The Marketing Game - Report Example

Marketing Game Report. Introduction The Marketing Game of speakeasy is an enthusiastic one in the current era. Marketing Game is an “existing” case; 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 connected monetary outcome and it is to be made on the basis of uniformity in the plan and competitors’ judgments. “Marketing is the discovery of what the consumer wants and be able to offer a product that satisfies their needs.” (Marketing game, 2010). Marketing Game Report mainly focuses on: marketplace study, rivalry, approach, execution of marketing mix, sales budget and earning income. The challenges faced by this helps to enhance Marketing Game repot. The Marketing Game provides exclusive learning benefits in contrast to any other learning methods such as understanding book and editorials, lectures, visitor lecturer, case study and appearance etc. Speakeasy is a software company and the company adopts a computer based simulation The Marketing Game to enhance the knowledge. It is a lively method so is like the majority of 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. Procedure of Marketing Game: 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, Execute the promotion strategy, Financing and Earning Income. The Marketing Game is an aggressive market policy imitation that permits students an occasion that is appropriate for their market information in an enjoyable and interesting method. “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 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 Speakeasy. In the industry, Situation Analysis helps in analyzing the conditions of the industry. One of the important factors necessary to consider at the time analyzing the business environment is the estimation rivals net donation. So, it will help to investigate the past plan to lead and assess placing and target sections. Customers, competitors, costs, trends etc are some of the factors that are considered while performing the market analysis of the software industry. Market enlargement, technical atmosphere, competitive atmosphere etc. are some of the critical factors affecting the software industry. Due to the changes in the technical atmosphere, annual review cycle is essential for every industry. So, the computer based simulation Marketing Game is essential for giving proper teaching as well as guidelines about up to date trends in the market. “Competitive analysis, as the name implies, is an exploration of the companies in a given industry sector or market niche that are competing with your company’s products or services for market share.” (Withrow 2006). The Marketing Game is relevant for all elements of marketing and all 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 channels of the software are mainly through the customers as well as through reduction dealers. This is mainly because various segments pertaining in the software company. These segments consist of people with various preferences for purchasing the products. All the three firms used these two channels for distributing the products. The consumer’s prefers examination: Students This chart helps to understand the type of product chosen by each of this segment and in what way each of this segment will be alike and dissimilar etc. Competitor’s analysis helps to understand and estimate the donation of the each of the other three competitors. It also helps to understand and examine precedent approach as well as possible changes. So, it will help to assess 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, 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.” (What is the 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.” (What is the marketing mix? 2010). 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 & McDanierl 2008, p.59). Therefore, the data collected should be appropriate as to how much percentage of people can be targeted, what are the target institutions etc. It is also necessary to identify the 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: Managers who use high and advanced technology 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 Organizations using software for all purposes like firms which are doing E- recruitment, E-filing etc. Home users like the housewives, the elderly people, the children who use 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 product software should be developed which 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 product life cycle of a product comprises of four stages. They are; the introductory stage, the growth stage, the maturity stage and the decline stage. Every product goes through all these four stages of life. “This sequence is known as the product life cycle and is associated with changes in the marketing situation, thus impacting the marketing strategy and the marketing mix.” (Marketing: The product life cycle, 2010). The products like the office applications are in the growth stage while the latest accounting software is in the introductory stage with the development of new products on a daily basis. When the office application software was first introduced; the first invention was Notepads and WordPad. But with the new development of Microsoft Word, the Notepads and the WordPad got into the decline phase. Similarly, the office application software like the spreadsheet was mainly created for calculation purposes and had a very good calculative capacity. So the product is still in its growth stage with the designing of new formulas which can be used for projects. For example, the accounting software Tally was first launched with the version 6. But, with extra capabilities the newer versions like Tally 7.5 and the latest of Tally 9 were introduced. In these cases, the product life cycle of Tally 6 declines with the introduction of the latest models like Tally 9. This implies that Tally 6 is in the declining life cycle and Tally 9 is in the development stage. Similarly, the latest networking products such as TCP/IP are the latest discoveries and are therefore in the growth stage. Our product; especially the accounting software, are not generating enough revenue for the firm but the networking business or the internet business with the Outlook express has been generating immense revenue and therefore the high sales are being targeted for these products. Similarly, the turnover of the sales in these product sectors has been immense. Therefore, the networking products like the Internet and E- mails and the office application like the Ms Word, Spreadsheet and the Database Management System is in the growth stage. The products like accounting software are in the declining stage as compared with our competitors. 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 applications like the Word Processors, Excel or the Spreadsheet functions, Internet Explorer, Database Management System, new browsers and the latest accounting software like Oracle, Tally, the SAP system and 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 the specific product .A specific brand adds specific values to the product’s features. 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, Excel or the spreadsheet functions. 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 and the SAP system needs the classification of products into the appropriate categories. So when new product software is introduced, 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, 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 becomes the top competitors 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 as 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 introduce 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 creating a market obligation. When it is found that the 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. The consequences that the software firms face as a result is that the customer dissatisfaction and the cancellation of sales deal. In the Marketing Game, the role of salesman is very big because they are the generators of business. Our networking variant of TCP/IP had a huge market among networkers because of its product features like compatibility and fast performance. Place –place in the product mix involves 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. 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 – the pricing was fixed according to the price model theory which the firm had been following for years. The prices of different products were established according to their utilities. 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 prices were fixed after considering the research and development costs involved, the development costs of the software, the marketing costs involved etc. The prices of our products were listed on the website so that the customers have an idea about the product prices before they directly approach us. This strategy has worked for the firm and we consider that it is the reason for the direct sales of around 60%. As compared to our competitors, we believe that our pricing strategy is the best because we rate our software products reasonably “too low a price may put people off from buying your software, making them think its 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 Promotion – in the promotion costs; there were mainly advertising costs, the salary and the commission expense of the sales personnel. 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 behavior, talk and dealing of the sales personnel must be very attractive. The research shows that around 60% of sales came through the direct sales. Therefore, the company needed to more develop its sales team. A survey was designed on the effectiveness of the sales personnel and the responses were noted. Proper analysis was done. The firm constitutes 20 salesmen and they were divided into two channels. Conclusion In the game plan report the components of the marketing mix determines 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 have 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]. 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 16 May 2010]. Lamb, CW., Hair, JF. & McDanierl, 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 16 May 2010]. Marketing game, 2010. [Online] Oppapers.com. Available at: http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Marketing-Game/112827 [Accessed 16 May 2010]. Marketing: The product life cycle, 2010. [Online] QuickMBA. Available at: http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/product/lifecycle/ [Accessed 16 May 2010]. Mason, C. & Perreault, W Jr., 2001. The marketing game with student CD-ROM. [Online] McGraw-Hill Education. Available at: http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0071150463.html [Accessed 16 May 2010]. Newzoo games market report, 2009. [Online] gamesindustry.com. Available at: http://www.gamesindustry.com/about-newzoo/gamesmarketreport [Accessed 16 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 16 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]. 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]. What is the marketing mix? 2010. [Online] Marketing Teacher. Available at: http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_marketing_mix.htm [Accessed 16 May 2010]. Withrow, J., 2006. Competitive analysis: Understanding the market context. [Online] boxesandarrows. Available at: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/competitive_analysis_understanding_the_market_context [Accessed 16 May 2010]. Read More