Marketing Management of Procter and Gamble - Assignment Example

?Case Procter & Gamble Question Being a market leader in several categories is not an easy task for P&G. The major challenge is to maintain the market share as a market leader for all the categories. In a globalization era where consumer demands are changing rapidly and the players are coming up with new innovative products, threat to maintain its position as a market leader have increased. Therefore to sustain its market share as a market leader it has to spend more amount in R&D and advertisement than their competitors which increase the cost of the company. Moreover, associating with various categories is also the challenge for P&G in a sense that it cannot focused on one category and thus it might lose the share of some of its categories. Question # 2: P&G has now realized the importance of the social media and already shifted its advertisement budget towards social media. The company needs to increase its budget for social media such as face book, twitter as this media has great influence in the mind of people. P&G should also involve in social causes to attach customers emotionally towards it and to build strong brand images. For that purpose, It can offer scholarships to needy and meritorious people, and help needy people. Question # 3: The world is facing economical crises and the buying power of the consumer is reducing which can be worst in future. This is a significant situation which might affect P&G badly. Moreover, the R&D and marketing cost of P&G is increasing with the passage of time which can be problematic for the company as the world is now searching new techniques to reduce cost. In addition to that, increasing competition in FMCG industry is also the major risk which P&G can face in the future. Case 2: McDonald’s Question # 2: The core brand value of McDonald is its high quality food for customers with speed and convenience. Initially, McDonald was offering quality Hamburger but it expanded its menu with other dishes like Happy Meal, Big Mac, Egg, McMuffin etc. The company started expanding its business domestically as well as internationally due to its premium quality of food. However during 1990s company lost its direction i.e. high premium food. It focused to further expand its network of restaurants. It was not focusing to train employees properly and thus customer faced poor services and started losing the interest from the company. The company realized this situation and refocused its 5Ps and adopted the policy to offer different dishes for different region according to their culture and environment. Through this plan McDonald refocused on food and service quality. It also started offering healthy food due to the increasing concern of customers regarding obesity. It also included ice-cream and coffee in its menu. Question # 2: McDonald should not change its strategy because the strategy worked well for it. It has refocused on its core values which it lost and had negative response from consumers. Therefore it will be a great risk for McDonald to change its strategies. McDonald has expanded its menu and added great varieties in it. Though its core product was Hamburger but it included new food to attract new segments of the market. Moreover, they have included healthier food in the menu and offer to health conscious people at a premium price. The strategy to offer different food for different markets according to their culture and environment has also worked in favor of McDonald. In addition to that, $1 menu was also the marvelous strategy of McDonald which targeted lower income people and teenagers. Question # 3: McDonalds might face several risks in the future. It is a multinational company which can face treasury risk due to the variation in US Dollars against major currencies. Global instability in the economical crises might also affect McDonald’s business. Another greater risk that it might face is the entrance of new players in the market. The living standard of the people is increasing and they are going to more delicious and quality food. Therefore, the probability of new players to enter in food market is increasing. On the other hand, the food prices are continuously rising that can force McDonald to increase the prices of its products which in turn can affect its business. Case 3: Louis Vuitton Question # 1: The brand such as Louis Vuitton grows and stays fresh because of its brand image that it maintained throughout its business. They are not offering the products but the sense of luxury, fashion and wealth. Louis Vuitton did not change its image and reputation by catering segment of different income bracket as most of the companies do in order to increase their market share. The company targeted the upper class people and attached with it. It maintained the same product quality for the customers and therefore the customers feel prestige in using Vuitton’s brand. The company provides the experience to its customers by offering them the product which is unmatchable. Customers also feel proud to have the brand which cannot be bought by everyone. It does not reduce its prices even in the economical crises as it is the strength of the company which it uses to build strong brand image. Louis Vuitton specially focuses on the quality and brand image of the product. It spends almost 60 hours to make a piece of luggage by hand which shows its commitment towards quality of the product. The company is currently using the similar method to manufacture its products which it used to adopt when started the business. It never compromises in its core values and always sticks to it in order to provide better services to customers. The company is very concerned with its counterfeits and always come up with different strategies to protect its prestigious brand image. For that purpose it employs a team of lawyers and investigators. Moreover, the company is selling products through its own boutiques in order to reduce the risk of counterfeiting. It has also started selling online in order to attract more regions but with the same quality and brand image. In addition to that, the company also maintains and grows its brand image by endorsing celebrities which is the marketing strategy of the company. Question # 2: Louis Vuitton has made several efforts to control the counterfeit as they can damage the image of its brand. The company employs the team of lawyers and investigators to control the counterfeit attacks which can dilute the image of the brand. The counterfeit cannot be positive for Louis Vuitton in any circumstances because the uniqueness of the company is its design and quality. If design of the brand is copied and sold in lower quality and at cheaper rate, the brand image of the company would dilute and consumers of Louis Vuitton would stop using its products. Case 4: American Express Question # 1: American Express has been facing serious competition from the very start from its competitors like Master Card and Visa, but the company has been able to position and differentiate effectively and efficiently as compared to its competitors. The company positioned and promoted itself as the sign of prestige and status symbol and created a membership feeling among its customers. The company was able to enforce the same brand image and positioning at every stage of branding and marketing. Although the company has designed different marketing, promoting, and advertising strategies but the main underlying brand message remained the same. The company faced intense competition in the category of cash cards or charge cards. Question # 2: American Express has been able to integrate related services and products together under one brand name i.e. charge cards, financial services, and travel services. All three services are interrelated with each other and are well integrated. However the company is not able to increase the market share in all business categories equally. At the same time the company was not able to integrate different broad financial categories like brokerage, banking, and insurance services. For this the company should work on the strong single positioning for all categories in order to build upon on the brand image of the cards for capturing the market share in financial services and travel services. The brand name of the company is strong enough to integrate and position all services together. Question # 3: The company’s decision to grow beyond its main affluent and high class customer base allowed the company to increase its customer base in the short run however in the long run it negatively affected the financial position of the company. The affluent and high class customers are also categorized as low risk customers. By changing the target customers and including other customers’ classes the company increased the risk level and thus resulted in facing severe financial issues and decrease in the overall stock price after the global economic recession in the years 2008 and 2009. This change in the target customers also affected the brand positioning and brand image of the company, which is usually perceived to be a prestigious and valuable brand. Bibliography  Kotler, P. (2012). Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Publications Read More