Analysis Products and Services of CBS
CBS Corporation is a large-scale multimedia company with its key operation in United States. The company specializes in operating broadcasting, television programs and publishing operations. The company has its history back in 1927 when William S. Paley took over the leadership and established outstanding strategies after which the company grew tremendously for a decade. Paley focused on radio broadcasting, which was the, key form of mass media at the time and changed the name of the company to give it a face in the market. In was in 1928 when the company’s name Columbia Broadcast System (CBS) was incorporated. In the year 1937, the company was listed in the New York Stock Exchange, as one of strategies to attract investors to invest their resources. Several products have been developed while there are five business divisions including entertainment, local broadcasting outdoor cable network and publishing. The company has numerous programs to suit different needs of customers, hence the market captured by the company is large despite increasing completion in the broadcasting industry.
Marketing environment including customer needs keeps on changing and increasing from time to time. This is because of the dynamic nature of the world, which results into the changing lifestyles due to various aspects. It is therefore recommended that an organization should take advantage of the changing nature of the market to introduce new products in the form of a product breath or depth (Lamb 334- 338). Introduction of new products in an essential aspect as it assist in retaining existing customers, and attracting other customers, which are essential aspects in marketing. CBS has succeeded in the past due to its product growth through which it has risen to one of most prominent firms in the industry. It is therefore essential for the company to maintain the same trend and in this information error.
Product mix breath includes the introduction of new products under the existing product line with the aim of offering an alternative to the existing product. In this case, a number of customers will shift from their current consumed product to the new one, either from within the company or from its competitors. For CBS Company, it is important to appreciate the fact that online and digital broad casting is moving towards its pick. Several competitors within the industry have their programs streamlined online to serve the digital generation. In this case, the company should select key programs, which are mainly for the youth and middle-aged people so as to capture their innovative nature (Bhattacharjee, 276 – 277). Customers have appreciated the introduction of such programs, and hence it is high time for the company to adapt the strategy.
Online broadcasting of existing programs implies that those without the opportunity to watch or listen to traditional broadcasting in a television and a radio respectively will be attracted and satisfied. For customers to be allowed to access some of online programs they are required to subscribe either at the time they want to watch or on a periodic basis. Apart from the existing market, the online broadcasting is unique in nature as it attracts customers from all over the world. This is highly influential as the number of people who can access the internet have increases significantly across the world not only in developed world by also in the developing world. The company should ensure that the system applied in this case is stable and can support intended programs effectively. With the corroboration with search engines such as Google Inc. CBS will succeed in the application of this strategy. Eventually, the sales revenue and profit levels of the company will improve significantly, which is essential for the realization of marketing objectives (Fredendall, 1535-1544).
Depth development involves the introduction of new brand with a different target market. It is an approach to capture a larger market and diversify operations. CBS should not take anything to chances, with its concentration in the American market; it implies that products offered in the market cannot be applied in upcoming markets. Despite that fact that it has acquired an international face as a company, it is important to appreciate that fact that the company have done little to penetrate in developing markets. The American market can be said to be saturated such that there is no room for further expansion in the industry. Competition is high and mounting and hence CBS, or any other broadcaster should look for opportunity elsewhere as much as possible. In this case, the company should come up with a new brand to assist in penetrating such markets. For example, the company can develop a brand named CBS Africa which will focus on African market. This has been realized by some international broadcasters lead by BBC, MTN and Aljazeera among others. Programs broadcasting in this market should be modified to fit to the needs of the market. Issues affecting African people are different from those in United States and other developed world (Print Lamb, Joseph and Carl, 341- 358).
The other approach that the company can come up with to expand its product line debt is the establishment of a newspaper. It is clear that the company concentrates on the publication of magazines and financials. There are millions of newspaper lovers who cannot spend a day without reading a newspaper. CBS has a reputable name in the mass media and hence it has an added advantage when to come to the introduction of the new products as potential customers will not hesitate to test how the product will serve their needs (Ramler, 21-25). The newspaper should feature current and future aspects as reads are focused into searching for information that is relevant to them today and in the future. The newspaper should be distributed in all major cities where special information that fits to different cities should be provided. For example, if in New York, there is a major issue/event, the headline of the newspaper distributed there should have the information. In case, another major event/issue is experienced in Washington, the newspaper distributed in the city should have the issue/event as the headline. This will capture the interests and needs of different customers and hence make the newspaper appealing to the market.
The breadth and depth marketing approaches will assist GBS to reposition itself in the market. The market share of the company will increase as a result of the increased number of customers captured by introduced products and brand. Customer satisfaction will be increased as they have a variety of choices (Huang 181-193). In this case, they chose the best product, which suits their needs. The introduction of CBS Africa with programs, which fits their need and existing issues, will assist in the expansion of the market. African is developing and hence the market is upcoming the introduction of CBS into the market gives it the chance to grow together. This will strengthen the company even further, in the market. CBS is a successful organization over the years; it has enough capital and expertise to attract partnership from local media to ensure that its programs reflect the nature of the African market. Training in human resource to ensure that operate up to the required standing is an important aspect of repositioning.
Works cited
Bhattacharjee, C. Services Marketing: Concepts, Planning and Implementation. New Delhi: Excel Books, 2006. Print.
Fredendall L D. “Improving the Product Mix Heuristic in The Theory Of Constraints.” International Journal of Production Research 35.6 (1997) : 1535-1544.
Gong, Zhejun, and Sun Hu. “An economic evaluation model of product mix flexibility.” Omega 36.5 (2008) : 852-864.
Hart, Susan, and Nikolaos Tzokas. “New product launch ‘mix’ in growth and mature product markets.” Benchmarking An International Journal 7.5 (2000) : 389-405.
Huang, Yao-Wen. “Identifying Critical Steps in the New Product Development Process.” Accelerating New Food Product Design and Development. Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
Ishioka, M, and K Yasuda. “Product development concept with product sustainability.” PICMET 09 2009 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering Technology 2009 1699-1706.
Lamb, Charles W. Marketing. Toronto: Nelson Education, 2009. Print.
Madura, Jeff. Introduction to Business. Mason, OH: Thompson/South-Western, 2007.
Miller, Orin. “The product life cycle & the marketing mix.” Credit Management (2001): 36-37.
Print Lamb, Charles W, Joseph F. Hair, and Carl D. McDaniel. Essentials of Marketing. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
Ramler, Rudolf. “The impact of product development on the lifecycle of defects.” Main (2008): 21-25.
