sharing place

Here’s the link of “how to grow your brand & market share”

4Ps:

Pricing
MC: consumers judge the benefits the product delivers against the ___sacrifice___ necessary to obtain it.
(not target optimization. sacrifice includes price and efforts sth…)

Price 1. the only mix element that generates revenue
2. a highly visible tool : very visible ,
not think hard about the company website/ packege, but they pay attention to the price. price is the least susptaintable advantage bc easy to copy by others.
3. an indeicator of quality, in the absence of other information.
4. pricing is an art, not a science.
Five Cs of Pricing
value: <-company objectives <-customers <-competition <-costs <-channel members MC: health clubs often use a low, introductory offer price to get ppl to join their club. What type of pricing orientation does this represent ? its sales orientation; not target return orientation : it is part of profit orientation 5Cs: Company Objectives • Sales orientation: Max volume focus on market share : market share is the greast predictor for LR success eg: walmart, • Profit orientation: Max profit or return - try to get profit as much as they can from small volume - not so focus on share volume, So: charge as much as they can, not decrease the price. not only in SR • Competitor orientation: relative to competitiors • Customer orientation: Max value - consider customer how much they will pay & how they value - relates to scarfice, dollar value and time, efforsts * A company: can have more than one orientation; * sales and profit orientation hard to combine together 5Cs: customers MC: Theres a saying, "if you have to ask the price of a yacht, you cant afford it." Products like yacht are most likely to associated with: prestige pricing. ( not target return value.) • what factor influence the elasticity of demand? ( elasticity means price sentivity : wut happens to your demand ) 1. availability of substitutes 2. complementary products 3. scarcity -> necessity or luxury (nice to have)
4. time :- urgency : eg: social trends-> popular-> necessity
-length of price shift
5. income effect
6. Proportion of budget (amount you spend on sth, expensiveness of an item) : housing is a huge proportion
eg: gas for me is a necessity, but also large portion of my budget, may argue in the exam, not just yest or no. given u a situation, let u consider wuts the problems with that
Pratice: would u expect demand for each of these types of products (car, house, shoes) to be elastic or inelastic, and why? pick one and argue in the exam.
MC : which of the following 5Cs of pricing do marketers to understand with traditional demand curve economic theory: Customers ( not cost)
5Cs: Customer
Reference prices : ppl know the avg price,
does your cotegary product has the referenc prices?
Familiarity, past experience:
Preference for EDLP (every day low pricing) vs. high/low pricing

5Cs: Competition
• level of competition often shapes pricing:
1. Monopoly: can set up whatever price u want
2. Oligopoly:
3. Monopolistic competition: some challeges
4. Pure competiton
MC: how can a company extricate itself from a mkt characterized by pure competition?
answer: differentiate the product in some way, so customers can see the distinct
– Decommoditize through differentiation:
organic/ free run/ omega-3 eggs ( similar to the brand equity )

5Cs: Costs
MC: in general, prices should not be based on costs because:
Answer: consumers base their purchased decisions on perceived value.
– Cost not equal to value
– but cost structrures affect profitability
– Break-even Analysis
“At this price, what level of sales is required to cover costs?”
-Marketing Math:
Break-even point ($)= total FC/ (1-(unit VC/ unit price))
Break-even point (units)= total FC/ unit CM
CM: contribution margin( or say contribution profit) = Revenue – Varible Cost
if a targeted return is sought:
Break-even point (units)= ( total FC+ profit) / unit CM
*will in the final , need to calculate

MC: one of the limitations associated with break-even analysis is:
it assumes there is only one price for the product. ( not: it only tells markerters wut price is needed to break-even. )
Limitations of break-even analysis?
– Assume only one price ( price is not always fixed)
– assumes all costs are know
– assumes CM is steady with volume. ( CM= revenue – variable costs)
– accuracy depends on accuracy of demand forecasts
– different demand levels

5C: channel members (渠道成員)
• Manufacturers（製造廠家）, wholesaler （批發商）, and retailers（零售商） can have different pricing priorities.
eg: Nike running shoes: wholesalers: pricing priority

Strategic: New Product Pricing
1. Skimming (a.k.a. market-plus pricing):
setting a relatively high price (may be reduced as competition increases)
eg: apple iphones
2. Penetration Pricing ( 滲透定價)(a.k.a. market- minus pricing) :
– setting low price to attract new customers,
– grow mkt share : eg: 1% realty company
Pricing Tacticals
1. Tactical: Promotional Pricing
– Marketdowns, discounts
– Leader pricing
– Coupons, rebates（ 回扣）
2. Tactical: Bundling (捆綁式)
introducing the shaw value bundle. get phone. internet. TV. plus great extras for $99.90
any bundle company can do it no matter wut their orientation, LR or SR.
Non-profits and pricing
pricing helps achieve various goals:
• profit maximization (e.g. fundraisers)
• cost recovery : 成本回收
E.g: translink: has got used to price strategy, price is low enough to encourage customers to use it more; price should also be high enough to cover its cost. e.g: Bc hydro, gasline
• market incentives:
• market suppression: 市場抑制

Here is the link of my classmate Cave’s blog : https://blogs.ubc.ca/kpcave/2010/11/24/post-7/

His blog topic is about the free coffee offered by McDonald. And the blog name is very smart: I’m Lovin’It (which is the slogan of McDonald company).

So recently, McDonald offers free coffee to the general public. As you may see in this month, more and more people are holding McDonald coffee. I agree with him that this promotion is a pull strategy. Since through offering free coffee, more people would go to McDonald to get this free product. (every body like free stuff, of course). So after attracting customers to go their restaurant, they can try their coffee, and after free try, some of them may really like it, and then become loyal customers. Besides, usually people will also buy some food such as burgers or desert if they want a cup of coffee. So McDonald can increase their sales in other food. So even it seems offering free coffee is a cost to Mc, but there are still many benefits involved, not just temporary, but also in the long run.

Therefore, it is definitely quite worthwhile to offer free coffee to the public. It is a successful pull strategy in promotion.

After I read My Le’s blog “Need Vs Want”(https://blogs.ubc.ca/myle/2010/09/20/want-vs-need/) , I have new realization about this idea.

She mentioned sometimes, marketers dont really know whether their new product can satisfy customers’ needs or wants, but they are trying to use varies promotion ways to convince the customers that: this product is what you really need/ truly desire. Marketers use vivid pictures, famous stars to stand for their brand, repeat their advertisements everywhere. Overall, they just try whatever method they can to let you remember their product, and arouse your desire to get this product as your need/ want.

For me, I dont really need to buy a new watch because I’ve already had a very nice swatch. so watching is neither my need nor want. However, because the swatch advertisements are so attractive and the words on the ad is so persuasive, it makes me to rethink…….maybe this watch is really what I want. and after several days, when i saw that ad again on the street, I was deeply convinced myself that : this watch is really what I want. So in this case, I “unexpectedly” get a nice watch using the excuse of : this is what i desire.

Through this point, we can see the significance of promotion in marketing. Through effective promotion strategy, it can expand your customer base, promote more products and make your products impressive in customers’ mind.

So what is AIDA ?
A stands for awareness. I stands for interest. D means desire. And A represents action.

Well, apply it to my resume:
Awareness：(thinking process)
How can I create the awareness for the employers ?
I think the basic requirement is building up a neat and perfect format resume. Secondly, should check there is no grammar mistake. Also should Highlight my special skills, such as being fluent in both mandarin and English.

Interest: feeling process
from my perspective, how can i hold the employer’s attention ?
After I highlight my skills, I will go into detail to talk about my experience involving these skills. For example, I will say through my Olympic volunteer experience in Whistler as an international client service assistant, I served more then 150 customers per day who are from different countries. I needed to do the interpretation job for some Chinese tourists and journalists. With this precious experience, I improved my client service skills and also my language asset contributea to the success of my volunteer job.

Desire: feeling process
for the employer perspective, how can he/she add me into my company?
So through my experiences, he/she can see my communication skills, know better of how my language and client service skills take advantage, he/she would have the desire to put me into the client service department.

Action :doing process
Hire me 🙂

: family run =>

– What happened?
1. Toyota’s car’s brake fluid would slowly leak out of the vehicles’ brake cylinder. Low fluid level could eventually lead to declining braking performance

2. There was electrical problem with the fuel pump. This could lead the engine to stall. Even one of the Toyota’s most popular cars — Pirus had this problem. In terms of the affected area: Models in Japan and other places had this problem. but in North America , these models dont have this problem.

My perspective and suggestions:
As an international company, toyota should take more corporate social responsibility. They should consider these points before make the decision:
– ethics of production:
duties of a company to ensure that products and production processes do not cause harm

– think about priorities before making the product decision
mass production vs safety/detail/value of life
instead of conducting the mass production, toyota should focus more on the safety of the cars, pay attention to small details and keep the value of life in mind.

– promote information transparency
toyota should enclose the product information to their customers. keep them informed of the potential problems :acceleration problem.

-change the organizational culture need to keep the customer in mind, build customer relationship. So it can lead to increase in sales.
main goal: safety
short run vs long run: mass production of unsafe cars will lead to declining sales
– change mangement style
hire the third party to monitor the safety of their cars, so that the evaluation of safety will be less objective.

These days I am planning to buy a smartphone. Hearing so many people saying black berry is the optimal choice for the business people, I wanna have a try on that. Through the process of searching the information about black berry, I found the company made the revolution about their products but at the same time still keep their core characteristic. Their newest product, torch, have a huge touch screen , but at the same time, they also keep their classical keyboard. So for those ppl who like touch screen and also attracted by their real keyboard, torch is the best choice. So blackberry company in this case, they make a quick adjustion to their new product in order to win the fierce smartphone competition.

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will”
It’s nothing to do with my topic, but I just saw these words and really like it, so just wanna share with you guys who need motivation to move on.

Ok, now let me go back on the right track…..marketing…….
Today, we learned about Five Cs of Pricing:
value: copany objectives, customers, competition, costs,channel members

5Cs: Company Objectives
– Sales orientation: Max volume. which means it focuses on market share : market share is the greast predictor for LR success
I think sales orientation are for ordinary customers and provide daily life products or basic need products, such food or clothes. However, sometimes, even the same type of basic products, their target market is still different. Such as foods, there are many organic foods in the market which charge fairly high and mainly provide for richer customers.

– Profit orientation: Max profit or return: not so focus on share volume, charge as much as they can, not decrease the price. not only in SR, try to get profit as much as they can from small volume.
I think a good example is the jewelery company. Usually the price is pretty high for a well-made necklace or ring. and customers wont buy jewelery as often as they purchase foods. Therefore, the sale volume are not that high. But the price is very high and the company can earn much profit from selling one jewelery.

– Competitor orientation: relative to competitiors
– Customer orientation: max value: consider customer how much they will pay and how they value: relates to scarfice, dollar value and time, efforts.
I think this kind of orientation is more and more apparent and important in the future. Since our market is more value-orientated, companies should set up the customer orientation so that they can keep long term relationship with their customers. And nowadays, there are many different ways for customer to search product information and then compare. So they will know the product information better then before. So focusing on the value they can receive should arouse companies’ attention.

Nowadays, many companies are trying to enter the cause marketing to promote their products as well as take the social responsibility. In my opinion, there are 3 key factors should be firstly considered.

Keep Customers In Mind
You should consider customers’ interests when associating our products with cause marketing. Since only when customers are interested in our products, they are more willing to make a purchase.According to a new survey for Cone LLC, finds 83 percent of the respondents agreed that they would like to support more products with meaningful causes. And 81 percent want companies to provide them the chance to buy a cause-related product. These figures indicate customers’ willingness to purchase the cause-related good. Another example is the success of Pink Ribbon Campaign. Customers are quite interested in buying pink shoelaces and yogurt in the special pink-labelled container because money will go to breast cancer research. So if we can find a cause marketing plan which meets customer’s interest, our product will be very popular in the market.

Pay Attention to Employees
Except from bearing customers in mind, you also need to ensure our employees play an active role in participating in the cause marketing plan. Therefore, your plan will become more effective. A new study (from Cone LLC) shows 81 percent of employees support companies to offer matching grants to the community and more than70 percent are willing to dedicate their paid time to volunteer and paid sabbaticals. Another example is the success of CIBC’s run for breast cancer donation. Since 70 percent of employees are female, they are much more enthusiastic about this event. Therefore, these female employees make the CIBC’s cause marketing more effective. These statistics and example illustrate it is important to realize employees’ value because of their contribution to company’s social
responsibility through cause marketing.

Focus on Local Causes
It is not only important for you to keep customers and employees in mind, but also crucial for you to focus on local causes before we set the cause marketing plan. Based on the survey for Cone LLC, 46 percent of respondents indicate firms should pay primary attention to local communities, whereas only 37 percent preferred a countrywide and 17 percent an international focus. That is to say most people believe developing the quality of life in local community is the most important when company target the potential cause marketing. Thus, you should restrict your target marketing within our own community, instead of expanding to a larger area. Through observing the most significant and meaningful social issue happened in local community, then it is easier for you to make the local cause marketing decision.

No doubt, this Axe commercial is quite funny, sexy and creative. (but truthfully, kinda feel embarrassed to write about this topic in my blog)

As an English second language person, I didnt quite understand the point of this commercial at first. But after I asked my friends, I understood its root meaning. Well…I felt kinda embarrassed about the balls at first, but then after I felt it is really a smart and creative promotion idea through illustrating the real balls, such football, tennis ball and basket ball, to demonstrate the quality and effect of Axe product.

I think this commercial is successful because first of all, it targets different types of male customers: the old and the young, males with small balls and big balls. Through the male audience’s excited reaction after that co-host cleaned the balls, it successfully grasps the costumers’ heart and makes them really trust their product. Secondly, expect for the men’s reaction, it also shows female spokesperson’s excited and satisfying expression after she touched the clean balls. So through these targeting points, it leaves a deep impression on the audience’s mind.

However, this commercial is kinda inappropriate to put on TV because it doesn’t consider the impact on the kids audience. Since kids are still quite young, and don’t have any sexual innuendo, they may remember what they heard from this commercial and repeat it in the daily life just because it sounds funny. Of course, parents wouldn’t want their kids going around saying ‘clean your balls’ or anything like that. That is not good for a kid’s growth.

Well, overall, this commercial has a great creativity and takes good advantage of the sexual slang. Whereas, the company should consider its public influence on all kinds of audience, and determine whether it is reasonable ethical to put it on TV for the general public.