http://youtu.be/JOjAeWFfasY

The marketing plan assignment had opened my eyes to many new business/marketing perspectives. By combining multiple marketing tools in this assignment, I was exposed to many marketing strategies being implemented by Starbucks, giving me the opportunity to understand the underlying factors that turned Starbucks from a small coffee shop into one of the world’s most successful company. After completing this assignment, I realised how important marketing is in every stages of a company. Every steps Starbucks took did not happen by accident, but they were carefully selected and planned to ensure the success of the company.

The situation analysis assignment allowed me to further understand that external factors beyond control of the business also play a major role in determining survival and success of every company. Even though was familiar with the use of SWOT analysis to analyse the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a business prior to this assignment, since high school. However, the use of macroenvironment framework (CDSTEP), was a relatively new marketing tool for me,  it allowed me to understand the importance of external factors from different aspects even better than before.

The STP outline assignment allowed me to explore strategies Starbucks is using (or have used) to segment, target, and position different types of customers. With an unanimous decision of recommending Starbucks to target ‘urban kids and teenagers from upper middle class families’, the team came up with an ultimate goal to engrave the ‘Starbucks lifestyle’ into into the younger customers and creating lifetime value. I believe that this strategy will allow Starbucks to generate a new group of loyal customers, creating a stable stream of income and therefore benefit Starbucks in the long run.

If I could go back, I would encourage more brainstorming within the team to generate even more ideas and have more frequent meetings to ensure the consistency throughout the three assignments. However, this marketing plan assignment provided a valuable and fun learning experience for me and the team, especially the video project. Lastly, the assignment also provided the opportunity for me to turn the knowledge and theories from every lectures and the textbook into a practical piece of work.

Nest is known as a newborn company that reinvents ordinary household systems like thermostat into something revolutionary after introducing its successful product of the Nest Learning Thermostat. By targeting the same niche market segment consisting of ‘green’ customers and technology lovers, Nest released Nest Protect, a smart and sleek smoke and carbon monoxide detector that connects with home wifi network and can be used seamlessly in conjunction with the Nest Learning Thermostat.

The ultimate goal of Nest for introducing this new product is to create new demand in a very saturated market of smoke detectors. There is still a big gap in this market as most customers are usually not satisfied with the smoke detectors installed in their homes. Many customers may have experienced annoying false alarms, or the low battery ‘beep’ at the middle of the night when they are resting. Nest saw this opportunity and created a smart smoke alarm that has many cool features, including waving at the unit to quickly silent in case of false alarm, the ability to notify any problems to users’ smartphones, and nightlight mode.

By applying the product life cycle, the Nest Protect is currently at its introduction stage. It is normal to expect low level of sales revenue at this stage. However, by being first in the market, Nest has the first mover advantage to capture and possess the early market share lead. But as the product is fairly easy to ‘copy and paste’, Nest must be aware of the competition from the imitators as the its product goes through the product life cycle. Also, by applying the diffusion of innovation curve, the main group of customers is most likely to be the innovators. Even if the innovators are only around 2.5% of the total market, they crucial for the success of the product as they help the product gain acceptance in the future through positive word of mouth.

Nest is doing a very good job in promoting its new product and delivering the value to customers. However, this is just a beginning of the journey of Nest Protect. The biggest complaint for this product, however, is the price. Nest Protect comes with a price of US$125 while regular smoke detectors range from $15-$80. Even though the product may be much more expensive than the alternatives available, I believe this product will be a significant premium product that may eventually be widely used in (digital-age) households.

A blog post in response to Daryl Chan‘s post on October 31, 2013.

The marketing blog of Daryl Chan perfectly highlighted the product development strategies implemented by Coca-Cola from an external marketing blog. As consumers are becoming more health-conscious by carefully monitoring their diet, Coca-Cola took into account of this social trend and developed many new products to satisfy this growing market segment. This social trend includes avoiding high sugar and calories intake, as well as avoiding unnecessary chemicals by selecting organic products. In order to adapt to these changes, many companies in the food industry have decided to implement different growth strategies, or even alter their existing product mix and product line to successfully cater this group of customers. However, I disagree to the fact that “Out of the 4 main growth strategies, the Coca-Cola Company is seen to implement product development to a huge extent”, but instead a combination between product development and diversification strategies, with some changes in the product breadth and depth.

By looking closely at its previous product mix, Coca-Cola products are targeted and positioned very similarly. Since the image Coca-Cola’s products are portrayed to be unhealthy, there are groups of health-conscious customers who were unsatisfied by the existing products offered by Coca-Cola. Adding healthier alternatives to its product line, such as low-calorie beverages like Coke Zero, or even a completely new product line of non-soda beverages including Dasani bottled water and Minute Maid, Coca-Cola successfully captured more customers from both existing and new customers. As Coca-Cola offers new products to its current and new target market, it can be concluded that Coca-Cola mainly employs in both product development and diversification strategies.

However, it can be seen that Daryl has made many interesting and relevant points on Coca-Cola’s product development strategies, branding, and values. These factors have contributed to the success of Coca-Cola, making it the biggest non alcoholic beverage company of the world, with more than 500 brands in over 200 countries.