General Questions for Marketing - Essay Example

Marketing entails the 4 Ps and the C for in the middle. Describe in detail and use examples showing why companies must put more and moreemphasis on the customers. According to Dick Lee (n.d.), “putting the customer in the middle of the business circle” will determine the marketing orientation needed for the company, in order to exceed customers’ satisfaction (cited in Thompson, n.d.). International companies of today such as General Electric, Ford, and Procter & Gamble are becoming customer-oriented to have sustainable competitive advantage in terms of competition and long-term profitability. In other words, the customer is their boss and their superior. Therefore, a marketing orientation that covers all four directions and the best barometer of success, have been introduced that include product, price, place and promotion. 1. Product (customer solution). Before companies initiate the products in their minds, they should consider if these are desired or needed by their target market. For instance, General Electric is always conversing with their customers with regard to what product they should offer to make certain that the customers would buy their product, or else they will suffer horrible losses. A product perceived by a customer as a unique, different, and much better compared to competitors has a big opportunity to be successful. It is important that customers will get attracted with the features and benefits they can get, and most importantly are the attributes, performance and consistency of the product. The customer is the one who will purchase and use the product; therefore companies should give them priority with regard to what they should be offering. 2. Price (customer cost). The company should also set a specific place or position in the marketplace and in the minds of their target market to be competitive, and one of those, is getting their price right. Today, pricing is not just lay-outing the selling price to the customers because if they find it unjust or not worthy, they might turn down the product. Traditional pricing is not anymore appropriate today wherein customers are becoming price cautious. Therefore, before a company begins to design its product work, they should see to it that their target price range is made available to the general public, and the cost would not be a too much burden to them. For example, JetBlue and Southwest airlines are offering low-cost fares to freight customers in order to compete with legacy airlines, and consequently they have been successful and gain more market share. 3. Place (customer convenience). A quality product offered at a fair price should be distributed in a channel that is accessible to the target market. Companies of today are now using high technologies in order to reach their customers at ease. The internet and other software distribution tools are among the new distribution channels used by various companies. For instance, Wal-Mart adopted several systems like RFID (Radio-frequency Identification) and retail link in order to meet customers’ needs and make their product available to them. Customers should be given emphasized by the company in looking for product location because they are the one who will purchase, and their satisfaction matters. 4. Promotion (customer communication). Good promotion means giving the right information to the right person at the right time through advertising, public relation, personal selling, etc. that could help in gaining more customers; just like the sales promotion activities of Dr. Peppers against Mountain Dew and Sprite which are considered to be the company’s secret to have a solid market share increase. It is a basic fact that if the target market did not know the availability of the product or the information is not enough, then it is expected that they would not purchase the product. On the other hand, if they are aware on the existence of the product as well as its features and benefits, then they are likely to purchase. Promotion is expensive and crucial to the company; however, if it reaches to the potential customers and gain acceptance, the company would be successful. 2. A fundamental way to create profit, or effectiveness, is to cut costs and/or increase outflows. In getting the extract that was found in Tuvalu to store shelves in the United States, identify and provide your rationale for choosing at least five areas that the company Alpha Omega (who runs the operation) can analyze to create more profits with this extract. Stevia. This is a plant that can be used as a calorie-free sweetener which originated centuries ago by the natives of Paraguay. This is a very popular sweetener used in Japan which has been commercially available. However, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had been very strict on imposing an import alert on stevia to prevent it from being sold into the U.S. market since the early 1990s (McCaleb, n.d.). Alpha Omega Labs, as a provider of alternative health products, distributes stevia extract products to other countries except United States. To create more profits other than importing to U.S., Alpha Omega could do the following areas: 1. In December 2008, the FDA announced that they “decline to object” against companies who are selling drinks that contain stevia-derived sweeteners, particularly Coca-Cola (Truvia) and Pepsi (Purevia). Alpha Omega could focus on a mass production of sweeteners from stevia extract to market it. The product will then be introduced as well to companies who use sweeteners as a substitute for sugar. 2. Since the market of stevia in the U.S. is blocked by FDA, Alpha Omega can focus in distributing it to countries that do not have legal barriers like Japan, Brazil, Paraguay, etc. They might allow retail stores to sell it in lower prices to have a competitive advantage. 3. It would be a great market opportunity for Alpha Omega to introduce it to companies whose products are for health-conscious consumers because of its non-calorie content. As part of their marketing efforts, they might allow customers to have a free sample of the products whenever it is advertised. For example, Alpha Omega will give free samples to target customers who are coffee lovers and provide an email address or contact number for any comments. Because of its non-calorie content, the feedback might allow coffee shops to engage in partnership with Alpha Omega as their supplier of sweetener as an alternative for sugar, and at the same time the coffee shops would then introduce their new coffee as calorie-free. 4. Alpha Omega could expand more its distribution channels with the use of Internet outsourcing. With proper advertisement about the product, it may encourage independent distributors to market stevia extract. Communication and technology must also be fully integrated with all marketing processes to enable a consistent flow and monitoring of distribution. 5. Because of the product’s calorie free content, Alpha Omega might consider developing and introducing another product line that requires sweetening features. With that new product, another market opportunity will open for Alpha Omega from another product category. 3. Describe and cite examples of the impact of globalization on marketing. In this global economy, well-managed companies tend to customize the products they sell through standardization. According to Theodore Levitt (1983), multinational commercial era will be replaced with the emergence of global commercialization. The force of technology made it all start. It made communication, transportation and travel more modernized that allure people to want it once experienced. Because of the new technologies, corporation became even more competitive when it comes to business operations particularly in marketing. With more enhanced and modernized technology, it allows an economy to embrace worldwide communication as it stands as the next fundamental aspect of the widespread of globalization. In this manner, corporations are able to study and recognize different cultures along with their needs. Capital accumulations are another factor a company considers when deciding to go global. In the marketing division, a globally potential product would always mean additional budget (Applbaum, 2004) needed for the development and consistent production, marketing processes and joint ventures. Companies would also invest in human resources to allow a faster flow of implementation and usage of the new technologies based on increased levels of skills and management. What comes next would be the marketers' challenge of competing against other global companies when it comes to customer product value, pricing, distribution and promotion. Once a company has successfully standardized its marketing efforts globally, it will push its prices and costs down, but its brand will be consistent in terms of quality and reliability (Levitt, 1983) in every nation it markets, and ideas and practices will be used efficiently to enable a strategic implementation on a global scale. That will result into a reasonable preference on consumers towards global standardization. But pushing the marketing processes into a global standardization would create an inconsistency of consumer’s needs and responses. Likewise, there would be a brand and product specification according to different countries, as well as inconsistency of laws governed by other nations which are different from home country. An example of these disadvantages is an automobile company manufacturing a right-hand drive car would not be economical and practical to export its cars to a country who is accustomed in using left-hand drive cars. Another example is the different needs between South Africans and Americans (or Asians) based on culture. In the field of global marketing, it is very difficult and challenging to adapt standardization when it comes to cultural differences. These cultural differences challenge marketers to provide satisfaction of the needs and wants of the consumers without disrespecting one’s culture (Dalic, 2001). However, to continue its marketing efforts of standardization, marketers developed and adapted the segmentation of consumer groups to simplify different cultures (2001). Weinstein identified two attributes as bases of segmentation: physical which includes geographic, demographic and socioeconomic attributes; and behavioral which includes psychographic, product usage and benefit attributes (as cited in Dalic, 2001). References Applbaum, K. (2004). The marketing era: from professional practice to global provisioning. USA: Routledge. Dalic, T. (2001). Globalization of marketing strategies in the light of segmentation and cultural diversity. USA: GRIN Verlag. Levitt, T. (1983). The globalization of markets. Retrieved from http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~caplabtb/m302w07/levitt.pdf McCaleb, R. (n.d.) Stevia leaf - too good to be legal? Retrieved from http://www.altcancer.com/products/stevia-leaf-has-noted Thompson, B. (n.d.). The evolution of relationship management. Business Week. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/adsections/crm/evolution.html Read More