A decision support system (ADS) makes data instantly available to marketing managers and allows them to manipulate the data themselves to make marketing decisions. Four characteristics make adds especially useful to marketing managers: They are interactive, flexible, discovery oriented, and accessible. Decision support systems give managers access to information immediately and without outside assistance. They allow users to manipulate data in a variety of ways and to answer “what if” questions.
And, finally, they are accessible to novice computer users. Marketing Research & Import. To Marketing Decision Making: Marketing research is a process of collecting and analyzing data for the purpose of solving specific marketing problems. Marketers use marketing research to explore the profitability of marketing strategies. They can examine why particular strategies failed and analyze characteristics of specific market segments. Managers can use research findings to help keep current customers.
Moreover, marketing research allows management to behave proactively, rather than reactively, by identifying newly emerging patterns in society and the economy. Steps in marketing research project: The marketing research process involves several basic steps. First, the researcher and the decision maker must agree on a problem statement or set of research objectives. The researcher then creates an overall research design to specify how primary data will be gathered and analyzed.
Before collecting data, the researcher decides whether the group to be interviewed will be a probability or inviolability sample. Field service firms are often hired to carry out data collection. Once data have been collected, the researcher analyzes them using statistical analysis. The researcher then prepares and presents oral and written reports, with conclusions and recommendations, to management. As a final step, the researcher determines whether the recommendations were implemented and what could have been done to make the project more successful.
Impact of Internet on Marketing Research: The Internet has simplified the secondary data search process. Internet survey research is surging in popularity. Internet surveys can be created rapidly, are reported in real time, are relatively inexpensive, and are easily personalized. Often researchers use the Internet to contact respondents who re difficult to reach by other means. The Internet can also be used to conduct focus groups, to dispute research proposals and reports, and to facilitate collaboration between the client and the research supplier.
Text-message-based research and giving consumers blobbing assignments are new trends that give marketers quick feedback (text-messaging) or in-depth information over time (blobbing). Growing Import. Of Scanner-Based Research: A scanner-based research system enables marketers to monitor a market panel’s exposure and reaction to such variables as advertising, coupons, store displays, packaging, and price. By analyzing these rabbles in relation to the panel’s subsequent buying behavior, marketers gain useful insight into sales and marketing strategies.
When Marketing Research Should be Conducted: Because acquiring marketing information can be time consuming and costly, to acquire additional decision-making information depends on managers’ Marketing Final Review By Carriageways undertaken only when the expected value of the information is greater than the cost of obtaining it. Implementing a Customer Relationship Management system is integral to maintaining a functional marketing decision support system for deciding if marketing research should be conducted.
Competitive Intelligence: Intelligence is analyzed information, and it becomes decision-making intelligence when it has implications for the organization. By helping managers assess their competition and vendors, competitive intelligence (C’) leads to fewer surprises. CLC is part of a sound marketing strategy, helps companies respond to competitive threats, and helps reduce unnecessary costs. Product: A product is anything, desired or not, that a person or organization receives in an exchange. The basic goal of purchasing decisions is to receive the tangible and intangible benefits associated with a product.
Tangible aspects include packaging, style, color, size, and features. Intangible qualities include service, the retailer’s image, the manufacturer’s reputation, and the social status associated with a product. An organization’s product offering is the crucial element in any marketing mix. Classify Consumer Products: Consumer products are classified into four categories: convenience products, shopping products, specialty products, and unsought products. Convenience products are relatively inexpensive and require limited shopping effort. Shopping products are of two types: homogeneous and heterogeneous.
Because of the similarity of homogeneous products, they are differentiated mainly by price and features. In contrast, heterogeneous products appeal to consumers because of their distinct characteristics. Specialty products possess unique benefits that are highly desirable to certain customers. Finally, unsought products are either new products or products that require aggressive selling because they are generally avoided or overlooked by consumers. Product Item, Line, Mix: A product item is a specific version of a product that can be designated as a distinct offering among an organization’s products.
A product line is a group of closely related products offered by an organization. An organization’s product mix includes all the products it sells. Product mix width refers to the number of product lines an organization offers. Product line depth is the number of product items in a product line. Firms modify existing products by changing their quality, functional characteristics, or style. Product line extension occurs when a firm adds new products to existing product lines. Marketing Uses of Branding: A brand is a name, term, or symbol that identifies and differentiates a firm’s products.
Established brands encourage customer loyalty and help new products succeed. Branding strategies require decisions about individual, family, manufacturers’, and private brands. Marketing Uses of Packaging & Labeling: Packaging has four functions: containing and protecting products; promoting products; facilitating product storage, use, and convenience; and facilitating recycling and reducing environmental damage. As a tool for promotion, packaging identifies the brand and its features. It also serves the critical function of differentiating a product from competing products and linking it with related products from the same manufacturer.
The label is an integral part of the package, with persuasive and informational functions. In essence, the package is the marketer’s last chance to influence buyers before they make a purchase decision. Global Issues in Branding & variety of concerns regarding branding and packaging, including choosing a brand- name policy, translating labels and meeting host-country labeling requirements, making packages aesthetically compatible with host-country cultures, and offering the sizes of packages preferred in host countries. Product Warranties Importance:
Product warranties are important tools because they offer consumers protection and help them gauge product quality. Express warranty = written guarantee Implied warranty = unwritten guarantee. Dove. New Products & 6 Categories of New Products: New products are important to sustain growth and profits and to replace obsolete items. New products can be classified as new-to-the-world products (discontinuous innovations), new product lines, additions to existing product lines, improvements or revisions of existing products, repositioned products, or lower-priced products. To sustain or increase profits, a firm must innovate.
Steps in New Prod. Dove. Process: First, a firm forms a new-product strategy by outlining the characteristics and roles of future products. Then new-product ideas are generated by customers, employees, distributors, competitors, vendors, and internal R&D personnel. Once a product idea has survived initial screening by an appointed screening group, it undergoes business analysis to determine its potential profitability. If a product concept seems viable, it progresses into the development phase, in which the technical and economic feasibility of the manufacturing process is evaluated.
The development hash also includes laboratory and use testing of a product for performance and safety. Following initial testing and refinement, most products are introduced in a test market to evaluate consumer response and marketing strategies. Finally, test market successes are propelled into full centralization. The centralization process involves starting up production, building inventories, shipping to distributors, training a sales force, announcing the product to the trade, and advertising to consumers. Global Issues in New Prod.
Dove. : A marketer with global vision seeks to develop products that can easily be adapted to suit local needs. The goal is not simply to develop a standard product that can be sold worldwide. Smart global marketers also look for good product ideas worldwide Diffusion Process Thru Which New Prod. Are Adopted: The diffusion process is the spread of a new product from its producer to ultimate adopters. Adopters in the diffusion process belong to five categories: innovators, early adopters, the early majority, the late majority, and laggards.
Product characteristics that affect the rate of adoption include product complexity, compatibility with existing social values, relative advantage over existing bustiest, visibility, and “tractability. ” The diffusion process is facilitated by word-of- mouth communication and communication from marketers to consumers. Product Life Cycles: All brands and product categories undergo a life cycle with four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. The rate at which products move through these stages varies dramatically.
Marketing managers use the product life-cycle concept as an analytical tool to forecast a product’s future and devise effective marketing strategies. Supply chain & management (SCM) & benefits: Management ordinates and integrates all of the activities performed by supply chain members into a seamless process from the source to the point of consumption. The benefits of supply chain management include reduced inventory, transportation, warehousing, external (SC) integration & importance: In the modern supply chain, integration can be either internal or external.
Internally, the very best companies develop a managerial orientation toward demand-supply integration. Companies operating under a ADS’ philosophy are better at their business because all of the different divisions within the company “play from the same sheet of music. Externally, five types of integration are sought by firms interested in providing top-level service to customers: relationship integration, measurement integration, technology and planning integration, material and service supplier integration, and customer integration. Key processes of ex.. (SCM) & impact on end customer: The key processes that leading supply chain companies focus on are (1) customer relationship management, (2) customer service management, (3) demand management, (4) order fulfillment, (5) manufacturing flow management, (6) supplier relationship management, (7) product development and centralization, and (8) turns management. When firms practice excellent supply chain management, each of these processes is integrated from end to end in the supply chain.
These processes are made up of bundles of interconnected activities that supply chain partners are constantly focused on when delivering value to the customer. Functional areas that impact (SC) success: The supply chain team, in concert with the logistics information system, orchestrates the movement of goods, services and information from the source to the consumer. Supply chain teams typically cut across organizational boundaries, embracing all parties who participate in moving product o market.
The logistics supply chain consists of several interrelated and integrated logistical components: (1) sourcing and procurement, (2) inventory control, (3) order processing, (4) production, (5) warehousing, (6) transportation, and (7) maintaining supply chain technology. The logistics information system integrates and links all of the logistics functions of the supply chain. Smart RIFF tags are another type of advanced computer technology that is helping companies manage their supply chains. New tech. Emerging trends in (SCM): Several emerging trends are changing the Job of today’s supply chain manager. Some of the business trends affecting supply chain management include outsourcing logistics, maintaining a secure supply chain and minimizing supply chain risk, and maintaining a sustainable supply chain. While these changes exert pressure on managers to change the way their supply chains function, electronic distribution is being used and changed frequently to help make supply chain management more nitrated and easier to track.
Marketing channels & channel intermediaries: A marketing channel is a business structure that helps channel members perform necessary actions to move products to the final nonuser. As products move to the final consumers, intermediaries facilitate the distribution process by providing specialization and division of labor, overcoming discrepancies, and providing contact efficiency. Retailers are those firms in the channel that sell directly to consumers as their primary function.
Channel structures & strategies: When possible, producers use a direct channel to sell directly to consumers. Alternatively, an agent/broker channel may be the best solution. Most consumer products are sold through distribution channels similar to the retailer channel and the wholesaler channel. Dual distribution may be used to distribute the alliances to use already-established channels. Managers must consider the three options for intensity of distribution: intensive distribution, selective distribution, and exclusive distribution.
Channel relationship types roles & benefits and drawbacks: Integrated relationships are closely bonded and explicit but do not offer flexibility; cooperative relationships offer balance and stability, but cannot be sustained long term; and arm’s-length relationships can satisfy a sudden or unique need but carry a potential for opportunism. Managers must also be aware of the social dimensions hat are constantly affecting their relationships. Import. Of retailer within channel and national economy: In early 2012, indicators estimated that approximately two-thirds of the U. S. Ross domestic product comes from retail activity. The retailing industry is one of the largest employers in the United States. Though most retailers are quite small, a few giant organizations such as Walter dominate the industry. Classifications & types of retailers & dif. Operational models: Retail establishments can be classified according to ownership, level of service, products assortment, and rice. Many stores fall into basic categories: department stores, specialty stores, supermarkets, drugstores, convenience stores, discount stores, specialty discount stores, off-price retailers, and in some ways, restaurants.
Because consumers demand convenience, monster retailing is currently growing faster than in-store retailing. Finally, two basic forms of franchises are used today: product and trade name franchising and business format franchising. Mac. Tasks involved in dove. Retail marketing strategy: The key tasks in strategic retailing are defining and selecting a argue market and developing the retailing mix to successfully meet the needs of the chosen target market. Defining a target market in retailing beings with market segmentation.
The retailing mix consists of six AS: the four As of the marketing mix plus presentation and personnel. Roles of CRM & customer data in retailer decision making: The data manufacturers and retailers collect in CRM databases allow them to gain better insight into who is buying their products. Trends in retail and channel management: M-commerce enables consumers using wireless mobile devices to connect to the Internet and shop. Effects of DVD. On market share consumers: Advertising helps marketers increase or maintain brand awareness and, subsequently, market share.
Typically, more is spent to advertise new brands with a small market share than to advertise older brands. Brands with a large market share use advertising mainly to maintain their share of the market. Advertising affects consumers’ daily lives as well as their purchases. Although advertising can seldom change strongly held consumer attitudes and values, it may transform a consumer’s negative attitude toward a product into a positive one. Finally, advertising can also change the importance of a brand’s attributes to consumers.
By emphasizing different brand attributes, advertisers can change their appeal in response to consumers’ changing needs to try to achieve an advantage over competing brands. Mac. Types of DVD. : Advertising is any form of nonparallel, paid communication in which the sponsor or company is identified. The two major types of advertising are institutional advertising and product advertising. Institutional advertising is not product-oriented; rather, its purpose is to foster a positive company image among he general public, investment community, customers, and employees.
Product three main categories: pioneering, competitive, and comparative. A product’s place in the product life cycle is a major determinant of the type of advertising used to promote it. DCE. In dove. An DVD. Campaign: Before any creative work can begin on an advertising campaign, it is important to determine what goals or objectives the advertising should achieve. The objectives of a specific advertising campaign often depend on the overall corporate objectives and the product being advertised, and re often determined using the DATAGRAM approach.
Once objectives are defined, creative work can begin (e. G. , identifying the product’s benefits, developing possible advertising appeals, evaluating and selecting the advertising appeals, executing the advertising message, and evaluating the effectiveness of the campaign). Media evaluation & selection techniques: Media evaluation and selection make up a crucial step in the advertising campaign process. Major types of advertising media include newspapers, magazines, radio, television, the Internet, outdoor media such as billboards and bus panels.
Recent trends in advertising media include shopping carts, computer screen savers, DVD’s, CDC, interactive kiosks, advertisements before movies, posters on bathroom stalls, and “advertisement. ” Promotion managers choose the advertising campaign’s media mix on the basis of the following variables: cost per contact, reach, frequency, characteristics of the target audience, flexibility of the medium, noise level, and the life span of the medium. After choosing the media mix, a media schedule designates when the advertisement will appear and the specific vehicles in which it will appear.
Role of PR in the promotional mix: Public relations is a vital part of a firm’s promotional mix. A company fosters good publicity to enhance its image and promote its products. Popular public relations tools include new-product publicity, product placement, consumer education, sponsorship, company Web sites. An equally important aspect of public relations is managing unfavorable publicity in a way that is least damaging to a firm’s image. Objectives of sales promotion and tools used: Marketing managers can use sales promotion to increase the effectiveness of their promotional efforts.
Sales promotion can target either trade or consumer markets. Trade promotions may push a product through the distribution channel using sales contests, premiums, P-O-P displays, trade allowances, push money, training, free merchandise, store demonstrations, and business meetings. Consumer promotions may push a product through the distribution channel using coupons, rebates, premiums, loyalty marketing programs or frequent buyer programs, contests, sweepstakes, sampling, and point-of-purchase displays. The biggest trend in sales promotions on both the trade and consumer side has been the increased use of the Internet.
