Marketing Paper Essay Research Paper Marketing MidtermMarch

Marketing Paper Essay, Research Paper

Marketing Midterm

March 22, 2000

1. The World Wide Web is a very effective marketing tool for many reasons. It provides companies with an affordable and powerful way to reach people at ant time of day. The World Wide Web has basically four techniques that enable companies to market their products. There are interactive brochures, which range from simple one-page electronic flyers to multimedia presentations. Virtual storefronts take the interactive brochures one step further and allows customers to view and order merchandise. Information clearinghouses provide in depth product information where consumers can ask questions and get online answers. The customer service tool allows consumers to order catalogs and refer to lists of frequently asked customer questions with answers. Technological advances will affect the way we select and purchase goods in the future in many ways. It should in the future prove to be a powerful tool in promoting, connection, building associations, delivering information, and creating online communities. Technology will increase the speed at which consumers can purchase items and make it more convenient because people will be able to shop at any time of day and even negotiate the price.

2. Quality is defined as the degree of excellence or superiority of an organizations goods and services. Customer satisfaction is the result of a good or service meeting or exceeding the buyer’s needs and expectations. Customer satisfaction fits into the definition of quality. The true measure of quality determines whether a business has satisfied its customers. A.V. Feigenbaum says “Quality is what you customer says it is-not what you say it is. To find out about your quality, ask your customer.” A typical business loses half of it’s customers every five years and the underlying reason for many customer defections is simple: the customers were not satisfied with the value they received from the firm.

3. The five components of the marketing environment are competitive, political-legal, economic, technological, and social-cultural environments. The competitive environment is the interactive exchange in the marketplace as organizations vie with one another to satisfy customers. Marketers actually face three types of competition. Their most direct competition occurs among marketers of similar products. A second type involves products that users can substitute for one another. The final type of competition occurs among all other organizations that compete for consumers’ purchases. The political-legal environment is the laws and their interpretations that require firms to operate under certain competitive conditions and to protect consumer rights. Regulations enacted at the Federal, state and local levels affect marketing practices, as do the actions of independent regulatory agencies. At the federal level, the Federal Trade Commission wields the broadest powers of any agency to influence marketing activities. The economic environment consists of forces that influence consumer buying power and marketing strategies. They include the stages of the business cycle, inflation, unemployment, resource availability, and income. There is also the international economic environment. This is important because changes in foreign currency rates affect marketing decisions.

4. The international marketplace differs from the domestic marketplace for many reasons. In the international marketplace marketers must pay close attention to economic, social-cultural, and political-legal influences when they venture abroad. A country’s infrastructure is a very important characteristic. It refers to a nations basic transportation network, communications systems, and energy facilities. Changes in exchange rates can also complicate international marketing. For example, Japans traditional price advantage over domestic competitors in the U.S. eroded during the early 1900’s primarily because of increasingly competitive U.S. companies and the rising value of the yen in comparison to the U.S. dollar. The international social-cultural environment is also important because respect for cultural beliefs and religious customs is an essential precaution for marketers. Political conditions often influence international marketing. The legal environment for U.S. firms operating abroad results from three forces: international law, U.S. law, and legal requirements of host nations.

5. The steps in the marketing process begin at the corporate level. It begins with activities to define the firm’s mission, which is the essential purpose that differentiates the company from others. Then an organization lies out it’s basic objectives, or goals; in it’s mission statement. These objectives in turn guide development of supporting marketing objectives and plans. The third step of the marketing process involves a back-and-forth assessment of strengths, risks, and available opportunities. Organizational resources include the capabilities of the firm’s production, marketing, finance, technology, and employees. The SWOT analysis is an important strategic planning tool. SWOT analysis helps planners to compare internal organizational strengths and weaknesses with external opportunities and threats. Formulating a marketing strategy is the next step. A marketing strategy is an overall company wide program for selecting a particular target market an