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SIKKIM MANIPAL UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF DISTANCE EDUCATION ASSIGNMENT SEMESTER 2 FULL NAME ROLL NUMBER LEARNING CENTER SUBJECT NAME SUBJECT CODE BOOK ID MODULE NO : Galchar Pankaj N : 521113886 : 1771 : Marketing Management : MB0046 : B1135 : SET

DATE OF SUBMISSION AT THE LEARNING CENTRE : 19-June-2012 FACULTY SIGNATURE :

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Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester 2nd MB0046 Marketing Management -4 Credits Assignment Set- 2

Q 1. What do you mean by marketing functions? Briefly explain the important marketing functions. Ans:
Introduction Marketing is one activity which all of us seem to observe around us. Any time you try to buy something, marketing has a role to play. It is often viewed by many as being advertising or sales promotion or marketing research. But it is a concept much larger than any of them or all of them put together. Marketing consists of all those activities designed to create exchanges which satisfy human or organizational needs or wants in a way that brings profit for the firm. It performs the task of both identifying and satisfying customer needs. This helps business enterprises in anticipating customer demand and creating satisfied customers through conception, production, promotion and physical distribution of goods and services. No example can better illustrate this than the popular mobile phone. The need to communicate from anywhere to anywhere gave way to a portable device without the requirement of wires. This unit deals with the meaning, importance and functions of marketing. You will be able to read in some detail the earlier concepts of marketing under which companies have been conducting marketing activities and the modern concepts which are now being used are explained in detail. Functions of Marketing :The delivery of goods and services from producers to their ultimate consumers or users includes many different activities. These different activities are known as marketing functions. Different thinkers have described these functions in different ways. Some of the most important functions of marketing are briefly discussed below:1. Marketing Research and Information Management Marketers need to take decisions scientifically. Marketing research function is concerned with gathering, analyzing and interpreting data in a systematic and scientific manner. The types of market information could be analysis of market size and characteristics, consumer tastes and preferences and changes in them from time to time, channels of distribution and communication and their effectiveness, economic, social, political and technological environment and changes therein. A company can procure such information from specialized market research agencies, government or can decide to collect themselves.

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2. Advertising and Sales Promotion Advertising is a mass media tool used to inform, persuade or remind customers about products or services. It is an impersonal form of communication targeted at a chosen group through paid space or time. Sales Promotion is a short-term incentive given to customers or intermediaries to promote sales. It supplements advertising and personal selling and can be used at the time of launching a new product or even during its maturity period. 3. Product Planning and Management A Marketer should identify the needs and wants of consumers, develop suitable products / services and make them available. Marketer is also required to maintain the product and its variations in size, weight, package and price range according to the changing needs and requirements of his customers. Information available through Market Research helps product management in taking appropriate decisions while planning the marketing efforts. 4. Selling This function of marketing is concerned with transferring of products to the customer. An important part of this function is organizing sales force and managing their activities. Sales force management includes recruitment, training, supervision, compensation and evaluation of salesmen. They need to be assigned targets and territories where they can operate. The salesmen interact with prospective purchasers face-to-face in order to sell the goods. The purchaser may be end customer or an intermediary, such as a retailer or a dealer. 5. Physical Distribution Moving and handling of products from factory to consumers come under this function. Order processing, inventory, management, warehousing and transportation are the key activities in the physical distribution system. 6. Pricing This is perhaps the most important decision taken by marketer, as it is the only revenue fetching function and success and failure of the product may depend upon this decision. Therefore, the decision regarding how much to charge should be taken such that the price is acceptable to the prospective buyers and at the same time fetches profits for the company. While deciding on the price, the factors to be considered are competition, competitive prices, companys marketing policy, government policy, and the buying capacity of target market etc. Importance of Marketing :Peter Drucker, the famous management thinker in one of his classic articles has said Marketing is everything. All other activities in the organization are support services to the marketing strategy that the company pursues. Marketing is important not only to the company but to the consumers and society and to the economy. Consumer stands to benefit from marketing activities. He has more alternatives to choose from, improved and better quality products are available and he is able to buy goods at convenient locations. Thanks to much improved customer service, a consumer is able to complain and expects his complaint to be attended in reasonable time. He can now buy with credit or debit card or cash or on installments. For the society as a whole, marketing is important because it acts as a change agent making people use latest products and improves the standard of living of the people. As we know, the main objective of marketing is to produce products and services for the society as per their needs and tastes, and while doing so it creates demand for these goods and services, encourages using them, thus leading to higher demand and sales. This higher demand allows the company to achieve economies of scale in both production and distribution, resulting in decrease in production and distribution costs which can be used to reduce prices to consumers.

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For a company in any business, marketing is considered to be the most important activity. It helps an organization to keep abreast of changes taking place in the market and consumer tastes and preferences through market research. Based on this reliable data, it responds to these changes by rectifying any drawbacks in its products or changing its competitive strategy. Thus the companys decision- making and planning are not based on just hunches but on sound market information. The firm that follows such practices is sure to prosper under all conditions. Marketing provides an effective channel of communication to the company with its consumers by way of advertising and sales promotion. Marketing thus brings revenue and earns goodwill for the company. Successful operation of marketing activities creates, maintains and increases the demand for goods and services in the economy. It results in the increased level of production. This, in turn, increases the national income, which is beneficial to the economy. Marketing operations require the services of intermediaries such as wholesalers, retailers, transporters, and service provides for storage, finance, insurance and advertising. These services provide employment in large numbers.

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Q2 Define the term Brand Equity? Discuss the components of brand Equity. Ans:
Introduction :Products or services which are offered products and services by one company would face stiff competition from similar/related products offered by others. The extent of competition has only kept rising with time. Over a period of time several tactics, strategies have been developed and adopted to maintain market share and also grow. Some of these efforts have got integrated with the products or services themselves and most have remained in the domain of promotional function. In the last unit you were able to get an insight into the various dimensions of the product. This unit shall take you through the concept and working of brand and branding and how this is an exercise in meeting competition. A brand is a name (Pears, Dove, Cadbury, Colgate), logo (the sign of Reebok or Nike or TATA), or trade mark ( like the term TM seen at the end of aname as in case of Raymond, or a specific design of a package as in the case of coke bottles. Branding is the process of assigning one or more of the above to the organization, its products along with establishing the reasons of doing so throughout the company and communicating it to all concerned. Brand Equity :Brand equity is set of assets linked to a brands name and symbol that adds value to the product or service and/or that firms customer. Components of brand equity: 1. Brand loyalty 2. Brand awareness 3. Perceived quality 4. Brand associations 1 Brand Loyalty Is consumer's commitment to repurchase the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product or service or other positive behaviors such as word of mouth advocacy. True brand loyalty implies that the consumer is willing, occasionally at least, to put aside their own desires in the interest of the brand. This will help organization to reduce the promotion cost. For example, many girls in India use only Ponds products, though competitors products like Fa, Spinz, Cuticura, and Mysore Sandal are present in the market and vice versa. Brand Awareness The number of customers exposed to the brand name. Higher the brand awareness, higher will be the brand equity. Organizations put all the effort in the introduction stage of the product to create awareness among the customers. For example, Xerox Company has huge brand awareness since photocopier machines were introduced by this company and even today photocopies are referred as Xerox copies. Perceived Quality The customer perception about the actual quality level of the product. For example, when a customer purchases Levis jeans he knows that it indicates quality even though there are several cheaper brands of jeans available in the market.

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Brand Associations The attribute of the brand that customer associates with his/ her belief. A person may associate the brand for power, strength or protectiveness. For example, a customer may associate Nike brand not just for sports shoes but also any accessory associated with sports. So, for him, Nike represents sports.

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Q3. Why are marketing channels indispensable? List the function of marketing channels. Ans:
Introduction Distribution of goods or services from the factory or the manufacturing unit to the consumer provides strategic advantage to the company in the highly competitive environment. Earlier people used to wait to get the products but now companies make them available as and when the customer demands. This is an opportunity as well as a challenge to the organizations to provide the right product at the right place in the right time. Companies are also emphasizing on how to reduce the cost in the supply chain. To meet the cost reduction objectives, they are integrating their system with information technology, outsourcing the distribution functions and streamlining the supply chain. Use of technology and corporate interest in the distribution management resulted in the evolution of professional retailing and wholesaling in India. These above factors made distribution one of the important components in planning the marketing strategies Need for Marketing Channels : Marketing channels are a set of independent organizations comprising of the marketing intermediaries who are involved in the distribution of the goods or services from the factory to the consumption points at the right time or even before the time. For example, Haldiram, a company which produces snacks, chats and sweets have two manufacturing locations at Delhi and Nagpur. The products from Delhi will be sent to 25 C&F agents. These C&F agents distribute the goods to 700 distributors, who in turn sell to 0.4 million retail outlets. In the same way, goods reaches to 0.2 million retailers from Nagpur plant via 25 C&Fs and 375 distributors. Consumer buys Haldiram snacks throughout India through these 0.6 million retailers. Marketing channels will have marketing intermediaries such as the retailers, wholesalers, agents, brokers, travelling agents, etc. Some companies do not use these channels. They directly market their products to consumers. For example, Dell computers ask its customers to login to the website, configure their product, and order the same on the internet. Then a general question arises as to why many companies use marketing channels and some do not. In order to answer this question, we need to understand the functions of marketing channels and how they are more beneficial than direct marketing. Functions of marketing channels :1. Helps in Physical distribution: Transporting goods and storing them in the assigned warehouses or godowns. 2. Promotes Communication: Marketing intermediaries promote the companys products. Here channel member provides the information regarding the products and pushes it to the customers. 3. Provides Information: Retailers and wholesalers collect the information or feedbacks from the customers and provide the same to the company or manufacturer. 4. Plays a key role in Title transforming: Marketing intermediaries purchase the goods from the company and transform the title of goods or ownership to the next channel intermediary or customer. 5. Supports Relationship management: Here marketing intermediaries try to understand the needs of consumers, try to match his needs and satisfy them.

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Q4. Explain the different methods methods which allows a media planner to decide budget allocation. Ans :
An offerings budget is a critical factor when it comes to deciding which message strategies to pursue. Several methods can be used to determine the promotion budget. The simplest method for determining the promotion budget is often merely using a percentage of last years sales or the projected sales for the next year. This method does not take into account any changes in the marketor unexpected circumstances. However, many firms use this method because it is simple andstraightforward. affordable method , or what you think you can afford, is a method used often by small businesses. Unfortunately, things often cost more than anticipated, and you may not have enough money. Many small bus inesses think theyre going to have money for promotion, but they run out and cannot spend as much on promotion as they had hoped. Such a situation may have happened to you when you planned a weekend trip based on what you thought you could afford, and you did not have enough money. As a result, you had to modify your plans and not do everything you planned. Other companies may decide to use competitive parity that is, they try to keep their promotional spending comparable to the competitors spending level. This method is designed to keep a brand inthe minds of consumers. During a recession, some firms feel like they must spend as muchif not morehan their competitors to get customers to buy from them. Other companies are forced to cut back on their spending or pursue more targeted promotions. When Kmart faced bankruptcy, they cut back on expenditures, yet they kept their advertising inserts (freestanding inserts, or FSI) in Sunday newspapers to remain competitive with other businesses that had an FSI.A more rational approach is the objective and task method , whereby marketing managers first determine what they want to accomplish (objectives) with their communication. Then they determine what activitiescommercials, sales promotions, and so onare necessary to accomplish the objectives. Finally, they conduct research to figure out how much the activities, or tasks, cost in order to develop a budget. Part of the budgeting process includes deciding how much money to allocate to different media. Although most media budgets are still spent predominantly on traditional media, shifts in spending are occurring as the media landscape continues to change. Mobile marketing continues to become more popular as a way to reach specific audiences. One estimate shows that over one-third of cell phone users were exposed to mobile advertising in 2009 and that 16 percent of the people exposed to mobile advertising responded to the ads via text messaging. Younger people are typically the most accepting of mobile advertising The manufacturers of most major brands plan to use texting and multimedia messages in the future. Mobile marketing allows advertisers to communicate with consumers and businesses on the go. Over half of Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Thai Internet users access social media sites through their phones rather than through computers. While many marketers plan to use electronic devices for their mobile-marketing strategies, other firms may use movable or mobile promotions

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Q5. Define the term direct marketing Explain the different methods adopted for direct marketing Ans:
Introduction Advertisement clutter and large product assortment are posing new challenges. One of the major challenges is how to reach consumer. The indirect media has an influence on consumer but its effectiveness in generating the sales has diminished over the period. Organizations are looking towards interpersonal communications. As we discussed in the last chapter, companies are encouraging word of mouth communication and viral marketing. They are concentrating on enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of their sale force. In this unit, we are discussing the personal selling, sales force management and direct marketing concepts Direct Marketing When the company or organization is involved in marketing activities (usually selling products) without the use of any intervening media or channel, then it is called as Direct Marketing. The company directly sells its products to the final consumer and the consumer is expected to respond immediately or at the earliest. Direct marketing is sometimes called as B2C marketing for example, direct factory shoe sale. Following are the methods of Direct Marketing: 1. Direct mail: It is the most common method used in direct marketing, it involves sending postal mails to the consumers address and consumers maybe randomly chosen or specifically selected as targets. For example, credit card applications forms sent by banks, travel guides or manuals sent by tour operators, free trial packs of products sent by companies, subscriptions offers for magazines etc. 2. Telephone marketing: Telephone marketing is used to sell the product directly to consumer. The growth of BPOs in India fuelled the development of telephone marketing. In the case of BPOs, two types of verticals exist. They are inbound call center and outbound call center. In case of inbound call center, customer is given a toll free number for enquiry and executives try to sell the product to such customers. In out bound call center employees call the customers and sell the products. The expansion of Indian telecommunication industry and its cheapest tariffs in the world attracted domestic sellers to use this type of channel. 3. Catalogue marketing: According to Philip Kotler, catalogue marketing is direct marketing through print, video or electronic catalogues that are mailed to select customers, made available in stores or presented online. The growth of catalogue marketing in India is in a nascent stage. The notable example in this type of marketing worldwide is J.C. Penny. 4. Kiosk marketing: Organizations spreads the information and keep ordering machines called kiosks in the shopping malls and other places. For example, Ambi Pur a perfume company recently organized a kiosk related marketing campaign in the Nirmal life style Mumbai. Company used inflatable as shown in the pictures to attract the small boys. Parents who came along with their children stopped at Kiosk and got the information from the company. The objective of campaign was to create awareness about the product among the target customers.

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5. Online marketing: Marketing the organizations product on the virtual medium using the company websites as selling point or ordering point for the consumers. Sometimes companies use e-mails to offer their products and make a sale to the prospective consumers or even existing consumers. In this format buyers and sellers exchange the products on the internet. Organizations sell their products directly to consumers (called B2C), use trading networks or auction sites to reach new customers and serve current customers (called B2B) and encourage one customer to sell the product to the another customer (called C2C). To do business on the internet, organizations create an effective website, place the ads and promote it online, create web communities, and use e- mail. On the other side of eCommerce, are the problems of profitability and legal/ethical issues.

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Q6. List the important differences between International marketing and Domestic marketing. Ans: Introduction In the previous units our study was focused on how marketing strategies are formulated, implemented and controlled in the Indian marketing. After the globalization and liberalization of the Indian economy in the year 1991, Indian enterprises started facing the competition from the global brands. In this context it has become inevitable for all the companies small or big to analyze the international marketing environment and strategies to adapt to it. The companies which were operating in the domestic market are also aggressively redrafting their policies and strategies to suit the global needs. Companies express their desire to enter into the international market because of the following reasons: 1. It identified potential growth opportunities in the foreign markets for its products. 2. The domestic market is matured. 3. Existing customers demand for the international availability of organizations products and services. Nature of International Marketing Concept : International marketing is defined as The performance of business activities designed to plan, price, promote and direct the companys flow of goods and services to consumers or users in more than one nation for a profit. A company that wants to sell their product in other than domestic market should understand the environmental factors, consumer behavior, market forces and other characters relevant to the international market. After understanding the definition, several questions may arise in your mind like why marketer should go to the international market? And what is the difference between international marketing and domestic marketing? As we discussed in the introduction part, companies enter into the international market to tap the potential, to support the customer requirements or to avoid the unprofitable domestic market. The differences between domestic marketing and international marketing are listed below:

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