Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Marketing Essays Satisfy Consumer Needs

Marketing Essays Satisfy Consumer Needs Satisfy Consumer Needs Introduction When marketing managers are asked if a particular tactic will produce the desired results, their answer has normally been closer to the lines of: it all depends on the product or service, the target demographic, the message and, particularly, how the target customers want to be approached (Beinhocker and Kaplan 2002). All these elements form a part of the marketing mix. Traditionally, marketers use the marketing mix, the 4Ps of product, price, place and promotion, to position the brand and to create brand values around a coherent set of policies for each of these P’s. Marketing mix has been used as a framework which acts as a guideline for marketers to implement a marketing concept. It consists of a set of major decision areas that a company needs to manage in order to at least satisfy consumer needs. This study will relate the concept of marketing mix with the fast changing mobile technology product market. The mobile phone market are no more company driven, rather it is cons umer driven. The business environment in which it operates is highly competitive with intense rivalry not only from direct competitors but also from the regulators and the environment. Analyzing the elements of the Marketing mix   ‘Price’ in the ‘marketing mix’ is the amount of money charged for a product or service, or the sum of the values that consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service (Beckwith, 2001). This is the only element on the marketing mix that produces revenue while the other three creates costs. By, ‘product’, marketers refer to anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need (Sudhir, et al., 2005). This includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations and ideas. ‘Promotion’ refers to activities that communicate the product or service and its merits to target customers and persuade them to buy (Kotler Keller, 2006). It is concerned about delivering the sales message and traditionally has consisted of Advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion, public relation, publicity and personal selling. ‘Place’, a s the name suggests, refers to the geographic locations which has become increasingly significant in the wake of globalization. Every industry has to consider the culture and business practices of the place it is trying to do business with and the entry mode it wants to adapt before entering a different place/country/region. The ‘people’ (recently added to the marketing mix) aspect of marketing mix signifies the level of customer service, advice, sales support and aftermarket back-up required, involving recruitment policies, training, retention and motivation of key personnel. Marketing is professional practice it involves people. Traditional marketing mix was about dictating the market through price, product, place, and promotion manipulation. Marketing managers have traditionally used it to make better use of the tools and resources available to them in supplying products and services to customers and prospects. Get help with your essay from our expert essay writers Analysis and Discussion A consumer’s utility for a model of mobile phone is a function of the attributes and the price of that model, with the consumer choosing the brand-model that maximizes utility (Sriram, 2005; pg 440). Product plays a big role for global mobile phone companies like Nokia which not only have to keep continuously innovating with their products but also need to change its product according to the ethical and cultural aspects of the local market. It might be argued that even though ‘product’ is an important part of the digital industry, it’s the ‘innovation’ aspect associated with the products that give firms distinctive advantage over its rivals. Eg Sony Ericsson (the Japanese / Swedish firm) has integrated its successful ‘cybershot’ camera within its mobile phones to add value to its offering. Sony has also added its much known Walkman (Sony was the inventor of Walkman) feature to its mobile phone to give customers the best of three wo rlds (mobile, camera and walkman) in one device. Some might argue that this sort of strategy falls under the ‘product’ category of the marketing mix but, its less associated with the product design and specifications and more with the value and innovativeness. The price element of the marketing mix has traditionally relied on selecting the price objective by determining demand. Companies have estimated their price by comparing them to their competitors and basing it on a particular pricing method (Petrin, 2005). While the mobile phone industry still considers all these factors in setting its price, competitive pricing has given way to ‘value for money’ pricing. This means that low price as compared to competitors no longer means success in the mobile world. Pricing strategy in the mobile phone industry is more aligned to the company’s value proposition. Eg. Apple charges premium for its handset (iPhone) which is one of the costliest handset in the market, till its handset has achieved higher than expected sales. This is because its price is based not on competitor price but on its value proposition of innovativeness in terms of design and features. Similarly, Nokia N95 (market retail price c £500) is one of the most s uccessful Nokia offerings because it was the first phone to integrate a 5 mega pixel camera with a mobile. Customers are not ‘price sensitive’ any more; they are ‘value sensitive’. They see the value they are getting in terms of price that they pay for the offering.    While pricing strategy still needs to fit in with the overall mission of organisation, and reflect its financial objectives, it has to be more ‘value based’. Mobile products justify the fact that even though the four Ps are relevant in the current business environment, they probably need to be upgraded to include elements such as ‘innovation’ to reflect the present technology market realities. The promotion element of the marketing mix has undergone a huge change within the last few years. According to the Mobile Marketing Association, by 2008, 89 percent of brands will use text and multimedia messaging to reach their audiences, with nearly one-third planning to spend more than 10 percent of their marketing budgets on advertising in the medium (Graham, 2008). The newer element of marketing mix, ‘people’ is used to define modern mobile consumers and classifies consumers into a single entity. Researchers argue that ‘people’ cannot be classified as a single entity as requirement for product and services may vary. Also, increasing consumer power and sophistication due to wide availability of information has given rise to personalized marketing which requires interaction and sincere, direct dialog with the customer (Beinhocker, 2002). There is an increasingly need for marketers in the mobile market to identify the constantly changing and evolving customer needs, respond quickly to competitive movements and predict market trends early and accurately. Find out how our expert essay writers can help you with your work Eg. Motorola pioneered the mobile revolution and was the first mobile phone brand to enter the market. But, it has moved from pioneer to a low third (in terms of market share) and currently under threat to lose market share to Sony Ericsson because of its innovative handsets. Eg. Major Motorola competitors like Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson have come out with 5 Mega pixel camera mobiles but Motorola is still to catch up with them in terms of product design and value addition. Some may argue that this falls under ‘product’ part of the marketing mix but it is actually innovation that drives competition. Mobile was an innovative device and the market has always relied on innovation, which can be in terms of product or service. With organizations already providing internet access over mobile phones, the new trend is to add the capability to view television programs on the mobile. Rather than the 4P’s, performance in the mobile industry is driven more by changes tied t o intrinsic preferences which can be because of the changing portfolio of models in the product line and/or modifications in the attributes and prices of the models in the product line. While the 4P’s theory is still relevant in terms of marketing theory and practice, it oversimplifies the reality of marketing management in terms of mobile phone market (Brassington Pettitt, 2003). It is more organization-centric and says about the interactions between the mix variables. Also, recent development in technology has led to the concept of Customer Relation Management which encourage relationship building with the customer. The 4P’s of marketing rely on more transactional variables. The mobile phone product is one such product where staying close to the customers is extremely important. Companies not only need to know who their customers are but also what they value, in terms of add-on services. Comaines need to understand the need for product extensions by maintaing a direct contact with their customers, the highly visible nature of the service process, and the simultaneity of the production and consumption (Coviello Brodie, 2001). The extension allows a more thorough analysis of the marketing ingredients necessary for successful marketing (Akcura et al., 2004). Also, depending on the product line, different elements of marketing mix may have varying importance attached to them. Eg. Previous financial researchers done by (Driussi, 2007; pg 57) have revealed that in some cases a 1 % change in price can deliver a 10% plus improvement in profit. This might mean that businesses deal with pricing with much more rigor that their product design, channel management or promotions planning.   Despite the background and status of the Marketing mix as a major theoretical and practical parameter of contemporary marketing, several academics have at times expressed doubts and objections as to the value and the future of the Mix, proposing alternatives that range from minor modifications to total rejection (Brassington Pettitt, 2003). The common issues where researchers feel they marketing mix has its limitations are, its inadequacy to address specific marketing situations like the marketing of services, the management of relationships or the marketing of industrial products. Due to these factors, researchers believe that the marketing mix theory has to be broadened to suit the current market conditions. Consumer behavior in the mobile phone industry has also evolved with a rise in the over the mass consumer markets towards increasingly global, segmented, customized or even personalized markets of today (Kotler Keller 2006) where innovation, customization, relationships build ing and networking have become issues of vital significance. The new marketing principles imply that marketing activities should be based on identification of customer needs and wants, typical external and therefore uncontrollable factors (Naik et al., 2005). Researchers believe that by expanding the theoretical scope of the marketing theory, it will be easier to reflect on urge to better understand the managerial consequences of transformations taking place and identify sources of superior firm performance in constantly evolving competitive environments (Constantinides, 2001). Draganska (2006) believes that the growing pressure on marketers to better identify and satisfy constantly changing customer and industry needs, the increasing importance of services and the need to build-up long-lasting relationships with the client, have further contributed to the exposure of several limitations of the 4P framework as a marketing management tool.   Conclusions   The changing marketplace dynamics of mobile phone industry has meant that marketing mix as a differentiation strategy needs massive upgrading. The rise of competition, globalization, increasing use of technology in marketing practices has changed the traditional way to marketing to people. There are no certainties and no guarantees of success within the mobile phone industry even if companies get their 4P’s right. This is because, what works with one group of customers may not work with another, and some things which traditionally used to work may not work at all. In the continuously changing marketing environment, the marketing mix is still relevant but strategies based on them may not necessarily work. There are more variables and elements to the mix than the 4P’s, which depends of the industry type, market structure, competition and other related factors. Graham (2008; pg 40) while referring to the 4P’s states that rather than bouncing the four (price, promoti on, people and place) balls at one time, marketers need to juggle up to a dozen or more at the same time. It is worth mentioning that in the wake of changing consumer preferences, marketing managers still need to evaluate the effects of product attributes and marketing activities to improve performance in the marketplace. References Akcura, T. M., F. Gonul, E. Petrova. (2004) Consumer learning and brand valuation: An application on over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Marketing Science. 23(4) 156–169. Ailawadi, K.L., Lehmann, D.R. and Neslin, S.A. (2001), Market Response to a Major Policy Change in the Marketing Mix: Learning from Procter Gambles Value Pricing Strategy. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 65 Issue 1, p44. Beckwith, H. (2001), The Invisible Touch the Four Keys of Modern Marketing, Texere Publishing. Brassington, F. and Pettitt, S. (2003), Principles of Marketing, Third Edition, Prentice Hall / Financial Times. Beinhocker, E.D. and Kaplan, S. (2002), Tired of Strategic Planning? The McKinsey Quarterly, nr 2. Constantinides, E. (2002), The 4S Web-Marketing Mix Model, E-Commerce Research and Applications, Elsevier Science, July 2002, Vol. 1/1, pp 57-76. 434 Coviello, N.E. and Brodie, R.J. (2001), Contemporary marketing practices of consumer and business-to-business firms: how different are they?. The Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol. 16, Nr. 5 pp. 382 400. Draganska, M., (2006) Consumer preferences and product line pricing strategies: An empirical analysis. Marketing Science. 25(2) 164–174. Driussi, A (2007), Pricing: the lost component of the marketing mix?, BT Weekly, 5/11/2007 Professional Marketing Su, Vol. 57, p6-7 The New Marketing Mix: Where Will You Meet Your Customers? 1/7/2008, Vol. 233 Issue 2, p40-41 Kotler Keller (2006), Marketing Management (12th edn.), London, Perason Education Naik, P., K. Raman, R. Winer (2005) Planning marketing-mix strategies in the presence of interaction effects. Marketing Sci. 24(1) 25–34. Petrin, A. (2005) Omitted product attributes in differentiated product models. Working paper, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA. Sudhir, K., P. K. Chintagunta, V. Kadiyali. 2005. Time-varying competition. Marketing Sci. 24(1) 96–109. Sriram et al.: Effects of Brand Preference, Product Attributes, and Marketing Mix Variables Marketing Science 25(5), pp. 440–456

Monday, January 20, 2020

Child Rearing In Victorian Times :: essays research papers fc

Child Rearing in Victorian Times   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Childhood barely existed for most British children at the end of the eighteenth century, since they began a lifetime of hard labour as soon as they were capable of simple tasks. By contrast, the fortunate children of the wealthy generally were spoiled and enjoyed special provisions for the need of a lengthy childhood, yet who in a way may have endured the same pain of those who were not as fortunate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Child rearing in the Victorian times was not at all similar to child rearing today. There were of course two different categories on how the child was brought up. They went from one extreme to the other. They were the difference of the classes. The life of an upper class child during the Victorian era, was as one may put it, stuffy, conventional and routine, not to mention quite lonely at certain times. Yet others argue Victorian children should have been quite content, given the fact that they were treated to only the best of toys, clothes and education and it was absurd to even consider the child being neglected.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mothers and Fathers were seen as special, glamourous guests, due to the fact that they were never around and rarely seen by their children. This was because child and parent led totally separate existences, they were only summoned to appear before their parents at a certain set hour of the day. Many Victorian children like Winston Churchill and Harriet Marden recall such cold relations between their selves and their mothers that they would be able to count how many times in their life they had been hugged. Family life was formal, although during that time child rearing manuals urged bonding and maternal ties, mothers remained cool and distant. Children were a convenience to their parents, they obeyed them as they would an army officer. Sir Osbert Sitwell once argued, Parents were aware that the child would be a nuisance and a whole bevy of servants, in addition to the complex guardianship of nursery and school rooms was necessary not so much to aid the infant as to screen him from his father or mother, except on some occasions as he could be used by them as adjuncts, toys or decorations. Although this only describes a minority of parents it was always in the best interests for the child not to be heard or in the way, it was rarely taken to the extent of screening the child.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was the era of nurses and nannies, the child was not raised by the woman who gave birth to him, but by the hired help.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

System Archetypes

Every company strives to increase revenue and stabilize or decrease operating expenses. The Yellow Book once had a steady revenue stream, which coincided with the operating expenses. The steady rise in sales and revenues also means an increase in production while maintaining an equal level of customer service. This displays several archetypes, including limits to growth. The Yellow Book will continue to experience growth, however if deadlines are not met and mistakes are made in advertising, this will cause the direct customer to be influenced negatively, and ultimately reduce revenues with loss of customers. In order to maintain balance, production must be equal to revenue and customer service should be stable. Growth and underinvestment is an archetype that The Yellow Book is currently moving towards. The graphic designers and production teams are being stretched beyond their limits. While they are currently working hard to keep up production with demands, the overworked employees will not be able to maintain the motivation and morale needed with sales gradually on the rise. Advertising is not an area where performance standards can be lowered. If a 95% satisfaction rate is the current standard and the organization decides to decrease to 85%, there is a strong change that the 15% of unhappy customers will either not renew their ads, or could be granted free advertising, which will negatively affect revenue. The diagram below shows how growth and underinvestment and increase in demand causes a need to reinvest in production to stabilize customer satisfaction. The capabilities and core competencies give The Yellow Book a competitive advantage. The strategy it needs to adapt is a long term plan to maintain service levels year after year, not just book after book. A customer may give The Yellow Book a second chance if they experience an error, but it is doubtful there will be more chances and advertisers will be lost.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Illegal Transportations Of Substances - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2262 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/05/17 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Modest Proposal Essay Did you like this example? For preventing the uneducated inmates of the United States of America to stay uncivilized, unprepared and unbeneficial to our modern day society. When you think of America, you think of one of the strongest nations of all time. It would bring great sadness to go walking down the streets in your very own city or town to see crime and poverty happening right in front of your eyes. You look to the left and you see an ex-felon who is robbing a convenience store on the corner. You look to your right and you see a young ex-inmate begging the people who pass by her for money or food in order to survive. Their tattered clothing, ink imprinted bodies, and negative demeanor radiates off of them. As you look all around you, you see these people growing greater in numbers as the days, weeks, and months pass. These ex-convicts instead of being employed and working for their money, are put out on the streets to survive the only way that they know how to; to commit uncivilized acts. It is seen that these felons are overtaking the nation and causing a disturbance among the American people. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Illegal Transportations Of Substances" essay for you Create order Robberies, illegal transportations of substances, and hijackings of vehicles distort our everyday lives abruptly. It is up to the policy makers and prison authorities to step up and reform the education system for these individuals to become modeled everyday citizens; until then will this nation prosper socially and educationally. Society as a whole, is deteriorating due to the epidemic of lack of formal education that America seems to endure nationwide. The convicts, once released from incarceration, are most likely to fall into their bad habits and find themselves back into the prison system once again. My intention is not only for the prisoners wellbeing but for the wellbeing of our citizens as a whole and how this issue overtakes us altogether. Without the ex-prisoners around us becoming educated, it will ultimately lead to more problems thus, slowing down the process to prosper societally. As to my own part, having contradictory thoughts relating to the matter of this issue, and weighing out appropriately the pros and the cons that come with it, I have come to agree in the reformation of this societal situation. It is said to be true, that an offender once dropped off from the prison facility with no educational purpose, will reside back to his or her actions that incarcerated that individual in the first place, more properly known as the recidivism rate. (McCarty ?- 7) Instead of these prisoners being out of their jail cells running amuck among the casual people of the United States, they should be put back into the workforce in order to decrease the amount of unbeneficial people living in the slumbers around the nation. However, this cannot be done effectively and efficiently due to their lack of work experience or proper education needed in order to acquire a job or profession. (Anders Noblit ?- 5) There is likewise, another advantage in my reformation, that it will prevent the convicts uncivilized behavior, and that disturbance among the peace that the nation has from little to nothing left. It is too usual that among us, the citizens, become close-minded and ignorant to the problems that affect us indirectly rather than directly, in order to merely avoid that our social eloquence is liquidating in front of our very own eyes. The amount of individuals being affected by this issue is more than what we would expect for it to be. Two point three million heads are counted, thirty four thousand heads are figured to be youth, one hundred ninety seven thousand are in Federal Prison, six hundred thirty three thousand are in local jails, and one million three hundred thirty three thousand are found in State Institutions. The United States makes up four point four percent of the worlds population thus, meaning the United Statess houses twenty two percent of its population is incarcerated. I realize the number of the people who are incarcerated in America is 1 out every 110. (Watts, ?- 7) The question therefore is, why are so many of the individuals who live in the United States are in prison? Why does the United States of America house the greatest percentage of prisoners not only nationwide but world wide? As I have previously mentioned before, this reconstruction of the situation is completely unimpossible if we choose to not act upon it efficiently. For we cannot physically or literally force every single inmate to take a course in a higher education program, we can however, imply an option to the program if they ever wish to partake in it. Although I must admit that not every single person within the prison system will take advantage of this opportunity, those who do will spread awareness of the advantages these higher education program bring to their everyday prison lifestyles. I am positive that the exposure of the higher education program expanding within the prison system will create a more stable and calmer environment within the prison staff and the outside world. With the help of this program it will not only increase civil unity but an increase in the educational people being amongst all of the other citizens. Pursuing this further, I shall now therefore modestly propose my own perspective and thoughts according to this issue, in which I aspire will be presented humbly and exhibited in a formal manner. It has been a known controversy regarding the issue of having a higher education program in prison institutions, that this can cause danger a mayhem including the prison staff, college instructors, and the inmates. There have been instances where accidents or scares have happened within the face-to-face higher educational program thus leading to these controversies. However, we live in the twenty first century making it more accessible for various alternatives close to the curriculum given with these courses. I do therefore humbly offer this solution to be taken into consideration, within the public view, that of the two million twenty two thousand and three hundred and one of the prisoners within the prison walls, a vast majority will rejoin our society. Within these individuals, the higher education program will help model these uncivilized delinquents in order to help shape our society rather than cause mayhem. I am assured that a solution for these millions of thousands of inmates that are incarcerated would be to brainwash them and the entire world population in order for them to all be alike in their own mindsets. It is said to be true by a very knowing Professor in Carolina that has proposed this idea through means of electrical brainwashing. I offer for the public opinion to take this action into consideration due to the fact, that it will help for everyone to stay on the same page and not do uncivilized actions that would jeopardize our prosperity. I call for the electrical brainwashing for the three hundred and twenty three point three million of heads living and abiding in the United States in order for there to be a prevention of civil unrest. The electrical brainwashing is said to work as provided by various psychiatrists and psychology major students that deal with the functions and ideologies within the brains capacity. This electrical brainwashing will first start in the State Prison institutions where there are more severe cases of law breaking convicts such as murderers, rapists, and other similar or higher degree convicts. We will have the hundreds of thousands of prison system staff administer this electrical brainwashing one by one to each inmate to change their type of mindset. Following the State Institutions, we will follow through into the Federal which will ultimately end with the local prisons, which by the way, holds the least degree of convicts there is comparing it to a State Prison. The electrical brainwashing will rely on the electrical bolts from the two metal rods at the end of the metal hat which will constitute of fifty five bolts of electricity to administer maximum potential. They will be performed by the most advanced and highly reliable staff members to be able to achieve our ultimate success rate. The tests will be done in an outside building by not instilling fear to the other awaiting inmates in order for them to remain calm and collected to ensure for the results to become an overwhelming success. Just imagine, how the effects of this electrical brainwashing will contribute to our future societal prosperity in order for the world to be as one. People will walk in the streets knowing what the other person is gonna do or what they are thinking. America would be a perfect utopian society with a zero percent unemployment rate and with no debt to be owed due to our working class being maximized. There would be no more individuals breaking and entering, no more worrying about if you decide to take a stroll to the grocery market and will make it back home in one piece. Peace and order would be restored and all the other countries worldwide would be envious of our successful way of living and work ethic. Our American citizens would be prepared for anything to be thrown at their way by the change in a effective mindset. Our nation, as we know it, would be the best place to live in; our societal and education success would be achieved within this solution. Firstly, as I have already observed, the higher education program, more formally known as the YOP does not rob the U.S. citizens taxpayers money or contribute in any way. The education program relies on federal money, grants, or donations that are made toward their contribution. Secondly, out of the three hundred twenty three point three million people living in the United States about one out of one hundred and ten people are currently in prison. As of 2015, there were about four thousand seven hundred fifty one people who were either on parole or probation thus, making it a hefty number of people who will rejoin our society that are in need of an education. Thirdly, inmates will graduate with a bachelors or certificates in order to rejoin our society for the better. Fourthly, these education programs effectively aid the recidivism rate for the inmates to not go back to prison due to their life changes of this program. Fifth, the convicts will become modeled citizens in order to make a positive impact instead of causing mayhem around the environment we live in. Sixth, the higher education will give them a better outlook in life reducing the regression rate overall. The alternative to a safer way and effective program would be the e-learning program to be instilled within the prison systems. The impact of technology on both conventional face-to-face and distance learning higher education environments has been enormous. In the case of students studying in prison, access to the Internet is highly contentious and, in high security prison settings, generally unavailable, with this mode of study further excluding the already socially excluded. (Runell, ?- 14) Higher education students cannot work effectively without access to modern technologies, and the largest barrier to offender learning is the digital divide. Learners studying in prison, without access to these resources, are likely to have a much more limited learning experience. (Watts, ?- 12) They see a multimodal approach to the design of distance learning materials as an important tool with which to support the different learning styles of a diverse student population. However, there are some prisons that do not agree with this alternative due to the inmates not being able to acquire and use Internet access. The limited and scarce access to computers and storage media varies widely and is dependent on the culture within each prison. Whilst all prisons have some level of traditional library facility, these are seriously under-equipped and ill-funded, despite the policy intention of DBIS, whose stated vision for prison libraries is to provide offenders in custody with a similar range of services to those found in public libraries in the outside community and that the library service within a prison should be seen as part of the core provision of the establishment. ( Anders Noblit ?- 9) Alongside this alternative provision, as technology in prisons begins to be used for reform and rehabilitation, platforms are being developed that can offer prisoners safe access to online education. One example is the implementation of a virtual campus that provides secure and boundaries of the web access using existing systems. Being able to secure e-messaging, via a guardian, is anticipated and this e-innovation should enable students to access both their tutors and the Open Universitys electronic assessment system, representing a significant step forward for not only the inmates education purpose but, for our societal growth into future prosperity. In essence, the controversy surrounding the issue of the higher education program, YOP, on whether or not they provide significant advantages or disadvantages. As a matter of fact, the YOP education does improve the everyday lives of the convicts by providing them a fundamental education in order to be a modeled citizen. Our nation needs more prosperity and intellectual growth in order to function properly and efficiently. The role that this higher education will play within our society will help us evolve altogether. Whether you believe if you should agree or disagree with the effects higher education has on the prisoners worldwide, you cannot deny the fact that it does improve recidivism, societal growth, intelectual expansion, peace, and prosperity.