International Marketing Management - Article Example

Topic: International Marketing Management Name: Course Name: Date: 1. How does the company create and capture customer value? 2. How does it build customer relationships? Product and Brand Management: Overview Fresh Direct Services employees several strategies to create and capture customer value. One strategy is to carry out proactive brand management . the managent carries out this activity through employment of broad range promotional concepts with a view to enhance the customers’ attitudes and perceptions of particular products. The idea is to ensure that brands of the beverages remain strong in the market while the customers get value for their money. According to Proffesor Kotler (2006), the idea of engaging in product as well as brand management is to ensure that the desires of the customers are aligned and are in line with the experience that comes with the consumption as the brands are associated with certain unique product characteristics . Product and brand management increases the volume sales because customers will routinely make comparison with other products of competing firms. Ideally, the amount of profit generated by a product determines the value of the brand (Percy & Elliot 2007, 125). Another strategy employed by the company to capture customrers’s value is through advertisements. The firm undertakes aggressive marketing product branding so as to attract more customers. Through this the firm has been able change the attitudes and perception of the customers towards a particular brand. For firms to implement this, the management understand that they have to create a favorable environment and wide range of opportunities so as to persuade customers to purchase their products and services. Additionally, the company has been involved in continuous product development, improvements and value addition, more so in the delivery process. The objective of this has been to develop and nurture products , and have them delivered, through a process that that meets the needs and demands of the customers. Building customer relationship is one major strategy that Fresh Direct Servics uses in its marketing. The strategy that the firm uses is built on a customized version of Customer Relationship Management principle. Keeping time has been a major marketing philosophy of the company. Since the company mainly deals with very busy clinets who may not get tme to make personal purchases, it has been imperative that time be viewed as a resources, and its management taken as a means of creating a long lasting customer relationship and loyalty. This strategy has enabled the employees to understand the need and the importance of real time branding in their business operations. This relates to the fact time pressure has created need for customers to respond to adopt a sophisticated product brands that would eliminate inconveniences hence saves time and energy for the customers. Critical Analysis of the Articles The company’s marketing enviromnet is very competitive, based on referral networks,personal experiences and relis more on repeat purchases. Word of mouth, and direct marketing as well as creation of personal relationship with the customers also characterize the marketing environment. The customers also valu quality, and ability to give what is promoised as well as consitency in products quality. To adjust to the market dynamisms, Fresh Direct Services uses sevaerla approaches. Aggressive marketing and emphasizing on quality is another one of such approach used by the company. It is explicit that success of a business organization is entirely dependent on the strength of customer base. Product promotion, an aspect of marketing, is very useful in creating insight about particular products. Strategically, the company uses this concept to send very positive messages about the products and services it offers. This is a persuasive marketing that in the end leads to loyalty and creation of a positive relationship. In persuading customers, the managemnmt of the company take into account the fact that perceptions and attitudes towards a particular product are dependent on the past experience about that particular product. In order to survive in the turbulent competitive business environment, the management also creates a favorable environment that can change customers’ attitude or belief. If a product has not been performing well in the market, there is need to send a message informing the customers of the relevant changes that have been introduced thus making it unique than the products or services offered by the competitors in the market. It is noteworthy that many brand managers have ignored the idea of creating favorable environment to their detriment. Customers should hold accurate view of the products around them. Since most customers do not have time to do research about the quality and the best brands around them, they rely on the messages they receive from the business firms. Impliedly, the company uses a two commucatin system, uses feedbacks to improve their services and inform the customers of the changes. In reference to these messages, customers create pictures in their minds about the brands. Through advertisements, a firm can inform the potential customers on the qualities of the re-branded or new brands. The message delivered by the firm should be credible enough because customers base their response and their attitudes on it. The organizational marketing stretergy is based on consistency and sustainance of the promotions. Consistency is very important in the management of product brand in the market. According to the theory of consistency, customers change their attitudes, beliefs and perceptions towards a product if cognitive consistency prevails. In the modern society, customers associate consistency with good brands and attributes of a firm. Additionally, Gray argued that organization’s success depends on its ability to create sense of customers’ sense of belonging through effective brands. In the modern business environment, marketers should tap into the costumers’ needs and demands to belong to a group. Some customers would like to be associated with a particular brand as opposed to others. In some situation, specific brands have a community surrounding it; hence the customers in the very community associate themselves with those brands. According to Gray (2010), sense of belonging makes the customer to be devoted to be a follower of specific product brand. Some of brand followers will explicitly endorse these products. It is imperative for brand managers to understand the fact that they cannot create space that is a place for all the people in the society. Particular brands should be tailored to meet the needs of particular customers. It is not possible for a firm to satisfy all demographics hence it is important to target a particular group. The author further affirmed that a brand should create a mutual sense of separation between the customers in the community. This helps hone on those potential persuadable customers. In order to successfully capture the minds, attitudes and perception of the customers, a brand manager should determine their potential differences. This aids in declaring the brand’s differences with language and visible tenets. Effective brand management should provide favorable environments where people of different classes interact and belong. For a brand to sail through in particular market, a firm should establish venues for interactions and association that are relevant to the present-day conditions in the community. Notably, as the brand becomes part of the society, it satisfies need to belong and other wide-range of consumers’ persuasion. By using credible like minded messengers, a firm can set up a business environment where many customers get persuaded to buy a particular brand. On the other hand, Sviokla agitated for real-time brand management. He argued that most business firms have failed to realize their objectives because of ineffectiveness and inefficiency. Inefficiency in increases cost of production hence reduction in the amount of profits. For a firm to survive in the competitive environment, then there is need to embrace real-time brand management. Sviokla pointed out on how Martin managed to solve the troubles that the customers had faced by negotiating the deal through iPhone. The evolution of channels like Twitter greatly pushed the internet into real-time. This enabled online conversations to flow nonstop (Sviokla, 2010). The ever changing business environment calls for crafting of messages and information in a new speed. Some business firms have lagged behind because of failure to incorporate the advanced technology into their brands. Advertising is very important in disseminating information about specific brands. In order to realize the benefits of real-time products, firms should develop concepts which allow its customers to become part of brand experience. For example, Tohato’s snack company designed a massively multiplayer online game. This device can be run on mobile phones. When the company launched two spicy snacks: “Tyran Habanero Burning Hell Hot” and “Satan Jorquia Bazooka Deadly Hot”, customers could access the products on the iPhone and could choose the one they consider best for them. From the article, we realize that there is need to develop and nurture products brands at a speed that meets the needs and demands of the customers (Sviokla, 2010). Real-time brand management is one of the most difficult subjects of international marketing. Sviokla revealed that the concept requires qualified and experience brand managers. Many firms have not managed to embrace real-time brands because of lack of lack of marketing reflexes necessary to respond effectively to the real time. Therefore, there exist several implications for the brand managers and the top organizational executives. There is need for brand radar system. This will be used to monitor social media interactions and conversation. Company should be committed to embracing this system because it will enable them strengthen their surveillance capability. Real-time branding implies that firms should be naked to the marketplace. It is a matter of fact that what happens between the business firm and the customers will become matter of global when real-time branding is embraced. For effectiveness and efficiency, a firm should establish a trust bank with their potential customers. Gray pointed out that Virgin America Flight did not incur a lot of losses from the Los Angeles because its customers trusted the company. Companies which have failed to develop trust bank with their customers have incurred a lot of losses in their business operations. For example, United Airlines incurred lost substantial amount of money when it broke the guitar of a passenger. The affected passenger developed a YouTube video where he bashed the services of the company. Since the company lacked good reservoir of good will, it lost great number of clients (Sviokla, 2010). Observations Basing on the two articles, product and brand management is very crucial for the survival of business in the competitive environment. The subject has become a global concept. From the past studies, product and brand management has been intensely adopted in international marketing in the past decade. Despite the fact that the concept has been widely applied, some business firms have failed to integrate their product and brand management efforts. The success of Nestle Company in Australia is attributed to its ability to combined global and local brand. Notably, other commercial entities have incurred a lot of efforts and resources in an attempt to embrace the concept. Their efforts have been fruitless because of poor strategies. They have failed to create conducive business environment where customers can make decisions about the product brands. Firms which have managed to convince customers about their products are blossoming in the international market (Kotler, 2006). Reflecting on my personal experience, product and brand management concept should start of the top management. It is important that every one undertake branding as a personal responsibility. Effective branding strategies do pay off. Critical analysis reveals that many business firms are embracing the concept as an integral part of international marketing (Kotler, 2006) References Lists Gray, P 2010, Persuasion in the Market Place; Belonging to the Brand, Journal of Product Branding http://www.aipmm.com/html/newsletter/archives/000397.php [April 22, 2010] Kotler, P 2006, B2B Brand Management, Springer Publishers, USA, 54-112. Sviokla, J 2010. Harvard Business Review: Real-time Brand Management — Lessons from Virgin America's Hellish Flight http://blogs.hbr.org/sviokla/2010/03/realtime_brand_management_less.html [April 22, 2010] Percy, L & Elliot, R 2007, Strategic Brand Management. Oxford: Oxford University, 123-167. Read More