MBA Marketing - Essay Example

MBA Marketing Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Key marketing issues addressed in each article 3 2) Conceptual frameworks that the authors have developed in order to analyze the issues 5 3) Extent to which the two articles relate to your professional practice/ studies 7 References 10 Bibliography 11 1) Key marketing issues addressed in each article There are several contemporary marketing issues that are discussed in the two articles. Marketing communication and the change in consumer behavior in the form of consumer empowerment are two major issues among all. In the first article named ‘Communicating in the new interactive market space’ there are several marketing theories that are discussed. The article is all about the marketing in the era of World Wide Web and internet. The emergence of internet and World Wide Web has redefined the process of communication. As a consequence of this the process of interaction between the organizations and consumers is undergoing a significant change and hence the process of marketing communication has also changed significantly over the past few years. The big question is that how this changed communication would influence the overall marketing concepts. Today internet is utilized as a great medium of marketing. Organizations have been almost forced to use internet as a medium of marketing mainly because of changing consumer behavior with respect to the change in communication process. With the increase in number users of World Wide Web and internet there would be more use of these two as a medium of marketing communication. There are several operational and commercial advantages that internet provide to the marketers. In reply marketers should properly use the platform of internet as there are opportunities of delivering the contents in varieties of ways. The applicability of internet in the marketing communication process has shown that there is huge difference in information and the vehicle that is used to deliver information. According to the discussion in the article, internet is such an agency that enables marketers to integrate different aspects of marketing communication. Marketers can integrate different off line and online tactics with the objective of meeting the overall long term strategic goal of the organization. In internet dominated market place consumers are considered as active participants rather than passive recipients in the communication process. This actually has challenged the functionalist view of communication because today after the arrival of World Wide Web and internet, traditional and hegemonic media has been integrated and converted into a hyper electronic market place where the process of communication between the consumer and the marketer are more dialogic and flexible. Previously marketers are found to be more dependent on some traditional mechanistic communication models and this reflects the fact that there is lack of proper understanding of marketers regarding the future trend of consumer behavior. As a result today marketing practices are very much limited in nature. Both consumers and marketers think that marketing communication is all about the marketing promotional activities that are adopted for a particular product or brand bit it is not true as there are several other aspects of marketing communication which are need to be taken care of. Most importantly with the arrival of new communication mode and platform the concepts of marketing communication needs to be redefined. This article includes a well structured market research where respondents were involved in depth interviews. Perspective interviewees have got letter of solicitations. In some cases respondents were called or e-mailed. As a result it is quite clear that it was a primary market research. The second article named “The internet, consumer empowerment and marketing strategies” is all about the consumer empowerment or more precisely shifting of power from producers to the end customers. According to this article internet is itself a global market place where information regarding products, prices and the distribution of products are available in equal amount (Strauss, Adel El-Ansary, and Frost, 2006) A significant structural change has been observed due to the wide adoption of information technology by both suppliers as well as consumers. In this changed structure competitive advantages could be gained by adopting marketing strategies which are developed focusing on the perception of consumers regarding value and benefits provided to them. Internet has played an important role in changing the consumers’ behavior. Consumers today are more powerful simply because they have more information; as a consequence they are more knowledgeable. In this article consumer empowerment is discussed in the context that consumers are having more authority or power to make the decision (Molenaar, 2002). In an organization employees could be considered as internal customers. If these internal customers are empowered by the business, its external customers would be served better (Werner 1992). Empowering external customers of an organization is a difficult task as consumers are needed to be provided additional value in the form of additional access, content and education (Turnquist, 2004). But suppliers are finding it difficult to control the process of empowerment. The main reason this is that previously there was the concept of mass production which was in favor of customers, but now the concept of mass customization is emerging which is actually favoring customers. This change is found to be inevitable in the internet driven market environment. 2) Conceptual frameworks that the authors have developed in order to analyze the issues In the first article the marketing issues that were discussed, are analyzed on the basis of the primary research that was conducted and on the basis of the findings of this research. This research has helped the researchers to develop some new conceptual framework regarding the issues. According to the researchers the physical interaction between the buyer and seller is not necessary today. This mainly because of the fact that internet has made the process of gathering information easier than it was ever before. It has been found from the responses of the individuals who participated in the research that internet has enabled people to access any information of their choice at anytime from anywhere. They can send information and obtain information through internet in real time that means within seconds information could be sent to or received. Online transactions are faster and easier than traditional ones because in case of online transactions information content of a product or item is transferred not the physical content. Here the product is transferred in its digitized form. But in web enabled business environment evaluation of several products is little complex as compared to previous conventional method. This actually reflects the gap between the completion of transaction and online search. It has been concluded from the research that internet could not actually be considered as a medium which is having active communicational capability but it is very effective for gathering information. As a result marketers must come up with some new ideas, concepts and models of marketing communication. Conventional tools or models would not be effective to get the best out of this new mode of communication. The emergence of World Wide Web and internet has actually forced marketers to reinvent some new key concepts and methodologies. Researchers also have important role to play in this context. Previously they just used to research and report. This way of work should be changed. Researchers should try to find out some new methodologies and provide marketers some new tools which would be effective in the environment of changing consumer behavior. Marketing practitioners must also try to create some new market space. They need to have a clear understanding regarding the consumers’ new perception. It is very important to notice that today products and messages are co created in the process of consumption as a result marketing practitioners are no longer considered as masters of communication. The second article includes discussion on consumer empowerment. Today consumers are more empowered because they have access to more information thanks to internet. As a result of this empowerment marketers need to redesign their strategies which are needed to be focused consumers’ value. In this article main concept that has been critically discussed is consumer empowerment and its effect on the overall business structure. With the emergence of internet, the term “information scarcity” has been transformed into “information democracy” (Sawhney, and Kotler, 2001). It is true that consumers are more empowered but the extent of empowerment would vary with the ability of the consumers. If consumers are capable enough to identify the potentially useful and effective information that would be used to evaluate different competing products and services then they are more empowered than before. Consumers who are empowered are likely to apply their power in the process of selecting suppliers or producers and in this situation quality or the value provided by the suppliers or producers to the consumers would play an important role. Consumers would reject that value propositions that would not meet the desired quality. With the arrival of internet technologies the concept of mass customization has emerged. Online platform has enabled both consumers and organizations to contact directly to each other. People can directly contact the company and place their requirements. So it quite clear that the business environment has changed significantly and to cope up with this change organizations have started to change the direction or focus of their marketing strategies. Today strategies are developed considering the perceptions of consumers regarding value offered by the firm. 3) Extent to which the two articles relate to your professional practice/ studies I was a creative director in an advertising firm named DDB which was located in the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Advertising is one of the most important tools of marketing communication as a result both articles are actually relevant to my organization as well as my job profile. Typical role of a creative director include generating creative concepts and ideas for meeting the marketing requirements of the customer, undertaking creative research on the content of the project, maintaining healthy relation with the copywriter, producing storyboards or sketches or comps or roughs with the purpose of communicating ideas to the customers etc. (AIGA Jacksonville, n.d.). Theories and concepts that are discussed in these two articles are very relevant in the context of my task as well as my organization. Being a creative director my job was to come up with new innovative ideas and concepts of advertising and make the process of marketing communication for the clients of my company more attractive and effective. I was responsible for preparing attractive looking graphics which would be effective in promoting the product in the platform of World Wide Web and internet. The Internet has obviously made my job easier as I get almost all the required information from the internet. Internet has facilitated the communication process between me and my client. Thanks to internet I get all the specific requirements at the right time from my clients. This information enables me to create the design of the graphics or the entire communication program in a better way. Several software are required to create any new graphics. I used to get this software from the internet only provided they were free available in the online market. Even if they were not free available I used purchased them through online transactions. After creating product I had to make others understand how this would promote the concept or the product and where this should be mainly marketed. Internet has made consumers more empowered as they can access most of their desired information from internet. Today they are enabled to evaluate any service or product with more accuracy as they can have a clear idea regarding the products and services offered by all the companies. They can easy identify which one to select and which one to reject. Consumers are enabled to customize their product or service as they can directly contact to the organizations with the help of internet. Being a creative director of an advertising firm I also have to meet all the instructions or specifications that are provided by the customers. Since customer would evaluate my company on the basis of the value propositions, my job involved more responsibility as I was involved in creating all the value added services. Since I was part of an advertising company, I found that first article is more relevant to my profession. Advertising is an important component of marketing communication and creativity is the key element of any advertisement. A creative director is responsible for taking care of all the creative aspects of any advertising. But in internet dominated market place communication has become more flexible. Traditional communication models or tools are no longer effective in this changed environment. In today’s environment which is dominated by internet, product or brands could be promoted in various ways. In new marketing communication strategy a special graphic or look could be the main catching point. In these cases my role was perhaps the most important. Both offline and online communication strategies are needed to be properly integrated in order to achieve the long term strategic goals of the organization (Coupey, 2001). Advertising companies basically work on behalf of any other organization which has outsourced its promotional program. So the advertising agency or company always needs to focus on the long term strategic goals of its client while making an advertising program. Being a creative director I was part of this program, as a result I also had to focus on the strategic objective while developing any creative content. References AIGA Jacksonville, No Date, Description, Associate Creative Director, [Online] Available at: http://www.aigajacksonville.org/employment/jobs-available/associate-creative-director/ [Accessed on January 19, 2010] Coupey, E. 2001, Marketing and the Internet: Conceptual Foundations, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Molenaar, C. 2002, The Future of Marketing: Practical Strategies for Marketers in the Post-internet Age, Financial Times, Prentice-Hall, London. Strauss, J., Adel El-Ansary, A. and Frost, R. 2006, e-Marketing (4/E), Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Sawhney, M. and Kotler, P. 2001, “Marketing in the age of information democracy”, in Iacobucci, D. (Ed.), Kellogg on Marketing, Wiley, Varey, R.J. 2002, Marketing Communication, Principles and Practice, Routledge, London Werner, M. 1992, “The great paradox: responsibility without empowerment”, Business Horizons, September-October. Bibliography Haugtvedt, C. P. Machleit, K. A. 2005, Yalch, R. Online consumer psychology: understanding and influencing consumer behavior ..., Routledge Maccoby, M. 1999, “Rethinking empowerment”, Research Technology Management, Vol. 42 No. 4, available at: www.maccoby.com/Articles/ReThinkingEmpowerment.html Shimp, T. A. 2008, Advertising Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, Cengage Learning Turnquist, C. 2004, “VP value chain services, Syntegra and Stan Elbaum, VP”, Strategic Solutions, Aberdeen, available at: www.retailsystems.com/index Read More