A Repositioned Target Market for MP3 - Case Study Example

Assignment Two: Product Reassessment The product in the repositioned target market New York as target market It is difficult to immediately supply MP3 across the United States of America. As the product is new and is in its infancy stage, it is appropriate to segmentize the entire US market and target one state or city within the US. The biggest benefit of this approach would be that a particular concentration would be given to the target market and attempts would be made to ensure continued supply and sale of MP3 in the repositioned target market. Keeping this view in mind, the state of New York has been selected as the repositioned target market. However, it will be premature to instantly begin supplying the new product to the repositioned target market as no statistics are available to understand different aspects relating to this repositioned target market. For this objective, following steps have been determined and they will be required to fulfill the required information relating to the new target market. Required types of research needed to reposition the product Population The importance of this target market can be authenticated by the fact that only New York City has population around 19 million (Thomas, 2012). Categorized by age, 22.9 percent of the population is under 18 (Grant, 2012). Population information will assist to develop an effective marketing strategy along with production units. It is important to research on population in which gender ratio, teen and men and women age will be key aspects on which research should be focusing. By researching on this aspect, existing and potential trends in New York population will be highlighted. Based on this information, marketing and production strategy shall be devised and implemented. Income level The state of New York has personal income in 2012 Q1 per capital is $51, 369 (New York State Data Centre, 2010). Aggregate income level should also be researched along with the disposable income statistics. Buying trends and behaviors are largely affected and reflected by the income level. If the income level is increasing, the same can be suggested for buying behavior as the surplus income enables users to make and implement purchases of goods and services. This information will be useful for the MP3 product sale in this area as the income level and buying trends shall represent the existing and potential purchase potential. Music preference Music preference should also be researched. In some areas, the majority of people have fewer tendencies for music and other entertainment segments and they prefer movies instead of listening to music. If the majority prefers to watch movies, they shall be less inclined to listen music. And this may affect marketing strategy and demand of MP3 products. Current MP3 demand and supply situation Current MP3 demand and supply situation should also be researched. Currently, there are different companies manufacturing and selling MP3 products along with different features in the market. The biggest benefit of researching demand and supply situation will be assessing the current gap between demand and supply of MP3 products and services. By knowing the demand and supply gap, it would become possible to devise a marketing strategy and a marketing plan to use that gap by supplying these MP3 products. Methods to increase the adoption rates Discounts Adoption and product acceptance has become a competitive issue for many MP3 producing companies. As the supply of these products are already in abundance and many companies are competing to sell their products. For this purpose, they give and retain effective discount policy in order to sell maximum units of products. More discounts should be offered to the current and potential customers. For this purpose, discounts should convince the customers that they receive below market rates for MP3. At the same time, it is also important that quality of MP3 must not be sub-standard. The sub-standard quality even with the highest amount of discounts would be less effective marketing strategy or method to increase adoption rate of this product. As it is an established fact that the customers do not want to buy sub-standard products even they are offered the highest discounts. Keeping this view mind, it is essential that more discounts should be offered. Christmas discounts and offers The Christmas discounts and important offers should be made on the eve of Christmas. During the Christmas season, the customers have higher tendency to make maximum purchases as many companies reduce their standards and offer more discounts in order to increase demand for their product. This will increase the demand of MP3 and more and more products will be purchased. New Service Component Vivid Color Screen Vivid color screen shall be a new service component that shall be introduced and included in the current features of the MP3. Currently, purchase trends and music choices are considerably changing. As the music lovers wish to use new features, the inclusion of vivid color screen would be in considerable demand. However, it is important that scale of production or inclusion of the vivid color screen should be tested before including these features at a mega scale. For this objective, a few hundred vivid screen MP3 products should be launched for the test purpose and the results should determine whether this new feature should be included or not in the subsequent MP3 products. Distribution problems and solutions Distribution of product to retailers and wholesalers A list of retailers and wholesalers should be made before going to distribute the MP3. For these objectives, different websites, physical locations of retailers and wholesalers should be researched. However, some retailers are reluctant to use new products and the products with the new features as in this case. They contend that the new products and products with new features may not have enough demand and they may face the issue of insufficient sale of product. Keeping this problem in mind, it is important to devise a plan to address this distribution problem. Solution A team should be developed to deal with this distribution problem. The team should be trained before sending toward the retailers and wholesalers. The team members should fully understand this problem while meeting with the retailers and wholesalers. Subsequently, the team members should assure the retailers and wholesalers that their interests will not be compromised and they will be protected. Additionally, if they require additional guarantee and other issues pertaining to obsolesce and faulty products, they should be provided with a reasonable assurance. Timely supply to retailers Timely supply to different outlets remains a major distribution problem. Timely supply is considerably valued in the business world. Many retailers point out that if they do not receive timely supply, they may lose their customer loyalty and reduction in customer base may also take place. Due to this problem, the terms with the retailers and wholesalers may be affected and this could affect the sale of the product. Additionally, this problem could decrease profit margin on product and increase in cost of doing business cannot be ruled out. Solution Timely supply should be ensured at any cost. For this purpose, close coordination between distribution team and the production team should be encouraged and ensured. Weekly, a report should be made mentioning the current demand of the MP3 and the supply level of the product. If the report suggests that the demand and supply of MP3 products has no substantial difference and the retailers and wholesalers receive the product on time and the distribution team is supplying the products without taking any considerable delays, this would suggest that the problem is properly addressed and managed by the distribution team. References Grant, J.C. (2012). Population by State (2012). Available at: http://voices.yahoo.com/population-state-2012-6509478.html . Accessed on 17 August, 2012. New York State Data Centre. (2010). Personal Income. Available at: http://esd.ny.gov/NYSDataCenter.html Accessed on: 17 August 2012. Thomas, G.S. (2012). Population of New York City area reaches 19 million. The Business Journals. Available at: http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/on-numbers/scott-thomas/2012/01/population-of-new-york-city-area.html .Accessed on 17 August, 2012 Read More