Discussion questions - Research Paper Example

Marketing The rapid advancement of information technology sector accompanied by acquisitions and mergers,and competition in the market lead both practitioners as well as academicians to concentrate on the purchase decisions by consumers in the laptop industry. It is established that post purchase services, core technical features, peripheral specifications, price and payment conditions, value added features, mobility and connectivity are the principal factors that influence laptop purchases by consumers (Feng & Elfring, 2004).

In addition, payment conditions and price factors indicate a substantial difference among companies’ customer base. Consumers’ desire for attractively designed and portable computer has forced companies to concentrate on the production of notebooks and laptops. Furthermore, price cuts, extended battery life, integrated wireless networking, and prevalence of home-offices have resulted escalation of laptop sales (Yeung, 2011). Consumers can be categorized as satisfied switchers, dissatisfied switchers, and stayers based on price and payment conditions.

Dissatisfied switchers are the consumers that give less importance to the price of the computer; rather they are obsessed with the technical features and specifications. 2) A complete and successful marketing activity implies that appropriate price, appropriate product, appropriate promotional means, as well as services and enterprise products are devoted to a particular market. According to the theory of marketing, the following market strategies will be appropriate to handle the target market of Lenovo.

Currently Lenovo puts into consideration various factors when selecting a market target. Strong brand awareness to cater for city clients who have advanced conception in the information technology. In the laptop market, the consequence of Lenovo brand is comparative advantage, so selecting such market targets can accommodate the requirements of such customers (Pan, 2005). The company should seek to persuade its customers than it offers products that are far superior in comparison to what its competitors are offering.

The main benefit that Lenovo stands to gain when products are successfully differentiated include, premium prices for its products, above average profits, an elastic demand for its products, and creates a barrier to entry of new competitors to the market. Lenovo sustainable development is consistent with a correct and unified guiding ideology. It is with an appropriate strategic plan for use and guide of its own attributes with personnel in the enterprise management plan of Lenovo, will it be capable of developing a sound system of management within the company for the health and stability.

The company should develop a series of strategies such as watching competitors rather than being focused to expanding the existing market share (Spulber, 2007). 3) Consumer preference = a + b1X1 + b2X2 + b3X3 + …+bkXkVariables:The below factors are the independent variable in the model that influence the customers’ preference of Lenovo laptops. Consumer preference is the dependent than vary with slight variation components of the independent variables (Kutner, Nachtsheim, & Neter, 2004).

Y: Consumer preference X: independent variables X1: Core technical featuresX2: Peripheral specificationsX3: Price and payment conditionsX4: Value added featuresX5: MobilityX6: Connectivitye1: Error term a and b: estimators of 0β and 1β respectivelyY1 = Ŷ1 = a + bX (Fox, 2000).Y1 = a + b1X1 + b2X2 + b3X3 +b4 X4 + b5X5 + b6X6References:Feng, S., & Elfring, J. (2004). The Legend behind Lenovo: the Chinese IT company that dares to success. Hong Kong: Asia 2000. Fox, J. (2000). Nonparametric simple regression smoothing scatterplots.

Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. Kutner, M. H., Nachtsheim, C., & Neter, J. (2004). Applied linear regression models (4th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Pan, Y. (2005). Lenovo: countering the dell challenge. Hong Kong: Asia Case Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong. Spulber, D. F. (2007). Global competitive strategy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Yeung, A. (2011). The globalization of Chinese companies: Strategies for conquering international markets.. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.