In over two decades, the business strategy of introducing new products as extensions has become popular. Similarly, brand extension is considered as a key to developing a brand. In detail, it is widely used as eight out of ten new products are introduced as a brand extension in the market. Brand extension strategies are broadly applied in order to reduce marketing expense in launching new products, enhance the well-known and quality of core brands, and lessen the risk for companies. Brand extension is defined as a product whose nature and function differ from those of products currently commercialized under the brand name. In other words, brand extension is defined as using an established brand name so-called parent brand or core brand to introduce a new product. The Advantages of Brand Extension As an efficient strategy, brand extension has become a usual occurrence over the last fifteen years. There is a Continue reading
Marketing Management
Marketing management combines the fields of marketing and management. Marketing consists of discovering consumer needs and wants, creating the goods and services that meet those needs and wants; and pricing, promoting, and delivering those goods and services. Doing so requires attention to six major areas – markets, products, prices, places, promotion, and people. Management is getting things done through other people. Managers engage in five key activities – planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Marketing management implies the integration of these concepts.
Sustainability Mix – Greening the Marketing Mix
Sustainability has been a growing concern regarding the natural environment, which has resulted in the transformation of the competitive landscape and constraining companies to take a look at the costs and profits of greening their marketing mix. Sustainability is defined as the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability issues have turned out to be progressively critical to corporate decision-makers as companies face public sensitivity, stricter guidelines, and growing stakeholder pressures focused on saving the common habitat. There has been a shift in the consumer’s preferences towards environmentally friendly products and services. Greening the marketing mix means incorporating the sustainability elements in the marketing mix. For example, HSBC is aiming for a zero-carbon footprint and Walmart is implementing procedures that empower sustainability among its suppliers. Green pricing strategy refers to pricing exercises that record both the Continue reading
The Role of Group Influence in Consumer Behavior
So is its true that individualism is dead and that consumer behavior is dominated by the influence of groups? There is no doubt consumer behavior is heavily influenced by groups. Individuals are always striving to conform to group behavior and to please others and this influences the purchase choices that they make. The influence of groups also helps to establish trends in lifestyle, fashion, and the assimilation of new products, into the lives of consumers. The notion of ‘virtual communities’ has been around ever since the inception of the internet. Whereas people used to meet and form communities geographically, the internet allows groups of like-minded people to meet virtually through communities based on, for example, online chat rooms and forums. Here individuals, who share common interests, can make contact with each other without any geographic restrictions. The interaction between members of such groups tends to be more uninhibited that it Continue reading
Corporate Branding Case Study: ‘Power of Dreams’ Campaign by Honda
In 2002 Honda Motor Company was the number-three Japanese automobile manufacturer in the world, behind Toyota and Nissan. While Honda’s automobile sales in Japan and the United States were considered strong, sales in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe were thought to be weak, even though automobile production in the United Kingdom had been ongoing for a decade. Further, Honda vehicle sales had been declining in these regions since 1998. In response to these problems Honda hired ad agency Wieden+Kennedy London office to create an advertising campaign that would directly address the issues. ‘‘The Power of Dreams,’’ released in 2002, was an omnipresent campaign in the United Kingdom and beyond, using television, direct mail, radio, posters, press, interactive television, cinema, magazines, motor shows, press launches, dealerships, postcards, beermats (coasters), and even traffic cones. It built upon Honda’s company slogan, ‘‘Yume No Chikara,’’ which was first endorsed in the 1940s by Continue reading
Introduction to Marketing Research
Marketing research is the intelligence service of a business enterprise. American Marketing Association defined marketing research as “the gathering, recording and analyzing of all data about problems relating to the transfer and sale of goods and services from producer to consumer.” Objectives of Marketing Research To know the demographics and psychographics of customers:- Marketing research tries to reveal the number of persons who buy, why they buy, when they buy, the frequency of their buying, and the sources of their buying. It also includes the social status and the regional location of the customers. To find out the impact of promotional efforts. To know customer response to a new product. To prove ‘what went wrong’. Nature of Marketing Research Marketing research is systematic and objective collection of data, its analysis and evaluation, and decision making in respect of specific aspects of a marketing problem. Marketing Research and Market Research:- Continue reading
Service Process Planning
The following are the strategic decision and design elements must be considered in the service process planning. Basic technological decision Conversion/ Market decision Specific equipment decision Process flow decision Blue Prints Flowchart Front and Back office Layouts Bench marks People decision 1. Basic Technological Decision In some, technology exists but not only in customerised form. So the question arises :whether the technology available can be developed to provide the raw material, process and equipment to deliver the service? For example , at one time it was possible to design printed electronic circuits on small chips, but the technology and specific equipment required to produce the chips are beyond the state of act. In the same way telephone was invented in 1876, but the technology came into use after 15 years from the invention of telephone dial. 2. Conversion/ Market Decision The decision on conversion process is complex as it depends Continue reading