Perceptions about Products Offered by the Food Chain in London - Essay Example

Marketing of the of the Number Section Marketing Research 6) The questionnaire that has been analyzed was mainly drafted for the purpose of conducting survey, which involved customers of an international food chain retailer operating in London. The survey was done in order to collect feedback from customers regarding whether or not attributes of products and services provided by the food chain matched with the advertisement message conveyed while promoting products and services. The questionnaire was by and large well constructed. However, it had fair share of good as well as bad attributes. Talking about the areas that could have been improved was length of the survey. The questionnaire was too long and the length might often influence participants to withdraw from the survey as time is important for everyone. Another flaw associated with the questionnaire was that in answering options, the ‘do not know’ option was not included. This is inappropriate as there might be participants who are unaware of a particular product or service. On the other hand, two good aspect of the questionnaire is that questions were worded very simply; this firstly made it very easy for participants to understand and secondly, the questionnaire encompassed all aspects of the research topic, thereby enabling the researcher to obtain an insight of people’s perceptions about products and services offered by the food chain. Section 2: Product 12) The new product development process of a new product involves the following steps: Generating idea: The initial step is very crucial as it involves generation of ideologies that are based on SWOT and current market trend analysis. The ideologies take into account various factors such as, return on investment, ROI and widespread distribution cost. (Takeuchi and Nonaka 137-146). During this particular phase, the manager has to ensure that overall new product development process is kept nimble and flexible discretion should be applied over which the activities are to be executed. Screening the idea: In this particular step, the idea is validated. The phase mainly involves elimination of ineffective concepts prior to allocation of resources to them. The individuals responsible for framing the idea should screen the same on the basis of factors such as, benefits associated with the idea that can be provided to the target market, market coverage of the product, expected intensity of competition, sales forecast, feasibility of the product and so on and so forth (Brands, “8 Step Process Perfects New Product Development”). Concept testing: Concept testing is very different from test marketing. This step involves patent research, designing due diligence and various other legalities that are associated with new product development. Acquiring knowledge regarding place or segment that can be appropriately influenced by the marketing message is often the most crucial part of testing a concept. The main question asked while testing a concept is whether or not a consumer will need or want the service or product offered. Business Analytics: This step involves setting up a system of metrics that monitors the product development progress. The input parameter included is the average time required in each developmental stage. Output parameters that measure value of the product, such as, revenue and operating income, are included because these provide valuable feedback. It is pivotal for a company to be in alignment with these metrics and criteria. Marketability Tests: In this particular step, private test groups are arranged, beta versions of product are launched and test panels are formed, after the product is tested. This is precisely because it provides the product maker with valuable feedback regarding last minute minor improvements and modifications. In addition, this step also helps in a small level of promotion. In the contemporary business environment, word press is becoming more attached with beta testing and this has proven to be highly effective. Technicalities and Product Development: The production is mainly responsible for seeing through this step. They are responsible for formulating an efficient plan to produce the product. Thereafter, the marketing department is required to formulate plans in order to distribute the product. Following that, the finance division is responsible for funding launch of the new product. Commercialize: In this stage, the new product development has already gone mainstream where it is being purchased by consumers and this progress is being constantly monitored by the technical support group. The key fact that is to be ensured in this particular stage is keeping the distribution pipelines loaded with products. The product advertisements have to be refreshed in this stage in order to increase brand awareness among the target customers, thereby converting them into potential customers. Post launch review and proper pricing: The overall new product development process efficiency is reviewed and areas of improvements are identified. In the final stage, the product is priced properly, after all relevant factors associated with cost of goods sold are determined. The manager has to differentiate the needs of consumers as the product ages, predict profits as well as enhance the process of delivery, whether digital or physical (Brands, “8 Step Process Perfects New Product Development”). The steps mentioned above are in complete alignment with the new product development process explained in the book. The knowledge about steps involved in new product development, has been obtained partly from an interview conducted with one of my friend who owns a bottle manufacturing company and partly from online articles. The interview revealed that development of bottles also undergoes similar phases of new product development process. The idea of developing compact bottles that can be easily carried inside bags was generated. A lot of research was done for design of the bottle. The unsound concepts were eliminated and product development was commenced with the appropriate ideas in mind. The concept was tested thoroughly by conducting an in-depth market research. The efficiency of the process was monitored through business analytics tools and thereafter, demo versions of the bottle were launched in the market. Favorable reviews were obtained from the market and minor adjustments were made based on certain feedbacks. Then onwards, a fully fledged production of bottles was planned and the program was financed. Following that, the product was commercialized and was subsequently properly priced. Section 3: Pricing 21) Digital wallet can be referred to as a system that stores information related to payments made by users as well as passwords of websites securely. Consumers can purchase products very quickly with the help of near-field communications technology by using their digital wallet. They are also able to protect their digital wallet by setting stringer passwords without worrying about remembering them at a later stage while purchasing. Consumers can use digital wallets in collaboration with mobile payment systems, which will allow them to purchase using their smart phones. Digital wallets can also be used in order to save digital coupons and loyalty card information (Weiss 8-9). By enabling consumers to save all their payment related information compactly and securely, digital wallets form a way to eliminate the necessity to carry physical wallets. Not only consumers, but also companies are using digital wallets effectively considering the features that they possess. Digital wallets are a means for companies to collect consumer data. It enables them to monitor and analyze purchasing behavior of their customers. The more knowledge companies have regarding purchasing habits of their customers, better will be the marketing strategy implemented by them. Digital wallets also allow companies to provide their customers with convenient shopping experience. However, the potential drawback of digital wallet is that there is a loss of consumer privacy (Hern, “10 things you need to know about digital wallets”). I am already an active user of digital wallets. Majority of my mobile recharges are done through a particular website specific digital wallet. In addition, I do most of my shopping through Amazon and other international shopping websites by the way of using PayPal digital wallet. It provides me with an ease of shopping as there is no need to worry about entering my debit card or credit information every time I shop online. Section 4: Channels of distribution 27) Among bog box retailers, the trend was that bigger is better. According to the big box retailers, occupying huge amount of physical space and offering broad range of products to customers would help them to realize economies of scale by focusing on large volume of sales (Jones and Doucet 233-247). Nevertheless, this trend is diminishing in the contemporary business environment due to rising intensity of competition among big box retailers. In 2011, it was witnessed that large number of big box retailers realized that the one-size fits all strategy was not effective enough in enabling companies to achieve similar economies of scale and scope as that in the earlier scenario. On the contrary, big box retailers are striving to get bigger through the idea that consumers are responding positively to consistency and convenience provided to them by recognizable brands on smaller, more targeted stores. Although the trend of having smaller stores is not a completely new concept, this has certainly been made a possibility by big box retailers such as, Walmart, Tesco, Target, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer’s (Deale, “Big Box Retailers Shrink to Grow”). Section 5: Promotion 37) With the dawn of internet technology, an unprecedented increase in the amount of internet users has been witnessed. The number of internet users has been augmenting exponentially every year. The advent of internet technology witnessed introduction of many new models and platforms for the users. Amongst new creations in the field of internet technology, most promising and successful one is the social media networking platform. In this globalized world, social media platform have proven to be the most efficient and convenient way of networking for both personal as well as business purposes. Taking the context of business into account, promoting a particular product or service is one of the vital activities conducted by organizations in order to increase awareness of their product among the mass. That is why they resort to various modes of promotion such as, TV advertisement, print media advertisement, promotion through social media and so on and so forth. Out of the abovementioned promotional means, TV advertisements have been widely used over past few decades by companies in order to advertise their products. Even so, in the contemporary business environment, use of social media marketing has increased considerably. The usage of social media for the purpose of brand promotion has increased to such an extent that it has dipped down popularity of TV advertisement. This is majorly because of exponentially growing number of social media users driven by internet technology and enhanced connectivity of social media in the globalized world (Edwards, “TV Is Dying, And Here Are the Stats That Prove It”). However, there are many other facts that justify the statement regarding declined popularity of TV as a means of promotion. First of all, advertisement through TV is very costly; whereas, advertising and promotion through social media could be potentially free or at the very least, affordable. TV advertisement requires lots of elements, which in turn increases expenses of companies by a huge margin. In order to make TV advertisements, a brand campaign has to be designed that involves great amount of money. In addition to that, celebrity endorsements also add greatly to budget of the production house (which in this case is the company). Thereafter, the company also incurs huge cost while designing and creating the advertisement. Finally, the company has to pay contract money to the TV channel that has signed the deal to broadcast the advertisement. All these factors make TV advertisements very costly to be borne. Despite that, effectiveness of TV advertisement is still under question. Given that majority of the advertisements have a length of 30 seconds, they often become uninteresting for viewers who do not want to spend 30seconds over an advertisement. Furthermore, content of TV advertisement may often become unappealing for the viewers (Chong, “Is TV Advertising Dying in Social Media’s Hands?”). Moreover, social media advertisements has been regarded as more effectual than those on TV as people are spending more and more time over the internet and find social media content to be more interesting and engaging than those broadcasted over TV. Moreover, connectivity as well as audience base that social media provides to companies is considerably larger than Television broadcasting, considering the fact that social media marketing costs relatively lesser. These facts influence companies to do social media marketing more effectively compared to TV advertising. This method is more prominent in startup companies, which have increased consistently over the past decade; this in turn has greatly boosted popularity of social media advertising (Chong, “Is TV Advertising Dying in Social Media’s Hands?”). Section 6: Consumer Behavior and Segmentation 39) The social media networking and marketing platform is booming with the number of users increasing every single year. People are being able to network and establish a global connectivity very conveniently. This idea has been used by marketers throughout the world to promote a particular brand or product. Brand and products are being increasingly promoted over the social media as marketers are able to access a wider audience base, which in turn enables them to convert a broad target audience into potential customers. Social media marketing also facilitates word-of-mouth promotion for those audiences who are not active online over the internet. In this case, information is relayed by the online user to users who are offline. Hence, besides marketing products to online users through social media marketing, marketers are also being able to do indirect marketing to people who do not have any exposure to the internet. This has helped the researcher to identify trends in the field of social media. They are: 57% of marketers do social media marketing: Products and services are promoted extensively over social media platforms such as, Facebook and Twitter, for millions of audiences who spend an average of 37 minutes every day on these platforms. It is expected that another 23% marketers will join this list by end of 2014 (Redsicker, “5 Social Media Trends for 2014: New Research”). ROI generated from social media marketing remains elusive: Although marketers worldwide are dedicating a great deal of time as well as resources behind social media marketing, they are still not fully sure of effectiveness of the same, in terms of generating return on investment. 34% of marketers revealed to have realized ROI; whereas, 52% marketers believe that social media marketing would eventually generate return on investment for them. Even so, they are not certain about the exact time when they would reach the breakeven point. These facts are not encouraging, as far as the recent boom in the field of social media marketing is concerned (Redsicker, “5 Social Media Trends for 2014: New Research”). Works Cited Brands, Robert F. “8 Step Process Perfects New Product Development.” Huffington post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc, 7 January 2014. Web. 23 April 2014. Chong, Sarah. “Is TV Advertising Dying in Social Media’s Hands?” Techinasia. Tech in Asia, 8 August 2009. Web. 21 April 2014. Deale, Sean. “Big Box Retailers Shrink to Grow.” In store trends. Retailnet Group, 12 April 2013. Web. 23 April 2014. Edwards, Jim. “TV Is Dying, And Here Are The Stats That Prove It.” Business insider. Business Insider Inc, 24 November 2013. Web. 21 April 2014. Hern, Alex. “10 things you need to know about digital wallets.” The guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 12 January 2014. Web. 21 April 2014. Jones, Ken, and Michael Doucet. "Big-box retailing and the urban retail structure: the case of the Toronto area." Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 7.4 (2000): 233-247. Print. Redsicker, Paricia. “5 Social Media Trends for 2014: New Research.” Social media examiner. Social Media Examiner, 17 February 2014. Web. 21 April 2014. Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Ikujiro Nonaka. "The new new product development game." Harvard business review 64.1 (1986): 137-146. Print. Weiss, Kenneth. “Mobile payments, digital wallets and tunnel vision.” Biometric Technology Today (2011): 8-9. Print. Read More