Search

The significance of product design, for business success, is discussed.

The marketing industry brought about great changes in the 1960's, but current advertising needs to make progress. Consumer loyalty should be rewarded, and overly complicated marketing schemes will probably not pay off. Strategic co-marketing is attracting customers, as the Internet supplies access to a new population of consumers.

Companies may follow four suggestions to discover new opportunities that may enhance their core capabilities. They should first ask themselves whether the products and services they provide can survive in other areas and whether such areas can promote the company's growth. They should then determine whether such a market can be found depending on the company's requirements and ascertain if a promising market exists in new industry identified.

Today's product and service managers need to look for new ways to add value to their goods, cooperate with other manufacturers, 'tier' their brands, beat their competition to global markets, dump poorly performing brands, take advantage of new technologies and research capabilities, and organize their management around brands. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Business management can be compared to painting. Like artists who must capture fleeting images, executives need to look for business opportunities can capitalize on them. Also, executives need to look at their businesses from different angles to gain a better understanding. In addition, employees can be likened to colors on a palette board that need to be integrated to produce a beautiful picture.

Companies resort to a lot of ingenuous strategies to achieve growth in the competitive decade of the 1990s. Companies wishing to find fresh inspirations for growth can start by evaluating ten strategies. Firms can introduce new products designed for convenience, do some backward thinking, engage in co-branding, delivering on their promise, create new marketing strategies, develop new businesses, create a variety of products, develop second-entry product lines, create new images for old products and combine elegance with simplicity.

There are five key tactical building blocks in the customer partnering strategies of partnerships formed between pairs of companies in vertical and horizontal alliances. Customer partnering tends to be synonymous [...]

Brand identity represents value and image. For example, Mickey Mouse is recognized all over as a symbol of Walt Disney Co. A company can brand the corporation itself as with McDonald's Corp or Nike Inc; brand various divisions, which often happens when a company with a unique brand is acquired; or brand products, such as Pampers. Product branders must be careful to avoid too much proliferation. Sometimes, companies sell too many brands, which leads to confusion. At Procter and Gamble Co, 25% of 2300 separate brands account for less than 2% of total sales., BRANDS HAVE ALWAYS represented the dual perspectives of value and identity. In the Old American West, a cattleman's brand represented an expression of his reputation as a rancher, and producer [...]

The authors present a categorization of manufacturers' supports for industrial distributors and six criteria for choosing which supports to offer. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Retail chains and wholesale distributors are seen as the gatekeepers to end-consumers and are considered to wield considerable influence over the US marketing business. One of the greatest challenges that the manufacturing industry faces is reaching an agreement with the major retailers and wholesalers that would allow manufacturers to have control over their pricing structure, profit margins and brand image, while at the same time giving them access to the wide customer base of the gatekeepers. Those who are in the best position to bargain with distributors are the manufacturers that offer innovation, variety, brand identity, profitability, quality, and service-responsiveness. Manufacturers who bundle products, train distributors to hone their selling skills, create demand for products and have geographic clout also stand to do well when negotiating with the gatekeepers.

A new slant on an old strategy, partnerships are currently being looked at as a way of dealing with today's myriad marketing challenges. Despite all the recent press concerning newly […]

Several companies, including British Airways PLC, J.C. Penney Co, and Taco Bell, have revitalized their growth, earnings, and market positions by changing their marketing strategies. British Airways went from a $200 million loss on operating revenues in 1981 to 1982 to a $412 million profit in the 1990s by becoming more customer oriented. The airline introduced many strategies, including travel services for business-class customers, and special fares for customers over the age of 55. J.C. Penney eliminated its blue-collar image by changing its product mix, developing upscale in-store displays, and improving customer service. Taco Bell increased its market share from 40% to 70% by introducing a cut-rate pricing strategy. Changing a corporation's image involves several steps, including conducting thorough market research, developing a long-term identity strategy, and making a change in strategic priorities.

Six Steps to Distribution Network Design Many of America's best-known companies have been wrestling with the difficult problem of how much distribution coverage is enough. For a new product such [...]

Several companies have become successful by going against fundamental marketing principles. Body Shop International, a cosmetics firm, spends no money on advertising, selling its products through its own franchises instead of drug and department stores. Body Shop relies on trained salespeople, along with its policy of using natural ingredients, to attract customers. J.C. Bamford Excavators, an industrial equipment manufacturer, has become successful by providing customers with free on-site trials of its expensive equipment. Both of these firms have successfully implemented marketing strategies that are unusual for their particular industry.

Your business has arrived at a crossroads. The direction you take from here can put you on the path to success or the road to ruin. The question of whether […]

New and innovative concepts in manufacturing can provide the field of marketing with fresh ideas to help it meet the challenges of the 1990s. Ten manufacturing concepts that have relevance to marketing include cutting waste; retraining employees; and computer-integrated manufacturing. Marketing departments can redesign products and packaging, resulting in reduced costs for shipping warehousing. Upgrading job skills and cross-training marketing employees insures high product quality even if key employees are absent. Companies can integrate the marketing, sales, and logistics aspects of their business with computers to enhance communications, and expedite order processing and warehousing.

Companies must address the issue of unlearning. This is necessary to allow employees to optimize their skills and competencies. They must first unlearn old behaviors and practices in order to learn new things. Unlearning can be delayed by three sources: physical, emotional and psychological. These delays are important because they provide insight and awareness during the learning process. Some tips on how to unlearn more quickly are presented.

Maketers can apply three strategies to cope with the existing deflationary climate. The first approach is to establish new market segments and promote new uses for current products. Proctor & Gamble Co, for instance, began promoting Pepto-Bismol to travelers with queasy stomachs. The company also began marketing its Cover Girl Makeup to ethnic groups using black models. Another alternative is to offer product-mixes. AMP Inc, for example, shifted from selling connectors to selling wiring subsystems composed of cables, wires, connectors and wiring harnesses. Levi Strauss & Co and The Lee Apparel Co increased marketing efforts for their basic blue jeans, in response to increased designer jeans prices. Revenue can also be obtained from marketing mixes. For example, PepsiCo Inc allows its distribution contacts and vending networks to sell beverages of other companies.

DIFFERENTIATING YOURSELF VIA DISTRIBUTION What do Frito-Lay, Hallmark, Bata Shoe, Caterpillar Tractor, Sony, and Compaq Computer have in common? Certainly not their products, packaging, pricing, service, or advertising, since each […]

Leveraging Strategies for Sales Promotions As firms push to improve quality while reducing unit costs, every area of marketing spending is being called to account. To get more productivity from [...]

In industry after industry, small businesses have found they can gain real power by coming together as buying groups. The number of buying groups in the drug industry alone exceeds 100. In the hardware business, the 139 wholesalers that deal with the 6 largest wholesale buying groups account for about one-third of U.S. retail volume. Among professional end-users like health care organizations, membership in buying groups is common. Where competition is heavy, where ownership of stores or other outlets is fragmented, and where price is a prime determinant in purchasing, buying groups are often powerful. The original impetus, of course, is to lower prices through volume purchasing. These groups customarily expand by offering accounting and inventory help, then promotions and merchandising aids, and eventually broad lines, including even private labels. These help build store identity, which is vital for retailers, especially in competing against chains. There are drawbacks, however. For wholesalers, joining a buying group means ending close relationships with many other suppliers. Small retailers are the losers when a large member rocks the boat or even leaves the organization. For manufacturers and other suppliers, it can mean losing control of pricing and reducing control of distribution. But when the choice is between gaining the advantage of numbers and losing out to the big competition, small retailers and wholesalers have found buying groups a haven. INSET: Some buying groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Employees without titles or formal authority are often responsible for the execution of corporate plans. Some of the leadership styles employed by those employees are presented here.

8 TIMELESS TRUTHS ABOUT PRICING "One man's price is another man's cost." That's why pricing is at once the most powerful lever to grow a business's revenue and at the […]

The article describes three ways to support distributors. It proposes a program of core supports for all distributors and three types of add-on supports that distributors could choose to fit their particular needs. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Manufacturers should create special strategies and tactics to accommodate contractor-dealers. Unlike conventional dealers who sell and service products, contractor-dealers are often the primary users and specifiers of suppliers' products; therefore, they perform roles that are typically assumed by end-customers in more traditional distribution channels. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

The authors provide three major criteria for evaluating marketing channels. They assert that each channel choice involves some trade-off among the three criteria - almost no channel ever fits a manufacturer perfectly. Two examples are provided in some detail. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Here's a way of reckoning whether you've got the right mix of territory and specialized sales representatives. Should you use sales specialists or generalists? The question probably goes back to […]