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You are a marketing executive with a major computer manufacturer

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You are a marketing executive with a major computer manufacturer. Your company is not as large or as well known as IBM or Dell, but it sells a quality product line that can stand up to anything these better known competitors can offer. After years in the shadows of these name brand companies, you and your colleagues believe you are positioned to capture a significant share of the market with your latest line of products. Your job is to develop the marketing strategies that will make it happen.

You were taught in business school a decade ago that effective marketing strategies include mass marketing, product standardization (e.g. McDonald's burgers), media advertising, and store retailing. But the Internet barely existed when you were in business school. Since then, the growth of the Internet has created a "New Economy" where manufacturers can now directly market their products to any customer with a computer and an internet hookup. As a result, brick-and-mortar retail sellers are being shouldered aside by "click-only" sellers like amazon.com and "click-and-mortar" sellers like PetSmart and Staples. You realize that much of what you learned about marketing in school only ten years ago is rapidly becoming outdated as a result of the Information Revolution.

Your competitors are quickly altering their marketing strategies to meet the realities of the New Economy. Some of them, like Dell, direct market to customers without a retail organization. Others, such a Hewlett Packard, are developing hybrid strategies that include both Internet and retail outlet selling. Your job is to keep pace with them without alienating the brick-and-mortar retailers that your company currently depends on to sell most of its products. You need to integrate what you already know of marketing strategies and methods with the unique opportunities, adaptations, and challenges posed by the Internet.

You are a member of a team that has been assigned to develop marketing strategies for B&H Incorporated's home office computing product lines:
? Desktop PCs
? Notebook computers
? Handheld minicomputers
Choose one of these product lines and describe how you would market the product to any three of the following groups:
? Yourself
? Your parents
? Your children or,
? Your grandparents
Decide whether it would be best to:
? Target all three generational groups
? Specialize on one group
Explain your decision. If you select the option to specialize on one group, identify the group and explain why you selected it.

As you prepare and write this Task, remain in the hypothetical role of a marketing executive for the computer manufacturing company. Develop a 2 page paper (use APA format - not MS Word Memorandum or Report style - include a cover page, abstract page, and references page, which means this assignment requires a minimum of 4 - 5 total pages) that addresses the following points:

Choose one of the company's product lines (i.e., Desktop PCs, Notebook Computers, and Handheld Mini-Computers) and describe how you would market the product to any three of the following groups: Yourself, your parents, your children, or your grandparents

Decide whether it would be best to target all three generational groups or specialize on one group. Explain your decision. If you select the option to specialize on one group, identify the group and explain why you selected it.