Product Marketing with E-Bay - Essay Example

Product Marketing Introduction What was your objective beyond submitting a required project, i.e. how well did you want this product to perform on EBay? E-Bay is an online platform for the sale of goods and services for individual businesses, small businesses and big businesses amongst others. I wanted the product to be outstanding in that it should have good quality product, high production and consumption, and be recognized internationally and to lead to the generation of other related business. What were the internal strengths that may have contributed to the success of marketing your products and meeting your objectives? What are the weaknesses that may have contributed to not completely meeting your objectives? Marketing is a process that entails finding out what exactly the customers wants and needs, then providing customer with goods and services that meet or exceed their expectations, it is not merely “selling” and “advertising”. Some of the internal strength that facilitated success were, product being customer oriented this means finding out what the customer really wants and not what he/she can find an alternative and manage then provide it to them. Service orientation-that is, having an objective of customer satisfaction. A profit orientation is marketing the products in a way that will earn the business good profit to enhance its survival and facilitate its expansion to serve more customers (Blattberg and Scott, 385). Weaknesses that may have hindered complete meeting my objective; knowing what the customer needs its quite difficult because it is not easy to get to interact with all of them in person, finding means of quick delivery of products, constant change in technology constantly affecting customer’s preferences, therefore, need to monitor closer relationships with customers. Since it is marketing at global level one must adhere by all rules of all the countries he/she markets the product and the legality of the product, which is not easy. What came first, your product or your target market? Did you have a product you wanted to sell, find a target market for it on E-Bay, then analyze your environment and adjust your marketing mix-----or, did you analyze your environment, find a target market, and then find a product to market on E-Bay with a specific marketing mix? Explain your strategy. My strategy is by first scanning the environment to which I intend to market my products. By scanning the environment, I identify the factors that are likely to affect marketing my success (global, technological, social, economic influences) such as the availability of the product, demand of the product, competition, technology advancement in the area, trade agreements, population growth and environmental factors that creates opportunities and threats. Due to change in age, taste education, income of people the business cannot be able to satisfy the needs of all groups, therefore it is important to identify a target market, and then find a product to market on E-bay (the product should be what the customer needs and wants), setting a price for the product, distributing the product to the accessibility of the client and finally, promoting the product. What external environmental factors had an impact on your success or failure? Specifically, were there any opportunities in the environment that helped you reach your objective for your company? External environmental factors that had an impact on my success was serving foreign customers is quite challenging because I have to abide by all the laws of all states that I market my product and breaking any of the laws can lead to the dissolution of the business, I have to be very keen and up to date to any changes in the state laws, therefore, it is not easy. Constant change in taste to meet the needs of modern customers leads to constant readjustment of the strategies, which is time consuming (Blattberg and Scott, 385). Opportunity of the environment was that there was accessibility of the internet and advancement in technology, hence, easement of communication. Customers were able to notify the products and lay their demands, able to communicate with customers and find feedback on the progression of the business. Were there any external threats that you had to avoid (or should have avoided) to prevent failure in meeting your objectives? The external threat I had to avoid was breaking the business law in the foreign state that I market my products. I ensured that I constantly reviewed the possible changes that would have occurred in the constitution of the states that I market my products in relation to business and product marketing. How did you decide on a price for your product? What factors led you to this decision? Price is a fundamental factor in consumer evaluations of the product. Some of the factors that I had put into consideration were; achieving return on investment (making profit), a price that would attract more people to the product but not at the expense of making profit, increment in sales, creating an image of the product (a price that will give the product exclusivity and status). A factor that leads to the decision were; cost oriented, consumer oriented and competitively oriented price. How did you decide on the copy (words), picture(s) and listing as your promotion for this product? Did you stress product features, benefits or both? Give an example. Promotion of a product is where the marketer informs people about the product and tries to convince them to purchase. I attracted the attention of the customers through the packaging, which was flashy to enhance the product visibility. I spark interest in the product by outlining the benefits, uses and features. It created the desire to make the customer purchase the product, for example, establishing advertisements that show the products superiority and capability to satisfy the consumer’s needs. Promote the product through market communication such as television, newspapers, radio, magazines, internet, direct, emails and through public relations such as event sponsorship, press conferences, feature article amongst others (Blattberg and Scott, 385). Evaluate your level of success or failure. Would you have done things differently if you had to market this product again? The marketing of the product is likely to succeed because I scanned the environment to find out what exactly my consumers needed and the population, hence, made me to be able to hit my target audience. My product is unique from the packaging; I have shown the product superiority and the ability to satisfy the customer’s needs therefore making my marketing message to stand out. I have made effective knowledge of the existence of the product through advertisements and public relations in most outreaching channels. If I was to market the product again, I would do it in the same way. Work Cited Blattberg, Robert C, and Scott A. Neslin. Sales Promotion: Concepts, Methods, and Strategies. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall, 1990. Print. Read More