micro-macro dilemma

micro-macro dilemma

Short Answer: Please indicate your answer to the following eight questions.

1. Discuss the micro-macro dilemma and the importance of social responsibility as they relate to marketing

The micro-macro dilemma is founded on the detail that what is good for companies and consumers may not be good for humanity as a whole. One’s obligations to improve its positive effects on society and reduce its negative effects are known as social responsibility (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2010, p. 23). This can concern to a number of things, including high-powered motors in vehicles, although that supercharged car that is like a rocket ship on wheels may be a lot of fun for the consumers and lines the pockets of the producers. The dilemma is the bigger engines cause more pollution and emit toxins into the air that contribute to global warming. So the cars are great for consumers and producers but bad for society.

2. Discuss the four basic types of marketing opportunities (chapter two) a firm might pursue and illustrate your response with an example of your choosing.

Market Penetration is when a company attempt to increase sales of current products in the present market for example Chrysler in effort to increase sales of the 2014 300 model, they offered special rebates and lowered the MSRP.

Market Development effort to increase sales by selling current products into new markets. For example Mark Woodham who had a passion for surfing and photography originally started GoPRO officially founded in 2009 and introduced to the public in 2010. He wanted to find a way to document his adventures and he created the GoPro. Which technically could be defined as an unsought product at that time because the category didn’t exist. Consumers didn’t no they wanted/needed it and retailers didn’t know their customers needed it. Originally the camera was worn on the wrist but Mark realized that for other adventure seekers that might not be feasible, such as bikers, skiers and snowboarders. So his company invented the Chesty, and the helmet mount. This allowed him to breakthrough in other markets.

“Skiing Business.” SkiingBusinesscom RSS. Web. 8 Feb. 2015. <http://skiingbusiness.com/13670/profiles/how-gopro-became-a-market-leader/>.

Product Development is offering new or improved prooducts to present markets by working with customers to find new and innovative ways to better satisfy your target market. For example after GoPro became popular in 2011 till now, the founder knew it wasn’t about the camera it was about sharing the content, he saw the differnet ways his customers were using the products and capitalized on it by finding ways to improve the way they could use the products, most recently creating the drone.

Diversification is opening a completely new line of business with new products and new markets. For example Siemens is a provider of industry and infrastructure solutions with operations in three core business areas — energy, healthcare and automation. Besides, the company also makes small light bulbs, lighting for stadiums and railway electrical and controls such as safety relays. It also plans to build metro coaches.

“Siemens – – The Economic Times.” The Economic Times. Web. 8 Feb. 2015. <http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nine-diversified-companies-are-these-firms-attractive-investment propositions/siemens/slideshow/7390827.cms>.

3. List and discuss the four components of the marketing mix as they would relate to a specific target market of your choosing

Product, price, place and promotion are the main components of marketing mix.

1. Product. The Product area is concerned with developing the right “product” for the target market. This offering may involve a physical good, a service, or a blend of both. Again referencing GoPro, creating a helmet mount for the motorcycle riders.

2. Place. Place is concerned with all the decisions involved in getting the “right” product to the target market’s Place. In the article I read about GoPro, the Founder, Mark Woodham was asked about product placement in large companies such as Best Buy, he explained that it was important to place the products in a place that markets to all walks of life.

3. Promotion Is concerned with telling the target market about the “right” product. Promotion includes personal selling, mass selling, and sales promotion. This requires researching and knowing the need behind the need, understanding the market that your advertising to. In effort to understand what they need and how to sell it to them.

4. Price. In addition to developing the right Product, Place, and Promotion, marketing managers must also decide the right Price. In setting a price, they must consider the kind of competition in the target market – and the cost of the whole marketing mix. They must also try to estimate customer reaction to possible prices. With GoPro, the price is set by the high demand of the product, what the product is being used for. We are in the age of reality tv, social marketing and sharing memories. The adventures that GoPro documents are not usually cheap. Snowboarding, Motorcycling, Skiing are just a few of the markets that GoPro is huge in. These are not cheap hobbies, typically means that the extremists in this hobbies are always looing to take it to the next level at any cost. GoPros’ are typically $200-$350.

4. Discuss three dimensions for segmenting markets and illustrate your response with an example.

Demographic, Geographic, Psychographic are the main Dimensions for Segmenting

Demographic and socioeconomic descriptors—frequently used demographics include age, gender, marital status, household size and lifecycle stage, religion, race/ethnic group, and nationality; frequently used socioeconomic descriptors include income, occupation, education, social class, and asset ownership.

 

Geographic descriptors—ranging from location of small group of customers to the entire world, including country, region, state, county, metro area, zip code, neighborhood, etc.

 

Psychological and psychographic descriptors—difficult to

measure, but useful for product positioning, promotional messages and media, distribution strategies, etc.; include consumer lifestyles as predictor of buyer behavior.

 5. Describe the scientific method as it relates to marketing research

Marketing research is ” the process or set of methods that links the consumers, customers, and end users to the marketer through data — information utilized to identify and characterize trading opportunities and problems; develop, perfect, and evaluate trading actions; supervise trading presentation; and advance comprehending of trading as a process.

6. Briefly discuss the four types of product classes and their importance to an understanding of marketing.

Convenience products items that the consumer purchases frequently, conveniently, and with a minimum of shopping effort; include staple goods (purchased on a regular basis), impulse goods (purchased without any planning or search effort), and emergency goods (purchased when a need is urgent); items like milk, bread, toothpaste, and cake mixes

Shopping product: items for which the consumer compares several alternatives on criteria such as price, quality, or style; include homogeneous goods (similar in quality but different enough in price to justify comparison shopping for the lowest price) and heterogeneous goods (differ in product features and services that may be more important than price); items like cameras and clothing

Specialty product: items that the consumer makes a special effort to search out and buy; items like a Rolls Royce automobile and a Rolex watch

Unsought products items that the consumer does not know about or knows about but does not initially want; items like burial plots and life insurance

7. Describe how you might use the new product development process if you were thinking about offering some kind of summer service to residents in a beach resort town

The new product development process consists of following stages: – concept generation, concept screening, economic analysis, development, test marketing and commercialization. The idea for the summer service must be well defined. It can be obtained by competitors, SWOT analysis, sales people, employees, trade shows etc. an idea can also be generated by observing habits and user patters of the consumers. The unsound concepts need to be removed during idea screening to avoid wastage of resources. Keeping in view the target market, forecasted growth, industry trends, profitability and technical feasibility of the products and services does this. During the economic and business analysis, the profitability and break even point are estimated. The likely selling price and sales volume are also estimated on the basis of market trend, customer and competitor feedback. The product features and benefits are to be decided in order to develop the concept. During testing for the service, focus group customer interviews can be used and service can be tested under typical usage situations. This will help in getting a better idea about the usage of the summer service and about the customer acceptance. After testing, necessary changes must be made and resource estimation must be done. Required data sheets must be prepared and department scheduling must be completed. It is very important to collaborate with the suppliers accordingly in order to maintain the required inventory for providing service. Then the service will be launched along with appropriate advertisements and promotions. It is very important to have a thorough internal and external value analysis of the service offered and its impact on the entire product portfolio must be closely observed. All these steps can be varied as per the requirement of the service provider. Certain steps can be eliminated as well so that the cost gets reduced.

8. Your best friend owns a small children’s consignment store (clothing store where the store will sell your “used clothing” and will share the proceeds with you) located in the downtown area of a community of 50,000 citizens.  Business has been slow the past year due the construction of several new strip malls and a new Wal Mart store (Increased competition).  She recently discovered you were taking an online marketing class and has asked you for your advice for ideas that will increase her sales. Use the concepts you learned in chapters 1-9 and illustrate their application in your response to your friend. 

In order to increase the sale, the company should adopt and implement new and innovative marketing as well as business strategies. In addition, the company should also focus on reduction of additional costs by utilizing resources.

I would advise my friend by asking to go over her business & marketing plan, and take a look at what her strategy is now. Then I would conduct a SWOT analysis on her business and her competitors. In addition I would look at the demographics of those in the area, age, sex, median income etc. then look at her current customer base and sales.

I would suggest conducting surveys to find out what those customers would like to see different about her establishment. Conduct market surveys of her competitors, see what types of things that they offer and determine if it is option for her business. Then I would assist in setting up a improved business and marketing plan to incorporate new goals and strategies to increase her customers. Finally I would encourage her to reevaluate her market every year to determine if what she is doing is still working and what else she can improve customer experience.