1. Branding
Procter & Gamble (P&G) perhaps epitomizes the ability to create highly successful brands and marketing efforts. Read the Breakthrough Marketing case study about Procter & Gamble on page 239 in chapter 9 of your e-text.
Given our study through the first three weeks, to what do you attribute P&G's success and its ability to continually grow its business? Were you to project into the future, what recommendations would you make to P&G marketing executives, especially as to where the company might be vulnerable?
2. Competitive Strategies
When developing a marketing plan, you can't stop with just identifying your competitors. You also need to clarify your position in the market compared to those competitors and outline an appropriate strategy for dealing with them.
Consider Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, two successful companies that compete with each other. Discuss some competitive strategies each company can adopt and some specific actions needed to support those strategies. Tie your comments to our Kotler textbook.
Quiz:
- Describe customer perceived value, total customer benefit, and total customer cost. How do the total customer benefit and the total customer cost affect the consumer's perception?
- What are some of the ways that a business can attract and retain customers?
- What are the five stages in the buying decision process? Briefly describe each.
- What is a niche market? What does an attractive niche market look like?
- What is a market segment? What are some of the factors that may be used to narrow the market down into segments?
- How would you describe a brand? What roles do brands play in the market?
- What is brand equity? Provide an example.