Part 1:
1. What are the advantages of qualitative measurements when doing marketing research? What are the disadvantages? Be sure to answer both questions.
2. What are the benefits to a company of a well-executed BRANDING strategy? What are the benefits to a consumer?
3. Marketers recognize that the marketing of services is different than the marketing of a product because of the different characteristics that distinguish them from physical products. How do marketers communicate the value of services to consumers? How do they make these intangible services appear tangible to the consumer? What are some marketing strategies that might be employed with services to ensure positive results? In your answer, provide an example of a service to which your strategies would be utilized.
4. Your company is about to introduce a new product that will increase the fuel mileage on ANY gasoline-powered car by 25%. This is a genuine product that REALLY works and has received endorsements left and right as a tool to help America become less dependent on foreign oil. Utilizing the micropulverization capabilities of electronic frequency distribution, the GasEnhance device will take an automobile that gets 28 mpg and allow it to get 25% more mileage; that is, 35mpg. It REALLY works! Your cost to manufacture this product is $115.00 and installation (which is easy) requires about one hour, or about $60 for labor. What Kotler pricing strategy will you use, knowing that your competition has a similar product that will likely use a slightly different technology and that will be out in 120 days? Rumor has it that their product will provide 35% more mileage.
5. Edward Adams is the new sales manager for Wolfe Corporation. He has just come aboard to head up a sales force of seventy sales professionals, all of whom possess at least a Bachelors degree, many of whom have Masters Degrees. Mr. Adams' sales reps sell highly complex instrumentation systems that are used to analyze a variety of different materials in laboratory environments. The instruments, sixteen in total, are used to analyze gases, liquids, and blood. Each product is very technical and customers expect their Wolfe sales rep to be very knowledgeable about the technical applications and analysis requirements of their laboratories. Each sales professional covers an assigned territory, which usually comprises one to two states depending upon the geographic area and amount of industry. The sales team has been divided into twelve teams around the country, with each team having its own sales manager and five to nine sales reps, all of whom call on a variety of customers. Sales teams operate out of the same office, located in a major metropolitan area (e.g., Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, etc). Sales rep turnover has been about 15% annually the past few years, and Mr. Adams sees it as imperative that he do something about this. Annual sales have been averaging a 3-5% increase each year over the past five years, but the corporate president wants more. Your competition has been averaging 6-8% sales growth increases in revenue each year. Analyze the sales force structure. What is the current sales force strategy that is being used? What might be the limitations of the current sales force structure? What changes, if any, would you suggest that Mr. Adams consider making to the sales force structure to effect increased sales?
Part 2:
1. Designing a marketing channel system requires analyzing customer needs, establishing channel objectives, and identifying and evaluating major channel alternatives. It is important to understand what the customer expects channels of distribution or channel members will provide them. Consumers desire certain key service outputs: lot size, waiting and delivery time, spatial convenience, product variety, and service backup. How does each of these affect the design of the marketing channel?
2. Describe the supply chain strategy using demand chain planning. By looking at the company as the center of a value network, how will this approach enable the company to be more financially efficient?
3. With the memory of the many companies showing poor judgment and poor ethics, such as B&P, Toyota, Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen, and others fresh in your mind, you have been asked to advise your company's CEO on to how to minimize the risk of a similar event occurring at your company. Specifically, what recommendations would you make to your CEO that would minimize unethical business and marketing practices by your employees, such as those alleged to have occurred at these and other companies?
4. Now that you have completed the Final Draft of your Marketing Plan, were you to begin anew, what would you have done differently insofar as your efforts to segment your TARGET MARKET and your efforts to reach that TARGET MARKET via your promotional mix? What would you have done differently? Be sure to refresh your instructor's mind by providing one sentence that communicates what your Marketing Plan brought to market.
5. You are the media planner for an advertising agency, responsible for the placement of your client's ads in various media. Your client's product is a "smart" robotic lawnmower (Robo-mower) that one can easily "program" to cut a home lawn. Robo-mower will only cut grass within its programmed area and it will avoid flower beds, rocks, sidewalks, etc., while you sit in the hammock, enjoying the summer! An emergency "cut-off" switch brings it to a full stop in one-quarter of a second. Select four (4) advertising media that you would consider for an ad placement and indicate THREE (3) advantages and THREE (3) disadvantages of those that you select for advertising the Robo-mower. Failure to provide all of the requested information will result in a loss of points.