Management: The Marketing Process And Strategies - Assignment Example

 Management: The Marketing Process And Strategies Answer 1: Qualitative and Quantitative market research are two different types of research undertaken for different purposes. Qualitative research is subjective in nature and explores the opinions and ideas of people within the market. Qualitative research can be applied in cases where the marketer needs to understand the impact of certain advertising on a group of target market. This is usually done by conducting focus groups whereby the target market is brought in and exposed to a certain advertisement. Quantitative research, on the other hand, is objective in nature. It provides unbiased results in the form of numbers and statistics. This type of research is used to gather data regarding numbers, for instance, in the case of understand the brand recognition to a certain product. Here the marketer would use questionnaires that would be distributed randomly or to a select sample population. Answer 2: The goal of the marketing process is to ensure that the brand is brought to the consumer and willingness is created within the consumer to buy the particular product or brand. The ultimate goal, thus, is to sell the product to the selected target market. The marketing process achieves this through different channels and by selecting the right consumers for the right products. Advertising is a major part of the marketing process since it ensures that the consumer is aware of the product within the market. The main purpose of advertising is to inform the consumers and in the process of informing them, it should create in them, a want to purchase the product. Answer 3: Relationship marketing refers to the process of developing long lasting relationships with the consumers since it is easy to get a consumer but hard to retain him. The main purpose behind relationship marketing is to develop loyalty of the brand or the organization within the customers. Three reasons why relationship marketing is essential for any business is because: 1. It improves sales of the organization through word-of-mouth. Satisfied consumers talk positively about the product with their family and friends which in turn compels the family and friends to at least try the product once; 2. It allows organization to develop and introduce products that are aligned with the consumer’s needs and demands. With relationship marketing, consumers can communicate their desires to the organization and the organization would take them into consideration and thus develop products that would help them gain competitive advantage; 3. Relationship marketing allows organization to retain a link with the consumers and bring them back to the product if the appeal is minimized due to any factor. Answer 4: Creativity is to use one’s imagination to look at things from a different and a new perspective. Creativity has an important role in advertising. The purpose of advertising is to attract and retain the interest of the consumers. This can only be done when consumers are provided with advertising that is out-of-the-box and is differentiated from the rest of the competition. Creative advertising allows the product to remain in the minds of the consumers which is the main purpose behind any advertising. With creative advertising, consumers are bound to give a second look at the advertising, thus making the advertising successful. Answer 5: Some other types of effective advertising being used today are: 1. Out-door advertising: where the products are displayed in public setting such as billboards, street furniture etc. These include advertising for hair care products, skin care products etc. 2. Imprinted products, where the product is imprinted on commonly used objects, such as T-shirts, mugs, pens etc. Products that can be advertised in this way include theme parks, restaurants etc so that consumers in the locality are aware of the product and wish to experience it on their own. 3. Transit advertising: Transit Advertising is advertising placed on public transit such as buses and trains. Products that can be advertised in this way include soft-drinks that the consumers would be tempted to buy when they are on the go 4. Direct Mail: In this type of advertising, marketers directly mail their advertisement to the target audience. This includes advertising for special training sessions or for special offers on certain products 5. Buzz Advertising: In this type of advertising, certain people are selected as agents for the brands. This type of advertising has been adopted by L’Oreal for some of its lines where the agents sell the products directly to the consumers, eliminating the need for retail shops. Answer 6: Push and Pull strategies are used by marketers to let the consumers know about the product. Push strategies take the product to the consumers and face it in his face so that he is compelled to buy the product. On the other hand, pull strategies bring the consumer towards the product by using appealing and eye-catching tactics. Push strategy is used when the marketer wants to sell off his product as soon as possible. He does this by putting up kiosks on the product in the malls or supermarkets and asking the consumer to take a sample with him for trial. This can be done when a new product is introduced in the market and the marketer wants to ensure that the product reaches the target market. Pull strategies are generally employed for products with strong brand identity. This is done by launching a big campaign in the media and depending on it to bring consumers to the brand. Answer 7: The different ways through which advertising impacts the economy are: 1. It creates employments for millions of people as the advertising field hires millions of marketers and designers to promote a specific product; 2. One of the negative impacts of advertising on economy is that it increases the prices of the products. When organizations spend millions and billions in advertising, this cost eventually trickles down to the net price of the product. With no advertising, the price of the product would have been considerably lowered; 3. Advertising creates an increased demand of the product in the economy which in turn leads to increased production; 4. Advertising also increases competition within the market as competitors fight with each other for the consumer’s attention. This in a manner increases barriers to entry as small firms find it difficult to enter a market with big players. Answer 8: The major cost consideration in ad production include the budget of the ad, the expected returns from the ads, the cost of putting the ad on a particular media etc. The cost consideration of each medium is as follows: 1. Print: The placement of the advertisement, that is, whether it should be on the front page, back page or any other page. 2. Radio: The Media Slots that need to be bought for best exposure on the given budget 3. TV: The Media Slots that need to be bought for best exposure on the given budget 4. Digital Media: The right method of payment which could be either pay by impression or pay by click through rate. Answer 9: Newspaper Advertising is perhaps the oldest form of advertising. The advantages of this medium include limiting your advertising to a particular geographical area. Since newspaper have both local and international reach, marketers use this to limit or extend the reach of the product. Also newspaper advertising allows marketers to work on a small budget since newspaper advertising is relatively cheaper as compared to television advertising while the reach is extensive and controlled. With newspaper advertising, the marketer can chose the size of the advertisement and also he can manipulate the eye movement of the viewer towards the ad with eye catching colors and visual in an otherwise black and white setting. However newspaper advertising is not without its disadvantages. The life of a newspaper ad is short since newspapers are thrown out after each day as a new paper is delivered. Also newspapers are going down in circulation with the advent of online news which is leading to a decline in the effectiveness of newspaper advertisements. Also with newspaper, the marketer is putting the message to the mass audience without focusing on a particular target market. Also the competition can easily view the message and respond accordingly. Answer 10: Transit Advertising has gained popularity in the last few decades. This is because transit advertising is attractive and is difficult to ignore. It puts the advertising in the face of the consumer; even when a consumer does not wish to see it, he still sees it. Consumers cannot choose to turn it off; it is there everywhere they go. However, with transit advertising, it is difficult to calculate the impact of the advertisement. Also these advertisement are fleeting and do not allow the consumers to always fully comprehend the message being delivered. Transit advertising also loses its impact in a crowded environment where the viewer may not have the time or the visibility to view the message. Read More