Chapter 9 Marketing: Providing Value to Customers

The Marketing Concept

Figure 9.2 "The Marketing Concept" is designed to remind you that, to achieve business success, you need to do three things:

1. Find out what customers or potential customers need.
2. Develop products to meet those needs.
3. Engage the entire organization in efforts to satisfy customers.

Figure 9.2 The Marketing Concept

At the same time, you need to achieve organizational goals, such as profitability and growth. This basic philosophy—satisfying customer needs while meeting organizational goals—is called the marketing conceptBasic philosophy of satisfying customer needs while meeting organizational goals., and when it’s effectively applied, it guides all of an organization’s marketing activities.

The marketing concept puts the customer first: as your most important goal, satisfying the customer must be the goal of everyone in the organization. But this doesn’t mean that you ignore the bottom line; if you want to survive and grow, you need to make some profit. What you’re looking for is the proper balance between the commitments to customer satisfaction and company survival. Consider the case of Medtronic, a manufacturer of medical devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators. The company boasts more than 50 percent of the market in cardiac devices and is considered the industry standard setter. Everyone in the organization understands that defects are intolerable in products that are designed to keep people alive. Thus, committing employees to the goal of zero defects is vital to both Medtronic’s customer base and its bottom line. “A single quality issue,” explains CEO Arthur D. Collins Jr., “can deep-six a business.”Michael Arndt, “High Tech—and Handcrafted,” BusinessWeek Online, July 5, 2004, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_27/b3890113_mz018.htm (accessed May 21, 2006).

Marketing Strategy

Declaring that you intend to develop products that satisfy customers and that everyone in your organization will focus on customers is easy. The challenge is doing it. As you can see in Figure 9.3 "Marketing Strategy", to put the marketing concept into practice, you need a marketing strategyPlan for selecting a target market and creating, pricing, promoting, and distributing products that satisfy customers.—a plan for performing two tasks:

1. Selecting a target market
2. Developing your marketing mix—implementing strategies for creating, pricing, promoting, and distributing products that satisfy customers

We’ll use Figure 9.3 "Marketing Strategy" as a blueprint for our discussion of target-market selection, and we’ll analyze the concept of the marketing mix in more detail in the next major section of the chapter.

Figure 9.3 Marketing Strategy

Selecting a Target Market

As we saw earlier, businesses earn profits by selling goods or providing services. It would be nice if everybody in the marketplace was interested in your product, but if you tried to sell it to everybody, you’d spread your resources too thin. You need to identify a specific group of consumers who should be particularly interested in your product, who would have access to it, and who have the means to buy it. This group is your target marketSpecific group of customers who should be interested in your product, have access to it, and have the means to buy it., and you’ll aim your marketing efforts at its members.

Demographic Segmentation

Figure 9.4

Maybelline and Cover Girl use segmentation strategies to target their predominant consumers: women.

© 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation

Demographic segmentationProcess of dividing the market into groups based on such variables as age and income. divides the market into groups based on such variables as age, marital status, gender, ethnic background, income, occupation, and education. Age, for example, will be of interest to marketers who develop products for children, retailers who cater to teenagers, colleges that recruit students, and assisted-living facilities that promote services among the elderly. The wedding industry, which markets goods and services to singles who will probably get married in the near future, is interested in trends in marital status. Gender and ethnic background are important to TV networks in targeting different audiences. Lifetime Television for Women targets female viewers; Spike TV targets men; Telemundo networks target Hispanic viewers. If you’re selling yachts, you’ll want to find people with lots of money; so income is an important variable. If you’re the publisher of Nurses magazine, you want to reach people in the nursing profession. When Hyundai offers recent (and upcoming) college graduates the opportunity to buy a new car with no money down, the company’s marketers have segmented the market according to education level.Hyundai Motor America, “Special Programs: College Graduate Program,” http://www.hyundaiusa.com/financing/specialoffers/collegegraduate.aspx (accessed May 21, 2006).

Developing a Product

The development of Robosapien was a bit unusual for a company that was already active in its market. Generally, product ideas come from people within the company who understand its customers’ needs. Internal engineers are then challenged to design the product. In the case of Robosapien, however, the creator, Mark Tilden, had conceived and designed the product before joining Wow Wee Toys. The company gave him the opportunity to develop the product for commercial purposes, and Tilden was brought on board to oversee the development of Robosapien into a product that satisfied Wow Wee’s commercial needs.

Robosapien is not a “kid’s toy,” though kids certainly love its playful personality. It’s a home-entertainment product that appeals to a broad audience—children, young adults, older adults, and even the elderly. It’s a big gift item, and it has developed a following of techies and hackers who take it apart, tinker with it, and even retrofit it with such features as cameras and ice skates. In fact, Tilden wanted the robot to be customizable; that’s why he insisted that its internal parts be screwed together rather than soldered.

Conducting Marketing Research

Before settling on a strategy for Robosapien, the marketers at Wow Wee did some homework. First, to zero in on their target market, they had to find out what various people thought of the product. More precisely, they needed answers to questions like the following:

• Who are our potential customers? What are they like?
• Do people like Robosapien? What gets them excited about it? What don’t they like? What would they change?
• How much are they willing to pay for Robosapien?
• Where will they probably go to buy the product?
• How should it be promoted? How can we distinguish it from competing products?
• Will enough people buy Robosapien to return a reasonable profit?
• Should we go ahead and launch the product?

The last question would be left up to Wow Wee management, but, given the size of the investment needed to bring Robosapien to market, Wow Wee couldn’t afford to make the wrong decision. Ultimately, the company was able to make an informed decision because its marketing team provided answers to all the other questions. They got these answers through marketing researchProcess of collecting and analyzing data that’s relevant to a specific marketing situation.—the process of collecting and analyzing the data that are relevant to a specific marketing situation.

This data had to be collected in a systematic way. Market research seeks two types of data:

1. Marketers generally begin by looking at secondary dataInformation used in marketing decisions that has already been collected for other purposes.—information already collected, whether by the company or by others, that pertains to the target market.
2. Then, with secondary data in hand, they’re prepared to collect primary dataNewly collected marketing information that addresses specific questions about the target market.—newly collected information that addresses specific questions.

You can get secondary data from inside or outside the organization. Internally available data includes sales reports and other information on customers. External data can come from a number of sources. The U.S. Census Bureau, for example, posts demographic information on American households (such as age, income, education, and number of members), both for the country as a whole and for specific geographic areas. You can also find out whether an area is growing or declining.

Population data helped Wow Wee estimate the size of its potential U.S. target market. Other secondary data helped the firm assess the size of foreign markets in regions around the world, such as Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Rim. This data positioned the company to sell Robosapien in eighty-five countries, including Canada, England, France, Germany, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Japan.

Using secondary data that are already available (and free) is a lot easier than collecting your own information. Unfortunately, however, secondary data didn’t answer all the questions that Wow Wee was asking in this particular situation. To get these answers, the marketing team had to conduct primary research: they had to work directly with members of their target market. It’s a challenging process. First, they had to decide exactly what they wanted to know. Then they had to determine whom to ask. Finally, they had to pick the best methods for gathering information.

We know what they wanted to know—we’ve already listed the questions they asked themselves. As for whom to talk to, they randomly selected representatives from their target market. Now, they could have used a variety of tools for collecting information from these people, each of which has its advantages and disadvantages. To understand the marketing-research process fully, we need to describe the most common of these tools:

• Surveys. Sometimes marketers mail questionnaires to members of the target market. In Wow Wee’s case, the questionnaire could have included photos of Robosapien. It’s an effective way to reach people, but the process is time consuming and the response rate is generally low. Phoning people also takes a lot of time, but a good percentage of people tend to respond. Unfortunately, you can’t show them the product. Online surveys are easier to answer and get better response rates, and the site can link to pictures or even videos of Robosapien.
• Personal interviews. Though time consuming, personal interviews not only let you talk with real people but also let you demonstrate Robosapien. You can also clarify answers and ask open-ended questions.
• Focus groups. With a focus groupGroup of individuals brought together for the purpose of asking them questions about a product or marketing strategy., you can bring together a group of individuals (perhaps six to ten) and ask them questions. A trained moderator can explain the purpose of the group and lead the discussion. If sessions are run effectively, you can come away with valuable information about customer responses to both your product and your marketing strategy.

Wow Wee used focus groups and personal interviews because both approaches had the advantage of allowing people to interact with Robosapien. In particular, focus-group sessions provided valuable opinions about the product, proposed pricing, distribution methods, and promotion strategies. Management was pleased with the feedback and confident that the product would succeed.

Researching your target market is necessary before you launch a new product. But the benefits of marketing research don’t extend merely to brand-new products. Companies also use it when they’re deciding whether or not to refine an existing product or develop a new marketing strategy for an existing product. Kellogg’s, for example, conducted online surveys to get responses to a variation on its Pop-Tarts brand—namely, Pop-Tarts filled with a mixture of traditional fruit filling and yogurt. Marketers had picked out four possible names for the product and wanted to know which one kids and mothers liked best. They also wanted to know what they thought of the product and its packaging. Both mothers and kids liked the new Pop-Tarts (though for different reasons) and its packaging, and the winning name was “Pop-Tarts Yogurt Blasts.” The online survey of 175 mothers and their children was conducted in one weekend by an outside marketing research group.

Branding

Armed with positive feedback from their research efforts, the Wow Wee team was ready for the next step: informing buyers—both consumers and retailers—about their product. They needed a brandWord, letter, sound, or symbol that differentiates a product from similar products on the market.—some word, letter, sound, or symbol that would differentiate their product from similar products on the market. They chose the brand name Robosapien, hoping that people would get the connection between homo sapiens (the human species) and Robosapien (the company’s coinage for its new robot “species”). To prevent other companies from coming out with their own “Robosapiens,” they took out a trademarkWord, symbol, or other mark used to identify and legally protect a product from being copied. by registering the name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Though this approach—giving a unique brand name to a particular product—is a bit unusual, it isn’t unprecedented. Mattel, for example, established a separate brand for Barbie, and Anheuser-Busch sells beer under the brand name Budweiser. Note, however, that the more common approach, which is taken by such companies as Microsoft, Dell, and Apple, calls for marketing all the products made by a company under the company’s brand name.“2002 Global Brands Scoreboard,” BusinessWeek Online, August 5, 2002, http://bwnt.businessweek.com/brand/2002/index.asp (accessed May 21, 2006).

Branding Strategies

Companies can adopt one of three major strategies for branding a product:

1. With private brandingProduct made by a manufacturer and sold to a retailer who in turn resells it under its own name. (or private labeling), a company makes a product and sells it to a retailer who in turn resells it under its own name. A soft-drink maker, for example, might make cola for Wal-Mart to sell as its Sam’s Choice Cola house brand.
2. With generic brandingProduct with no branding information attached to it except a description of its contents., the maker attaches no branding information to a product except a description of its contents. Customers are often given a choice between a brand-name prescription drug or a cheaper generic drug with a similar chemical makeup.

Figure 9.6

Though the generic brand Fluoxetine has the same chemical makeup as Prozac, it has a much lower price tag.

© 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation

3. With manufacturer brandingBranding strategy in which a manufacturer sells one or more products under its own brand names., a company sells one or more products under its own brand names. Adopting a multiproduct-branding approach, it sells all its products under one brand name (generally the company name). Using a multibranding approach, it will assign different brand names to different products. Campbell’s Soup, which markets all its soups under the company’s name, uses the multiproduct-branding approach. Automakers generally use multibranding. Ford, for example, markets to a wide range of potential customers by offering cars under various brand names (Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin).

Packaging and Labeling

PackagingContainer that holds a product and can influence a consumer’s decision to buy or pass it up.—the container that holds your product—can influence a consumer’s decision to buy a product or pass it up. Packaging gives customers a glimpse of the product, and it should be designed to attract their attention. LabelingInformation on the package of a product that identifies the product and provides details of the package contents.—what you say about the product on your packaging—not only identifies the product but also provides information on the package contents: who made it and where or what risks are associated with it (such as being unsuitable for small children).

How has Wow Wee handled the packaging and labeling of Robosapien? The robot, as we know, is fourteen inches tall, and it’s almost as wide. It’s also fairly heavy (about seven pounds), and because it’s made out of plastic and has movable parts, it’s breakable. The easiest, and least expensive, way of packaging it would be to put it in a square box of heavy cardboard and pad it with Styrofoam. This arrangement would not only protect the product from damage during shipping but also make the package easy to store. Unfortunately, it would also eliminate any customer contact with the product inside the box (such as seeing what it looks like and what it’s made of). Wow Wee, therefore, packages Robosapien in a container that’s curved to his shape and has a clear plastic front that allows people to see the whole robot. It’s protected during shipping because it’s wired to the box. Why did Wow Wee go to this much trouble and expense? Like so many makers of so many products, it has to market the product while it’s still in the box. Because he’s in a custom-shaped see-through package, you tend to notice Robosapien (who seems to be looking at you) while you’re walking down the aisle of the store.

Meanwhile, the labeling on the package details some of the robot’s attributes. The name is highlighted in big letters above the descriptive tagline “A fusion of technology and personality.” On the sides and back of the package are pictures of the robot in action with such captions as “Dynamic Robotics with Attitude” and “Awesome Sounds, Robo-Speech & Lights.” These colorful descriptions are conceived to entice the consumer to make a purchase because its product features will satisfy some need or want.

Packaging can serve many purposes. The purpose of the Robosapien package is to attract your attention to the product’s features. For other products, packaging serves a more functional purpose. Nabisco, for example, packages some of its tastiest snacks—Oreos, Chips Ahoy, and Cheese Nips—in “100 Calorie Packs” that deliver exactly one hundred calories per package.“Nabisco Introduces 100 Calorie Packs as a Way to Count Calories When Reaching for a Snack,” Packaging Digest, July 12, 2004, http://www.packagingdigest.com (accessed May 21, 2006). Thus, the packaging itself makes life simpler for people who are keeping track of calories (and reminds them of how many cookies they can eat without exceeding one hundred calories).

New Product Pricing Strategies

Right now, Robosapien has little direct competition in its product category. True, there are some “toy” robots available, but they’re not nearly as sophisticated. Sony makes a pet dog robot called Aibo, but its price tag of $1,800 is really high. Even higher up the price-point scale is the $3,600 iRobi robot made by the Korean company Yujin Robotics to entertain kids and even teach them foreign languages. Parents can also monitor kids’ interactions with the robot through its own video-camera eyes; in fact, they can even use the robot itself to relay video messages telling kids to shut it off and go to sleep.Cliff Edwards, “Ready to Buy a Home Robot?” Business Week, July 19, 2004, 84–90.

Other Pricing Strategies

In their search for the best price level, Wow Wee’s marketing managers could consider a variety of other approaches, such as cost-based pricing, demand-based pricing, target costing, odd-even pricing, and prestige pricing. Any of these methods could be used not only to set an initial price but also to establish long-term pricing levels.

Before we examine these strategies, let’s pause for a moment to think about the pricing decisions that you have to make if you’re selling goods for resale by retailers. Most of us think of price as the amount that we—consumers—pay for a product. But when a manufacturer (such as Wow Wee) sells goods to retailers, the price it gets is not what we the consumers will pay for the product. In fact, it’s a lot less.

Here’s an example. Say you buy a shirt at a store in the mall for $40. The shirt was probably sold to the retailer by the manufacturer for $20. The retailer then marks up the shirt by 100 percent, or $20, to cover its costs and to make a profit. The $20 paid to the manufacturer plus the $20 markup results in a $40 sales price to the consumer.

Prestige Pricing

Figure 9.7

Luxury goods, like jewelry and watches, are priced based on a prestige approach.

© 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation

Some people associate a high price with high quality—and, in fact, there generally is a correlation. Thus, some companies adopt a prestige-pricingPractice of setting a price artificially high to foster the impression that it is a product of high quality. approach—setting prices artificially high to foster the impression that they’re offering a high-quality product. Competitors are reluctant to lower their prices because it would suggest that they’re lower-quality products. Let’s say that Wow Wee finds some amazing production method that allows it to produce Robosapien at a fraction of its current cost. It could pass the savings on by cutting the price, but it might be reluctant to do so: What if consumers equate low cost with poor quality?

Distribution Channels

Companies must decide how they will distribute their products. Will they sell directly to customers (perhaps over the Internet)? Or will they sell through an intermediaryWholesaler or retailer who helps move products from their original source to the end user.—a wholesaler or retailer who helps move products from their original source to the end user? As you can see from Figure 9.8 "Distribution Channels", various marketing channels are available to companies.

Figure 9.8 Distribution Channels

Selling through Wholesalers

Selling through retailers works fine if you’re dealing with only a few stores (or chains). But what if you produce a product—bandages—that you need to sell through thousands of stores, including pharmacies, food stores, and discount stores. You’ll also want to sell to hospitals, day-care centers, and even college health centers. In this case, you’d be committing an immense portion of your resources to the selling process. Besides, buyers like the ones you need don’t want to deal directly with you. Imagine a chain like CVS Pharmacy negotiating sales transactions with the maker of every single product that it carries in its stores. CVS deals with wholesalersIntermediaries who buy goods from suppliers and sell them to businesses that will either resell or use them. (sometimes called distributors): intermediaries who buy goods from suppliers and sell them to businesses that will either resell or use them. Likewise, you’d sell your bandages to a wholesaler of health care products, which would, in turn, sell them both to businesses like CVS, Kmart, and Giant Supermarkets and to institutions, such as hospitals and college health care centers.

The wholesaler doesn’t provide this service for free. Here’s how it works. Let’s say that CVS is willing to pay $2 a box for your bandages. If you go through a wholesaler, you’ll probably get only $1.50 a box. In other words, you’d make $0.50 less on each box sold. Your profit marginAmount that a company earns on each unit sold.—the amount you earn on each box—would therefore be less.

While selling through wholesalers will cut into your profit margins, the practice has several advantages. For one thing, wholesalers make it their business to find the best outlets for the goods in which they specialize. They’re often equipped to warehouse goods for suppliers and to transport them from the suppliers’ plants to the point of final sale. These advantages would appeal to Wow Wee. If it sold Robosapiens to just a few retailers, it wouldn’t need to go through a distributor. However, the company needs wholesalers to supply an expanding base of retailers who want to carry the product.

Finally, intermediaries, such as wholesalers, can make the distribution channel more cost-effective. Look, for example, at Figure 9.9 "What an Intermediary Can Do". Because every contact between a producer and a consumer incurs costs, the more contacts in the process (panel a), the higher the overall costs to consumers. The presence of an intermediary substantially reduces the total number of contacts (panel b).

Figure 9.9 What an Intermediary Can Do

Physical Distribution

Buyers from the stores that sell Robosapiens don’t go to the Wow Wee factory (which happens to be in China) to pick up their orders. The responsibility for getting its products to customers, called physical distributionActivities needed to get a product from where it was manufactured to the customer., belongs to Wow Wee itself. To keep its customers satisfied, Wow Wee must deliver robots on time, in good shape, and in the quantity ordered. To accomplish this, Wow Wee must manage several interrelated activities: warehousing, materials handling, and transportation.

Transportation

There are several ways to transport goods from manufacturing facilities to resellers or customers—trucks, trains, planes, ships, and even pipelines. Companies select the best mode (or combination of modes) by considering several factors, including cost, speed, match of transport mode to type of good, dependability, and accessibility. The choice usually involves trade-offs. Planes, for example, are generally faster but cost more than other modes. Sending goods by cargo ship or barge is inexpensive but very slow (and out of the question if you want to send something from Massachusetts to Chicago). Railroads are moderately priced, generally accessible, and faster than ships but slower than planes. They’re particularly appropriate for some types of goods, such as coal, grain, and bulky items (such as heavy equipment and cars). Pipelines are fine if your product happens to be petroleum or natural gas. Trucks, though fairly expensive, work for most goods and can go just about anywhere in a reasonable amount of time.

Figure 9.10

Trucks are the primary source of transportation in the lumber industry.

© 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation,U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Commercial Freight Activities in the U.S. by Mode of Transportation (1993, 1997, and 2002), http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs021.htm#nature (accessed May 21, 2006). trucks are the transportation of choice for most goods, accounting for 65 percent of U.S. transportation expenditures. Trucks also play an important role in the second highest category—multimodal combinations, which account for 11 percent of expenditures. Multimodal combinations include rail and truck and water and truck. New cars, for example, might travel from Michigan to California by rail and then be moved to tractor trailers to complete their journey to dealerships. Water accounts for 9 percent of expenditures, air for 8 percent. When used alone, rail accounts for only 4 percent but is commonly combined with other modes. Pipelines account for 3 percent of expenditures. Crowded highways notwithstanding, the economy would come to a standstill without the more than 115,000 (generally small) businesses that make up the U.S. trucking industry.U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Truck, Transportation and Warehousing, http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs021.htm (accessed May 21, 2006).

Creating an Effective Distribution Network: The Supply Chain

Before we go on to the final component in the marketing mix—promotion—let’s review the elements that we’ve discussed so far: product, price, and place. As we’ve seen, to be competitive, companies must produce quality products, sell them at reasonable prices, and make them available to customers at the right place at the right time. To accomplish these three tasks, they must work with a network of other firms, both those that supply them with materials and services and those that deliver and sell their products. To better understand the links that must be forged to create an effective network, let’s look at the steps that the candy maker Just Born takes to produce and deliver more than one billion Marshmallow Peeps each year to customers throughout the world. Each day, the company engages in the following process:

• Purchasing managers buy raw materials from suppliers (sugar and other ingredients used to make marshmallow, food coloring, and so forth).
• Other operations managers transform these raw materials, or ingredients, into 4.2 million Marshmallow Peeps every day.
• Operations managers in shipping send completed packages to a warehouse where they’re stored for later distribution.
• Operations managers at the warehouse forward packaged Marshmallow Peeps to dealers around the world.
• Retail dealers sell the Marshmallow Peeps to customers.

This process requires considerable cooperation, not only among individuals in the organization but also between Just Born and its suppliers and dealers. Raw-materials suppliers, for instance, must work closely with Just Born purchasing managers, who must, in turn, work with operations managers in manufacturing at Just Born itself. People in manufacturing have to work with operations managers in the warehouse, who have to work with retail dealers, who have to work with their customers.

If all the people involved in each of these steps worked independently, the process of turning raw materials into finished Marshmallow Peeps and selling them to customers would be inefficient (to say the least). However, when everyone works in a coordinated manner, all parties benefit. Just Born can make a higher-quality product at a lower cost because it knows that it’s going to get cooperation from suppliers whose livelihood, after all, depends on the success of customers like Just Born: suppliers can operate more efficiently because they can predict the demand for their products (such as sugar and food coloring). At the other end of the chain, dealers can operate efficiently because they can depend on Just Born to deliver a quality product on time. The real beneficiary is ultimately the end user, or customer: because the process that delivers the product is efficient, its costs are minimized and its quality is optimized. The customer, in other words, gets a higher-quality product at a lower price.

Supply Chain Management

As you can see in Figure 9.11 "A Simplified Supply Chain", the flow that begins with the purchase of raw materials and culminates in the sale of the Marshmallow Peeps to end users is called the supply chainFlow that begins with the purchase of raw materials and ends in the sale of a finished product to an end user.. The process of integrating all the activities in the supply chain is called supply chain management (SCM)Process of integrating all the activities in the supply chain.. As you can see from our discussion so far, SCM requires a high level of cooperation among the members of the chain. All parties must be willing to share information and work together to maximize the final customer’s satisfaction.Lawrence D. Fredendall and Ed Hill, Basics of Supply Chain Management (Boca Raton, FL: St. Lucie Press, 2001), 8.

Figure 9.11 A Simplified Supply Chain

Managing your supply chain can be difficult, particularly if your company has large seasonal fluctuations.Simone Kaplan, “Easter in November, Christmas in July,” CIO Magazine, November 1, 2001, http://www.cio.com/archive/110101/easter.html (accessed May 21, 2006). This is certainly true at Just Born. Even though it has a Marshmallow Peep for every season (heart Peeps for Valentine’s Day, spooky Peeps for Halloween, patriotic Peeps for July Fourth, and so on), the biggest problem rests with the standard yellow Marshmallow Peep that provides a major spike in sales each spring. Without careful supply chain management, there would be either too many or two few yellow Marshmallow Peeps—both big problems. To reduce the likelihood of either situation, the manager of the company’s supply chain works to ensure that all members of the chain work together throughout the busy production season, which begins each fall. Suppliers promise to deliver large quantities of ingredients, workers recognize that they will be busy through February, and dealers get their orders in early. Each member of the chain depends on the others to meet a mutually shared goal: getting the right quantity of yellow Marshmallow Peeps to customers at the right time.

But what if a company has multiple sales spikes (and lulls)? What effect does this pattern have on its supply chain? Consider Domino’s Pizza. Have you ever thought about what it takes to ensure that a piping-hot pizza will arrive at your door on Super Bowl Sunday (Domino’s busiest day of the year)? What about on the average weekend? How about when the weather’s bad and you just don’t want to go out? Clearly, Domino needs a finely tuned supply chain to stay on top of demand. Each year, the company sells about four hundred million pizzas (more than one pizza for every man, woman, and child in the United States). Its suppliers help to make this volume possible by providing the company with about one hundred fifty million pounds of cheese and toppings. Drivers do their part by logging nine million miles a week (the equivalent of 37.5 round trips to the moon every week).

How are these activities managed? Dominos relies on a software system that uses historical data to forecast demand by store; determines, orders, and adjusts supplies; fills staffing needs according to expected sales levels; and facilitates the smooth flow of accurate information among members of the chain. All this coordination is directed at a single goal—satisfying the largest possible number of end users.Domino’s Pizza LLC, “About Domino’s Pizza,” http://www.dominos.com (accessed May 21, 2006).

Promotional Tools

We’ll now examine each of the elements that can go into the promotion mix—advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and publicity. Then we’ll see how Wow Wee has incorporated them into a promotion mix to create a demand for Robosapien.

Marketing Robosapien

Now let’s look more closely at the strategy that Wow Wee pursued in marketing Robosapien in the United States. The company’s goal was ambitious: to promote the robot as a must-have item for kids of all ages. As we know, Wow Wee intended to position Robosapien as a home-entertainment product, not as a toy. In spring 2004, therefore, the company rolled out the product at Best Buy, which sells consumer electronics, computers, entertainment software, and appliances. As marketers had hoped, the robot caught the attention of consumers shopping for TV sets, DVD players, home and car audio equipment, music, movies, and games. Its $99 price tag was also consistent with Best Buy’s storewide pricing. Indeed, the retail price was a little lower than the prices of other merchandise, and that fact was an important asset: shoppers were willing to treat Robosapien as an impulse item—something extra to pick up as a gift or as a special present for children, as long as the price wasn’t too high.

Meanwhile, Robosapien was also getting lots of free publicity. Stories appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world, including the New York Times, the Times of London, Time magazine, and National Parenting magazine. Commentators on The Today Show, The Early Show, CNN, ABC News, and FOX News remarked on it; it was even the talk of the prestigious New York Toys Fair. It garnered numerous awards, and experts predicted that it would be a hot item for the holidays.

At Wow Wee, Marketing Director Amy Weltman (who had already had a big hit with the Rubik’s Cube) developed a gala New York event to showcase the product. From mid to late August, actors dressed in six-foot robot costumes roamed the streets of Manhattan, while the fourteen-inch version of Robosapien performed in venues ranging from Grand Central Station to city bars. Everything was recorded, and film clips were sent to TV stations.

Then the stage was set for expansion into other stores. Macy’s ran special promotions, floating a twenty-four-foot cold-air robot balloon from its rooftop and lining its windows with armies of Robosapiens. Wow Wee trained salespeople to operate the product so that they could help customers during in-store demonstrations. Other retailers, including The Sharper Image, Spencer’s, and Toys “R” Us, carried Robosapien, as did e-retailers such as Amazon.com. The product was also rolled out (with the same marketing flair) in Europe and Asia.

When national advertising hit in September, all the pieces of the marketing campaign came together—publicity, sales promotion, personal selling, and advertising. Wow Wee ramped up production to meet anticipated fourth-quarter demand and waited to see whether Robosapien would live up to commercial expectations.

Customer-Relationship Management

Customers are the most important asset that any business has. Without enough good customers, no company can survive, and to survive, a firm must not only attract new customers, but, perhaps more importantly, it must also hold on to its current customers. Why? Because repeat customers are more profitable. It’s estimated that it costs as much as six times more to attract and sell to a new customer than to an existing one.Randall B. Bean, “We’re Not There Yet,” Direct Marketing Business Intelligence, September 30, 1999, http://directmag.com/mag/marketing_not_yet/index.html (accessed May 21, 2006). Repeat customers also tend to spend more, and they’re much more likely to recommend you to other people.

Retaining customers is the purpose of customer-relationship managementStrategy for retaining customers by gathering information about them, understanding them, and treating them well.—a marketing strategy that focuses on using information about current customers to nurture and maintain strong relationships with them. The underlying theory is fairly basic: to keep customers happy, you treat them well, give them what they want, listen to them, reward them with discounts and other loyalty incentives, and deal effectively with their complaints.

Take Harrah’s, which operates more than forty casinos in three countries. Each year, it sponsors the World Series of Poker with a top prize of $5 million. Harrah’s gains some brand recognition when the twenty-two-hour event is televised on ESPN, but the real benefit derives from the information cards filled out by the thirteen thousand entrants who put up from $50 to $10,000 for a chance to walk away with $5 million. Data from these cards is fed into Harrah’s database, and almost immediately every entrant starts getting special attention, including party invitations, free entertainment tickets, and room discounts. The program is all part of Harrah’s strategy for targeting serious gamers and recognizing them as its best customers.Stephane Fitch, “Stacking the Deck: Harrah’s Wants Your Money,” Forbes.com, July 5, 2004, http://www.forbes.com/business/forbes/2004/0705/132.html (accessed May 21, 2006).

Figure 9.12

Customer-relationship management is especially important to businesses that provide services. A concierge ensures that hotel guests are treated well during their stay.

© 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation

Sheraton Hotels uses a softer approach to entice return customers. Sensing that its resorts needed both a new look and a new strategy for attracting repeat customers, Sheraton launched its “Year of the Bed” campaign: in addition to replacing all its old beds with luxurious new mattresses and coverings, it issued a “service promise guarantee”—a policy that any guest who’s dissatisfied with his or her Sheraton stay will be compensated. The program also calls for a customer-satisfaction survey and discount offers, both designed to keep the hotel chain in touch with its customers.

Another advantage of keeping in touch with customers is the opportunity to offer them additional products. Amazon.com is a master at this strategy. When you make your first purchase at Amazon.com, you’re also making a lifelong “friend”—one who will suggest (based on what you’ve bought before) other things that you might like to buy. Because Amazon.com continually updates its data on your preferences, the company gets better at making suggestions. Now that the Internet firm has expanded past books, Amazon.com can draw on its huge database to promote a vast range of products, and shopping for a variety of products at Amazon.com appeals to people who value time above all else.

Life Cycle and the Changing Marketing Mix

As a product or brand moves through its life cycle, the company that markets it will shift its marketing-mix strategies. Let’s see how the mix might be changed at each stage.

The Political and Regulatory Environment

Federal, state, and local bodies can set rules or restrictions on the conduct of businesses. The purpose of regulation is to protect both consumers and businesses. Businesses favor some regulations (such as patent laws) while chafing under others (such as restrictions on advertising). The tobacco industry, for example, has had to learn to live with a federal ban on TV and radio advertising. More recently, many companies in the food industry have expressed unhappiness over regulations requiring the labeling of trans-fat content. The broadcasting industry is increasingly concerned about fines being imposed by the Federal Communications Commission for offenses against “standards of decency.” The loudest outcry probably came from telemarketers in response to the establishment of “do-not-call” registries.

All these actions occasioned changes in the marketing strategies of affected companies. Tobacco companies rerouted advertising dollars from TV to print media. Food companies reduced trans-fat levels and began targeting health-conscious consumers. Talent coordinators posted red flags next to the names of Janet Jackson (of the now-famous malfunctioning costume) and other performers. The telemarketing industry fired workers and scrambled to reinvent its entire business model.

The Economic Environment

Every day, marketing managers face a barrage of economic news. They must digest it, assess its impact, and alter marketing plans accordingly. Sometimes (but not recently), the news is cause for optimism—the economy’s improving, unemployment’s declining, consumer confidence is up. At other times (like today), the news makes them nervous—we’re in a recession, industrial production is down, jobless claims are rising,consumer confidence has plummeted, credit is hard to get. Naturally, business thrives when the economy is growing, employment is full, and prices are stable. Marketing products is easier because consumers are willing to buy. On the other hand, when the economy is slowing (or stalled) and unemployment is rising, people have less money to spend, and the marketer’s job is harder.

Then there’s inflation, which pushes interest rates upward. If you’re trying to sell cars, you know that people facing higher interest rates aren’t so anxious to take out car loans. Sales will slip, and to counteract the anticipated slowdown, you might have to add generous rebates to your promotional plans.

Moreover, if you operate in foreign markets, you can’t focus on solely domestic economic conditions: you have to monitor the economy in every region where you do business. For example, if you’re the marketing director for a U.S. company whose goods are manufactured in Asia and sold in South America, you’ll need to know as much as you can about the economies on three continents. For one thing, you’ll have to pay particular attention to fluctuations in exchange rates, because changes will affect both your sales and your profits.

The Competitive Environment

Imagine playing tennis without watching what your opponent was doing. Marketers who don’t pay attention to their competitors are playing a losing game. In particular, they need to monitor the activities of two groups of competitors: the makers of competing brands and the makers of substitute products. Coke and Pepsi, for instance, are brand competitors who have engaged in the so-called “cola wars” for decades. Each tries to capture market share by convincing people that its soft drinks are better. Because neither wants to lose share to the other, they tend to resort to similar tactics. In summer 2004, both companies came out with nearly identical new colas boasting half the sugar, half the calories, and half the carbohydrates of regular colas. Coke called its product Coke C2, while Pepsi named its competing brand PepsiEdge. Both companies targeted cola drinkers who want the flavor of a regular soda but fewer calories. (By the way, both products failed and were taken off the market.)

Meanwhile, Coke and Pepsi have to watch Nantucket Nectars, whose fruit drinks are substitute products. What if Nantucket Nectars managed to get its drinks into the soda machines at more fast-food restaurants? How would Coke and Pepsi respond? What if Nantucket Nectars, which markets an ice tea with caffeine, introduced an ice tea drink with mega amounts of caffeine? Would marketers at Coke and Pepsi take action? What if Nantucket Nectars launched a marketing campaign promoting the health benefits of fruit drinks over soda? Would Coke and Pepsi reply with campaigns of their own? Would they respond by introducing new noncola products?

The Technological Environment

When’s the last time you went to Blockbuster to rent a VHS tape of a new movie? If you had trouble finding it, that’s because DVDs are in and videotapes are out. Videotape makers who were monitoring technological trends in the industry would probably have taken steps to keep up (go into DVDs) or otherwise protect themselves from losses (maybe even getting out of the market). In addition to making old products obsolete, technological advances create new products. Where would we be without the cell phone, digital cameras, instant messaging, personal digital assistants, LASIK surgery, and global positioning systems?

Figure 9.16

Web sites like iTunes and Amazon.com are now offering customers the option of downloading movies right to their iPods and computers. Do you think DVDs will suffer the same fate as videocassettes?

© 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation

New technologies also transform the marketing mix in another important way: they alter the way companies market their products. Consider the revolutionary changes brought about by the Internet, which offers marketers a new medium for promoting and selling a vast range of goods and services. Marketers must keep abreast of technological advances and adapt their strategies, both to take advantage of the opportunities and to ward off threats.

The Social and Cultural Environment

Marketers also have to stay tuned to social and cultural factors that can affect sales. The values and attitudes of American consumers are in a state of almost constant flux; what’s cool one year is out of style the next. Think about the clothes you wore five years ago: would you wear them today? A lot of people wouldn’t—they’re the wrong style, the wrong fit, the wrong material, the wrong color, or just plain wrong. Now put yourself in the place of a marketer for a clothing company that targets teenagers and young adults. You wouldn’t survive if you tried to sell the same styles every year. As we said at the outset of this chapter, the key to successful marketing is meeting the needs of customers. This means knowing what they want right now, not last year.

Here’s another illustration. The last few decades have witnessed monumental shifts in the makeup of the American workforce. The number of women at all levels has increased significantly, the workforce has become more diverse, and telecommuting is more common. More people place more importance on balancing their work lives with the rest of their lives, and fewer people are willing to sacrifice their health to the demands of hectic work schedules. With these changes have come new marketing opportunities. As women spend more time at work, the traditional duties of the “homemaker” have shifted to day-care centers, nannies, house-cleaning services, and (for those who can afford them) child chauffeurs, birthday-party coordinators, and even family-photo assemblers.Sandra Tsing Loh, “Nannyhood and Apple Pie,” The Atlantic, October 1, 2003, 122–23. The number of gyms has mushroomed, the selection of home office furniture has expanded, and McDonald’s has bowed to the wishes of the health-conscious by eliminating its “super-size” option.

Consumer Behavior

Why did you buy an Apple computer when your friend bought a Dell PC? What information did you collect before making the decision? What factors did you consider when evaluating alternatives? How did you make your final choice? Were you happy with your decision? To design effective strategies, marketers need to find the answers that consumers give to questions such as these. In other words, they try to improve their understanding of consumer behaviorDecision process that individuals go through when purchasing or using products.—the decision process that individuals go through when purchasing or using products. In the next section, we’ll look at the process that buyers go through in choosing one product over another. Then, we’ll explore some factors that influence consumers’ behavior.

The Buying Process

Generally speaking, buyers run through a series of steps in deciding whether to purchase a particular product. Some purchases are made without much thought. You probably don’t think much, for example, about the brand of gasoline you put in your car; you just stop at the most convenient place. Other purchases, however, require considerable thought. For example, you probably spent a lot of time deciding which college to attend. Let’s revisit that decision as a means of examining the five steps that are involved in the consumer buying process and that are summarized in Figure 9.17 "The Buying Process": need recognition, information search, evaluation, purchase, and postpurchase evaluation.

Figure 9.17 The Buying Process

1. Need recognition. The process began when you recognized a need to go to college. Perhaps you wanted to prepare for a particular career, to become better educated, or to postpone going to work full time. Maybe your parents insisted.
2. Information search. Once you recognized the need to go to college, you probably started gathering information about colleges. You may have gone online and studied the Web sites posted by a few schools. Perhaps you attended college fairs or spoke with your high school guidance counselor. You probably talked with friends about your options. Once you let colleges know that you were interested, admissions departments likely sent you tons of information.
3. Evaluation. At this point, you studied the information you’d gathered. First, you probably decided what you wanted from a college. Perhaps price was your number-one criterion, or maybe distance from home. Maybe size was important, or reputation or available majors. Maybe it was the quality of the football team or the male-to-female ratio.
4. Purchase. Ultimately you made a “purchase” decision. In so doing, you focused on what was most important to you. Naturally, you could choose only among schools that had accepted you.
5. Postpurchase evaluation. The buying process didn’t end when you selected a school. It continues today, while you’re using the “product” you purchased. How many times have you rethought your decision? Are you happy with it? Would you make the same choice again?

Understanding the buying process of potential students is crucial to college administrators in developing marketing strategies to attract qualified “buyers.” They’d certainly like to know what information you found useful, which factors most influenced your decision, and how you made your final choice. They’ll also want to know whether you’re happy with your choice. This is the kind of information that colleges are seeking when they solicit feedback, both from students who chose their schools and from those who didn’t.

Influences on Buying Behavior

Did you ever buy something you knew you shouldn’t buy but just couldn’t help yourself—something you simply wanted? Maybe it was a spring-break trip to the Bahamas that you really couldn’t afford. Objectively, you may have made a bad decision, but not all decisions are made on a purely objective basis. Psychological and social influences come into play. Let’s take a closer look at each of these factors.

Advertising

If you’re interested in advertising, you’ll probably start out at an advertising agencyMarketing consulting firm that develops and executes promotional campaigns for clients.—a marketing consulting firm that develops and executes promotional campaigns for clients. Professionals work on either the “creative” side (developing ads and other campaign materials) or the business side (acting as liaisons between the firm and its clients). If you’re new, you’ll probably begin as an assistant and work your way up. You might, for example, start as an assistant copywriter, helping to develop advertising messages. Or you could assist an account coordinator, helping in the management of accounts, including the planning and implementation of marketing campaigns.

Brand and Product Management

Brand and product managers are responsible for all aspects of the development and marketing of assigned products. They oversee the marketing program, including marketing research, pricing, distribution, and promotion. They track and analyze sales, gather feedback from customers, and assess the competition. You’d probably join the company as a brand assistant assigned to a more senior-level manager. After a few years, you may be promoted to assistant brand manager and, eventually, to brand manager. At this point, you’d be given responsibility for your own brand or product.

Marketing Research

Marketing researchers meet with company managers to determine their information needs. Then they gather and analyze relevant data, write reports, and present their findings and recommendations. If you want to get into this field, you’ll need to acquire some skills in disciplines outside marketing, including statistics, research methods, and psychology. You’ll start out as an assistant, but you may advance comparatively quickly.

Supply Chain and Logistics Management

Effective supply chain management is vital to success in today’s business environment. Those who start their careers in supply chain management typically work in one of the following areas: purchasing and supply management, transportation and logistics, operations management, or inventory management and control. If this field appeals to you, you’ll need to take courses in several disciplines: management, marketing, operations management, and accounting. If you want to specialize in logistics management, you’ll be happy to know that many organizations—manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, service providers, and transportation carriers—are looking for people interested in physical distribution. If you want to go into this field, you’ll need strong quantitative skills in addition to a background in business with a specialization in marketing.

Retailing

Retailing offers all sorts of options, such as merchandise buying and store management. As a buyer, you’d select and buy merchandise for a department, a store, or maybe even an entire chain. Store managers display merchandise, supervise personnel, and handle day-to-day operations. Graduates looking for jobs in both areas generally start as trainees and work their way up.

Sales

Many marketing graduates begin their careers in sales positions, often for service organizations, such as insurance, real estate, and financial-services companies. Others are employed in the wholesale and retail trades or enter the manufacturing sector, selling anything from industrial goods to pharmaceuticals. To succeed in sales, you need a thorough understanding of customers’ needs and an extensive knowledge of your product. You should also be able to communicate well, and you’ll need strong interpersonal skills. Bear in mind that experience in sales is excellent preparation for almost any position in business.