Advanced Marketing course (MBA)

dubiety I Explain the excogitations of mathematical return utterly letter width, length, depth, and consistency. Use examples to support your answer. A harvest incorporate is a collection of a large variety of yield lines. A intersection line is a group of items or fruits fast related and lie inside a harvest-festival class as the functions performed by them ar similar, have the similar group of nodes, range within the given price or atomic number 18 advertised and securities industryed through the same harvest lines or poplets. Every companys output mix encompasses certain width, depth, consistency and length.Product width Refers to the build of contrastive product lines carried by the company. For e. g. Unilever deals with food fall guys, home c atomic number 18 and personal c ar products thus it offers a product mix width of 3 lines. Product length The total number of different items or products in a maven product line refers to the product length for e. g. if we sham food rats of Unilever whence Best foods, Knorr, Birds Eye, Lipton and Ben & Jerrys makes the product length of the specific product line of food brands. Product depth The variants of all(prenominal) product in a product line refers to the product depth for e. . if we scud Lipton, it comes in ii formulations loose powder teatime and tea bags as well as it to a fault comes in different types much(prenominal)(prenominal) black tea, green tea and herbal tea, so this would mean that Lipton has a depth of 5, as it branches forth in 5 different variants. Product consistency How closely the different product lines are related to each separate in r out(p)ine, requirements, business , place and distribution or near other doable agency for e. g. If we take Unilever then their nighs are consistent in a sort that all of their goods are consumer durable and are distributed through the same deport. as well they are less consistent as each of their goods serves different buyers and also perform different functions for them. Question II In planning its market offering, the marketer essential address the fin product take aims of the customer measure hierarchy. Describe the customer value hierarchy and identify the five trains of product contained within. Customer value hierarchy is an approach of viewing customer value. It is in a hierarchical representation telling us about how the customer relates and views a product.The customer value hierarchy is pyramid shaped with its chemical group comprising of the prefatory customer value followed by the anticipate, unanticipated and desired levels. The five levels of product contained within it are as follows Core public assistance This is the basic level. It actually refers to the benefit or the expire the customer wants to have out the product he buys. Benefit abiders, is how a marketer must flap hold himself. Basic product This is the next principal(prenominal) level where the cor e benefit is converted into a basic product by the marketer.Expected product The third central level where an expected product is created by the marketer. By expected product we mean a set of conditions or attributes expected by the buyer when he purchases the product. Augmented product In this level such(prenominal) a product is created by the marketer which is far beyond the expectations of the customer and is referred as an augmented product. Brand positioning and tilts unremarkably starts from this level in developed countries where as in developing countries like India competition starts from expected product level.Potential product This level comprises of all the achievable changing or augmentations the product gets to face in future. New shipway of satisfying customers and distinguishing the product and its offering starts from this level. Question III Explain the concept of a hybrid ship distribution corpse. When would this system be crush utilized? When would this system not be beneficial? Hybrid enchant distribution is when a marketer utilizes much than unrivalled or a multi argument distribution design. It is one of the most widely used and important channel distribution systems among the vertical marketing network.A single loyal squeeze out easily cater multiple marketing segments by place up two or as many marketing channels utilize hybrid channel distribution system. Firms mostly establish a hybrid system as multiple targets and segments basin be approached. If we take the example of star bucks well notice that it follows many distribution designs as they use fill retail system by selling to the stores owned by the company, selling through grocery stores following a single troupe selling system and also via ingest send following the direct marketing system. Also other distribution systems are utilized by the company.Hybrid channel distribution system works the scoop out when a company serves a wider market and also the mar keter knows what system suits the best to its customer way of doing the business. The Hybrid channel communication system carries a lap of dominance for channel conflict, therefore in the case of conflicts this multi channel system does prove to be that beneficial as it may horizontalt in improper channel utilization and blocking probabilities. Question IV In designing a marketing channel system, the marketer must understand the assistance output levels desired by target customers. bring provide five service outputs. List and briefly describe each of these outputs. In developing marketing channel systems, needs of the customers are analyzed, objectives of the channel are established and major channel alternatives are evaluated. The five service outputs produced by the channels are Lot size The quantity of items possible for the channel to make available to a customer on one occasion. For e. g. a wholesaler will always prefer a channel that give the bounce supply him a large lo t size of units. time lag and turn backy time The time taken by the channel to deliver goods to the customers.A customer normally does not like waiting a lot for receiving the goods and prefer a faster system. Spatial convenience The end to which the channel makes it convenient for its customers to receive the product. For e. g. if we consider TCS then well notice that it has much offices situated in every area nearby and customers save a lot on transportation as compared to OCS which has less offices and dealers, therefore TCS offers more spatial convenience as compared to OCS. Product variety The variety or the assortment breadth of the product that the channel offers to its customers.More variety is prefer by the customers as it increases their chance of finding what they are looking for or even better than that. Service backup Any add on services that the channel provides to its customers such as delivery, installation, repair facilities etc. How good the service backup is, determines how good the channel performs. An increase in the channel cost also takes place for the customers in the case of greater service backup. Question V The extraordinary growth of direct marketing can be attributed to many factors with both consumers and business are benefiting.List some of the factors that are contributing to the growth of direct marketing. Many factors are mired in the growth of direct marketing. The few most prominent ones are Changing lifestyles is one of the most important factors that have made the customers accredited direct marketing. In these few years the number of women entering the manpower has increase tremendously. This trend contributed a lot to the growth of direct marketing as it became very inconvenient for working women to take time out and go for shopping.They could simply sit at home and select the ware of their choice and convenience through mail- tack shopping and receive all kinds of mathematical product at their home besides vi a commercial television, mail, interactive television or via home shopping networks. The second most important factor that has increased the growth of direct marketing was the increase that has taken place in the cost of personal gross sales calls which has risen tremendously in the one-time(prenominal) few years making personal sale calls very expensive. consider marketing methods have now made personal selling more cost effective. Another factor that has contributed a lot to the growth of direct marketing is technological growth such as computer establish technologies. These technologies have enabled the marketers to be more accurate in the compendium of results, in creating advanced and better customer and prospect databases, better targeting of messages regarding complex demographics and psychographics and even in faster and better execution of packages by direct-mail.Another important factor that has made direct marketing more attractive than stilt marketing is the quantity of available product and services has grown as through direct marketing a greater variety and number of products and services can be offered to a smaller group of prospects. due(p) to an increase in the use of telephones as a means to inn has also helped direct marketing to grow and prosper as placing an order through a telephone results in faster order fulfillment and also makes the customer get rid of any delays connected with the mail order system.Question VI Most companies set annual quotas. Quotas can be on dollar sales, unit volume, and margin, selling effort or activity and product type. Compensation is often tied to the degree of quota attainment. What problems does the telescope of quotas present to both the company and to the sales representative? Sales quotas are set by a lot of companies to encourage and provide incentives to the sales representatives in order to tally their daily challenges and also to motivate them to work more effectively bringing out good resul ts for the company.First a sales forecast is created by the company which becomes the basis of planning production, financial requirements and workforce size but the sales quotas create a lot of problems for the sales representatives and the company. Problems cause the company or the sale representative to erect a lot for e. g. when the company underestimates and the sale representative is already torture then the company has over paid them. Similarly when the company overestimates the potential of the sales, it gets very hard for the sales representatives to match up to their quotas and eventually they get frustrated leading them to even quit at times.Another evil is that often quotas ignore the service side of the business as it usually enables the sales representatives to get a lot of business. Another problem is that only short term results are gained by the company though providing customer satisfaction for a very hanker term. Due to all these problems go about by the c ompany and the sale representatives most companies have dropped quotas and are adopting other systematic and proper means of attracting sales representatives to work at their best. Question VII The new product development process starts with the search for ideas.New-product ideas can come from interacting with various groups and using creativity-generating techniques. List these techniques. New progressive product ideas can be created either by interacting with other people such as your own customers and getting their ideas or also by using creativity generating techniques for developing and enhancing creativity in several(prenominal)s working for the company. These techniques are as follows Attribute careening In this technique each attribute of a product is listed and then modification is done to it. For e. g. f we take draw box, we can modify it by replacing the paper box by a glass bottle then it is painted differently and the tip is replaced by a cork etc. Forced relations hips Several ideas are listed then each idea is considered in relation to other ideas. For e. g. in designing a bed room, you consider a bed and a sofa as separate ideas. thence you specify of getting a sofa bed that can serve both the purposes. Morphological analysis It refers to listing every possible combination for creating many innovative solutions. For e. g. we take a problem like getting something cooked.First think of the dimensions such as how well cooked like half cooked, full cooked or baked. Then think of the possible mediums such as stove, on fire or oven and the power source such as electric oven, gas over or electric stove. Reverse assumption analysis This is done by noting down all the assumptions and the possibilities about an entity and then reversing them. For e. g. lets take a cinema that plays a photographic film of the audience choice, charges for the movie and provide snacks. Now if we apply the turn back assumption analysis we will reverse every assumption .The cinema will now show any movie that the owner gets charges not for the movie but for sitting as long in the cinema and instead of snacks offers fast food. New contexts Consider a familiar process and re-design it into a new context. For e. g. replacing people-helping services with animals such as cats and dogs. Mind mapping Start with a imagination such as food, note it down. Then note down the next thought that comes into your mind such as pizza. Then link both the thoughts that are food and pizza and think of the next association that will be Italy.Associate a new thought with every other news that comes up. Doing this might lead to a whole new idea. Question octet Explain the product or brand care plaque and list its advantages and disadvantages. Only a company that produces different variety of products or the production capacity is beyond the ability or control of the functional organization establishes a product management organization. It however has another form of management but doesnt replace the functional organization. A product kin autobus is under the supervision of a product manager.A product category manager manages and supervises specific brand and product managers. Product and brand management is sometime referred to as hub and spoke system with the brand manager in the center and managing various departments. The brand managers develop competitive strategies for the product, think of an annual marketing plan and predict sales, initiates improvements in the product to meet the changing needs of the market and also continuously work with announce agencies for the promotion of their product. Advantages of product or brand managementA product manager always develops a cost-effective marketing mix A product manager always ends up reacting quickly to new and innovative products. Smaller brands produced by the company get a product advocate. Disadvantages of product or brand management Lack of authority to product and brand managers in carrying out their responsibilities. Lack of functional expertise as they are only experts in their own product areas. High costs associated with the system as every major product or brand requires an individual to manage it.Even minor products and brands are catered by different individuals. Brands are usually managed by the brand managers for a short time which leads to short term planning and fails in developing long term strengths. Its harder for the management to develop a national strategy due to the atomization of the markets. Product and brand managers are more focused towards gaining the market conduct for the company rather than developing healthy customer relationships.