Strategic marketing questions and answers

Question 1:

  What is customer value? How would you explain the concept of superior customer value? How is customer value related to a market driven strategy and to a company’s success?

Answer:

  Customer value is the outcome of a process that begins with a business strategy anchored in a deep understanding of customer needs. The creation of customer value is an important challenge for the managers, since it is an ongoing competitive challenge in maintaining successful market-driven strategies. Being able to overcome these challenge, the organization is believed to be able to successfully deliver the customer value.

  Superior customer value occurs when the buyer has a possitive use experience compared to his/her expectations as well as the value offerings of competitors.

   Question 2: 
      Discuss the role of organizational capabilities in a strategy. How do organizational distinctive capabilities contribute to developing market-driven strategy?

Answer:
  Identifing an organization's distinctive capabiliies is a crucial part of market-driven strategy which is very essential in formulating business strategy. Capabilites can be defined as a complex bundles of skills and accumulated knowledge, exercised throw organizational processes that eneble firms to coordinate activities and make use of their assets. 
  The major components of distinctive capabilites are:

• Organizational Processes
• Skills and Accumulated Knowledge
• Coordination of Activities
• Assets

Question 3:
         Marketing has often been defined in terms of satisfying customers’ needs and wants. Critics maintain that marketing does much more than satisfying customers’ needs and wants and, in fact, create needs and wants that did not exist before. According to these critics, marketers encourage consumers to spend more money than they should on goods and services they really do not need. What is your opinion of this on-going debate? Take a stance and defend your position using examples of companies that you perceive to have created or satisfied customer needs.

Answer:
   I believe that marketing shapes the needs and want of customers. In fact, that now marketers create needs and wants that didn't exist before it says that consumers not always know what they really need and want. For example, many years ago, few people might feel that they need a cell phone. If marketers simply followed this information, cell phone will nor be so popular now. Marketers shapes consumers to realize this need and stimulates this market.
  So, marketing may lead consumers to realize a need that might have previously gone unnoticed.

       "If we had listened to customers, we would have made them a faster horse".

                                                                                                                                Henry Ford

Question 4:  
      With marketers increasingly adopting more and more refined market segmentation schemes – fueled by the Internet and other customization efforts- some critics claim that mass marketing is dead. Others counter that there will always be room for large brands that employ marketing programs targeting the mass market. Take a position whether mass marketing is dead versus mass marketing is still a viable way to build a profitable brand.

Answer:
   I think, mass marketing will never die. And there are many reasons for that. 
Firstly, mass marketing is losing popularity is directly related to the maturity of many markets.
There is another reason that mass marketing is on the decline  is the demand from  consumers for personalization. Compared with many years ago, there are more people today who want to be different. 
Advances in technology now let manufacturers create specialty products much more economically than they could before, and because they can, the market for many products has  become extremely competitive. So, in order to compete, manufacturers continue to refine their segmentation to appeal to more slices of the market. It's a vicious circle. 

Question 5:
      What are Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning? How important are they in offering customer value? Why it may become necessary for companies to change their market segmentation identification over time?

Answer:
   Segmentation: Dividing a market into smaller groups of buyers with distinct needs, characteristics, or behavior who might require separate products. 
   Next step is to target one or more segments. Consists of set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve.
   Positioning is developing a product and brand image in the minds of consumers.
   It's become necessary for companies to change their market segmentation, because markets are dynamic. The market preference is always changing, so the company should make sure that their capacity and capability match with their market segment demand. If the current segment is not well match toward the company capability, consequently the organization should change their market identification. 


Question 6:
     Often, after a brand begins to slip in the marketplace or disappears altogether, commentators observe, “all brands have their day”. Their rationale is that all brands, in some sense, have a finite life and cannot be expected to be leaders forever. Other experts contend, however, that brands can live forever, and their long-term success depends on the skill and insight of the marketers involved. Take a stance whether brands cannot be expected to last forever versus there is no reason for a brand to ever become obsolete.

      Answer:

        Nothing is forever, but some brands can carry on for an extended time if the brand is managed in a way that its value doesn't depreciate. Brand leaders such as Coca-Cola has survived the test of time because they are constantly modifying and improving their strategy or introdusing new products.

        So, well-managed, a brand could live forever. American Express, Western Union and other brands also still going strong after more than 100 years. Even if brands dies it can rise again. 

        
     Question 7: 
        What is meant by the phrase ‘the customer is always right’? Do you support this statement? If yes, why? If not, why not?

     Answer:
     "Customer is always right" is one of the idea employed by some of the company in the market. There is nothing right or wrong about the idea. It was based on the intention to fulfill and satisfy customer needs. However, this can be achieve by not bound with the mean of the phrase "Customer is always right". but with what we can do to help customer and our own company to achieve the most practical benefits.

The customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. 
        

    Question 9:
           The ‘form versus function’ debate applies in many arenas, including marketing. Some marketers believe that product performance is the end all and be all. Other marketers maintain that the looks, feel, and other design elements of products are what really make the difference. Take a position whether product functionality is the key to brand success versus product design is the key to brand success.

 Answer:

        Consumers buy products to satisfy a need. A product must perform to an acceptable level according to the consumer's perception of benefits in their customer value hierarchy. Products have unique characteristics and  specific brand identifications that meet consumers' needs that are not related to functionability. Such needs as status, selfactualization and style. For example, most automobiles will perform the task of taking a person from point A to point B. However, it is the design of the automobile that appeals to the buyer. For many consumers style plays more important role. And I think design can be a powerful marketing asset.

Question 11:
       “Consumers do not buy products they buy benefits”. Discuss this statement and its implications for effective marketing.

Answer:

      We make purchases not for the products themselves, but for the problems they solve or the opportunities they offer. Marketing should focus on the product benefits. This must be done so that sonsumers to know the advantages of your product and then interested to use it. 

          They want to buy a benefit, so exactly what  benefit will your product or service be to them? Marketers have to find out what customers personally consider to be benefit.

        For effective marketing:

•       Marketers should define their business in customer benefit term. 
•       What do customers want from products like yours?
•       Why should someone buy your product?
•       What benefits or results the customer recieve from doing business with you?
•       What will your product do for them?

    Marketers should give significant thought to the problem what their product or service is solving in the life of the customer and to put themselfes in their place and think about benefits they as a customer would expect and demand.

Question 12:

         Why is it important that an organization undertakes regular monitoring of its market environment and what are the key areas that should be examined?

Answer:

   Regulary monitoring  market environment is important for business to succeed. The  company should analyse its performance to ensure that it remains effective. This will allow the company to have better control over the performance of company's market strategy. Marketers need to understand the marketing environment and modify their marketing plans so as to maximise opportunities and minimise threats. Businesses are constantly being inluenced by their external and internal environments.

Question 13:

    Explain the relationship between customer value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Do we need loyal customers? If yes, why? If No, why not?

Answer:

       Customer loyalty positively influenced by customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is a key issue for every company wishing to increase customer loyalty and thereby create a better business performance.

     And the other hand, customer satisfaction influenced by customer value. Companys attract new customers by promising superior value and keep and grow current customers by delivering satisfaction.

       There are some reasons why we need loyal customers:

•     Loyal customers will purchase your goods or services again and again over time.
•     The more loyal customers are, the safer the company will be from the competition.
•     Loyal customers can also bring you  new customers.

Question 14:

   The key success factor in new product development revolves around the capabilities of the Research and Development team. How accurate in your view is this statement? Justify your answer.

Answer: 

   Market research is the process by which businesses find out about customers' needs, wants and desires. It makes possible the successful development of new products.

  So, Marketing research helps marketers learn more about their customers' requirements, expectations, perceptions, satisfaction and loyalty.

Question 15:

   In what ways does the global marketing mix and marketing principles differs from the domestic marketing mix and principles?

Answer:

  Both markets refer to the same marketing principles. However, there are same differences between two.

  

	Domestic	Global
Meaning	It refers to those activities which results into transfers of goods and services inside the country itself.	It refers to those activities which results into transfers of goods and services from one country to another.
Barriers	Domestic marketing has no such restrictions.	International trade is characteristics by tariff and non tariff barriers.
Culture	Culture does not affect in domestic marketing.	Trade should be done taking diverse into consideration. Even things like colour combination can be affect the trade.
Competition	Competition is not as intense as it is in international marketing.	International Trade is subject to intense competition.
Risk	Domestic Marketing is also subject to risk but not as high as international marketing.	International Marketing is subject to high risk. Political, foreign exchange risk, bad debt risk are few of them.