Marketing Management at Kelloggs Company - Essay Example

Kellogg Company Marketing Management A. Product, Sales and Marketing Orientation at Kellogg’s as organizations The modern world has seen considerable changes in the marketing concepts employed. Let us examine Product, Sales and Marketing Orientation at Kellogg Company. Production Orientation Kellogg focuses on cost reduction through producing in large scale. This enables the company reach economies of scale thus maximizing on profits. Product Orientation In terms of the products offered, Kellogg boasts of a multi-brand system where the brand names are known by their positive reputation of being high quality products. Sales Orientation The company has continually been coming up with various brands e.g. Coco Pops Choc N Roll Cereal. Kellogg mainly focuses on making the product after which it engages on selling it to the targeted market. Market Orientation The company has always put the client at heart. It tries to comprehend consumer needs by employing suitable methods of doing research. Proper procedures are also initiated to ensure that the information received from clients is attended to (Rosenzweig 2000). Here, customer is in deed the king with whom most activities are based. B. The Customer Loyalty Funnel for Kellogg’s Frosties The main idea behind marketing is reaching the customers at the time that largely persuade their judgments. That’s why Kellogg makes sure that her products are of high quality and also likable to the customers. Marketing has constantly been seeking those points that customers are easily influenced. For decades, these points have been regarded through the allegory of a “funnel”— customers start with a variety of prospective brands at the funnel’s wide end. Marketing activities are then embarked on so as the customers reduce the number of brands to one of their choice. Each day, individuals form intuitions of products from “touch” points such as product experiences, advertisements, among others. However, the exposure may appear wasted unless active shopping is witnessed from the consumers. All in all, when the impulse to buy is triggered the initial-consideration set is shaped The initial-consideration set is methodically narrowed, as proposed by funnel correlation, when the customers think about the available options, make judgment, and acquire products. Subsequently, the post sale stage turns into a trial era that determines customer loyalty and the possibility of purchasing the product for the second time. Pushing marketing towards the customers at every phase of the funnel progression has been the goal of every marketer. This is in an attempt to persuade their buying behaviour (Porter 1998). Earlier on, companies used to drive marketing by pushing on customers through direct marketing, traditional advertising, and other channels. At each stage in the funnel, as customers carved down their brand alternatives, marketers would try to influence their decisions. This inexact approach habitually failed to reach the consumer effectively. C. The Relationship Marketing Ladder for Coco Pops Choc N Roll Cereal Making long term and continued relationships with the customer is refereed to as relationship marketing. Kellogg’s should take the opportunity of converting the sales of Coco Pops Choc N Roll Cereal into productive (long-tem) relationship with its clients for mutual benefits. The company should be well aware of the customer loyalty ladder in order to comprehend the various kinds of client it may encounter (Kleiner and Abrams 2003). This should be done with the main aim of retaining the existing and new customers. The five phases in this ladder include; Suspect - The Company should take into consideration those people coming across the firm’s promotion. They are potential client for the organization and thus should not be ignored. Prospect - Whenever individuals are interested with the company’s product, it’s no doubt that they will become Kellogg’s future customers. Customers – these are those people who will buy products from the company Clients – These are those individuals who will come back buying Kellogg’s products Advocates – This group are the satisfied lot who go telling others about the company’s products thus selling the company. Advocates Clients Customers Prospects Suspect As seen from the ladder, the company should employ necessary efforts to reach the advocate level. Investing on the existing customers will work well for the firm. 2. Purpose of market research Any company seeking to grow its market or maintain good performance has to regularly do research for various purposes. First, research would help the Kellogg Company identify their customers and more so know the numbers per region. This in turn helps the sales teams to know the areas to deliver more products as the data would reveal demand patterns (Trout and Rivkin 1996). Research also helps the company to position the product in the larger market by knowing the views of consumers with regard to packaging and other matters related to quality of the cereals products. Such information is quite valuable as it would help Kellogg Company to either change aspects like packaging to suit customer needs. For a marketing company, it is fundamental that its product appear unique in the market and generate high interest from existing and even the potential customers. Since Kellogg is not the only one dealing in cereal products, conducting a market research would provide vital information about other companies and products in the market. It is common business practice for competitors to assess and react to a new player in the industry and adopt measure to defeat it. Therefore, Kellogg would best be placed to know changing dynamics within the market and help it readjust accordingly. Such a strategy would involve developing key measures to stay ahead of rivals in the long term (Pine 1993). It is one thing to have good products and another to effectively and reliably deliver tem to the main consumers. An analysis of the best methods to deliver the goods to customers would ensure Kellogg Company records high sales. As a world producer of cereals, the company would conduct research in the various markets across the world to adapt to local needs and institute effective means to distribute the products. At the same time, because of differences in culture and consumption patterns, different regions are likely to perceive and develop different attitudes towards the product. Research also helps a firm to set or determine the correct prices. As a world wide marketing group, Kellogg company would need a worldwide study on income and consumption patterns which would help in knowing the prices of the various products. In some countries, due to low incomes, consumers tend to purchase the cheaper product even when the difference in price is minimal while in others price is insignificant and people are keener on quality of the goods. Research would also help the firm to keep customer royalty by knowing their needs and major preferences in advance. Kellogg can do this through questionnaires, emails or toll free lines for people to speak out about the products or present any complaints (Carlock and Ward 2001). Differences between Qualitative and Quantitative Research Over the years, researchers have argued over the effective of both qualitative and quantitative methods of research with some pointing out that quantitative research is more objective. There exist fundamental differences between the two methods mostly related to the type of data taken during field work and eventual analysis of the same. The first major difference is the kind of data to be collected during research. Qualitative studies depend on key words expressed by the subjects under investigation for example knowing their feelings, opinions and general attitude about a product or any services from the particular company (Kotler 2000). On the other hand, quantitative research relies heavily on numbers where researchers try to identify the number of people who prefer a certain commodity than the other or the number of consumers who subscribe to a certain service. To asses their satisfaction, values are attached for example number 5 for high dissatisfaction and number one very satisfied. The second difference is in generating hypothesis before commencement of research. To conduct a quantitative study it is paramount to institute a hypothesis for example “do consumers education level determine the kind of product (service) to subscribe to? However, qualitative method does not require one to make a hypothesis; a major reason scholar has said it lacks objectivity. In addition, qualitative study field workers are expected to mingle with the population in question to observe their behaviour and pick nuances through personal participation. The researcher in quantitative study is like a fence sitter who remains highly objective observer and would never interfere or be seen to influence the study outcome. When it comes to analysis of the data in qualitative methods, the information is put in verbal state to explain the situation while quantitative analysis depends on numerical to describe the situation. For example, the qualitative researcher can list the various words consumers used to describe a product or a service which eventually tell their opinions and feelings about the company goods while in quantitative study data is represented according to the number of people who liked or disliked a product. While conducting research, there are certain important sources of data. The primary data emanate from using such methods like surveys where questionnaires are mailed to consumers or the researcher fills them in by asking the questions directly on face to face or through telephone contact (Drummond and Ensor 2005). For a marketing company, primary data can be generated through field experiments by trying to sell a product or explain a service and then assess the general response of the targeted consumers. Secondary data is quite different in the sense that the information was not generated specifically for the company or finding a solution at hand. It involves depending sources outside the company for example national or regional population data from the government. Other sources include rating agencies or newspapers. It is cheap to access the secondary data as some are available in libraries or government institutions. 3. a) With the experience of selling the Kellogg Company products in London, I have identified some market segments which I believe require different strategies in order to effectively penetrate and dominate. The marketing strategy will focus on the following stages:- Stages of marketing strategy 1. The unique selling proposition (USP). 2. Our Target market. 3. Major benefits of the cereal products 4. Marketing methods to adopt First is identifying our uniqueness in the market in order to know how to position the selling strengths. Kellogg has been in the business for a while and with great visibility, most consumers prefer our product due to high quality standard we observe. In this regard, we should enhance the marketing messages to insist on our unrivalled high quality (Steenkamp and Ter Hofstede 2002). Second, our main market is working class men ad women who frequent stores mostly after leaving office and during end month shopping. The main highlight of our products is the nutritional content which is being promoted nationally in the healthy lifestyle campaigns. Kellogg Company can gain the market by pushing the agenda of producing quality products. To reach the market effectively, we need to position our TV advertisement on health related programs as it has been noted that viewers who are health conscious tend to prefer the cereal products. At the same time, Kellogg Company should target housewives for the working class as they have an upper hand in deciding food items for the families. They can be accessed through advertisement in reality TV programmes which are popular among this group. B). we will depend more on the psychographic type of segmentation which presents more advantages to our company. Observations for the past year indicate due to increase information on healthy lifestyles, most working class women are adopting healthy eating habits and prefer cereal products with nutrition information (Wedel and Kamakura 2000). Therefore, they prefer Coco Pops Choc N Roll Cereal for breakfast and mid-morning and usually purchase the cereals on their way home after work. For some who do one shopping per month, they purchase the products in large quantities and it would be wise for the company to develop larger packages. At the same time they spend considerable time watching TV daily thus any marketing campaign should include TV ads. Due to the many years the product has been in the market, most consumers appear conservative and treat new products with suspicion. C. Proper customer segmentation will enable a company to concentrate on profitable clients. This will also help reduce cost by properly managing the less profitable clients. It will also help in the company’s planning process (Wedel and Kamakura, 2000). The requirement of proper customer segmentation will include market research, adequate finances and the workforce. Advantages of proper customer segmentation Reaching the mass market is constantly becoming complicated due to the nature of consumers having different needs and product preferences. The main advantage of market segmentation is helping conquer the market by identifying the specific consumer needs. By marching product to the requirements of the main population target, the company is able to penetrate and dominate the market. Second, segmentation ensure the resources are well utilized since funds are spent for the specific group which is recruited to become loyal consumers. In addition, by understanding the segments it helps to know whether there are existing opportunities to exploit and expand the product range or sales strategies. Lastly, one is able to know how each segment reacts to the product and its general perception. Reference List Carlock, R, and Ward, J. 2001, Strategic Planning For The Family Business: Parallel Planning To Unify The Family And Business. New York, Palgrave Macmillan Drummond, G., and Ensor, J. 2005, Introduction to Marketing Concepts, London Elsevier. Kleiner, E., Abrams, R. 2003. The Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies. 4th Edition. London, The Planning Shop Kotler, P. 2000, Marketing Management. New York, Prentice Hall International, Millennium edition Porter, M.E. 1998, Competitive Advantage: Creating And Sustaining Superior Performance: With A New Introduction. New York, Simon and Schuster Publishers. Pine, J. 1993, ‘Mass customizing products and services’, Planning Review, Vol. 22, July-August, 1993 Rosenzweig, S. 2000, Smart Marketing: What Big Companies Practice and You Should Learn about Marketing, Branding and Business Development. 2nd Edition. London, Emery Publishing Company. Steenkamp and Ter Hofstede 2002, ‘International market segmentation: issues and perspectives’, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 19, 185-213 Trout, J. and Rivkin, S. 1996, The New Positioning: The Latest On The World’s #1 Business Strategy, McGraw Hill, New York. Wedel, M., and Kamakura, W.A. 2000, Market Segmentation: Conceptual And Methodological Foundations. 2nd Edition. New York, Springer Publishers. Read More