Marketing Strategies for Developing Economies - Essay Example

682529 Section Marketing Research Go to a Rockies Baseball Game. Include a copy of the promotional item for that game (hat). Do an in-depth interview with four – five (different age groups) people (do not interview yourself or people you are with) who are attending the game. Questions: why they went to the game, their thoughts about the promotion (did they just come for the item), how many sponsor signage they notices during the game, etc. Remember you are dealing with marketing. The interview with the five respondents gave a very strong indication that as far as sporting activities are concerned, much of the motivation that get people to patronize matches has to do with personal thoughts of people about the sporting discipline in question, players involved in the game, competing teams, and other social factors. Though the need for marketing strategies is generally necessary, a lot of the respondents pointed to the fact that they attended the game because of the performance of the two teams of the day. Greater part of the respondents also indicated that they are selective of the kind of games to watch based on the performance of the teams involved and whether or not they have personal favorites among the players taking part in the game. Some others also pointed out that their presence had no linkage with marketing done by the teams but that they were there as part of their social curricula activities. The researcher can therefore conclude that for people to get more students to games, they ought to create very good personality marketing for their teams and players. This is because if the teams and their players have very good image in the eyes of the students, they students will go and watch their games as part of their social relaxation activities. Section 2: Product Interview someone who works for a retail store about how they choose which products the store sells. You will have to interview an owner or manager who is involved in the product decisions. A clerk at a store will not know how the products are picked. You can interview them about a particular product line (like snow boards or stuffed animals or soft drinks) or new products. This question should include some detail-not just “what people buy is what we keep”. How do they determine how popular a product has to be to be included? The popularity of a product is determined by the public promotion and popularity of the product. This is because the interviewee indicated that there are shoppers who come to the shop and ask for specific products because they have heard advertisements on the products. This confirms the saying that buyers take decisions based on what promoters want them to (Twumasi, 2011). Operating on a student campus, the interviewee indicated that the average time they give to a new product is one semester. This according to him was because whenever students started a new semester, they wanted some kind of new products to get down with. It was also indicated that feedback from sales representatives is an important factor for deciding on products to put on shelf. In this direction, a lot of consultation and talking is done with sales representations from companies. in the opinion of the interviewee, the sales representatives have the best ideas on the hottest products in town and those that customers will be readily available to purchase. The interviewee pointed out that they do not patronize trade shows so often because they seem to have a ready market and reliable customer representatives who give them enough feedback on products to chase. In this direct, products that have to do with fashion are commonly discontinued if it turns out that the popularity of those lines of fashion begin to decline. Section 3: Pricing Find three used items at a consignment store or ARC or garage sale or Craig’s List or Ebay that are still sold today. Find the same (or very similar item) item new. How are the prices relative to the new product? Compare the price. Is the price differential worth it to buy the new or the used product? Compare the quality of the product at the consignment store (poor, etc.) (15 pts) A car, a mower and a motorbike were monitored in a garage sale. Fortunately, the sales store selected had both used and new products for all the three kinds of items. Upon careful observation and some interrogation with sales personnel at the shop, the researcher discovered that to purchase the new products was much worthwhile than purchasing the used products and saving some few dollars. This is because the price reduction on used products was 15%. Meanwhile, there were several disadvantages with the used products (Gardener, 2011). For instance there was no guarantee on them. This means that if a purchased item got spoilt after a short while, all the money spent on them would go waste. This waste would about to 75% of the price of the new product. It was also found that purchasing used products came with other expenses that included fixing of engines, re-spraying and others. There was also the risk of frequent breakages. All these amounted to major disadvantages against purchasing used products. Section 4: Channels of Distribution Explain how a specific product gets from a manufacturer to a local retail store. Interview someone at the retail outlet or someone who works for a wholesaler and ask about logistics, transportation, warehousing and what companies are involved. Be sure to give details about a specific product and how it goes through the system. (15 points) The interview with the wholesaler of a company brought to light that the channel of distribution is indeed a perfect system (Gardener, 2011). This is said because the process by which good get off from the manufacturer to the distributor involves a lot of coordinated and networked processes. Generally the link was found to be manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to distributor. However, in-between these, there is what is referred to logistics or inventory at the manufacturers point. This involves “the planning, execution, and control of the movement / placement of goods and / or people, and the related supporting activities, all within a system designed to achieve specific objectives” (Transfreight, 2012). There also is warehousing, is involves the storage of products. This normally happens at the wholesale point. Then there is transportation of products, which is common at the retail point. Distributors also do a lot of transportation of products in order to reach consumers. Section 5: Promotion Go on an organized tour of a company’s facility (Coors, Bud, Celestial Seasonings, Hammond’s Candy, etc.). Write up a paragraph or two about how the company uses these tours as public relations? Interview a few people after the tour, where they consumers before, their thoughts after the tour, etc … (be creative). How much is their yearly cost? How many people tour the facility? (15 points) Public relation is an important aspect of marketing. This is because it helps in making customers understand the companies they are working with better and also have a fairer idea about the products and services rendered by the companies (Twumasi, 2011). To this effect, there was a tour to Doodi Princess Lodge to find out how the company used the facility tour as a public relation exercise. Upon arrival and through the tour, it was found that the guards on tour were trained on all the management processes, organizational culture and social responsibilities of the company in such a way that within the 25 minutes of tour around the facility, it became possible for me to learn all about the company, its culture and reasons behind some of its major decisions. It was also discovered that the tour was a major promotional strategy because having had a fair idea about the company and the kind of facility they had, by the end of the tour, I had the eagerness to visit the place again to spend at least a night at the lodge. Section 6: Consumer Behavior and Segmentation 4. Find a company that does psychographic profiles or geo-social clusters (not VALS). What are their categories? Print out their categories and the information about each group/cluster. What category do you think you fit in? (20 points) - Three major categories of psychographic profiles were found. These are socio-economic scale, lifestyle and personality. These selections were “based on the assumption that the types of products and brands an individual purchases will reflect that persons characteristics and patterns of living” (Exam Tutor, 2012). A critical study through the company’s profile on socio-economic scale and with comparison to my current indicated that the area I fit most is intermediate managerial, administrative or professional. This is gemerally judged based on my educational background and professional competence. In terms of lifestyle, I belong to the mainstreamer. This is because I am generally “domestic, conformist, conventional, sentimental, passive, habitual” (Exam Tutor, 2012). Finally with reference to personality, I belong to the critic, who would want to be sure about the authenticity behind what is behind the promotion of a given product before they make a purchase. REFERENCE LIST Exam Tutor. Psychographic segmentation. 2012. Online. May 4, 2012. Gardener, Tracy. Marketing Strategies for Developing Economies. Alpha Press Limited: New York. 2011. Print. Transfreight, What is Logistics? 2012. Web. May 5, 2012 Twumasi, Albert. Promotional Segments for Contemporary Marketers. PrintMark Press Series: London. 2011. Print. Read More