The Marketing Game and Business - Research Paper Example

Marketing Game Report. Introduction: Marketing game is an “existing” area; wherever you study regarding a circumstances, assess chances, build up a plan and create marketing preparation choices. It helps to acquire habitual criticism or a feedback in a statement that sum-up market results and connect monetary outcome. It is to be made on the basis of the plan and competitors’ judgments. The challenges faced by this helps to enhance the marketing game repot. The Marketing Game provides exclusive learning benefits contrasted to any of the other learning methods such as understanding book and editorials, lectures, visitor lecturer, case study, appearance etc. “ The Marketing Game is a competitive marketing strategy simulation that allows students the opportunity to apply their marketing knowledge in a fun and interesting way. The Marketing Game is applicable for all areas of Marketing and all levels because the game is not based on just one simulation.” (Mason & Perreault 2001). The current industry is a software company and the company adopts the computer based simulation 'The Marketing Game' to enhance the knowledge. It is a lively method like the majority industry circumstances. Also, it highlights the requirement for integrative development on the basis of both qualitative as well as quantitative study of the marketplace atmosphere. The product should be aimed on the basis of needs and wants as well as the segmenting measurements of the customer. The main focuses of the market game are Marketplace study, Rivalry, Strategy, Execution of the promotion strategy and financing and earning income. Procedure of Marketing Game: The procedure of marketing game consists of the following areas: Examination of marketplace circumstances/occasions Scheduling and budgeting Create marketing arrangement choice. Submit arrangement choice. The market game model. Business information’s returned to industry. Business Environment: Market analysis is an important part in the arrangement of marketing game in a software company. The situation analysis helps in analyzing the conditions of the industry. Customers, competitors, costs, trends etc are some of the factors that are considered while performing the market analysis of software industry. Market enlargement, technical atmosphere, competitive atmosphere etc. are some of the critical factors pertaining the software industry. Due to the changes in the technical atmosphere; annual review cycle is essential for every industry. So that the computer based simulation marketing game is essential to give proper teaching as well as guidelines about up to date trend in the market. The Marketing Game is relevant for all parts of Marketing and all the stages for the reason that the market game is not the basis of merely a single simulation. The type of competition in the software industry depends on organizations own decision. Distribution canals of the software are mainly through the normal way as well as through reduction dealers. This is mainly because various segments are pertaining in the software company. These segments consisting of people have various preferences for purchasing the products. All the three firms used these two channels for distributing the products. The consumer’s preferences examination: Students This chart helps to understand the type of products chosen by each of this segment. Also, the way each of this segments become similar or dissimilar is also considered. Competitor’s analysis helps to understand and estimate the donation of each of the other three competitors. Also, it helps to understand and examine the precedent approach as well as possible changes. So, it will help to assess the position and target sections of the software company. “It has become practically impossible to keep track of the total games market by “top-down” estimates, traditionally based on retail sales or turnover of large players. To be able to include key parts of the market such as second-hand trade, digital distribution and online spending, the data in the Newzoo Games Market Report is based on a “bottom-up” approach, asking consumers directly.” (Newzoo games market report/key platform and business models, 2009). The marketing mix plays an important part in the marketing game plan. “The marketing mix is probably the most famous marketing term. Its elements are the basic, tactical components of a marketing plan.” (Marketing mix: What is marketing mix, 2010). The marketing mix in the marketing plan is critical to the marketing game plan. “a marketing plan will act as your game plan to make more money or save money than previous marketing efforts for the company.” (Parmerlee 2000, p.103). Target segments to serve “the marketing plan identifies the target market for the firm’s products.” (Kurtz, Mackenzie & Snow 2009, p.79). Target markets can be easily determined by the industry segment and size. “software‘s sales plan is based on the company’s understanding of the market place.” (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel 2008, p.59). Therefore, the data collected should be appropriate to the percentage of people that can be targeted, the target institutions etc. It is also necessary to identify what approaches the firm needs to create new target markets. It is also necessary to formulate policies so that customer satisfaction can be maximized. (Aligning sales, marketing, & product, 2003, p.3). Today, software is used in all businesses. “Target marketing says that a marketing mix is tailored to fit some specific target customers.” (Perreault 2010, p.37). The main segments which our firm 3 of the software industry E focuses are mainly the education and the working department. Software is needed to enhance the knowledge of both the departments. The main targeted segments of our Firm 3 are: The managers who use high and advanced technology The students pursuing career through the use of software Parents of children who are using software The professional institutions which are conducting research on the development of new software The educational institutions The organizations using software for all purposes like Firms which are doing E- recruitment, E-Filing etc. The home users like housewives, elderly people and children who use thr software to play computer games etc. As depicted in Fig. 1 In the target market sector, the accounts data revealed that the educational institutions and the organizations were generating immense revenue to the firm. Therefore, new types of software products should be developed that suits the requirements of these people. The home users and the parents of the children who are doing software courses are the least contributors in the target market. The marketing mix for the product determines the marketing game plan. Product: “When an organization introduces a product into a market they must ask themselves a number of questions. 1. Who is the product aimed at? 2. What benefit will they expect? 3. How do they plan to position the product within the market? 4. What differential advantage will the product offer over their competitors?” (Product strategies, n.d.). Products include the office applications like the word processors, the excel or the spreadsheet functions, the operating windows Internet Explorer, the database management system, new browsers and the latest accounting software like the Oracle, the Tally, the SAP system networking Products such as TCP/IP. The market effectiveness report discusses the software industry’s market demand and the competitive index that the competitors have. A brand is the name by which the customer recognizes a specific product .A specific brand adds specific values to the product’s features. “Brand Awareness is the proportion of target customers that recall a brand. Brand awareness is a common measure of marketing communications effectiveness.” Marketing mix Brand description Brand strength Competitive advantage Market power Brand value Added value Profit.” (Piotraschke 2008, p.7). The market analysis for the software industry can be done using various research methodologies. Branding results in a lot of advantages to Firm 3 because the brand name differentiates its products from other competitive software firms at a very early stage in the market cycle. In the software industry since there are various products and different product categories, the role of branding plays an important role. In the personal computer software’s business, products were classified mainly into office applications like the word processors, the excel or the spreadsheet functions, and the operating windows system. But, the advents of new categories like the Internet Explorer, the Database Management System, new browsers and the latest accounting software like the Oracle, the Tally, the SAP system etc needs the classification of products into the appropriate categories. So, when new software product is introduced; then either the product can be classified into a new category or the product can be added in the existing category. For creating its own separate brand image, the firm can create a new product and add it into a new category. The advantage for Firm 3 is that when the product is introduced as a new category; then the firm is the market head in the software industry for the new product and can create its own category. The firm will be having all the market advantages and the competitive advantages because this firm is the market organizer of the product. But, the disadvantage is that the total software market in the industry would be having huge expectations from the Firm to further introduction of new products. Since the firm has introduced the product; it is the leader in the market and so it has to answer to all the consumer queries regarding the product and therefore it has got a market obligation. When it is found that an appropriate branding has resulted in capturing the market and the product has established itself in the market; then the firm can stop playing the marketing game and can shift its focus to its rapidly increasing productive market like the case of “Shortly after VisiCalc was introduced, when it was clear the product was a hit, the company stopped marketing games and shifted its emphasis to the burgeoning office productivity market.” (Infoworld 1984, p.49). The need of the marketing game is that the firm will have several products and therefore it is necessary to take care of the customers of all the individual product lines. “Too many software companies are aggrieved by the misalignment of product direction, marketing messages, and what the sales force is actually selling.” (Aligning sales, marketing, & product, 2003, p.2). The consequences that the software firms face as a result is that the customers are not happy and the sales get cancelled. In the marketing game, the role of salesman is very big as they are the generators of business. Our networking variants of TCP/IP had a huge market among the net workers because of its product features like compatibility and its fast performance. “The three product attributes that will drive the business are level of service, usability and clear return on purchase price.” (Perreault 2010, 56). Place –place in the product mix involved all the decisions that need to be incorporated in order to make it available to customers. The target place chosen was mainly educational institutions and organizations. Middlemen were less used in the distribution channel. Only in the global market the middlemen were used. In the local market the middlemen were not used. The firm follows a short channel of distribution and so there are no weak points. But, the limitation in this type of arrangement is with respect to the bulk orders in the globalized markets. Price – pricing was fixed according to the price model theory which the firm had been following for years. The price of the different products was established according to their utilities like the accounting software’s price range, the HR software’s varying price range. The Operating Systems belonged to a separate price category. The pricing model was focused on long term profits for the firm rather than short term earnings. The price were fixed after considering the research, the development costs of the software, the marketing costs involved etc. The prices of our products were listed on the website so that customers have an idea about the product prices before they directly approach us. This strategy was successful for the firm and we consider that it is the reason for a huge amount of direct sales of around 60%. As compared to our competitors, we believe our pricing strategy is the best because we rate our software products reasonably because” too low a price may put people off from buying your software, making them think it's cheap and doubt its quality. Of course, too high a price may also put people off.” (Pricing your software, 2006). Our pricing framework when correctly practiced increases the sales of the firm. Our price framework is to “convert intrinsic values of software products into economic worth for the company. The framework begins with the corporation’s strategy: what are its goals and how can pricing be complementary to them.” (Kittlaus & Clough 2009, p.123). There is a software pricing manager who is in-charge of pricing the software products. Products such as TCP/IP were charged on a little premium basis but this did not affect the sales of the firm because the product’s special features matched with the price. Discounts were offered on our accounting software because new and advanced versions of Tally were being launched by our competitors. 10% premium on TCP/IP software 15% discount on the accounting software – Tally The Pricing strategy was also different for organizations and educational institutions and home users. Strategy Educational Institutions Organizations Purchase options Can avail the specific software by installing for a short period of time will have to buy the software Pricing conditions priced according to the time limit they will be using the software The sale price of the software Pricing options Could pay in instalments One time full payment. No post dated cheques accepted After review, it seems that the pricing strategy for organizations can little be compromised and they can also provide the instalment system of payment. Pricing is the distribution channel that is taken into consideration while determining the final price of the product. The global market pricing strategy of the firm also has been generating huge profits so the global pricing strategy is also satisfactory. Promotion: In the promotion costs, there were mainly advertising costs, the salary and the commission expense of the sales personnel. “Promotion deals with the various methods of promoting a product, a brand, or company and includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, personal selling and branding.” (Kang, Sugumaran & Park 2009, p.94). The main promotion that we have used is advertising on websites, televisions and newspapers. The advertisements on websites were very effective because it proved to be a very effective medium. The advertisements on websites generated around 40% of the revenue in sales and the expenses spent on websites were nullified through the amount of sales generated for the software products. The importance of sales person in the business is immense. A sales person is the face of the company because they are the only employees who have direct contact with the customer. So, the behaviour, talk and dealing of the sales personnel must be very attractive. The research shows that around 60% of the sales came through direct sales. Therefore, the company needed to develop more sales team. A survey was designed on the effectiveness of the sales personnel and the responses were noted. Proper analysis was also done. The firm constituted of 20 salesmen and they were divided into two channels. Channel A was the experienced group and constituted the salesmen who had been in this industry for the past 10 yrs but had no degree in software. Channel B was the group of newly joined people who had trained knowledge in software sales and had a degree in software sales. The net results of both these channels were analyzed and it was found that the records for the past one year revealed the following details: Channel A Channel B Sales Revenue $ 200,000 $ 400,000 Customer satisfaction % 80% 80% Customer loyalty % 80% 65% It was understood that Channel 2 sales group were more effective in terms of sales score in generating revenue but were less effective in securing customer loyalty than Channel 1. But, the customer satisfaction in both the cases was equal. Therefore, Channel 2 seemed to be the most effective as they generated both sales revenue and they achieved 80 % customer satisfaction. Customer loyalty is not always dependent on customer satisfaction. The loyalty of the customer can shift if the customer finds a new product. The loyalty remains the same if the firm is the only one which offers the product or service in the market. Therefore, Channel 2 is more effective in increasing sales and plays an important part in the marketing game of Firm 3. The performance gap in Channel 1 can be solved through the implementation of training. Sales promotion techniques were used to generate sales revenue from the target market of educational institutions. When the firm launches new products, then it should also teach its product to its consumers by effective media like: 1. Press conferences 2. Educational speeches 3. Conducting seminars 4. Conducting editorial meetings 5. Inviting scholars to speak about the new software. This is a new model which can be adopted. Conclusion: In the game plan, the components of the marketing mix determine the product’s development or downfall. Various factors of the marketing mix like the product, pricing, place and promotion has been discussed and their limitations in our firm has been analyzed. Reference List Aligning sales, marketing, & product, 2003. [Online] ZIGZAG Marketing, p.3. Available at: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:CwiXJg3ZYBoJ:www.softwareceo.com/files/white_papers/AligningSalesMktgProd.pdf+game+plan+marketing+for+a+software+industry&hl=en&gl=in&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjZFEWKXCVE1sUMuI5dOQe08k3XRzLLHZj4jMRJHtCe5qn1a5BzGQSeNn1uqwaByrVJmSAcmM1chUnmzaabGhNnkH0DwvFwBvG6DLKBh_VH5G_7X9e4NOOE2WwcZ0KbujvyCusq&sig=AHIEtbRiq9iN2sgCQnQN0cjY0tLGhKXeBw [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Infoworld, 1984. [Online] InfoWorld Media Group, Inc, 6(27), p.49. Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=xS4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA49&dq=marketing+game+in+software+industry&cd=1#v=onepage&q=marketing%20game%20in%20software%20industry&f=false [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Kang, KC., Sugumaran, V. & Park, S., 2009. Applied software product-line engineering. [Online] CRC Press, p.94. Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=7XO_ghvkpt4C&pg=PA94&dq=promotion+of+software+products&hl=en&ei=_n_qS9DCBIK0rAe11MH1CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=promotion%20of%20software%20products&f=false [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Kittlaus, HB. & Clough, PN., 2009. Software product management and pricing: Key sources factors for software organizations. [Online] Springer, p.123. Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=ZA08TJnu-e0C&pg=PA30&dq=pricing+of+software+products&hl=en&ei=IHXqS8T6HITDrAfJjKn-CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=pricing%20of%20software%20products&f=false [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Kurtz, DL., Mackenzie, HF. & Snow, K., 2009. Contemporary marketing. [Online] Cengage Learning, p.79. Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=lf7VKtZcJlgC&pg=PA79&dq=marketing+mix+in+marketing+game+plan&hl=en&ei=K5DqS5DBKs67rAfxk4npCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=marketing%20mix%20in%20marketing%20game%20plan&f=false [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Lamb, CW., Hair, JF Jr. & McDaniel, C., 2008. Essentials of marketing. [Online] Cengage Learning, p.59. Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=9Kf_O1eI0J4C&pg=PA56&dq=place+in+marketing+mix+of+software+company&hl=en&ei=hIbqS4zMGMu1rAeljPWMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-preview-link&resnum=3&ved=0CFEQuwUwAg#v=onepage&q=place%20in%20marketing%20mix%20of%20software%20company&f=false [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Marketing mix: What is marketing mix, 2010. [Online] Marketing Teacher. Available at: http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_marketing_mix.htm [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Mason, CH. & Perreault, WD., 2001. The marketing game (with student CD ROM) – 3rd Edition. [Online] bookware.com.au. Available at: http://www.bookware.com.au/cgi-bin/bookware/0072513802 [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Newzoo games market report/key platform and business models, 2009. [Online] gamesindustry.com. Available at: http://www.gamesindustry.com/about-newzoo/gamesmarketreport [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Parmerlee, D., 2000. Auditing markets, products, and marketing plans. [Online] McGraw-Hill Professional, p.103. Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=-W1B-0VbQOYC&pg=PA103&dq=marketing+mix+in+marketing+game+plan&hl=en&ei=K5DqS5DBKs67rAfxk4npCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=marketing%20mix%20in%20marketing%20game%20plan&f=false [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Perreault., 2010. Basic marketing 15E. [Online] Tata McGraw-Hill, p. 37. Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=oFSFK5E7XsYC&pg=PA36&dq=place+in+marketing+mix+of+software+company&hl=en&ei=hIbqS4zMGMu1rAeljPWMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=place%20in%20marketing%20mix%20of%20software%20company&f=false [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Piotraschke, F., 2008. Brand portfolio management, basic principles and recent trends shown in context of unilever, a consumer goods company. [Online] Grin Verlag, p.7. Available at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=EGhKVRTeImYC&pg=PA7&dq=define+brand+awareness&hl=en&ei=ESjqS72_M4LBrAez1_GcCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Pricing your software, 2006. [Online] Avangate. Available at: http://www.avangate.com/articles/Pricing-your-software_27.htm [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Product strategies, n.d. [Online] LearnMarketing.net. Available at: http://www.learnmarketing.net/product.htm [Accessed 11 May 2010]. Read More