationships, such as between motivation and performance. Fourth, it relates motivation to ability: Performance = Motivation*Ability.

That said, a study by the Gallup Organization, as detailed in the book First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, appears to provide strong support for Herzberg's division of satisfaction and dissatisfaction onto two separate scales. In this book, the authors discuss how the study identified twelve questions that provide a framework for determining high-performing individuals and organizations. These twelve questions align squarely with Herzberg's motivation factors, while hygiene factors were determined to have little effect on motivating high performance.

To better understand employee attitudes and motivation, Frederick Herzberg performed studies to determine which factors in an employee's work environment caused satisfaction or dissatisfaction. He published his findings in the 1959 book The Motivation to Work.

The studies included interviews in which employees where asked what pleased and displeased them about their work. Herzberg found that the factors causing job satisfaction (and presumably motivation) were different from those causing job dissatisfaction. He developed the motivation-hygiene theory to explain these results. He called the satisfiers motivators and the dissatisfiers hygiene factors, using the term "hygiene" in the sense that they are considered maintenance factors that are necessary to avoid dissatisfaction but that by themselves do not provide satisfaction.

The following table presents the top seven factors causing dissatisfaction and the top six factors causing satisfaction, listed in the order of higher to lower importance.

Leading to satisfaction

Achievement
Recognition
Work itself
Responsibility
Advancement
Growth

Leading to dissatisfaction

Company policy
Supervision
Relationship with boss
Work conditions
Salary
Relationship with peers
Security

Herzberg reasoned that because the factors causing satisfaction are different from those causing dissatisfaction, the two feelings cannot simply be treated as opposites of one another. The opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction, but rather, no satisfaction. Similarly, the opposite of dissatisfaction is no dissatisfaction.

While at first glance this distinction between the two opposites may sound like a play on words, Herzberg argued that there are two distinct human needs portrayed. First, there are physiological needs that can be fulfilled by money, for example, to purchase food and shelter. Second, there is the psychological need to achieve and grow, and this need is fulfilled by activities that cause one to grow.

From the above table of results, one observes that the factors that determine whether there is dissatisfaction or no dissatisfaction are not part of the work itself, but rather, are external factors. Herzberg often referred to these hygiene factors as "KITA" factors, where KITA is an acronym for Kick In The Ass, the process of providing incentives or a threat of punishment to cause someone to do something. Herzberg argues that these provide only short-run success because the motivator factors that determine whether there is satisfaction or no satisfaction are intrinsic to the job itself, and do not result from carrot and stick incentives.

In a survey of 80 teaching staff at Egyptian private universities, Mohamed Hossam El-Din Khalifa and Quang Truong (2009) found that perception of equity was directly related to job satisfaction when the outcome in the equity comparison was one of Herzberg's motivators. On the contrary, perception of equity and job satisfaction were not related when the outcome in the equity comparison was one of Herzberg's hygiene factors. The findings of this study provide a kind of an indirect support to Herzberg's findings that improving hygiene factors would not lead to improvement in an employee's job satisfaction.

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VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF CYLINDRICAL THIN SHELL

Monday 1 August 2011

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