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Week 14: Micro-marketing and Macro-marketing

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Determining how effective a marketing for an individual firm can be difficult. Companies may not have access to analytics and statistical feedback on marketing campaigns. So marketing campaigns are sometimes viewed as a micro-marketing or a macro-marketing. Micro-marketing are advertising efforts that are focused to a small group of consumers. This strategy has some drawbacks. Sometimes a lack of interest or understanding of the customer occurs. An improper blending of the four ps of marketing sometimes occur here. For example, the overhead cost to create a new product can be passed on to the consumer in a result of higher prices. The failure rate for these products are pretty high. Coca-cola attempted fuse soda and coffee together and it did not go well. Macro-marketing can be more effective. It can save in cost and be more efficient. If your product appeals to large groups of consumers, using strategies that large groups of consumers can relate to. For example, the cost to cr...
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Week 13: Possible Pricing Objectives

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Price is one of the more important principles of marketing. Companies have a flexibility on how they can set their price. A price says a lot to the consumer about their product or service. Businesses should do a proper amount of research when setting their price. When setting your price, three pricing objectives strategies are followed. These are profit, sales and status-quo oriented pricing. Profit-oriented pricing focuses on target return and maximizing profits. A target return objective sets a specific level of profit as an objective. These target return objectives are set by industry standards. Companies like Motorola, may have a 15 percent return on investment. Safeway and supermarkets might shoot for a 1 percent return on sales. Sales-oriented pricing focuses unit sales growth and growth in market share. This does not refer to profit. This is a very popular pricing theory. Managers may believes that sales growth will lead to more profit. To increase unit sales, a company ma...
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Week 12: Different Types of Social Media Content

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Social media is very popular. Many people spend a considerable amount of time on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and LinkedIn. Companies can use social media sites to promote their business. They do this by showing different types of content. Humor,  insider knowledge, lifestyle and customer service. Humor is a very popular form of content. On Snapchat, Taco Bell created a funny "lens" so users could turn their head into a taco. Many companies use this effectively to generate conversation about their brand. Insider knowledge is also useful. On Instagram, a fashion designer may offer followers a sneak peek of their upcoming fashion lines. Microsoft showed on LinkedIn a behind the scenes tour of some of their office space. This information may not be accessible to those that do not follow their page. Lifestyle is another form of content. GoPro does a great job of this. Their instagram page has a "Photo of the Day" that s...
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Week 11: Information Technology Used in Customer Relations/Services

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A business is responsible for many tasks. With the low overhead cost of technology, companies defer some simple customer service task to automation. Customer support, specific product design and step by step processes are used by businesses to increase employee efficiency and convenience to the customer. Customer support can be automated. Many different types of organizations from university libraries to large corporations use this method. These programs are designed to answer simple questions so the salaried salesperson can focus on higher end and specific customer questions. Product customization is a lucrative part of a business. Potential customers can design a company's product that a business can charge at a high margin. With the right software in place, you can custom design a Ford Mustang, put your number on new Nike shoes or many other cool features customers can enjoy. Many customers have negative opinions on your product because they may not be using the product i...
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Week 10: Transportation and Shipping

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In today's world, there are a lot of options for transporting goods from one place to another. A lot of factors such as cost, delivery speed, number of locations able to serve, ability to handle a variety of goods, frequency of scheduled shipments and dependability go in to a business' decision on which method to use. The first option is rail. Rail has benefits such as the ability to handle a variety of goods and can serve an extensive amount of locations. The cost, speed and dependability are all average factors that rail has. Another option is truck. Truck has high cost, fast delivery speed and can serve an extensive amount of locations. It can handle a variety of goods and is very dependable. Many companies across the United States use trucks. Air transportation is also very popular. It has a very high cost because it's delivery speeds are very fast. It has a very high dependency rate and many corporations rely on this mode to operate their business. 
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Week 9: Marketing Mix for Trader Joe's

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Trader Joe's has grown into one of America's top grocery stores. They are the leader among sales per square foot in the grocery retail industry. Although they do not do a lot of external promotion and publicity, they have gained a fan base and a cult-like following. They have done this with an emphasis product, place, price and promotion. Trader Joe's does a great job with their products. A lot of their products are store label brand and are on the higher end of quality. They do a great job with naming their products as opposed to other retail stores. For example, the description for Trader Joe's Cauliflower Tot Casserole is "Golden Cauliflower Tots with Creamy B é chamel Sauce and Shredded Cheddar Cheese." Not many other grocery stores put an emphasis on their company product descriptions. Trader Joe's has 474 physical stores in the United States. When selecting their store locations, they tend to choose strip malls in high-income areas. The shoppi...
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Week 8: New Product Development Process for McDonald's Smoothies

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All restaurants in the fast-food industry are looking for an edge. It is a highly competitive market and restaurants release new products routinely. Some of them succeed with grace and ease. It is like they were meant to be together. Others, such as the Popeyes chicken sandwich, experience speed bumps along the way.  In the fast-food industry, specialization of products is what differentiates yourself from other companies. Chipotle and Chik-fil-a will likely never sell hamburgers. But sometimes releasing new products can expand your customer base and grow an already large company. McDonald's did just that when it released smoothies and frappes. McDonald's went through a development process. Starting with idea generation, screening, idea evaluation, development and commercialization. Idea generation for the new drinks likely came from competitors. Starbucks and Jamba Juice were very large companies that specialized in frappes and smoothies. McDonald's had the ...
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