P1: Describe how marketing
techniques are used to market products in two organisations.
In this
unit I am going to pick two organisations and describe how marketing techniques
are used to market products in these two organisations. The first organisation
I am going to choose is Nike. Nike is an American multinational corporation
that is involved in the design, development and worldwide marketing and selling
of sporting equipments such as running shoes, tracksuits etc. Nike also sells
accessories and unique footwear that attracts the eyes of so many people
including celebrities. Nike has used various marketing techniques to get to the
stage it’s at today and I am going to be describing what techniques it has
used. My second organisation is apple. Apple is a Multinational Corporation
that is known for the sales and design of computer electronics, computer
software and personal computers. In recent years, apple came out with products
such as I pads, I phones etc. These products became very popular in a short
period of time thus giving apple an upper hand over its competitors.
Marketing technique
is the overall marketing plan that is designed to meet the needs and wants of
customers. There are four main marketing techniques which are: Market
penetration, market development, product development and Diversification.
Market
penetration: This is an activity that an organisation takes in order to
increase the market share of an existing product or promoting a new product.
Nike sells their products in stores and online. Their online market helps to
increase the number of customers because there are some customers that do not
have access to Nike stores in their local area.
Nike promotes its products by allowing celebrities to advertise their
products. For example, Tiger woods’ advertises Nike products; this might help increase
the awareness of the products, because he has a very large fan base. Nike can
also increase the market share of existing products by putting them on sale.
For example, 20% off a Nike air force 1 trainer will increase sales. Apple also
uses market penetration to market their products. They can increase the market
share of existing products by adding new apps. For example, apple added a new
feature on their products which is called ios 7; this increased awareness of
apple products because a lot of people talked about it. Apple also advertises
their products through TV, this is an act of promotion that will help attracts
more customers in order to generate more sales in their organisation.
Market Development: This is when a company
markets an existing product to a new market. Nike recently opened a store at Westfield
shopping centre in Stratford, the shopping centre and store was opened during
the London 2012 Olympics. There were a lot of tourists in the UK during the
period it was opened, this shows that their products were being sold to a different
market thus increasing sales. Apple also did the same thing; they opened a
store at Westfield shopping centre, this is an act of developing their market
because there are so many people that shop in that particular shopping centre
on a daily basis.
Product
development: This is where a business develops a new product to sell to
existing customers. Apple is always developing their electronic products. For
example a new I phone is released every year which has more features than the
previous one thus attracting customers and encouraging them to buy the
product. Nike develops some of their
products by adding colours to them. For example Nike air forces are released
every now and then but with different colours.
Diversification:
This is where a business markets new products to new customers. For example, Nike recently released a new
product called Nike + Fuel Band SE; this product can count your steps and track
the intensity of your work out etc. This makes it totally different and unique
from their previous products, therefore this product will attract new
customers. Apple also invented I pads, although this product maybe similar to I
phones, It is also different. I pads are more convenient to read because of the
size and also it’s difficult to misplace.
P2: Describe the
limitation and constraints of marketing
In
this assignment I am going to describe the limitation and constraints a
business faces when marketing their products and services. First of all, I am
going to define what limitation and constraints mean. Limitation is the act of
controlling something from happening, it controls how much of something is
possible or allowed and Constraints are things that limit or restrict you from
doing something.
There
are various kinds of limitations that control how a business carries out their
activities. These limitations are: Voluntary codes of advertising, pressure
groups, consumerism and Acceptable language.
The
voluntary codes of advertising practice are the set rules and standards that
businesses follow when marketing in order to keep within the legal framework,
protect customers from misleading claims and also to create an even footing for
advertisers. The principles of the code are that advertising should be legal,
appropriate, honest and truthful and businesses should be responsible to both
the consumer and society when preparing to advertise therefore businesses
shouldn’t advertise products or services that may mislead or offend customers.
Organisations such as the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ensures that
businesses follow these codes, and they have the right to take action against
any business that disregard these codes. If any advertiser violates the code of
practice the ASA can refer the advertiser to the Office of Fair Trading or can
ask TV stations, radio stations and publishers to remove the advertising from
their broadcasts and publications.
Pressure
groups also make their awareness known to businesses in order to prevent them
from partaking in illegal activities. A pressure group is an organised group
that work together to influence government’s policy, and behaviours and beliefs
of a business. Pressure groups such as the British Union for the Abolition of
Vivisection campaign against the use of animals for experiments. The work with
Mps and other decision makers in order to enforce the law that animals do not
need to be use to conduct an experiment. Another pressure group is British
Roads Federation; their aim is to create a higher standard if service from the UK
road network.
Consumerism
is a social movement that enables consumers to have some powers over
businesses. It protects consumers from being mislead through advertising and it
also protects consumers from useless, inferior or dangerous products. There are
various TV programmes such as watch dog that help consumerism by forcing
businesses to take full responsibility for their practices and products.
Businesses
need to make sure they use appropriate language when advertising, some
languages maybe viewed as offensive by some people, therefore business need to
make sure they are using appropriate languages when advertising. The
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has identified key areas where the use of
language might be seen as unacceptable, which are when they refer to sex, mock
religion or people’s beliefs etc. Also businesses need to make sure that the
use of language when advertising is accessible by their audience. For example
if a business is advertising mobile phones and they happen to deliver a message
as a text to a mobile phone, the chances are the recipient will understand
‘call bck’. However if a business was advertising something that has nothing to
do with mobile phones then that message may be seen as inappropriate by some
consumers.
The
Law has changed in recent years; therefore businesses need to make sure that
their marketing activities are within the constraints of the law. They also
need to make sure that they are up to date with the changes in the law. There
are so many laws and landmark rulings that restrict a business from partaking
in illegal activities. Examples of these laws are: Sales of Goods Act 1979,
Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, Consumer Credit Acts
1974 and 2006, Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, and
Data Protection Act 1998.
The
Sale of Goods Act 1979 requires product should be as they are described by the
business, this prevents consumers from being mislead through false advertising.
For example if a business produces a product and says that the product can
provide consumers with energy, the product should be able do what the business
says it can. For example Nike would be committing a criminal act if they were
to advertise trainers as running trainers when the trainers aren’t beneficial
whilst running.
The
consumer protection from unfair trading regulations 2008 act ensures that all
customers are treated fairly and that the business they are dealing with are
honest with them. For example Nike can’t put on dishonest promotions such as
closing down sales when the business is not actually closing down.
Consumer
Credit Acts 1975 and 2006 act applies for businesses that selling their
products to customers on credit or businesses that lend money to customers such
as Wonga, quick quid etc. Business in these categories need to be licensed by
the Office of Fair Trading and if a customer has complaints regarding the
services provided by the business, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) can
solve this problem. For example If Nike was to offer their products to
customers on credit; they need to give their customers regular updates on their
account such as an annual statement, so that customers do not fall behind on
repayments. However if customers were to fall behind on repayments, the FOS can
extend the period of time that the customer is meant to repay their debt. This
helps to prevent conflict between businesses and customers.
Distance
selling is the act of trading goods and services without face to face contact
with customers, for example selling products on the internet. The consumer
protection (Distance selling) Regulations 2000 act ensures that a business
provides customers with the right information about their products so that
customers can make informed decisions about their purchases. For example on the
Nike website, they must provide clear information about their product such as
payment and delivery arrangements and they must give customers the right to
cancel their orders where appropriate.
Data
Protection Act 1998 prevents business from sharing a person’s information, in
order to protect customers. Only the
Police and NHS are allowed to access people’s personal information. For example
Nike must make sure that they aren’t giving out people’s personal information
except is required by the police or NHS, this is important for a person’s
safety.
P3: Describe how a
selected organisation uses marketing research to contribute to the development
of its marketing plans.
In
this assignment, I am going to talk about how Nike uses marketing research to
contribute to the development of its marketing plans. Market Research helps
businesses to make the correct decisions by helping them to understand the
changing dynamics of its market. This might involves finding out about customer’s
interest, competitors and the overall marketing environment. Primary and
secondary research would be beneficial for Nike when planning their market
because they are an established company with a lot of competitors.
Primary
research will benefit Nike because it’s the collection of first hand
information. For example, Nike may choose to hand out questionnaires in order
to find out what customers think about their product or service. Questionnaires
are beneficial because it is a relatively quick way to collect information,
therefore Nike don’t need to waste time trying to obtain information from
various different sources. However, questionnaires might not be trust worthy
because customers may not have the time to answer the questions correctly. Another example will be to conduct interviews
with customers because responses from interviews are usually based on personal
experience. Nike can find out information about their products and services
based on a customer’s experience. In contrast, interviews are time consuming
thus customers may answer questions wrongly just to save time.
Secondary
research will benefit Nike because it’s the collection of second hand
information, therefore Nike can find out about their competitor’s performance
in the market through various links such as newspapers, internet etc. This will
enable them to know what kind of what market their getting into, and also the
type of competition they will face. Secondary research will develop Nike
marketing plans, because it can enable them to find out what style is currently
in fashion, and what customers are craving for.
It can profit their business because they can also find out about
competitors prices of similar products, and they may choose to lower their
prices, in order to generate sales.
In
conclusion, Primary and Secondary research will both help Nike’s marketing
plans, because they can collect information that will be useful for the growth
of the business. Through primary and secondary research, Nike can find out what
customers think or feel about their products and services. They can also find
out about reliable information about their competitors, such as their prices
which may benefit Nike’s marketing objectives. Primary and secondary research
will assist in Nike in becoming more successful thus increasing sales, and the
amount of customers.
P5. Explain how and why
groups of customers are targeted for selected products.
In
this unit, I’m going to explain how and why groups of customers are targeted
for selected products. The main reason why organisations target a particular
group of customers is to make profit, but there are a lot of other reasons why
organisations choose to target customers. I’m going to describe Nike targeted
customers and I’m also going to explain why and how they target customers.
Nike
is a very big organisation; therefore it will have a large target audience.
Nike specialises in sports wear such as trainers, tracksuits, bags etc. Nike
produces football boots; they can choose to target customers, consumers and
businesses. For example, Nike can make football boots for kids aged between
10-15years, so although the products were made for the kids, their target
audience will mainly be the parents, because they know kids might not be able
to afford the product. In this situation, the parents are the customers and the
kids are the consumers, because they are the actual ones using the product.
Their target audience for the football boots can also be sports men and women,
in this situation the sports men and women are the customers and consumers,
because they are the actual ones purchasing the product and using it. Nike
targets businesses as well with their football boots, other businesses such as
JD and sports direct may choose to buy football boots from Nike, in order to
sell to their own customers.
Nike
targets their group of customers through segmentation. Segmentation is all
about identifying common needs and buying behaviour within the market. It also
allows an organisation to develop plans, which will enable them to produce
satisfactory products that will fit the needs of the customers more
effectively. Nike aims their products at so many different target groups of
customers, such as parents, kids, sports men and women, Businesses, youths and
Adults. Nike decides their target
audience through the categories of segmentation. The general categories are
Geographic, Psychographic, socio-cultural and demographic.
Nike
targets customers in urban areas, this because the urban areas are cities and
towns. They have opened stores in different cities and towns; this is because
they are a lot of customers in those places that will be interested in their
products. Nike may choose not to open stores in rural areas because they may
feel that not a lot people will be interested in their products thus profit
margin may be low if they were to invest in stores in those places. Nike
produces products that wouldn’t offend people that live in the environment. For
example, Nike wouldn’t want to produce a product that has inappropriate
language printed on it, which may offend customers. Nike Targets upper class
and middle class people, they made their products affordable for almost
everyone, this will generate sales thus generating profit because customers can
afford the products, and also the quality of Nike products will persuade
customers to keep purchasing products from them. Nike segments its market by
gender, for example Nike produces skirts, and this will mainly attract females.
Nike doesn’t segments its market by age; any customer can buy a Nike product.
Nike
can use ACORN to find out or understand the demand for products and services in
a local area. Acorn is a geo-demographic tool that such as Nike can use to
identify and understand the UK population and local demand products and
services. For example, if Nike wanted to open a store at a new location, they
can use the ACORN tool to find out if the location is close to their target
customers. The ACORN tool can help them to obtain information such as the
amount of money that people in that location are likely to earn and it can also
help them to identify where marketing objectives will be effective. Nike can
then choose whether it will be a right decision to open a store in this
location, after all they have accessed all the information from using the ACORN
tool.
The
MOSAIC system is another method that Nike can use to gather information on
where to open a new store, or what kind of products to sell at a particular
location. The MOSAIC system is a system that classifies households in the UK,
it classifies households in groups and sub groups and these groups are formed
on the suggestion that the people in these households share the same
characteristics. The MOSAIC system can help Nike in deciding what product they
should produce more in that particular location. For example, if Nike finds out
through the mosaic system that the households in the location they are planning
to open a new store at, usually wear tracksuits, then Nike may decide on
producing more tracksuits to put in the store in that location.
In
conclusion, Nike needs to consider the effects of the market segment they
target; it wouldn’t benefit Nike if they were to target a segment in the market
that wouldn’t generate profit for the business. For example, If Nike decides to
invest more in the production of tracksuits, they need to ensure that the
product will be able to reach the targeted customers, and the targeted
customers for track suits will be mainly young kids, youths and adults between
the age of 18-60. They also need to make sure that they can service this
segment of the market, because it’s important for the growth of the business.
Nike needs to be sure that their targeted audience will keep wearing
tracksuits, because there is not point of them investing in tracksuits if it’s
not likely to profit the business in the future.
P6. Develop a coherent
marketing mix for a new product or service.
In
this assignment, I am going to explain how apple uses marketing mix for one of
its latest product which is the iphone 5s.
Marketing
mix
Marketing
mix consist of the 4ps which are price, promotion, place and product. These are
the ideas to consider when marketing a product.
Product
The
product I have chose is the iphone 5s, the reason i chose this product is
because it’s a new product and also because its unique. It’s unique because of
the features and design of it. These are the factors that helps determine the
quality of the product, because if the features and design are nice, then it
may attract customers. The iphone 5s has a finger print system that enables
users to unlock their phone using their finger print. This is different because
there are no other phones in the world that has this type of technology.
Therefore this will give them an advantage over their competitors, and also
customers will be interested in the product because they may like the idea of
unlocking their phone using their fingerprint. Also, the phone is of high
quality and value, so they may feel a sense of uniqueness when the purchase the
product. Apple didn’t come up with this idea like that. They must’ve conducted
market research that gave them the knowledge that no phone in the world has the
finger print unlocking system. This is the importance of market research
because you can be able to find out useful data, that maybe beneficial for your
organisation.
Price
The
price of the iphone is pretty high, however the prices varies depending on many
giga bytes you want on your phone. The price of an iphone 5s 16gb is £549.00,
the price of an iphone 5s £629 32gb and the price of an iphone 5s 64gb is £709.
Despite the prices being high, it wouldn’t affect the sales of the product
because apples are a much known brand and also the phone is of good quality
which makes the price high. Customers may feel they are getting their moneys
worth because of the services it offers them. The price range is determined
based on the combination of cost and customer based pricing. It is based on the
cost based pricing because customers who are actually buying the iphone 5s are
not interested in how much it cost for the product to be made but instead, they
are interested in its value and the quality of service that the iphone 5s
provides them.
Promotion
Promotion
is all about how a business will raise awareness of its product. During the
release of the iphone 5s, apple advertised it on tv letting people know how
good it is and what makes it different from the other phones. They would have
to use expensive type of advertising because they are a global business with high
profit figures. Also apple uses direct marketing to get customers attention.
This is a form of advertising that enables apple to communicate straight to
their customers via text messages, website and email. For example, if you go on
the apple website, you will find information about the iphone 5s and all their
other new products
Place
Place
can be defined where customers go to purchase the product or service. In apple
case, they have provided apple stores in the United Kingdom. People can walk
into the apple store and purchase any apple products and also they can test out
products in the apple store. If there wasn’t an apple store, then customers
wouldn’t bother buying iphone 5s because there’s no place for them to test the
product that they want to buy. Also, apple makes their products available to
purchase on their websites. Customers will find this satisfactory because it
makes it flexible for them. They don’t have to leave their house to purchase
the iphone 5s, they can easily order it on the apple website.
Conclusion
In
conclusion, all of the 4ps elements of the marketing mix have a huge influence
on the performance of the iphone 5s in the market. Therefore, apple must be
careful with the way they go about it.
M1. Compare marketing
techniques used in marketing products in two organisations.
In
this assignment, I am going to compare marketing techniques that two organisations
use in marketing their products. The organisations I am going to choose are
apple and play station. They produce different products and are very successful
in their individual market. They are also very popular because of the quality
of their products. I am going to explain the various marketing techniques they
both use to market their products, in order to attract customers and improve
their profit margin.
Play
station uses various marketing techniques to market their products, the most
common one they use is diversification. Diversification is when a business
markets new products to new customers. Play station releases a new console
every four years; they make sure that the new console is better and different
from the previous one, in order to attract new customers. For example, Play
station just released a new console called PS4, this is differenent from the
previous one because of the graphics, and they also changed the design of the
console, which makes it more attractive than the previous one (ps3). They made
it slimmer than the ps3, so that customers wouldn’t find it hard to carry it to
wherever they are going, which makes it better than ps3. The likely reason why
play station uses diversification to market their products is obviously to make
profit, but that’s not all. Diversification is a technique that will help them
to keep their customers and also to attract new customers, this will eventually
increase the sales of their products, thus increasing their reputation in the
market.
Apple
also uses diversification to market their products, the way they market their
products is similar to the way play station markets their products, but Apple
produces tabloids, smart phones etc whilst play station produces video games
and consoles. Apple released their first iphone in the year 2007, and ever
since then they have been releasing a new iphone almost every year. The latest
one they released is the iphone 5s; they developed the iphone 5s by changing
the features which makes it different from the iphone 5. For example, the
iphone 5s has a finger print system which allows the phone owner to unlock
their phone by using their finger print. This is a very secure system, which
will attract more customers because everyone wants to be able to unlock their
phone using their finger print. They used another marketing technique in the
process of doing this, and this marketing technique is called product
development. Product development is where a business develops a new product to
sell to existing customers. Apple and
Play station has used this technique effectively in marketing their products,
for example apple releases a new iphone called iphone 5s when they released the
iphone 5 not too long ago but however, they developed the new product by adding
a new feature to it in order to push the sales for the product. On the other
hand, play station released a new product called ps4, although this product
might be abit similar to the previous name because of the name and style, but
it is also different because Sony developed the graphics, and this will attract
customers and therefore increase sales.
Apple
also uses market development as another marketing technique to market their
products. Market development is when a company markets an existing product to a
new market. Apple markets their products in various different countries such as
Spain, Germany etc. This will increase their customer base worldwide, and also
improve the company’s reputation. However, the level of sales might not be the
same in other countries due to the economy or financial situations. For
example, sales of apple products in the UK might be higher than sales in
Mexico, because UK has a better economy than Mexico, therefore more people are
likely to afford the product where as in Mexico only the rich will be able to
afford it. Play station also sell their
products in various different countries such as Spain, Nigeria etc but however like
apple, play station might experience different levels of sales in each country.
For example Sales might be low in Nigeria compared to sales in America, because
Nigeria is a growing economy so not a lot of people will be able to afford it,
so they might even have to put the price down, in order to push sales.
Play
station can use market penetration to market their products, market penetration
is the act of increasing the market share of an existing product. For example,
if sony wants to increase the market share for ps4, they might choose to
produce more video games, that will attract more customers. On the other hand,
apple can also do the same, by updating their soft wares. For example, if apple
wants to increase their market share, they might choose to add new apps to the
apple store or put the prices of their product down.
In
conclusion, Apple and play station uses similar marketing techniques to market
their product, they are also growing in their individual market and in recent
years, they have both been successful. They make different products but they
use the same marketing techniques to market those products, which is beneficial
for their business. The marketing techniques they both use, has helped to
increase the growth of their business, the downside of this will be that it has
increase the amount of competitors they have, therefore they need to work
extremely hard to stay at top in their individual market.
M2. Explain the
limitations of marketing research used to contribute to the development of a
selected organisation’s marketing plans.
In
this assignment, I am going to explain the limitations of market research such
as primary and secondary research. I am going to explain why is useful for
organisations to conduct a market research in order to develop a marketing plan.
Marketing plan is when organisations analyze the market they are about to get
into, in order to compete properly in them. Most organisations conduct primary
and secondary research before they develop a marketing plan.
Primary Research
Primary
research is the collection of first hand data, organisations can collect this
information by handing out questionnaires, conducting surveys and interviews
etc. However, there are limitations to this kind of research. For example, if apple decides to give out
questionnaires to customers about the new iphone they want to release, some
customers may not have the time to fill out the questionnaires correctly, so
their answers may be biased, and if apple decides to act on the biased
information, then the new product they release might not do well in the market.
Also, when conducting interviews, firms need to make sure that the customers
feel comfortable when being interviewed, so that they don’t feel pressured in
giving their answers. For example, if apple decides to interview customers,
customers may feel pressure to give the answers that the interviewer wants to
hear, and this may affect the marketing plan of apple. However, this can be
prevented if apple conducts more than one market research, or if they are
conducting one market research, they need to conduct it to a substantial amount
of people or else the information may not be reliable.
Secondary Research
Secondary
research is the collection of second hand data, examples of secondary research
are internet, magazines, newspapers etc. However this kind of research may
sometimes not be accurate and reliable because information collected may be out
of date thus leading it to not be valid. For example, if apple choose to collect information
from a source 4 years ago, the information may not be valid due to the time
lap. Therefore, apple needs to make sure that information they collect is up
date in order to make it trust worthy and reliable. Reliable information will
help them to develop a successful marketing plan because it will give them an
insight of what they market they are about to get into is all about. Also, secondary data can be general and vague
and may not really help companies with decision making. For example, if a newspaper
report says that more people are purchasing Samsung phones rather than apple
iphone, it may not state the reason for this, therefore apple wouldn’t know
what decision to take because it doesn’t state the reason why customers are
purchasing Samsung phones. Companies can use secondary research to complete
their own PESTLE and SWOT analysis to help them establish and achieve the goals
of the company.
Costs
are also an important consideration in market research, as one has to weigh up
the cost of undertaking the research against the potential benefits that may
result. You could spend a lot of time and effort in trying to solve a problem
through market research, only to find that the solution may not be worth
implementing. (Reference: btec level 3 business book 1) so for example, if
apple are receiving complaints from customers about their phone battery life,
and they decide to spend money to research the cause of the problem when the
likely cause of the problem is the amount of apps that an individual downloads
on their phone, the money spent on the research will be considered as a waste.
Therefore, apple needs to have a budget on how much they will spend on each objective.
For example, they need to put money aside for advertising, primary and
secondary research and other material and labour costs. This will prevent the
organisation from unnecessary expenses thus helping the organisation to grow.
In
conclusion, certain types of market research can help companies to achieve
their objectives in the long run, by using primary and secondary research apple
can reduce the risk of failure and improve their reputation and also maximise
their chances of achieving their goals which is to become the best smart phone
manufactures worldwide.
M3. Develop a coherent marketing
mix that is targeted at a defined group of potential customers.
I
chose to develop a coherent marketing mix of a football, this is my selected
product
Product: This is
product is a football but it’s called football ledge; it is going to be unique
from other football because it is going to have pictures of football legends on
the face of it hence the reason it’s called football ledge. This may encourage
customers to buy the product because they may be inspired by some of the
football legends that are on the face of it. It is targeted at sports men and
women, people who participate in sports regularly. They will be between the
ages of 7yrs-50yrs.
Place: place is
where customers buy their products or service.
Football ledge is going to be available in shops, but just not any shop.
Its going to be available in sports shops. The reason for this is because it is
likely to sell in sports shops than in normal shops, because it is related to
sports and sports people shop in sporting shops such as sports direct etc.
Also, it is going to be available online, this is a quicker way in which
customers can purchase the product without no hassle. They can also find out
information about the product on the website.
Price: The price of
the product will be relatively low in order to make it affordable by everyone.
If the prices are lower than competitors then customers might choose to
purchase the product because it’s of good value and also for a cheaper price.
However the price may increase in the future in order to generate more profit
but the product will sole at a low price for now. This type of strategy is
known as penetration pricing, it enables the product to enter the market at a
low price in order to generate sales, but prices can be increased later in the
future to increase profit margins.
Promotion: promotion
consists of the various methods of communication with a business target
audience. Advertising is one of the promotional mix that will be used to
capture customers attention. Football ledge will be advertised on TV and
newspapers in order to get the attention of customers. Also personal selling
will be used to get customers attention. This is where a seller presents a
product direct to a consumer, often face to face but it can also be done over
the phone, video conferencing and messaging. This will help generate sales
because the customers will be able to test the ball to know how good it is, and
if they likely the quality of the product then they will buy it.
D1. Evaluate the
effectiveness of the use of techniques used in marketing products in one
organisation.
When
a business creates a new product, they consider the techniques they are going
to use carefully, because the techniques will enable them to advertise and
market their product to the public. If the techniques are carefully planned,
then the product they create is likely to perform well in the market, which
will increase the business growth. Apple puts a lot of effort in marketing
their products, and it seems to have paid off because obtain very large amount
of sales thus leading to high profit margins for the business. Apple has gradually been increasing the
amount of money they spend on advertising each year, it spent $97.5 million to
advertise the iphone in the 2008 fiscal year but then went on to spend $149.6
million in the 2009 fiscal year, this shows that every year, they are trying to
improve the reputation of the company by making it recognised more every year,
because if they are increasing the
amount of money spent on advertising each year, this means more people in the
world are getting to know about apple products. However, they still spend far
less than some of its competitors, such as Microsoft, which reportedly spent
$400 million to advertise its windows phones. This shows that apple budget
their expense well, and this will help minimise their losses.
Apple
brought out iphone 5s and 5c in the same period of time; however the iphone 5c
was a plastic phone and was targeted more at little kids in my opinion, but
still has the features that an adult will want. They knew that if they made a
plastic version of an iphone, kids will urge their parents to buy it for them
and also some adults may prefer it to a normal iphone because it’s plastic
which might reduce the risk of the phone getting damaged if dropped. The iphone
5c also comes in five colors – blue, green, pink, yellow and white, this is a
clever technique that apple used because they realise that children love
colourful things and also adults so the colours makes it more attractive which
will attract more customers, they also made it cheaper than the iphone 5s,
however this might be an issue because customers may find it cheap rather than
classy. The iphone 5c is different
because it’s plastic and no other organisation has released a plastic phone
before, this will help separate apple from its competitors, which is a good
marketing technique. The marketing technique they used seemed to have worked,
because they sold a record breaking nine million new iphone 5s and 5c models, just
three days after they were launched.
Apple
also keeps adding something new to their products whether it’s an update or a
new app or feature. Adding something new to your business helps create
opportunity to get more sales. For example, the iphone 5s is more or less the
same as the iphone 5 except it has the finger print lock system, this enables
customers to unlock their phones with their finger print, and this will attract
more customers to buy the product. They also add new updates, for example, they
updated their whatsapp app not too long ago, and this will attract customers
thus increasing sales. Apple has also
become a valuable resource because they have so many free apps that a customers
can download such as instagram, i movie, whatsapp etc. Also, they introduced
ios7 this made the iphone faster and also effortless to use. For example, it
enables quick access to your torch, timer, calculator and camera.
In
conclusion, the marketing techniques apple used such as adding new things to
their product and becoming a valuable resource will help increase sales, and
also it will give them a good reputation in the market. Apple are becoming
successful each year and its because they spend more money each year on
advertising, and also they release a new product almost every year, this will
keep customers on their toes, because they are very expectant of apple.
D2. Make justified
recommendations for improving the validity of the marketing research used to
contribute to the development of selected organisations marketing plans.
Marketing
research can be sometimes invalid because of customer responses or the source
from where the data was collected. However, there are ways in which the
validity market research can be improved.
The organisation I have chosen to look at for this task is apple. The
use questionnaires, surveys and focus groups as their marketing research
methods to find out customers opinions about their products. When gathering
market research, it is important for the information collected to be reliable
and trust worthy, because if they are it will help the organisation to develop
a good marketing plan. By ensuring that the information is valid, it also
ensures that the information is valuable and can be useful.
The
first research methods we are going to look at are surveys. There are many
factors to look at when conducting a survey, such as the target market, where
are you going to ask and how big the sample you are going to use is. The reason
these factors contribute in improving the validity of the market research is
because if you don’t have a plan and you decide to stop random people on the
streets, you might not get the response you want. For example, if apple decides
to conduct surveys in the train, people may not want to participate because
they might be tired from a long day at work or because the location is
inconvenient for them. Furthermore, if they want to prevent bad reactions from
customers, it will be better if they conducted their surveys in an apple store
or near a store where people buy apple products. This will help improve the
reliability of the sample but however you can’t always be 100% sure that
controlling these variables will help generate the right sample.
The
second market research we are going to look at is questionnaires. Questionnaires are usually straight forward
but however there are some factors that need to be taking into consideration
when handing out questionnaires. Customers might respond poorly if the
questions in the questionnaire are too long, therefore the questions needs to
be short and brief to give customers enough time to answer. Also it is
important to ensure that the questions in the questionnaire are related to the
issue at hand and also ensure that the answers in the questions aren’t too
limited. For example, if apple gave out
questionnaires regarding the new I pad they are about to release, but instead
the questions in the questionnaire are about an I phone, customers will find
this confusing and may not bother even answering the questions. Therefore, it
is very important for the questionnaire to be related to the issue. Also, it is
important to avoid questions from being biased. For example, if a customer saw
a question like ‘Don’t you agree that the new I phone is better than the old I
phone ‘This will make them think that they already agree that the new iphone is
better, thus this will lead to them answering the questionnaire with a
dishonest answer. On the other hand, if
customers saw a question like ‘ is the new I phone better than the old I phone’
this is an unbiased question and will give participants the chance to be honest
in their answer. Also, it’s better to avoid making all the questions of the
same nature such as ‘what do you like about the new Iphone’ because it will be
difficult to analyse the data and also it will be difficult to pick out
opinions that will help in the research they are conducting. Hence the reason,
it is important to have a balance of qualitative and quantitative research
methods.
One way that apple can obtain this balance
is through the use of focus groups as well as questionnaires and surveys. Focus
groups are a group of people that are brought together to participate in a
discussion or debate about a product before it is launched in the market. This
will help apple obtain more accurate data because the researcher can get
information from non verbal responses such as facial expressions or body
language. However, this research method mainly collects qualitative data
because it focuses on the reasons behind a decision. This method will be useful
to apple when they want to revive an old product, for example, during the
discussion, the group will be encouraged what they like or don’t like about the
product and their answers might help apple to improve their product.
In conclusion, it is important for market
research to be validated and reliable because it helps improves an organisation
marketing plans. Furthermore, if the right guidelines are followed, it won’t be
difficult validate market research techniques.
