Repositioning Desktop Personal Computers - Essay Example

? Repositioning Desktop Personal Computers Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Desktop Personal Computers 3 Repositioning of Desktop 4 Types of Research 6 Methods to Increase Adoption Rate 7 New Service Component 7 Distribution Problems 7 8 8 References 9 Desktop Personal Computers Preference of people for desktop computer has changed drastically in recent years. Desktop was a successful product during 1990’s due to various reasons (absence of any alternate computing solution, laptop concept was not so popular among people, carrying the desktop concept was new to people). Many people prefer to work on desktop rather than laptop. Desktop are more stable computing system (people can use it continuously for twenty four hours without perturbing stability of the system, processing speed and resolution is better than laptops) with respect to laptops and tablets. Companies use desktop as a working tool for employees. Desktop has seen a sudden fall in sales during 2000’s. Sales of personal computer in USA has touched nadir in the last quarter of 2011. Apple has revolutionized the concept of computing system by introducing iPad tablets. Buying behavior of the consumer has changed within last few years. Now they want to purchase on the go computing systems (easy to carry, light weight, systems with up to date applications). Laptops, smart phones and tablets are direct competitors of desktop. Students prefer to carry computer system with them to colleges or schools but they can not carry desktops. Bulky framework of desktop creates problems like lack of flexibility in carrying, lot of power consumption and lot of space consumption. All these problems are absent in laptops, smart phones and tablets and for this reason young generation prefer them to use over traditional desktops. Repositioning of Desktop Desktop was a popular computing solution among consumers during early 2000’s. Repositioning for a particular brand can be done in nine ways. 1- Companies can increase the relevance of the product among customers, 2- They can increase occasions for use of the product and also need to increase benefits associated with the product, 3- Organization needs to create positioning massage of the product, 4- They need to make the brand more relevant with respect to demand of the customers, 5- The brand should be able to sale itself, 6- The brand should attract new customers, 7- Repositioning technique should make the brand contemporary by adding new features, 8- The brand should be able to differentiate from other competitors, 9- Repositioning should be able to counterbalance changing marketing equilibrium by using unique selling proposition (Beri, 2007, p.473). Desktop computers need to use expectancy value model to formulate repositioning strategy. In expectancy value model emphasizes on attributes of product. According to this model, buyers assign value point on various attributes of a product and then summarize total points assigned on attributes. They purchase the product has larger sum of value points (FitzGerald, & Arnott, 2000, p.107). Desktop computers need to do real reposition to capture target market. Technical up gradation and addition of new application is required to create real reposition for the product. Companies need to change the design of desktop to attract new customers (Kotler, Haider, & Rein, 2002, p.55). According to the 2010 US Census, 63% of households with income of less than $50,000 have personal computers (desktop and/or laptops); 91% of the households having income of $50,000-$99,999; 96% of households with $100,000-$149,999; 97% of the households with income of $150,000 and more own personal computers; and, 68% of the households with income not reported have computers. Having children is also a factor to getting personal computers by households. In the same US Census, 84.1% of the households with children 6-17 years old have PCs; 79.3% of households with children not within the 6-17 range own home computers; and, 70.9% of the households with no children have personal computers. Another important demographic that also affects the decision of getting computers is the educational attainment of the households. The 2010 US Census showed that only 41.8% of those who did not graduate from high school have home computers; 64.8% owns PCs from households with high school graduates or General Education Attainment (GED); 81.6% of those who have some college or associate degrees; and, 90.9% of the households with bachelor’s degrees and higher have personal computers. From the above data it is clear that desktop is mainly used for educational purposes. Hence the desktop needs to select target market based on education level, no. of children present in the family and household income. Companies can use market potentiality model to create repositioning strategy for desktop. The model can be explained in the following manner (Mundy, & Bullen, n.d.). Market Potential (MP)= N ? MS ? P ? Q Total number of potential customers(N) Market Share (MS) Average selling price (P) Average annual purchase (Q) 1 billion in china 50 % $1500 0.5 MP= 10000000?0.50?$1500?0.5= $375 billion Types of Research In the given study, china has been selected as target market due to market potentiality. Companies need to adopt product testing market research to understand potentiality of desktop market. They need to take seven steps to accomplish successful market research. 1- They should use a standardized system to conduct market research in various cities of china (Sanghai, Beijing, Xiamen, Nanning, Xiangyang etc). Each model of desktop should be tested in the same way. 2- Aim of market research is to create normative database. Normative data set can reveal actual market opinion (opinion about quality and functionality of the product). 3- They need to conduct the test in real market environment. Companies need to invite customers to use the desktop and in this way they gather real time feedback from end users. 4- They need to select sample size carefully. As the product category (desktop enabled with gaming solution) is underdeveloped, hence research should include users and non users in sample. 5- Research should analyze product performance from the view point of customer’s perspective. Critical variables should be determined in terms of user friendliness of the product. Marketer needs to take conservative action to avoid monetary loss. They need to launch the product in a single market (Beijing, Sanghai and Xiangyang) initially and after several repurchase cycle they can roll out product all over China (Lawless, & Heyman, 2010, p. 350). Methods to Increase Adoption Rate Above the line promotion is required to increase the adoption rate for desktops. Promotional tools like (advertisement, print ads, billboard and banners) should be used to communicate the benefits (sound and video cards/chips; a faster processor that can process huge amounts of data without lagging; larger memory and storage capacity; anti-glare, high resolution LED display; and other peripherals such as convenient and customizable keyboard, mouse, pad, and headset) of desktop to customers. Sales promotion in point of sale is required to increase brand visibility. Companies should use digital marketing to spread product massage among Chinese young people. Product testing will be an important tool to increase brand equity among customers. Companies need to design integrated marketing communication (IMC) system to create brand equity (Aaker, & Biel, 1993, p.69). New Service Component Companies need to change the internal memory; graphic resolution and processing speed of the desktop fulfill demand of customer (especially those use computing system for gaming purpose). They need to increase the cache memory of desktop to increase efficiency in terms of application storage capacity. They need to use L3 memory slot to expand system capability. These changes will them to convert desktop into dynamic gaming solution. System integration will help manufacturers to prepare computing system in accordance with demand of gamers. Distribution Problems Demographic area of china is large with respect to other countries. The companies will face problems to reach total seventy six cities of the country. They need to invest huge amount of money to expand distribution network across the yellow country. Investing huge amount of money for a category specific product is associated with risk but they can avoid the risk by doing product testing in small market segments (they can design distribution network based on size, income level and purchase parity of a city). References Aaker, D.A., & Biel, A.L. (1993). Brand Equity & Advertising: Advertising's Role in Building Strong Brands. London: Routledge. Beri, B. (2007). Marketing Research. Noida: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. FitzGerald, M., & Arnott, D. (2000). Marketing Communications Classics. Stamford: Cengage Learning EMEA. Kotler, P., Haider, D.H., & Rein, I.J. (2002). Marketing Places. New York: Simon and Schuster. Lawless, H. T., & Heyman, H. (2010). Sensory Evaluation of Food: Principles and Practices. Heidelberg: Springer. Mundy, K., & Bullen, S.G. (No Date). Estimating Market Potential: Is there a Market. Retrieved from http://plantsforhumanhealth.ncsu.edu/extension/marketready/pdfs-ppt/business_development_files/PDF/estimating_market_potential.pdf. Read More