CASE STUDY QUẢN TRỊ MARKETING MARKETING MANAGEMENT UFM

UNIVERSITY OF FINANCE - MARKETING FACULTY OF MARKETING CLASS: CLC_17DMA2 CASE STUDY FROM CHAPTER TO CHAPTER 18 Lecturers: MBA Ngo Minh Trang Group: No Member Student’s code Pham Quang Thuy 1721001634 Do Thanh Ngan 1721000602 Trinh Quoc Bao 1721000655 Phan Hoang Bao 1721000654 Thai Ngoc Minh Uyen 1521002504 HCMC – April 2019 CHAPTER Question 1: What are the pros cons and risks associated with Nike's core marketing strategy? Nike's excellence marketing strategies are their energy to achieve their market goals Nike believes the "pyramid influence" that the preferences of a small percentage of top athletes influence the product and brand choice Pros of Nike’s core Marketing strategy: Nike put heavily proportion in their marketing strategies and products design In order to sustain their dominance in the industry and retain their competitive advantages, Nike actively responds to the market trends and changes in consumer preference by adjusting their marketing strategies, the mix of existing product offerings, developing new products, styles and categories, and influencing sports and fitness preferences through various marketing strategies Cons of Nike’s core Marketing strategy: Although Nike's marketing strategies had brings lot of positive implications to the company, but it will bring negative implications to Nike too The negative implications that will identify in this assignment are high cost incurred, influence of spokesperson, and competitors Risks of Nike’s core Marketing strategy: Nike faces many risks when they use their core marketing strategies to achieve their goals and these risks can come from both internally and externally environmental circumstance The risks will have a negative influence about Nike's future development, for example, the market share in the world, reputation, brand image, and customer loyalty Question 2: If you were Adidas, how would you compete with Nike? Adidas needs to use marketing research to better understand consumers’ wants and needs The company cannot just produce without a good understanding of what the customers’ are willing to buy (their needs and wants) Without this powerful marketing research they would be ending up with huge inventory with no market Adidas also needs to consider market analysis to explore opportunities on untapped markets where the company can outrun Nike in product awareness The company also needs to focus on market segmentation, and target the market position he wants to take The company needs to revisit its mission and vision to better align all activities towards one and the same goal If all efforts are directed towards one common goal – there would be minimal reasons to fail Adidas needs not stop in innovating and striving to be the best in the industry Complacency is a common pitfall for failure Question 3: With a portfolio as diverse as Google’s, what are the company’s core brand values? With a diverse portfolio, Google has its underlying core brand values These core brand values are as follows: Good Work Environment: As a global corporate citizen, Google has always tried hard to be one of the “Good Guys” in the corporate world, underneath a touchy-feely work environment Basically Google hires great people and expect a lot from them in return They also try to create an environment where people can prosper and grow They treat their people with justice and respect; share and welcome ideas openly Doing the Right Things: Within its corporate culture, Google always encourages well-built ethics with an eminent founding credo: “Don’t be evil” Honesty and integrity in all they and their business practices are beyond criticism They have a motto of making money by doing good things Offering Prime Online Services: Google adds value by providing tools to the advertisers’ better target their ads and better understand the effectiveness of their marketing Google Analytics, free to Google’s advertisers, provides a custom report, or dashboard, detailing how Internet users found the site, what ads they saw and/or clicked on, how they behaved while there and how much traffic was generated Technology & Innovation: Google always apply their technology and creativity to solve important problems and come up with new ideas As a result they are in a quest of building the world’s best technology and products Marketing Asset Management: With its ability to deploy data that enable up-to-the minute improvements in a Web marketing program, Google supports a style of marketing in which the advertising resources and budget can be constantly monitored and optimized Question 4: What’s next for Google? Is it doing the right thing taking on Microsoft with the concept of cloud computing, and Apple in the fight for smart phones? With the advancement of science and technology, Google is trying to come up with new products and services ideas which seemed beyond individual’s imagination Google’s stage of development starts within Google Labs, which lists new products available for testing It next moves to beta status, where invited users test early prototypes Once the product is fully tested and ready to be released to the general public, it moves into the gold stage as a core Google product As their next projects, they have come up with Google Voice and Google Glass According to my point of view, Google is doing well against Microsoft’s Cloud Computing concept and Apple’s smart phones Google Vs Microsoft’s Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is a type of computing that relies on sharing computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle applications Google is doing well with this kind of applications where they already inaugurated two of their cloud computing applications which are – Going Google and Google Drive These are the two software where a person can store data here And the user can access to those data from any remote computer with an internet connection Google Drive is getting popular to the smart phone users with Android Operating System Google Vs Apple Smartphone: Google is also going big in the mobile category In 2008 it launched Android; a mobile operating system with which Google went head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone Although many still prefer Apple’s platform, but most importantly, Android is free, open sourced, and backed by a multimillion-dollar investment On the other hand, the iPhone is available only through few distribution channels In case of applications availability, Android has a wide range of free applications where Apple is lag behind them Along with this, some other differentiations establish Google as a strong competitor of Apple’s smartphones CHAPTER Question : How is building a brand in a business-to-business context different from doing so on in the consumer market ? Building a strong brand that is able to set a company apart from other business is always an important job However depending on who the intended client is determines how the company will build their brand A brand is defined as a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or any combination to identify goods and services of a seller or group of sellers While many things in branding are the same, building a brand that supports brand to brand, B2B, or brand to customer, B2C, sales has slight differences In B2B branding, a focus will be made on making a strong connection with the client business in order to make their brand seen as the top choice and safe to business with In order to this, the brand will be built around making strong and personal relationships with the customer to become the go-to source Instead of mass marketing and small ads, B2B branding requires that the business be willing to accept the time to completely educate the professional buyers about the brand These professional buyers are used because they are well informed about the needs and goals of the purchase, and focus on purchasing a product that allows them to achieve higher revenues at a lower total cost then other competitive businesses These buyers will be less influenced about the price and demand that the brand will be available when needed For this, the brand will need to have a simplified supply chain and logistics to meet these demands In B2C branding, the consumer market looks at a vast majority of people While customers can develop a strong connection to a brand, little is spent for personnel information; relying instead on mass communications such as TV, radio, and magazine ads that are distributed In making a brand become a top choice for consumers, things such as price, packaging, color, characteristics, name and logo are all designed to attract the average individual Question : Is Cisco’s plan to reach out to consumers a viable one ? Why or why not ? According to the case study, Cisco achieved a global ranking of 18 in 2008 with revenues of $39.5 billion dollars thus making its consumer based plan a seemingly viable one (Cisco) In reviewing the market conditions of the 90's which were wide open for internet technology and comparing that to the 21st century which has now been saturated with internet technology, Cisco is making a wise strategic move By transitioning to a consumer based marketing company, Cisco is placing itself up against some very tough competition against Microsoft, Apple, and Dell, however, their continued growth seems to demonstrate they are holding their own with consumers (Cisco) Some of the key transitional actions from business-tobusiness into consumer based marketing that Cisco has made was to develop a message In 2003 the company began pushing the message of "This is the power of the Network", a catchy phrase consumers could relate with Also, Cisco has consistently used television ads and other media outlets to help push its brand name to consumers and help the company gain market space successfully (Cisco) So, for Cisco, changing its business model to consumer based and making smart marketing decisions is helping the company refocus its efforts on the future Question : Discuss how Intel changed ingredient-marketing history What did it so well in those initial marketing campaigns ? In 1980s, Intel faced a problem to distinguish itself from the competitors and tried to convince consumers to pay more for its high performance products By creating the ingredient-branding campaign, Intel mended the matter and made history in 1991 To become distinctive, it chose a name for its latest microprocessor introduction that could be trademarked Pentium The “Intel Inside” campaign was the answer for the brand awareness problem This campaign helped move the Intel brand name outside the PC and into the minds of customers when the Intel gave significant rebates to computer manufacturers to include Intel logo in their PC ads or add the “Intel Inside” sticker on the outside of theirs PCs and laptops It succeeded in distinction and then raising customer’s brand awareness in its very first step of marketing campaign The later achievements came from several effective and identifiable marketing campaigns in the late 1990s to become a recognizable and well-liked ingredient brand name Special advertisements coming out with “Bunny People” series had made strong impression in the audience’s mind Famous Blue Man Group was also used in its commercials for Pentium III and Pentium IV Intel effectively utilized the basic factors of advertising like creativity and used celebrities’ influence with the public to draw most attention of consumers In 2000s, Intel promoted its development by doing more marketing efforts New products were developed to extend its target market In 2003, a multimillion-dollar media effort was made around the new platform called “Unwired” which based on the core product Centrino, a unique integration of a new microprocessor, an extended battery, and wireless capabilities Although the PC industry slowed in the mid-2000s, Intel continued to lead the market by seeking opportunities in new growth areas such as home entertainment and mobile devices with Viiv and Centrino Duo A remarkable reposition campaign was carried out to change Intel from a brainy microprocessor company to a “warm and fuzzy company” A replacement in logo and slogan from familiar “Intel Inside” to “Leap Ahead” happened, too New improved products has been continuing to be regularly launched to consolidate Intel’s position and expand its new market Classmate PC for children in remote regions of the world in Learning Series in 2007, Atom processor for mobile Internet devices, netbooks, and nettops In 2008, the Intel Core i7 in the same year brought in turn a big revenue for the company Intel’s most recent ad campaign named “Sponsors of Tomorrow” was the effort to improve the Intel’s brand awareness in customer’s mind In conclusion, Intel did a series of marketing campaigns to help it become the top brands in the world Focusing on creating trademark, positioning its brands, making a series of attractive ads and finding new opportunities accompanies with upgrading continuously its powerful products, Intel made it to be one of the most valuable brands in the world Question : Evaluate Intel’s more recent marketing efforts Did they lose something by dropping the “Intel Inside” tagline or not ? In mid-2000s, the PC industry got into slow development and it influenced all the related companies, not excluding Intel This urged Intel to change and if they want to grow more, they have to make an innovation They took action by creating a new $2 billion global marketing campaign: changing their familiar “Intel Inside” tagline, creating new logo and repositioning the company Things stuck into customers’ mind whenever they think about Intel are all changed There will be no more “Intel Inside”, it’s “Reap Ahead” instead This new clearly outstanding slogan showed us new company’s direction will reflect in their future products and culture The question is whether Intel lost something by dropping the “Intel Inside” tagline or not In my opinion, they lost their “traditional value” that is the familiar “Intel Inside” tagline but this change is necessary to adapt to the development of economy and the change of market Change is inevitable and a market leader must be willing to embrace change to maintain the leadership position rather than resist it Some people who identify themselves with the old tagline will find it difficult to get used to the new slogan But customers who trusted in the Intel’s quality will not doubt their new products with new slogan and logo Because the good reputation of Intel which helped them become a giant in microprocessor producing industry, has been deeply established in consumer’s mind The new slogan of Intel “Leap Ahead” indicated their ambition to lead the market, continue to creating new things that meet the needs of people from all walks of life And in fact, they took the initiative in market expansion There are many examples for that: Viiv aimed at home entertainment enthusiasts, Centrino Duo mobile, Classmate PC for children in remote regions of the world, Atom processor, and especially is Intel Core i7 for video, 3-D gaming and advanced computer activities The positive effects eventually came in their new product’s consumption showed that the board of managers of Intel took the right action They lost some old value by dropping the “Intel Inside” tagline but what they gained is more enormous The recent ads campaign aimed to improve the company’s brand awareness entitled “Sponsors of Tomorrow” emphasized their new slogan and highlighted their role in changing the future of technology CHAPTER Question 1: Evaluate Microsoft’s strategy in good and poor economic times ? In its early days Microsoft was a strong market leader and the company’s advertising efforts were focused on communicating their company’s range of products from DOS to the launch of Excel and Windows- all under a unified “Microsoft” look (Kotler et al., 2014) It was selling 90 percent of the world’s operating system software, and generally left the advertising to Dell, H.P and other hardware makers who licensed Windows(Eisenach et al., 2000) The only time Microsoft hawk edits most recognizable brand on television was when the latest version of the software hit the shelves (Gawer and Cusumano, 2002) Then the company flooded the airwaves with commercials full of loud music and swirling imagery saying that the new version of Windows is out Apple is the classic smaller insurgent Its share for desktops and laptops in the United States is just over percent Every time Apple grabs another point of market share from Microsoft’s partners, its stock price climbs And one way that Apple has tried to gain share is by running clever ads that ridicule everything Microsoft stands for (Gawer and Cusumano, 2002) There’s no better example than “Get a Mac,” unveiled three years ago by Apple’s ad agency(LEONARD, 2009) No technology company would choose Mr Hodgman’s character, PC, to personify its brand He reeks of the past He boasts of using his desktop to make spreadsheets and ridicules his more youthful friend, Mac, played by the actor Justin Long, for using his desktop for ‘juvenile’ pursuits like blogging and movie making Ñ even through it’s clear that PC would like to be in on the fun He just can’t get his Windows computer to his bidding Like a classic sitcom character Ñ think Ralph Kramden of “The Yes, it was due to segmentation that the sales of BMS typically slipped during the world wide recession in 2008 and 2009 BMW particularly sets it sights on the targeting of a specific group of customers, and this was basically people of average age of 35 upwards The bracket of targeted customers also had to have an average salary of about $75,000 and above This form of segmentation strategy is the geographical segmentation that mainly targeted parts of the globe like Europe, North America, as well as some areas of Africa and Asia I would say that their strategy is not too selective During the recession, everybody struggled So to blame BMW for their strategy that had made them so successful in the first place would not be fair I believe that their strategy could’ve actually helped them during that time CHAPTER Question 1: What are McDonald’s core brand values? Have these changed over the years ? McDonald’s core brand value is “hot, high-quality food at a great value at the speed and convenience of McDonald’s” No, these haven’t changed over years and McDonald’s still making effort to improve it such as introduced a new McCafe coffee line, launched a worldwide repackaging effort, improved the drive-thru service, and responded the health trend Question 2:McDonald’s did very well during the recession in the late 2000s With the economy turning around for the better, should McDonald’s change its strategy? Why or why not? Yes, they should change its strategy It is necessary to assuming or considering that at some point in time, brand crises will arise for some reason For example, if McDonald’s didn’t introduce the new coffee line and responded to the health trends, they might meet another brand crisis Question 3: What risk you feel McDonald’s will face going forward? The risk that McDonald’s will face is going to be market penetration They have to keep their market share, moreover, they have to gaining competitors' customers such as “Jack In The Box”, “In And Out”, or another fast food restaurant that have same market segment with them Moreover, people will put value on eating a healthy diet and stop eating at McDonald's in numbers that would cause their profits to decrease CHAPTER 10 Question 1: Evaluate American Express in terms of its competitors? How wall is it positioned? How has it changed over time? In what segments of its business does American Express face the most competition? American Express is a well-known business in finance and banking industry.Throughout over 160 years, American Express has positioned itself as one of theworld’s most admired companies American Express strongly provides various servicesrelated to credit cards The target customer covers different level, including: individual,small business and corporate However, the company is considered a premiumreputation aiming at the high-income and wealthy individuals In particular, AmericanExpress has deal with the toughest race in offering credit cards and traveler’s chequefor individual customers Evaluate American Express’s integration of its various businesses What recommendations would you make in order to maximize the contribution to equity fall its business units? At the same time, is the corporate brand sufficiently coherent? With the core customers is affluent people, it can be said that American Express has a sensitive integration of its business If the company wants to capitalize equity fall business units, it should focus on strong brand recognition with the purpose flowering credit risks and using other additional services which support for customers benefits Question 2: Discuss the company’s decision to grow beyond the core affluent consumer base? American Express is a very old company in the field of the travelling cards and travelling cheques They used to target the people who travel a lot In the 1980's women business leaders use to travel a lot for developing their business so the american express target these kind of people to develop their business They used to campaign in the form of advertisements so that people got attracted towards the travelling cards they were offering This resulted in huge number of people adopted the cards of American Express and the reached the milestone of about 20 million cards in 1983 This was a great achievement by any of the company with is dealing with these kind of things But with the time their rivals Visa and Master card find their way out in building the business by offering various kind of benefits for the customers Till 1990's the people have more option in choosing the travelling cards and checks and they can choose the company which offer more benefits against the cards This force American Express to think about some other business which can raise the business and could able to beat the rivals in the market after that they planned to add more things in the business like they started offering insurances, selling jewelry, luggage, mutual funds and etc and also offering the Optima cards CHAPTER 11 Question 1: Few companies have had such a long history of ups and downs as IBM What were some of the keys to its recent success? Can its plans to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems succeed? Why or why not? Keys: - Well-known brand name - Global distribution capabilities - Proven ability to change organization when technology changes - Has the capital and man power to survive the bad economy IBM plans to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems can be succeed because: - hiring scientist, engineer, consultant, and sale professional - invest $50 billions in R&D and 30% of R&D budget for long term research Question 2: Who are IBM’s biggest competitors today, and what risks they face with their current strategy? Current competitors: - HP - Accenture Risks: Low successful rate R&D may become obsolete by the time it compete May not able to solve problem Other firms might be able to come up with an answer that can solve a major problem before IBM CHAPTER 12 Question 1: Toyota has built a huge manufacturing company that can produce millions of cars each year for a wide variety of consumers Why was it able to grow so much bigger than any other auto manufacturer Toyota has built a huge manufacturing company that can produce millions of cars each year for a wide variety of consumers and has products for different price points demanded by consumers They analyze what the customer want and they deliver according to their need Toyota Company is the master of lean manufacturing and continuous improvement Its plants can make as many as eight different models at the same time, bringing huge increases in productivity and market responsiveness The Toyota Company grow so much bigger than any other auto manufacture because of the act according to preference of the customer Market segment: Toyota Company produce large range of subcompacts to luxury and sports vehicles to SUVs, trucks, minivans, and buses They segment their product according to need of customer They create their market segment They produce Scion car that is target the teenage and it becomes famous among the teenage Customization: customization is a process of modifying the some feature of the product The Toyota Company give high focus on customization to satisfy each customer They are more flexible and they a lot of assignment before introducing the customized auto They can customized in the auto in the section like music player, color of the auto, stereo component to wheel even the floor mats Performance quality and the design: The Toyota Company listen to different customers for designing the new car They build the car in the design that is suggested by the consumer and they are timely updated They develop various design of automobile that is different from the competitor Another feature is the performance quality The performance quality of all the Toyota company auto is high and they provide high performance quality auto in low budget Product line: Toyota uses two way line stretching strategy They produce high luxury car to simple car that satisfied the need of both the customer In the market there are very expensive automobiles as well cheaper It manufacture various design of the automobile focusing different income level of customer Guaranteed Auto Protection: Toyota Company provide the insurance of the automobile They provide guaranteed auto protection service to all types of the auto mobile GAP is only available at the time of purchasing or leasing new or used Toyota Toyota is integrating its assembly plants around the world into a single giant network The plants will customize cars for local markets and shift production quickly to satisfy any surges in demand from markets worldwide And the Toyota marketing strategy focuses on perfection They will analyze the people perfection and make a market strategy according to people perception about Toyota automobile Question 2: Has toyota done the right thing by manufacturing a car brand for everyone? Why or why not Toyota makes automotive parts for its own use and for sale to others Popular models include the Camry, Corolla, Land Cruiser, and luxury Lexus line, as well as the Tundra truck There are wide range of line product of Toyota Company automobile I think Toyota Company done the right thing by manufacturing a car brand for everyone They manufacture a really great range of exciting new cars which will open people’s eyes and minds They analyze what a customer need and develop the same feature automobile in the comparable price They divide their market segment In the market there are different people with different perception, someone may view automobile as only transportation mean someone may take as self-pride For those customer Toyota has to design differently They have to act what a customer want Its plants can make as many as eight different models at the same time, bringing huge increases in productivity and market responsiveness That’s prove they produce wide variety of the auto that will use by different types of customer They try to develop the auto according to the customer perception They want to satisfy each customer It has been successful because has products for different price points demanded by consumers The price range of the Toyota Company is lies very expensive to inexpensive Toyota auto mobile are in the reach of middle class to high class such that the user of the Toyota automobile are very much higher than other automobile company Toyota understands that each country defines perfection differently Toyota company produces and distribute their automobile all around the world and they know depending upon the country, perfection towards the companies automobile are different so they have to act according to people perfection at that place They develop wide variety of the product But the core system of the Toyota is same all around the world but outer design and other part may be different according to the choice of huge number of customer Question 3: Did toyota grow too quickly as Toyota suggested? What should the company ocer the next year, years, 10 years? How can growing companies avoid quality problems in the future? Since 1997, Toyota has sold more than 3.3 million full hybrid vehicles worldwide, representing more than 80% of all global hybrid sales Toyota Company offers full line of cars Popular models include the Camry, Corolla, Land Cruiser, and luxury Lexus line, as well as the Tundra truck Toyota is striving to develop automobiles that meet the needs of customer’s Toyota Company grow too quickly as their suggested Toyota is integrating its assembly plants around the world into a single giant network They customize on the car according to the need of the customer Toyota’s need to keep their product’s selection and quality superior to their competition Toyota company are become one of the successful manufacturing company due to their consistent quality They have to maintain their performance quality Whether they customized the car or develop new model according to customer need they need to maintain same core quality all around the world They need to maintain reliability on automobile The same superior quality and dependable should be maintain The design of the automobile should be unique and while developing new model design car they need to maintain core material as same They need to customize regular according to the customer They need to maintain extraordinary look for each model Such that it will look very distinctive than competitor They need to produce high quality and high specific design automobile They need to give services after the purchasing the product and more ever they have to delivery every item in the time They need to create more value of automobile by giving some of the discount or either by various services They need to provide e-support for their customer and they need to update their information through the media As we know people perfection are different according to the geographic area A great product by itself is not enough so the Toyota need to advertise themselves according to customer perfection at that place They need to make market strategy differently in different country The Toyota Company is giving Guaranteed Auto Protection to their customer They need to keep it up CHAPTER 13 Question 1: Explain why Mayo Clinic is so goodat customer service Why has it been so successful praticing medicine differently from other hospital ? The Mayo Clinic is a not-for profit medical group practice It has put itsfocus on their patients unlike other clinics and hospitals The mayo clinic isgood at customer service because they consider all of a patientsexperience They welcome new patients with and without referrals, andwhen a returning patient come back they welcome them by their name andquickly guide them through the process These greeters are professionalsand they help guide patients in the administrative process All the buildingswere made so that patients feel comfortable and more relaxed beforeseeing their doctor The hospital rooms have a microwave, and chairs thatconvert into beds because they understand that patients don't come to thehospital alone and they want to make sure that the patients family orfriends are comfortable during their stay there as well The patients that gointo the Mayo clinic also take part in the decisions that are being made or the options they have for treatments They also encourage the patient totake part in discussions If a surgery is necessary it will be done within 24hours, unlike other hospitals who will take a long time to get into thesurgery room I think that the mayo clinic has been so successful atpracticing medicine differently from other hospitals because the doctorsaren't in competition with each other on how many patients they havereceived, or the number of test they have done This is because they areput on salary instead of being paid by the number of patients they see Question 2: Do conflicts of interest exist between wanting to make your patient happy and providing the best medical care possible ? Why or why not ? Yes, because sometimes the patient doesn’t necessarily know what is best for themselves and so that is why by being placed in the clinic people that are educated with treatment are put in control of what to to help the patient Companies in the medical field address both the provision of the best medical care possibleand the aim to make patients in order to treat their illness however there is no assurance on the outcome as there are chances of not treating them With technology, information regarding illnesses is abudant in the worldwide web and oftentimes, patients research their symptoms before seeking proper medical consulation This hodgepodge of information may lead to the customer’s beliefs conflicting with appropriate medical management that the medical team may present CHAPTER 14 Question 1: Southwest has mastered the low-price model and has the financial results to prove it Why don’t the other airlines copy Southwest’s model ? - Fuel Hedging is not that easy now - Other airlines started big Southwest started small and scaled up intelligently - Turnaround times cannot be reduced by other airlines - Southwest prefers culture over numbers Employee & Customer Satisfaction Not so easy to replicate Question 2: What risk does Southwest face ? Can it continue to thrive as a lowcost airline when tough economic times hit ? The risk faced by South West airlines are as follows: Firstly, South West Airlines have to run their flight even if only half of the seats are full In such situation goes on prevailing, in that case the airlines have a risk of earning really low revenue Secondly, South West Airlines is at constant price wars with its competitors In such price wars, sometimes South West is forced to keep the prices of tickets really low Thus in this case too the airline runs a risk of eventually earning low revenue Thirdly, South West has marketed its airlines as a low cost airline by offering its passengers the best possible services at the lowest possible price This may have an adverse impact on the profitability of the company As of now Southwest is a stage in front of their rivals They can ascribe this to the choices they made to limit their cost, their clients have seen the advantages of these choices Since flights run assuming regardless of the possibility that they are half full, the organization goes out on a limb of gaining low income for that flight Since the organization remains in an endless value war with its rivals they are compelled to keeps ticket costs low, this could bring about lost income and a plausibility of cutting overhead and creation cost This could likewise impact the planning of workers The dread of expanding oil costs still stays high on the organization's radar South West Airlines is a low cost carrier Airline is a tough business to make money CHAPTER 15 Question 1: What is unique about Costco’s channel management process? What components can other retailers borrow or implement? Costco is the biggest warehouse retailers in the US It follows unique idea of low pricing It has an excellent channel management that includes these concepts Goals – the main goal of this strategy was to give different types of brand names with private level merchandise with a low price Policies – Costo has products which have margin that is lower than 14% and helps in providing products at optimum market price Products – it has various products with different colors and sizes and these help the company in high volume sales Question2: Where can Costco improve? Should it offer more products or advertise more? Why or why not? Faster service I’d like to see them develop better ways to get the masses through the checkout lines For a company that pushes $100+ billion of product through its doors each year, they don’t seem to have learned very much Pre-scanning purchases when the lines are long help, but I don’t see this practice being applied consistently Costco executives should stand in their own checkout lines on their one and only precious day off and decide for themselves if a 20-minute wait is acceptable or falls anywhere near the ‘gold standard’ of best practices in retail Better service I pretty much know where most things at my Costco are, but I’d much rather know where everything is without me having to walk 100 yards (it’s a big store) only to find out I guessed wrong In terms of improvement, Costco can focus on developing and improving the “brick-and-click” [439] side of its ecommerce Costco can save even more money, involve more consumers, and appeal to consumer’s convenience by offering more online If people are willing to pay an additional markup, the company can offer a shop and order online feature where Costco’s employees gather and package the order and have it prepared for pickup by the customer This would increase customer satisfaction while incorporating the no-frills brand image Costco has created and the “avatar” [439] of a personal shopper todo the physical aspect of the shopping would enhance the effectiveness of a Web-based sales channel” Byundergoing this strategy the company attains an “integrated marketing channel system” [434] and increases its market coverage.Offering more products and advertising more would only come as an unnecessary expense to Costco It has already established a large and affluent base of customers by maintaining low costs of advertisement, which is absorbed in low prices to the customer Costco’s decision not to supply a multitude of brands to consumers lessens intermediaries as well as provides “selective distribution” [425] to its suppliers and increases competition of providing lowest cost and highest quality to Costco If Costcocarried multiple brands for Ketchup, Heinz wouldn’t compete as hard to provide their Ketchup to Costco for the lowest cost possible Basically, Costco has been successful by keeping costs low and making its customers happy so by changing its costs strategies to increase with advertisement and brand selection would be a mistake CHAPTER 16 Question 1: What are the keys to Best Buy's success? What are the risks going forward? BestBuy’s keys to success are its low-pressure sales tactics, by gently encouraging customers rather than use hard ball sales tactics BestBuy creates a friendly atmosphere that gently encourages the customer to buy a product BestBuy’s decision to purchase the GeekSquad allows customers to have instant access to computer help 24/7 no matter where they are Customer-Centricity, its extensive marketing research campaign identifies key segments of shoppers to determine how to best sell their products Stores visited more by certain demographics will have employees that can connect more with those people and offer an image of a tailored customer experience Some risks going forward are increased online competition Online competitors are able to offer cheaper products which BestBuy must compete with possibly by increasing their level of customer service, or lowering prices Best buycould also try and strike partnerships with companies to offer those goods at a lower price compared to other retailers Another risk is that if they decide to expand into other countries they would have to deal with different rules and regulations there and they would have to learn about how to be profitable in those countries Question 2: how else can Best Buy compete against new competitors like Walmart and online companies? BestBuy can compete effectively with Wal-Mart and online retailers by increasing their focus on their Consumer-Centricity tactic By learning more and more about what their customers don’t and like they can adjust store displays and layouts to better cater to customers and create a better customer experience for them BestBuy can also improve on their offerings of post-sale services such as increased warranties BestBuy can also try and focus on more efficient distribution channels so that they can lower costs and pass saving onto customers CHAPTER 17 Questions 1:What has Target done well over the years in terms of its integrated marketing communications strategy? What should it going forward? Over the years, Target had uses traditional advertisement to send a message to their hip young customers They have consistent brand messaging across their market channels that allows people to recognize their brand when they see target’s logo.Target sponsor big events which allow them to gain a lot of recognition from other people Target pinpoint specific consumer, interest, attitudes, and demographics which show how they care about their customers However to reach out with younger generation and people with busy schedule, they develop target.com which can attract more customers where they not have the time to go to target to get their products, which creates a convient ways for consumers to shop I think that Target has done a good job in combining marketing communication to advertising Later on Target moved on to targeting people through social media which help build and encourage consumer to write their experience Going forward means providing more incentive for shopping at target, for example, they can give ten dollar off for each fifty dollar you spent Questions 2:How does Target compete against mammoth Walmart? What are the distinct differences in their IMC strategies? Target compete against Walmart buy not jacking there price super low, instead they keep it at a decent price and they sell higher end fashion for a better price Walmart not sell products like Target because target allow their business partner set the price, while Walmart enforce the price they think it should be sold at their stores For Target’s IMC, they create a positive image brand that we don’t see at Walmart Target donates and fund programs that will focus on education, arts, social service, and volunteerism Questions 3: Did Target the right thing by tweaking its message to focus more on value and less on trends? Why or why not? I think Target has done the right thing by tweaking its message to focus more on value and less on trend because with the economy in a recession people would still want to save their money People not want to spend a lot of money for something you can get at target’s competitor stores Target needs to survive until the economy bounce back to better position CHAPTER 18 Questions 1: Gillette has successfully convinced the world that “more is better” in terms of number of blades and other razor features Why has that worked in the past? What’s next? Gillette convince the world that “more is better” in term of razor features is because they were the first company that came up with the multiple blades This is a selling point to men because the more blades are on the razor, the cleaner the shave will be In the past there were no company like Gillette that comes up with different razor types The next thing Gillette can is come up with a disposable razor head that can be used longer compared to competing razor brands Razor head are expensive and not everyone can afford to change them very often so if they come up with some kind of blade sharpening tool will attract efficient shoppers Questions 2: Some of Gillette’s spokespeople such as Tiger Woods have run into controversy after becoming endorsers for the brand Does this hurt Gillette’s brand equity or marketing message? Explain I not think that spokespeople like Tiger Woods will affect their brand name because they are marketing to men who knows that their brand of razor is good So a spokesperson mistake might not affect them since quality is what people look for Also their marketing message might not change much because they have other spokesperson they can use that can probably replace Tiger Woods Questions 3: Can Gillette ever become as successful at marketing to women? Why or why not? Yes I think Gillette can become successful at marketing to women because they work with other brands that can make women shaving much smoother than other razor For example some of their Razor are partnering up with brand name cosmetic products, which usually attach women consumers