Fill This Form To Receive Instant Help
Fill This Form To Receive Instant Help
Homework answers / question archive / You are a marketing executive with a major computer manufacturer
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 You realize that much of what you learned about marketing in school only ten years ago is rapidly becoming outdated as a result of the Information Revolution.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.
My comments/suggestions are highlighted in the attached paper.
Few Things which i wanted to point out:
You have decided in the beginning of the paper that although you wish to cover all the market segments, but specifically want to target young people of your age for notebook computers. In the paper, however, very little has been explained specifically regarding the marketing strategy to market notebook computers to young people.
Further, you have also touched on marketing desktop computers to parents. In my opinion, it will be best to touch one product and then chose a target segment. The paper will appear confusing if you will try to chose two different products and then chose to market both the products to these two different segments.
I have expanded few portions on the paper. However, you need to pick up a product, and then if you wish to cover all the segments, write separate sections for each target segment. Although many of the elements of the marketing strategy will remain the same, each segment will need specific input.
For example, if you are marketing notebook to young people, features and technology will play a key role in attracting this segment. Thus, advertising strategy for such segment should be aimed at highlighting the product features, latest technologies,etc.
Similarly, marketing notebook computers to parents and older people will need to highlight USP of the company in terms of competitive pricing, excellent customer service,etc. as older people and parents will tend to be conscious about cost and customer service and not too much bothered about latest technology, styling,etc.
Further, since you are focusing on marketing via internet, you have to write extensively about emarketing techniques, such as marketing via using SEO techniques such as Google's Adwords, pay per click and affiliation programs. Further, you can also mention a paragraph or two about the ease of navigation, security of transactions and other features of the ecommerce portal.
Thus, to conclude, I will advise you to chose notebook computers, specify one or all of the target markets, starting with people of your age and then expanding to include parents as well and then defining typical characteristics of each of these segment and how you should implement strategies to attract each of these segment.
Delete the section on desktop computers in the end of the paper as it is not your focus on the paper. Rather, include more material on marketing strategies for notebook computers.
If you need further clarification, kindly let me know. Hope my suggestion will help to improve the paper. You can turn in the final paper again for grammatical corrections.
