Marketing Management A Strategic Decision Making Approach 7th Edition John Mullins, Orville Walker, Harper Boyd, Jr. - Solutions

Discover comprehensive solutions for "Marketing Management A Strategic Decision Making Approach 7th Edition" by John Mullins, Orville Walker, and Harper Boyd, Jr. Unlock valuable insights with our online answers key, featuring step-by-step answers to challenging questions. Access the solution manual and solutions in PDF format to explore solved problems and chapter solutions. Enhance your learning with our test bank and instructor manual, providing a detailed guide through the textbook. Enjoy the convenience of questions and answers available for free download, designed to support your academic journey.

How can companies combine products to create strong co-brands or ingredient brands? (p. 409)
How can companies use packaging, labeling, warranties, and guarantees as marketing tools? (p. 412)
What were the key steps in maintaining Nivea’s leading position in the global facial care market?
Explain the connection between cultural norms and product choice. What is Nivea’s strategy in respecting cultural diversity while pursuing a global brand strategy?
Discuss Nivea’s future. What should Beiersdorf do next with its product line? Where is the future growth for the brand?
Toyota has built a huge manufacturing capacity that can produce millions of cars each year for a wide variety of consumers. Why was it able to become so much bigger than any other auto manufacturer?
How can services be defined and classified, and how do they differ from goods? (p. 421)
What are the new services realities? (p. 428)
How can companies achieve excellence in services marketing? (p. 432)
How can companies improve service quality? (p. 439)
How can goods marketers improve customer-support services? (p. 440)
How did Club Med reach an upscale positioning and achieve excellence in the quality of service?
Was Club Med’s upmarket positioning the only one viable strategy?
Do you think that Club Med takes a risk by not in specializing in a particular range level, such as 4 trident or 5 trident?
With many hospitals in Asia competing in the medical tourism market, how can Parkway position itself in order to attract more patients?
Parkway hospitals do not employ many doctors but depend on the use of the hospital services by private specialists. What are the risks in this approach?
1. Marketing is pervasive. It is a social process involving the activities that facilitate exchanges of goods and services among individuals and organizations.
2. Customers buy benefits, not products. The benefits a customer receives from a firm’s offering, less the costs he or she must bear to receive those benefits, determine the offering’s value to that customer.
3. Delivering superior value to one’s customers is the essence of business success. Because delivering superior value is a multifunctional endeavor, both marketing and nonmarketing managers must adopt a strong focus on the customer and coordinate their efforts to make it happen.
4. A focus on satisfying customer needs and wants is not inconsistent with being technologically innovative.
5. The marketing management process requires an understanding of the 4Cs: the company and its mission, strategies, and resources; the macroenvironmental context in which it operates; customers and their needs and wants; and competitors. Obtaining an objective, detailed, evidence-based understanding
6. Marketing decisions—such as choices about what goods or services to sell, to whom, and with what strategy—are made or approved at the highest levels in most firms, whether large or small. Therefore, managers who occupy or aspire to strategic positions in their organizations need marketing
1. Marketing perspectives lie at the heart of strategic decision making, whether at the corporate, business-unit, or product-market levels. All managers who aspire to general management roles need marketing concepts and tools in their repertoire.
2. Market-oriented firms—those that plan and coordinate company activities around the primary goal of satisfying customer needs—tend to outperform other firms on a variety of dimensions, including sales growth, return on assets, and new product success.
3. Unethical behavior by a firm’s employees can damage the trust between a firm and its suppliers and customers, thereby disrupting the development of long-term relationships and reducing sales and profits over time.
4. The four major paths to corporate growth—market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification strategies—imply differences in a firm’s strategic scope, require different competencies and marketing actions, and involve different types and amounts of risk.
5. A strong corporate brand makes sense when companylevel competencies are primarily responsible for generating the benefits and value customers receive from its various product offerings.
6. The ultimate goal in formulating business-unit strategies is to establish a basis for a sustainable competitive advantage that provides superior value to customers.Doing so requires the development of resources—often marketing resources, such as brand names, marketing information systems and
7. Successful new firm formation typically requires a competitive strategy that delivers superior value to a narrowly defined target segment in a way that either avoids direct confrontation with established competitors or is difficult for them to emulate. Therefore, market sensing and analysis,
1. Macro trends can and will profoundly influence the success of any business. Serving attractive markets, where trends are favorable—swimming with the tide—is likely to bring more success than serving markets where trends are unfavorable.
2. Similarly, competing in structurally attractive industries—those where the five forces are, on balance, favorable—is likely to generate higher returns than in less attractive industries.
3. Notwithstanding the first two points above, the degree to which a company’s goods or services resolve genuine customer needs of a clearly defined target market and the degree to which its competitive advantage is sustainable over time are probably even more crucial to long-term success.
4. Understanding market opportunities is about more than understanding customers, competitors, and the environmental context. The capabilities and resources brought by the company itself are also important and are often overlooked.
1. Not all purchase decisions are equally important or psychologically involving for the consumer. People engage in a more extensive decision-making process, involving a more detailed search for information and comparison of alternatives, when buying highinvolvement goods and services than when
2. Because of the differences in the decision-making process, a given marketing strategy will not be equally effective for both high- and low-involvement products.The consumer marketer’s first task, then, is to determine whether the majority of potential customers in the target segment are likely
3. Because consumers are generally unwilling to spend much time or effort evaluating alternative brands in a low-involvement product category before making a purchase, marketers need to focus their promotional messages on only a few frequently repeated points and to distribute such products
4. Regardless of the consumer’s level of involvement with a product category, consumers often prefer different brands because of differences in their psychological or personal characteristics, such as their perceptions, memories, attitudes, and lifestyles. Understanding how such characteristics
5. Regardless of the consumer’s level of involvement with a product category, consumers often prefer different brands because of differences in their social relationships, such as their culture, social class, reference groups, and family circumstances.Understanding how such social influences
1. While organizational customers are different in some ways from consumers, marketers need to answer a similar set of questions to develop a solid foundation for their marketing plans. Who are our target customers?What are their needs, wants, and preferences? How do those customers decide what to
2. Organizations buy things for one of three reasons:(1) to facilitate the production of another product or service, (2) for use by the organization’s employees in carrying out its operations, or (3) for resale to other customers.
3. Organizations are social constructions. Therefore,“organizations” do not buy things. Rather, individual employees—usually more than one from different departments and organizational levels—make purchase decisions on the organization’s behalf. Understanding the personal motivations of
4. The Internet is simultaneously encouraging two opposing trends in organizational purchasing: (1) the growing use of short-term spot market contracts via Web-based auctions and (2) the strengthening of long-term buyer–supplier relationships via the sharing of sales and inventory data and the
5. The mutual interdependence of organizational buyers and their suppliers makes long-term cooperative relationships crucial for customer retention and marketing success. For firms that sell a significant portion of their output to a few large customers, the stakes are very high. Building trust and
1. Every forecast and estimate of market potential is wrong! Evidence-based forecasts and estimates, prepared using the tools provided in this chapter, are far more credible—and generally more accurate—than hunches or wild guesses. A menu of evidence-based forecasting approaches is provided in
2. Forecasts have powerful influence on what companies do, through budgets and other planning procedures. Thus, forecasting merits significant management attention and commitment.
3. Superior market knowledge is not only an important source of competitive advantage, but it also results in happier, higher volume of, and more loyal customers.Thus, the systematic development of market knowledge is a critically important activity in any organization.
4. Much can go wrong in marketing research and often does. Becoming an informed and critical user of marketing research is an essential skill for anyone who seeks to contribute to strategic decision making. Tools for obtaining this skill are presented in this chapter.
1. Marketers and entrepreneurs who find new and insightful ways to segment mature markets often uncover opportunities for uncontested market entry and rapid growth.
2. Sharply focused target marketing enables marketers to differentiate from mass-market leaders by giving consumers in a narrowly defined market segment what they want.
3. Focused market entry strategies conserve resources and facilitate early success.
4. The five-step procedure provided in this chapter identifies segments having the highest potential.
5. The market-attractiveness/competitive-position matrix is a useful analytical framework for deciding which markets or market segments to enter and from which to withdraw.
1. Clear and distinctive positioning that differentiates a brand from others with which it competes is usually essential for developing a winning marketing strategy.
2. The positioning process outlined in this chapter helps decision makers choose a position that maximizes their chance of establishing sustainable competitive advantage.
3. Distinctive and intense positioning is best accomplished when based on one or at most two attributes. More are likely to be confusing to customers.
4. Writing clear and succinct positioning statements or value propositions can play an important role in ensuring effective development and execution of a marketing strategy. This chapter provides templates for writing these materials.
5. Effective brand positioning decisions establish the foundation upon which successful marketing strategies and programs are built, thereby setting the stage for the creation of brand equity.
1. Research suggests that a business is likely to achieve superior revenue growth, market share, and profitability when there is a good fit between its competitive strategy and the strategic marketing programs of its various product or service offerings.
2. Business-level competitive strategies can be usefully categorized into (1) prospector strategies focused on growth via the development of new products and markets;(2) defender strategies primarily concerned with defending strong positions in established markets through either low prices or
3. The generic competitive strategies described in the previous point apply equally well to services and physical products, single-product start-ups and multidivisional corporations, and global and domestic operations, and they are unlikely to change dramatically due to the rise of e-commerce.
4. Because the various business-level strategies focus on different objectives and seek to gain a competitive advantage in different ways, marketing may play a different role under each of the strategies, and varying marketing actions may be called for.
5. The marketing decision maker’s job is to develop a sound, evidence-based marketing strategy for his or her offering and to make a persuasive case for its support. If that strategy does not fit the objectives or available resources and competencies of the business unit in which the product is
1. Decisions about product design—including product features, brand names, related services, and warranties, for both goods and services—are among the most critical in differentiating one’s brand from others to achieve competitive advantage. Factors to consider in making product decisions are
2. While speed to market is important in today’s fastpaced business climate, bringing the right products to market and keeping them current are far more important than seeking first-mover advantage for a product that customers don’t want.
3. Decisions about the depth and breadth of product lines must be carefully considered in market segmentation terms. Product lines that are too long or too short can place the company at a competitive disadvantage.
4. Customer-driven innovation approaches like cocreation and collective customer commitment can reduce the likelihood of new product failure and create high levels of customer engagement.
5. How the new product development process is managed, from a process perspective, is as important as what product decisions are made. The stage-gate system helps companies strike a balance between entrepreneurial creativity and business discipline in their new product efforts.
6. Though new products constitute the lifeblood of longterm success for most firms, most new products fail!Thus, product decisions, in both content and process terms, are critical to the successful implementation of business strategies.
7. Regardless of the nature of the playing field, developing and regularly updating winning marketing strategies are important, too! In developing strategies to build and sustain competitive advantage, marketing decision makers are more likely to win the competitive war by adjusting their
1. Pricing decisions involve an inherent conflict between (1)the need to win customers by allowing them to retain a portion of the value inherent in a product or service and(2) the need to maintain profit margins sufficient to compensate employees, fund growth, and satisfy the firm’s various
2. The price of a good or service must be high enough to cover per unit costs—at least in the long term—but cannot exceed its value as perceived by the customer. Therefore, the region between unit cost and perceived value represents the range of feasible prices.
3. The decision about what price to select from within the range of feasible prices should be based on a careful analysis of competitors’ costs and prices, the product’s strategic objectives, and consistency with other components of the marketing plan.
4. Perhaps the key concept in setting a price is the notion of perceived value. An essential purpose of the price set by a marketing manager should be to enable the firm to capture a fair share of the value of the product as perceived by the intended customer.
5. The final step in deciding what price to charge for a product or service involves the development of a price structure that adapts the price to variations in cost and demand across geographic territories, national boundaries, customer segments, and items within the product line.
1. The importance of good distribution decisions in designing a marketing plan is simple: Customers won’t buy your good or service unless it is conveniently available when and where they want to buy it.
2. Distribution channel decisions have a major economic impact because distribution costs, many of which do not even appear in the firm’s income statement, often exceed the costs of producing a good or service.
3. Channel design involves decisions about the appropriate types and numbers of middlemen to include in the distribution channel in order to link the marketing strategy for the good or service to the needs of the target customers.
4. Distribution channels can be designed to accomplish a number of objectives, including maximizing the product’s availability, satisfying customer service requirements, encouraging promotional effort, obtaining timely market information, minimizing distribution costs, and maintaining
5. A manufacturer or service provider can attempt to gain the support and direct the efforts of its channel partners through vertical integration, by legal contracts (e.g., franchise agreements), by providing economic incentives, and/or by developing mutually beneficial relationships based on trust
1. Marketing managers in most companies face fundamental strategic decisions about whether to emphasize advertising or personal selling in their promotion mix. Identifying the strategic circumstances(see Exhibit 13.3 ) provides direction for these decisions.
2. Getting marketing communications messages—of any kind, in any medium—noticed and understood is no easy task. Many ads and other communication attempts simply don’t meet their objectives. Following the guidelines in this chapter will mitigate this risk.
3. A clear understanding of one’s target market is essential for planning and implementing an effective promotional program. Without such an understanding, money is likely to be wasted.
4. Many marketing communications efforts are not easy to evaluate. Setting clear and measurable objectives up front facilitates doing so.
5. New media, including the Internet, e-mail, and mobile telephones, are predicted to revolutionize ad spending, because their results—like those for direct marketing programs—can often be directly measured.
6. In companies of all sizes, technology will play an increasingly meaningful role in managing sales and customer service efficiency and effectiveness. Caution must be exercised, however, to avoid sacrificing effectiveness for efficiency.
7. For new product launches on limited budgets, sales promotion alone can deliver substantial impact at a fraction of the cost of conventional approaches.
1. Seven potentially attractive elements characterize many new-economy technologies: the syndication of information, the increasing returns to scale of network products, the ability to efficiently personalize and customize market offerings, the ability to disintermediate distribution, global reach,
2. First-mover advantage is simply wrong. Best beats first.
3. Most observers now believe that the Internet is better suited for delivering measurable marketing results—as is direct marketing—than for brand building.
4. Web-based customer service applications offer the tantalizing combination of better service and significant cost savings. The trick, of course, is to focus on the customer service benefits first, rather than mere cost cutting, since customers are quick to discern when cost cutting takes
5. Keys to success in tomorrow’s new-economy ventures include clearly understanding one’s business model(Exactly where will revenue come from: commerce, content, community, or infrastructure?), filling real(though perhaps latent) customer needs, and putting together the right management team
1. Being the pioneer in a new product or service category gains a firm a number of potential advantages. But not all pioneers are able to sustain a leading position in the market as it grows. A pioneering firm stands the best chance for long-term share leadership and profitability when the market
2. Some pioneers attempt to penetrate the mass market and remain the share leader as that market grows. Others adopt a strategy geared to making profits from specialized niche markets where they will face fewer direct competitors. Still others try to stay one jump ahead of competitors by
3. If a market leader wishes to maintain its number one share position as the product category moves through rapid growth, it must focus on two important objectives:(1) retaining its current customers, and (2) stimulating selective demand among later adopters. Marketing strategies a leader might
4. For a challenger to increase its market share relative to the leader, it must differentiate its offering by delivering superior product benefits, better service, or a lower price than the leader. Challenging a leader solely on the basis of price is a highway to disaster, however, unless the
1. Strategic choices in mature, or even declining, markets are by no means always bleak. Many of the world’s most profitable companies operate largely in such markets.
2. A critical marketing objective for all competitors in a mature market is to maintain the loyalty of existing customers. To accomplish that goal, firms must pursue improvements in the perceived value those customers receive from their offerings—either by differentiating themselves on the basis
3. An important secondary objective for some firms, particularly share leaders, in mature markets is to stimulate further volume growth by taking actions to convert nonusers into users, to increase use frequency among current users, or to expand into untapped or underdeveloped markets.
4. Declining markets can still offer attractive opportunities for sales revenues and profits. Their attractiveness—and the appropriate marketing strategy to follow—depends on, among other things, the pace and certainty of market decline, the presence of exit barriers, the firm’s competitive
1. While much of this book has covered the various analytical tools and frameworks necessary to develop effective marketing strategies, such strategies are worthless without good implementation. Therefore, marketing managers, and general managers concerned about marketplace issues, must attend to

Showing 3300 - 3400 of 5063

First
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
Last

Marketing Management A Strategic Decision Making Approach 7th Edition John Mullins, Orville Walker, Harper Boyd, Jr. - Solutions

Step by Step Answers