Select any one of the following starter bullet point sections. Review the important themes within the sub questions of each bullet point. The sub questions are designed to get you thinking about some of the important issues. Your response should provide a succinct synthesis of the key themes in a way that articulates a clear point, position, or conclusion supported by research. Select a different bullet point section than what your classmates have already posted so that we can engage several discussions on relevant topics. If all of the bullet points have been addressed, then you may begin to reuse the bullet points with the expectation that varied responses continue.
- Many people have participated in a market research survey at some time in their lives. With reference to any survey that you actively participated in, discuss the questions that follow. If you have not experienced a market research survey, take a survey on the Internet:
- Evaluate how effective the survey was in measuring how you felt about a product.
- Explain whether you feel your response in the survey helped improve or will improve the product being marketed.
- Describe how you might have gathered information differently so that the survey was more effective.
- Explain why it is important for marketers to monitor current trends in marketing. How does a marketing information system identify and measure trends? How would you design a marketing information system for a product of your choice?
- When Henry Ford marketed the Model T a hundred years ago, he stated customers could have any color they wanted as long as it was black. We have come a long way since then. The types and variety of cars have exploded, and now cars are available in a multitude of colors.
- Identify the different segments of the automobile market.
- Discuss the types of people who buy minivans, pickup trucks, sports cars, SUVs, compact cars, and luxury cars. What are the benefits for the auto companies to segment the market? Give reasons for your answer.
- Determine if it is possible for a company to attract customers from one market segment into another market segment and still earn a profit. Explain why.
- Martin Lindstrom wrote a book called Buyology describing how marketers use state-of-the-art medical devices to measure how brain activity changes and is stimulated by advertising. The goal is to understand how advertising directly impacts brain activity in order for marketers to develop more effective advertisements, which (theoretically) no one will be able to resist.
- Assess each of these strategies and provide an example for each category.
- Out of the four strategies, choose a strategy that best suits growth in a company of your choice and justify how you would use this strategy.
Respond to 2 peers. Justify your answers with examples, research, and reasoning. Your initial posting should be the equivalent of 1.5 single-spaced pages (700 to 800 words) in length.
Be sure to cite your sources using APA format.
Perception Map MIS and the Market Research Process.html
Perception Map/ MIS and the Market Research Process
An effective tool managers use to differentiate and position a product is a perception map—a graphical representation of what customers think of a brand and competitors. A perception map can have as many axes as there are attributes in a product. However, most companies do not choose more than three or four attributes because positioning the brand by more than four attributes could confuse the customer. It is important to recognize that even within the same target market, a brand can be rated high on certain attributes and low on others because different customers give different levels of importance to a brand's attributes.
A perception map shows that the customers' perceptions of a brand are quite different from what the company's marketing managers are trying to communicate to the target market. These differences in perceptions can represent opportunities for the company to fulfill unsatisfied needs. Additionally, a brand's position along the core attributes can be compared with that of its competitors.
A marketing information system (MIS) allows an organization to collect, sort, store, analyze, and disseminate marketing information. All information entering an MIS falls into one of two basic categories:
- Internal information refers to information generated within the organization as a result of its everyday operations. Examples include sales force reports and customer satisfaction surveys.
- External information refers to information generated and collected outside the organization by third parties. Examples include syndicated research reports published by companies, such as packaged facts and customer mailing lists.
Marketing research allows the marketing manager to know more about a specific problem. While he or she might have access to secondary sources of information on the target market, including previous research and data contained in the company's MIS archives, there is no substitute for taking a fresh look at the actual conditions in the target market.
Perceptual mapping is a graphic display explaining the perceptions of customers with relation to product characteristics.
Review a step by step guide to perceptual mapping a step by step guide to constructing a perceptual map
Additional Materials
View the PDF transcript for Perception Map/ MIS and the Market Research Process
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Interpreting a Perception Map
A sample of 320 car users, aged twenty to fifty-five years, is asked to rate brand C and its competitors on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best) along six core attributes. The given table reflects how the users view the competing brands on each attribute.
Competing Brands Brand Attributes A B C Exterior Design 6.3 4.25 4.12 Popularity 1.95 8.2 4.08 Service Offerings 3.1 4.95 7.15 Affordability 1.95 6.2 7.95 Engine Performance 2.2 6.15 3.9
Safety 2.2 4.25 6.8 What insight do you gain from the perceptual map?
Expert’s opinion:
After studying the graphical representation of the rankings, it is clear that brand C is weak on exterior design, somewhat middle of the road for popularity and engine performance, and quite strong on service offerings, affordability, and safety.
What positioning strategy can be formulated for brand C using the information provided by the perceptual map?
Expert’s opinion:
Brand C has many possible positioning strategies to choose from. Here are three examples:
• If the customers’ perceptions match management’s own perceptions of the company’s strengths and weaknesses, the company may choose to maintain the status quo and not make any changes.
• If the customers’ perceptions match management’s own perceptions of the company’s strengths and weaknesses, the company may also choose to enhance its strengths to increase the differentiation gap and solidify its competitive advantage. For example, the company may increase safety to increase differentiation against brand B.
• If the customers’ perceptions do not match management’s own perceptions, then management has to decide if the weaknesses perceived by the customers, on popularity, for example, may be overlooked by the market without resulting in loss of market share. If not, the company may choose to reposition brand C to increase popularity to match or exceed brand A’s ranking.
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Undifferentiated Strategy, Differentiation and Positioning.html
Undifferentiated Strategy, Differentiation and Positioning
An undifferentiated strategy may be preferred when management believes that the same product appeals to most people within the total market for a product category. There are three instances when an undifferentiated strategy is preferred.
- When a radical innovation is introduced: When the iPad was introduced with a more concrete idea of the people who would be interested in buying it. But even then, it was difficult to forecast just what interpretation prospective users would make of the benefits offered by the innovation.
- When the product is in the decline stages of its life cycle: A broad approach may be preferable here as the product category is "dying." It is usually safe to assume that by the time the product moves into its decline stage, loyal customers are strongly committed to the product and, therefore, there is little need for special differentiation efforts.
- When the product is perceived as a commodity: Finally, the indispensable homogeneity of a commodity, such as natural gas or electricity, works against a differentiated strategy. A commodity by definition is homogenous, and users prefer it that way—it makes them certain of the quality of the commodity's few benefits, including affordability. Therefore, the absence of market research lowers the costs of marketing and managing a commodity.
Segmenting the market and targeting exclusive segments (or segments) that matches a company's objective and resources can create efficiency not only for the company but for the economy and society as a whole. While customers get benefits, the company's ability to predict customer responses to its marketing mix strategy brings success in of profit and growth. Successful integration of the four Ps (product, price, place, and promotion) in marketing efforts aimed at a specific target market greatly increases the probability of creating customer satisfaction and social value.
Positioning and differentiation are very closely related marketing strategies. Positioning is your strategy for conveying what makes your company or products bigger, different or better than those offered by competitors. Differentiation is essentially the way you carry out your positioning by promotion distinct attributes or benefits that you offer.
Additional Materials
View the PDF transcript for Undifferentiated Strategy, Differentiation and Positioning
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Undifferentiated Strategy / Differentiated Strategy and Positioning
© 2016 South University
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Strategic Marketing
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MBA6011 Week 2 Lecture 2
An undifferentiated strategy may be preferred when management believes that the same product appeals to most people within the total market for a product category. There are three instances when an undifferentiated strategy is preferred.
• When a radical innovation is introduced: When Coca-Cola was first introduced in the marketplace more than a century ago, the product was new in every way and it was not clear who would be in the market for such a product. More recently, the iPad was introduced with a more concrete idea of the people who would be interested in buying it. But even then, it was difficult to forecast just what interpretation prospective users would make of the benefits offered by the innovation.
• When the product is in the decline stages of its life cycle: A broad approach may be preferable here as the product category is "dying." It is usually safe to assume that by the time the product moves into its decline stage, loyal customers are strongly committed to the product and, therefore, there is little need for special differentiation efforts.
• When the product is perceived as a commodity: Finally, the indispensable homogeneity of a commodity, such as natural gas or electricity, works against a differentiated strategy. A commodity, by definition, is homogenous, and users prefer it that way—it makes them certain of the quality of the commodity's few benefits, including affordability. Therefore, the absence of market research lowers the costs of marketing and managing a commodity.
To summarize, segmenting the market and targeting an exclusive segment (or segments) that matches a company's marketing objective and resources can create efficiency not only for the company but also for the economy and society as a whole. While
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customers get benefits, the company's ability to predict customer responses to its marketing mix strategy brings success in the form of profit and growth. Successful integration of the four Ps (product, price, place, and promotion) in marketing efforts aimed at a specific target market greatly increases the probability of creating customer satisfaction and social value.
Repositioning the Brand: Royal Stallion Beer
Royal Stallion was a premier beer brand in the 1970s. In 2005, the company, which had been losing its market share to newer brands, announced a bold, new campaign.
Warning Bells
The sales of Royal Stallion had been dropping continually. According to market analysts, the decline was primarily due to the entry of newer competitive drinks in the market. The company had also been losing brand value, primarily among the younger male demographic.
Market Research
Research done by the company showed that the male youth considered the brand “not cool.” They associated the drink with the older generation—their fathers and grandfathers. Therefore, they labeled it as boring. The research also revealed that these same customers preferred brands of drinks that they felt would give them the image of a masculine, stylish, and practical man.
Positioning Strategy
On the basis of the market research, the company made a bold move. It decided to turn the criticism used against it in its favor.
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The new tagline bravely announced to the world, “You’re right! Your dad knew the best brand to drink!”
Results
Royal Stallion pursued aggressive marketing through multiple advertisements that embodied the essential characteristics the young male wants to portray. The new strategy repositioned the brand so that customers now associated with it an image of timeless masculinity and the sophistication and strength of a practical
man—the father figure.
After segmenting the general market and selecting a customer segment (or a target market), the marketing manager has to differentiate and position the brand against the competition.
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Segmentation and Market Segmentation.html
Segmentation and Market Segmentation
Segmentation is the process of dividing the general market into segments, or clusters of people who have similar needs and possess similar characteristics. Characteristics that are used to divide a market into segments include demographics, geography, psychographics, behavioral attributes, and benefits sought. A company that does not segment the general market and tries to appeal to the population at large encounters difficulties in creating an effective marketing mix strategy.
In a nonsegmented (or undifferentiated) market, a company reaches people who are not interested in its product’s attributes, or benefits, which might create a negative image for the company. Conversely, there is the possibility that groups who could benefit from the product might not be reached due to the one-size-fits-all strategy. In a segmented (or differentiated) market, a company reaches people who are actually interested in its product’s attributes. A particular range of products is targeted at particular groups who are reached through a differentiated marketing strategy
Companies want to know who their target customers are and what kind of value to create for them. If a company can create appropriate value for its customers, some customers might feel compelled to reciprocate in the form of loyalty to the company's products. Therefore, in an era of individualized (and customized) marketing, segmenting the general market and identifying the correct customer segment (or the target market) are critical to the success of a company in any industry.
Segmentation helps the brand to define the appropriate products for specific customer group. For example, Coca Cola doesn’t target a specific segment but adapts its marketing strategy by developing new products. Similarly, it uses mix of undifferentiated & niche targeting strategies in order to drive sales in the competitive market. Its product Cola is popular worldwide & is liked by people of all age group while the diet coke targets niche segment for people who are more health conscious. Coca Cola uses competitive positioning strategy to be way ahead of its competitors in the Non-alcoholic beverages market.
Additional Materials
View the PDF transcript for Segmentation and Market Segmentation
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Segmentation and Segmentation through Market Segmentation
© 2016 South University
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Strategic Marketing
©2016 South University
2 Segmentation and Segmentation through Market Segmentation
MBA6011 Week 2 Lecture 1
In a nonsegmented (or undifferentiated) market, a company reaches people who are not interested in its product’s attributes , or benefits, which might create a negative image for the company. Conversely, there is the possibility that groups who could benefit from the product might not be reached due to the one-size-fits- all strategy. In a segmented (or differentiated) market, a company reaches people who are actually interested in its product’s attributes. A particular range of products is targeted at particular groups who are reached through a differentiated marketing strategy
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Advantages of Segmentation: The WOW Story
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Discount stores were very popular in the United States from the 1960s to the 1980s. But by the early nineties, most of these stores had either shut down or were sold out to bigger retailers. However, one store escaped this fate—the WOW discount store. The chain had rapidly expanded and managed to adapt to the changing environment to emerge as one of the leading discount chains in the country.