Business and Commercial Awareness - Assignment Example

Business Questions Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts 10th June, Question Several stakeholders are involved in the sale of DVD’s from view.com and some of them include William Stillspike, Tina Tarot, customers and Channel Islands authorities. William Stillspike being the Managing director of view.com is a stakeholder who is responsible for mapping out the strategy of the company. The dwindling sales are also affecting the owners of the company (view.com) who are the biggest stakeholders in the company. In case the company sales do not turn around then Tina Tarot who is the head of the DVD department might be fired and thus she is also an important stakeholder. One of the biggest stakeholders that view.com rely upon are its customers and by offering good DVD’s, its customers are entertained while the company makes profits (Bruce, 2005). Channel Islands are also stakeholders interested in View.com’s performance; this is because the island levies taxes on the company. Moreover, View.com has employed British citizens and this is helps in reducing unemployment levels in the UK. View.com has competitors who are also stakeholders since if view.com folds up its DVD business then the competitors are going to have an easy time in selling their merchandise (Crabb, 2007). Question 2 There are very many invest opportunities in the DVD business that view.com could make use of in its quest to revive its DVD business. Some of the business brainstorm ideas include: a) Reducing the price of DVD’s with the intention of attracting more customers who will help in increasing View.com’s sales. b) Another strategy would be to increase the range of DVD’s to include all viewer ratings and this could draw in many other new customers to buy DVD’s to the company. c) The company could make use of distributors in different locations in the world to distribute their videos and this would reduce the long delivery times. d) Offering online videos at a discount for overseas and unreachable customers would help in increasing the DVD sales. Offering online videos would help on reducing postage stamps costs (Bradbury, 2005). e) By opening an online DVD sale system, movie previews can be availed to customers and this will help in increasing the sales for view.com. Moreover, view.com can make more money from adverts in the online website. f) View.com could also increase its products items in stock and this could help in drawing in more customers leading to increased sales. g) View.com could also pay for delivery costs and offer good discounts for its loyal and long term customers. Question 3 The sales for view.com have reduced drastically over the last two years and this has been attributed to declining sales. However the costs of achieving the sales figures shown in the graph below have relatively the same. The new investment in the view.com must be higher than anticipated and it should reflect the sales for the year 2011. The new investment should be able to replace the sales and costs figures for 2011 and gradually grow in future periods. For the sales figures to be upbeat and good, view.com should be able to achieve figures of 300 and above so that the business can be competitive. The cost of running view.com should also be brought down to a level of around 150 for the business to become cost effective. It is important to understand the costs that are spent by view.com in its pursuit of achieving good profit margins in its business (Andersen, 2007). The levels of sales of DVD’s should be close to three times the costs of selling the same DVDs and this will ensure the company turns a good profit. Question 4 The three possible investment opportunities and solutions for view.com include: a) Online sales of DVD’s since online auctions and sales of films have been on the increase globally. View.com can increase its online sales by around 20% and this could net the company around some good money leading to healthy profits. b) The sale of physical DVD’s can be boosted by view.com if they increase their range of DVD films in the next couple of years. Increasing the range of DVD could net company some 10% more sales. This projection is based on the fact people tend to watch an array of movies and the older and informed generation that is usually left out prefer watching educative documentaries or motivational clips. c) Old people who really have time to watch movies usually find time to read while undertaking their busy schedules. As a result, it is prudent to make use of it online presence to market and sale E-books. This segment could net view.com around 10% more of sales in the future Question 5 Overture The process of introducing a product into the US or European markets entails a lot research. Research has to be conducted on the market for the specific goods, the trends affecting consumer, channel of distribution and many other factors. This essay is going to focus on research, costs, innovation and marketing aspects in terms of introducing new products into the US or European markets. These four factors have been noted by different business professions as the key to unlocking new markets in many different global positions. Research Before any organization of individual enters into a new market a lot of research has to be conducted on the new or target market. For instance, companies wishing to introduce goods into the US need to understand that Americans love goods which give them performance and reliability over issues such as fashion or design. That is the reason why Nike sells better in the US due to performance even though Adidas make more trendy goods. Research is important in understanding the preferences of customers concerning different goods and services. Proper research enables companies to make decisions on many issues such as the sizes, colours or cost of the different goods and services that they would want to sell. Research applies well in the United States and Western European countries since these markets presents a lot of challenges among its consumers (Bausch, 2004). Consumer patterns in Western Europe are different from those in the United States. Moreover, these two regions consist of dynamic changes in the society that adversely affects the sale or purchase of certain goods or services. As a result, many companies especially the huge conglomerates have research and development departments which study consumers’ behaviours and come up with different products to satisfy their target market. For instance, Coke which is a global company or Nestle which is European have different drinks which they market in all their markets (Fleisher, 2007). Thus, it is prudent for companies to invest in reach before they introduce goods or services to the US or Western European markets. Costs Cost is a major factor in the world of business since it determines how different factors in business interact. Costs in this case look at the cost of production and the sale of the good. Companies in most cases usually spend colossal amounts of money in their bid of launching their goods or services. The amount of money used in launching a product or service could determine the success of that product. In some cases the costs will factor in the amount of money spent in the development of the product (Bindra, 2007). For instance, the new Nokia Lumia 900 cost around $ 299 to build and yet the phone retails for $ 449. The significant costs used in developing a product might be detrimental to the survival of the product or company in any specific market. The costs of introducing a new product into the market have to be well calculated and balanced to ensure that the product enjoys success or grows in market growth figures. Spending a lot of money in development or launch in some cases cannot guarantee success as was the case of the Nintendo Wii game console which performed poorly in Europe due to the price of the product. According to Bradbury (p. 94), the price of a good has to be just right for it to attract new customers. Moreover, this cost has to ensure that the company does not suffer a lot in case of market flops since exposure to high risk has to be reduced. Innovation The fast changing global world has been greatly affected by technological, social and political changes. As a result, companies have been competing to attract customers all over the globe using different techniques. One of the best market techniques is the use of innovation since it allows companies to come up with quality goods and services. In the pursuit of introducing goods or services to markets of US and Western Europe innovation has to be used to win these markets (Bausch, 2004). Companies like Nike, Lamborghini or Apple make use of innovation to win over new customers. Consumers in the United States and Western Europe are knowledgeable and complicated to learn. As a result, introducing innovative goods of services will endear new consumers to these new products (Crabb, 2007). The US and Western Europe are more developed compared to many regions of the world and as result innovation has to used by various companies wishing to introduce goods of services in these countries. The Apple’s iPhone series has is one of the best selling brands in these regions due to the innovative designs and technology that these phones utilize (Bradbury, 2005). Innovation helps in setting companies apart from their competition and thus it helps in building reputation especially for new products or services. For example, when low cost carrier airlines were introduced to Europe they became an instant hit among many consumers. Marketing Coming up with innovative and affordable goods is not enough to win consumers over to purchase certain goods or services. As a result, we have to make use of marketing to make consumers aware of the new goods or services in the market. Marketing ensures that the products or service get visibility among different consumers in the market. Companies operating in Europe or the US have to make sure that they use the best marketing tools that will reach the maximum viewers in their target markets (Bruce, 2005). For instance, when companies are marketing sportswear or goods that target the youth they make use of online marketing tools such as Facebook and other social sites (Crabb, 2007). Events such as the Superbowl or UEFA Champions league in Europe are goods avenues for adverting new products or services. In some cases, marketing ensures that customers get a feel of a certain good or service before they make any decision. For instance, motor shows enable the customer to interact with the salespeople. Food products can be marketed through offering free samples at supermarkets and this gives an opportunity for new goods to be recognized. Marketing also enables customers to be aware of the good before it is released and the anticipation and anxiety helps in attracting customers to new goods and services (Andersen, 2007). Conclusion The combinations of the above factors are important in the world of business. Introducing new products to markets of Europe and the US is no mean feat. Thus, companies have to plan strategically on the best ways of introducing new products or services using cost, innovation, marketing and research as their guide. Clever combination of these factors leads to great success as embodied by companies such as Nike or Nokia. References Andersen, M. and Taylor, F., 2007. Strategic Management. Savannah, GA: Cengage Learning. Baldwin, M. W., 2006. Uncovering European and US Markets. Business Bulletin, 112, 461-484. Bausch, K., 2004. Understanding Business. A Review of General Semantics, 61(1), pp. 63-68. Bindra, A., 2007. Business Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Bradbury, T. N. and Fincham, F. D., 2005. Marketing Good and Services Around the Globe. Business Assessment, 5, 92-101. Bruce, B., 2005. Differences in Business between Europe and the United States. Los Angeles, CA: Bolt, Beranek and Newman. Crabb, A. and Linton, J., 2007. A Qualitative Study of Global Business and Economics. Journal of World Business, 28(1), pp. 40-46. Fleisher, C. and Bensoussan, B., 2007. Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of New and Classical Methods. Chicago, IL: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Read More