Brand Positioning Tools and the Clipboard Tablets - Coursework Example

? Slp4 599 Joe and Dang were all fired despite the excellent performance of the three tablets implying that the management expected more than they delivered. It is therefore worth capitalizing on their marketing mistakes because it is easier to work with a tried and tested version of marketing policies and work out effective decisions through replacing their mistakes with completely new ideas. A marketing manager is mandated with the improvement of sales and brand positioning. The brand must therefore have its appeal to a specific market category from where the company maximizes sales (Jill & Lyn, 1998). This requires that the marketing manager understands both his product and the market. Through an effective understanding of the two, it becomes easier to develop a brand positioning tool that appeals to every segment of the market. Understanding the product The Clipboard tablets are diverse and built with the understanding of the shoppers. For the three years, the company has produced three serial products each having unique features but better than the previous. The X5 tablet is the most basic of the three. Its features are basic tablet features and possibly target the low income earners. Its buyers are not motivated by the performance of the product but by its relatively cheap price. Among its features are the 2G internet capabilities, a three megapixel camera and a 30 Gigabyte internal hard disk memory. For these three features and its target market, the product stays active in the market for three years, the longest in the history of Clipboard tablets. An upgrade version of the X5 tablet is the X6. This is performance oriented and has better features than those presented by its predecessor. With the 4G internet speed, Wi fi and one hundred and eighty gigabyte storage space, the machine is ideal for the modern day business person. The product targets the rich and wealthy members of the society. It stays active for two years, a feature attributable to the gullible nature of its target market. Infusing price and performance is not always easy. The notion shared by most shoppers is that an expensive product is always of the best quality. It thus became hard to produce a good quality product and sell it at a relatively low price. The X7 tried this resulting in the shortest market time in the history of the company products. It infuses a number of features of the X6 and has a better sleeker look. Understanding the market The market is easier to understand; tablet users prefer convenience and will always be on the move. They thus require a mobile device that offers longevity and extreme convenience. However, just like the rest of the market it is divided into two with every group having its own uniqueness and motivations to purchasing. The two groups are the price motivated shoppers and the quality motivated shoppers (Gilbreth & Lillian, 1978). The price motivated shoppers always buy the basics at the most competitive market value. They asses the products based on their prices and the basic features it promises. This market segment constitute of people from the lower and a bigger percentage of the middle social class, their revenue is constrained and they therefore account for every penny, over spending may result in severe inconveniencies in other aspects of their lives. They thus stick to the basics and would rather accommodate the little inconveniencies of a basic product than spend a penny more than they had budgeted for. Coincidentally this class of shoppers is always a majority in every market. The second category of shoppers is quality oriented. These people will always change gadgets with every newer and improved version of the very product that enters the market. This group constitutes of the rich and the wealth members of the society, it may also include members of lower social classes but compelled by other preexisting circumstances to purchase the very products prescribed by either their employers or service providers. They are not scared of the rice of the product provided it promises the greatest level of convenience and communicates their social status. They thus prefer products that the rest of the market can neither afford nor access. Unfortunately, this class of shoppers is a minority. The two type of shoppers require different products and different shopping experiences. An effective marketing policy must provide for a mechanism that entraps both the classes and draws maximum profit from the aspects of the product they value the most. The price oriented shoppers will remit smaller profit value per product it is therefore wise to sell a much products as possible. This way, the cumulative profit becomes high. The quality oriented shoppers will earn the company a lot of profit but the rate of product sales remains low it is therefore advisable that the firm set the best price for every product sold to this class of shoppers (Bines & Thel, 2004). Their products must have all the features that promise quality for the money they pay. CVP analysis It is evident that the market requires more products that are price conscious. This will therefore call for the manufacture of more X5 tablets. The manufacturer process should however add little aesthetic features to the product. Reducing its thickness and adding more color versions into the market makes advertising the product easier. The product’s market segment will always want better product, unfortunately they can never afford such it is therefore more advisable to make their low performing products look as beautiful as other effectively performing products. Additionally, this market segment is worth stratifying further. The same product can further appeal to more people in the very market. Producing a larger display and slimmer tablet with the same features and selling it among college students would result in a boom. Students influence their colleagues into buying products. This version of the product will singly target students but operate on purely similar platform with the rest only that it will have a number of student oriented applications. The break even graph and sales for the X5 were as follows: It is VBE given the prevailing market factors stayed at an average of 750,000 units annually. For a three year period, this was arguably the best sales in the Joe and Dang management. However, under the new dispensation, the diversification of the very product into other segments of the same market will possibly triple the break even volume of products produced and sold in a year. The new markets such as the student population will have claim more than half of the products produced in the new management dispensation. Students are inexhaustible, as some finish school; some more join thereby making it the best target market for the product. Furthermore, there are millions of High schools, colleges and universities globally all of whom will be attracted to the new student version of the previously existing tablet. The new beautiful product that will now come in a variety of colors and shapes will definitely attract more buyers especially the youth and women. These constitute a bigger percentage of the human population and a product targeting them will definitely experience increased sales (Bines & Thel, 2004). The two factors will not only triple the sales of the product but will also lengthen the active life of the product. The X6 targets the rich and the wealth, this class of shoppers have the money to spend on the products provided it guarantees the performance and convenience. However, since they have money, they will always adopt a newer technology that promises better performance than their current asset. The company therefore needs to carry out extensive research on mobile telephony and keep improving the performance of the X6 gadgets. Just as stated earlier, it is not always possible to convince a market that a product can be both cheaper and of high quality. For this reason, the new management would abolish the production of the X7 tablets. They never performed and will most certainly never perform. In their place and as a result of the new design features to be introduced on the X5 and the X6 tablets, the newer designs targeting different market segment would have newer serial names derived from their parent product such as the X5 Pro book for students and X6 Experience for the improved processor in the tablet. The two products with their sub products will therefore have a projection performance broken down as below: X5 VBE = F/(p – c) Price (p) = $200/unit V cost (c) = $150/unit Total Fixed Costs = $50,000 Breakeven volume VBE = 50000/(200 – 150) VBE = 50000/50 VBE = 1000 units more than triple of the previous management and that would certainly be a good year for the new management. References Bines, E. & Thel, S. (2004). Investment Management Law and Regulation, Second Edition, Aspen, London Gilbreth, F& Lillian, G. (1978). The Quest of the One Best Way. Purdue University: Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Papers. Jill, W. & Lyn, B. (1998). Systems Analysis and Design Methods. 4th ed. McGraw-Hill: Boston. Read More