Before beginning this discussion, read the Marketing in Action Case: Real Choices at Oracle on pages 554-555 of your textbook. NOTE: This DB focuses on a promotional campaign and Oracles reliance on improved personal selling and training investments for their sales force. It also focuses on improving their digital experience, and the ability to develop their salesforce for personal selling success. Your own responses and your replies to other students should be focused on those areas. Have you noticed how Oracle has grown to become the market leader in the data software industry and has doubled its salesforce as a result? It has evolved to include cloud-based product offerings sold by a new cloud salesforce. Training was provided to improve the effectiveness of its salespeople. Ultimately, the use of new digital cloud-based offerings backed by a well-trained sales force helps them improve the sales of new product offerings. Consider what you have learned about Oracle from this case study and how it has developed new digitally offered products as well as paid attention to recruiting and training an effective salesforce to emphasize personal selling and improve sales revenue. What are your thoughts about this? After you have read through the entire case study, post your responses to each of the questions below. For your answer to the third question, you should include a full discussion of at least two possible alternatives. For your response to the fourth and fifth question, respond as those you are the marketing manager of this company.

What is the decision facing Oracle?

What factors are important in understanding this decision situation?

What are the possible alternatives?

Fully describe at least two. Pretend you are the marketing manager at Oracle. What decision(s) do you recommend?

What are some ways to implement your recommendation?