Analysis of Marketing Strategies - Assignment Example

XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX MARKETING Week one Sunday Today I decided to buy a computer for myself. But I was worried that I may not be able to get the color I desired. I went to the supermarket and looked at the range of computers present there. There I met a friend of mine who suggested me to buy Dell computers as I can customize the features for my computer. I immediately went to the company’s website and ordered a Dell computer for myself with the exact features that I wanted. The company seems to have concentrated on The Marketing Concept. This concept holds the view that success in achieving company’s goals depends on being more effective than competitors in the areas such as creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value. This concept shifts the businesses’ marketing efforts from being product-centered to being customer-centered (Borch, 3). After the purchase I went to my grandfather’s house where he showed me his collection of vintage cars. There I found one Ford car called the Model-T Ford. My grandfather told me that at that time they used to sell only this car which was available only in the black color (Brooke, 8). The marketing concept that came to my mind was Mass Marketing where the seller is involved in the mass production, mass distribution and mass promotion of one product for all buyers. Wednesday Today I was watching television where I saw a news report about a chain of supermarket that is adapting its product range to suit the needs and preferences of the local communities. I immediately linked this news to the marketing concept called Geographic segmentation (McDonald, 121). This kind of segmentation is carried out by companies such as Walmart and Kmart in United States for the purpose of retaining their customers. Week two Sunday I was reading a book about Indian economy and how it was in total disarray before the liberalization process in 1991. The book mentioned that after Coca-Cola was forced to make an exit from Indian market, Pepsi made a comprehensive attempt to win over Indian government and business (Bachmeier, 123). The success achieved by this helped Pepsi in entering the market and dominating it for a considerable time. This kind of marketing is called Megamarketing which depends on strategic coordination of economic psychological, political and public relation skills. Branding is a very important marketing concept. It simply establishes a link between the products and services with power of brand. Branding forms an image in the minds of consumers and gives them a reason to buy that product. When I picked up my Gillette razor in the morning, I realized that I bought it not only for the function it served but also the value I held of it in my mind. For me it was a personal instrument that made my shaving experience richer. At the same time it was not just a razor for me but a razor with many helpful features. Tuesday A few days later I overheard a few friends of mine talking about their desires of buying a Harley-Davidson bike. I realized that they wanted that particular bike because of the Brand knowledge they possessed about that brand. Brand Knowledge is a marketing concept which permeates special information about the brand to the customers (Keller, 119). This information or knowledge is one the reason which influences the consumer to buy that product. Week Three Monday One of my friends was working on his dissertation which was on the topic of mergers and acquisition of Jaguar-Land Rover by Tata Motors. He said to me that before the merger Tata Motors conducted a Brand Audit of its products (Beverland, 111). This brand audit is conducted to assess the health of brand, uncover the fundamental strong points of its brand equity and improve the perception about the brand. Thursday Today I travelled to California by Southwest Airlines which has created a niche market for itself by providing very cheap flights. It keeps its service offering to the very basic level. This kind of marketing is called Competitive Advantage. It is the company’s ability to gain an upper hand in the market by providing customers with the services which the customers can provide. As it can be seen from the Southwest Airlines example, the service doesn’t necessarily have to be more complex or expensive (Porter, 337). Friday Today I was seeing Top Gear on television. For a change, it showed the manufacturing of Ferrari. The cars were tested repeatedly to produce identical performance. I think the company uses this performance consistency as a marketing strategy of Conformance Quality. This means that the performance of Ferrari cars will have consistency and that one customer’s car won’t be slower than the others (Verma, 200). This concept isn’t limited to the car market but also to other products such as soft drinks and hotels. Week four Saturday I went to Sainsbury’s supermarket and saw that it had many products which were called Sainsbury’s Basics. These products were low priced and packed with relatively less attractive packaging. This is what is called in marketing language as a Line Stretching. This occurs when a company extends its product offerings beyond its current range (Pareek, 201). Now this concept is widely used in supermarkets throughout U.S. and Europe. In the same supermarket, I saw Orange offering free phones to the customers who committed buying its phone services for two years. This is the marketing concept of Captive Products. As the name suggests, these products ‘capture’ the customers by making them buying a low priced product which needs high priced accessories (Kotler, 337). Friday A few days later my Dell computer arrived from Germany. It came with a one year warranty which said that it will repair the computer if there was any technical fault. This perfectly demonstrates the marketing of Warranty which is used to market the products. Similar strategy was used by Mitsubishi in 2004 in order to expand its market in the United States of America (Murthy, 197). Week Five Monday On the first day of the week I was watching television when suddenly I wondered about the marketing strategies of Sony Corporation. It is said to be a pioneer of marketing technique of Market Skimming. This technique makes full use of new offering bring introduced in affluent market and then slowly coming down in price to capture the bigger middle class markets (Keegan, 31). It pursued the same strategy with its high definitions television in the 1990s which are now much cheaper than their elder counterparts. Tuesday Today when I was showing my Dell computer to my friend, he told me that he bought his Apple computer directly from the Apple store. I was surprised to hear that Apple was both the manufacturer and distributor of its products. But then the marketing concept of Direct Marketing Channel came into my mind. This channel focuses on the manufacturer selling its products directly to the final customer (Chet, 75). Towards the end of the fifth week I went to the market and bought a Gucci perfume for myself. I remember the time when Gucci’s brand value had diluted because of it’s over exposure and discount stores. The company then followed the marketing concept of Exclusive Distribution. This helped the company in controlling the sales of its products and maintaining their brand value (Boone, 123) References Bachmeier, K. (2009) Analysis of Marketing Strategies Used by PepsiCo Based on Ansoff’s Theory, New York: GRIN Verlag, p23 Beverland, M. (2009) Building Brand Authenticity - 7 Habits of Iconic Brands. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p151 Boone, L. (2011) Contemporary Marketing. New York: Cengage Learning,p123 Borch, F. (1957) The Marketing Concept: Its Meaning to Management, New York: American Management Association, p3-5 Brooke, L. (2008) Ford Model T: The Car That Put the World on Wheels, New York: MBI Publishing Company, p8 Chet, M. (2006) The Complete Guide to Direct Marketing. New York: Kaplan Publishing, p75 Keegan, W. (2002) Global Marketing Management. New York: Prentice Hall, p31 Keller, K. (1998) Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring and Managing Brand Equity. New York: Prentice Hall, p119 Kotler, P. (2010) Principles of Marketing. New York: Pearson Education, p377 McDonald, M. (2004) Market Segmentation: how to do it, how to profit from it. New York: Butterworth-Heinemann, p121 Moore, K. (2010) Marketing: The Basics. New York: Taylor & Francis, p21 Murthy, D. (2006) Warranty Management and Product Manufacture. New York: Springer, p197 Porter, M. (1980) Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. New York: Free Press Verma (2007) Services Marketing: Text and Cases. New York: Pearson Education India, p200 Read More