Marketing 300 CORE
Al Golzari
Homework Assignment 1
25 points for each question. Partial credit will be given. Please type directly into this file and save and return with your last name as an extension to the file name.
Please refer to the article I posted on Flipboard on Dec. 26 titled “Offering breakfast is a made-to-order success for McDonald’s.” As a consumer, I’m sure you know that for the past few months, McDonalds has begun offering breakfast all day in most markets. So far, this has led to initial success and appears to be working.
What target markets is McDonald’s trying to appeal to by offering their breakfast menu all day? Please be specific and list as many target markets (market segments) as you can think of. To help answer your question, think of some of the things we discussed in class in terms of how you can segment a market. Things such as age, income, sex, lifestyle, psychographics, etc. are things to consider. *AGAIN, you must be specific and can’t simply list “age” – you must list in specific terms such as “college students,” or “those who earn less than $x amount per year,” etc.
Parent with little children;
Teenagers (BY offering a cool place to meet with friend and take a cup of coffee at any time)
Business customers
Customers with a maximum of $10 daily spending who cannot afford the expensive lunch menu
Families
You work at a large consumer products company and you are currently managing one of the company’s CASH COWS. One of your friends also works at the company but s/he is managing a STAR. What are some of the things that you should be doing to manage your CASH COW product that your friend does not have to worry about? List as many things you can possibly think of.
Generally, managing the cash cow depends on the nature of the product. However, some of the measures I would employ to maintain the cash cow include;
I would ensure there is enough investment in the cash flow division to make sure the division is functioning smoothly
I would constantly budget for its continued success. Although some cash cows are self-sustaining, budgeting for success is essential
I would increase the market awareness of the product through advertising to maintain and improve the market share and also counter competition.
I would further provide free sample of the product to the opinion leaders to further popularize the product
Finding more effective advertising channels would help maintain the high sales of the product.
Given the fact that high margins often provide additional revenue, it is prudent to put extra cash flow in marketing the product.
I would further use some other products in the firm to support the cash cow.
Finally, I would ensure that the cash cow is the firm’s priority
You have taken over as the CEO of Daimler, parent company of Mercedes-Benz (lucky for you, the board recently fired Dieter Zetsche and picked you instead). Please refer to the article on my Flipboard magazine titled “Mercedes not chasing volume at any price” from Friday, 2/5/16. Before Dr. Zetsche’s departure, he said that Mercedes would not chase volume and sacrifice margin (which is often how a market penetration strategy occurs). You also agree, but at the same time you are looking for new growth avenues for the Mercedes-Benz brand.
Since you're unwilling to engage in a market penetration strategy against BMW and Audi due to margin erosion, you decide to engage in a market development strategy. Please provide an example of how you might engage in a MARKET DEVELOPMENT strategy. Please provide as many details as possible. (Hint, also refer to chapter 2).
I would engage in a strong market development strategy by renewing the product range of the cars (Mercedes-Benz) and further expand them in all market segment. Such a move would help create a variety of choice to the customers. Moreover, thea move coupled with creation of awareness to customers through rigorous advertising and creation of different classes of the Mercedes-Benz car would help attract a pool of customers from different backgrounds. Besides, the development strategy would assist in managing the growing complexity of the expanding international production network.
Please use Chapter 5 for this question. You may use a brief answer for each of these questions.
4A. you are Proctor and Gamble and you sell Tide laundry detergent. Who is the intermediary between you and the consumer? (You can use an example or the type of intermediary)
The relevant intermediaries in this case include retailers and independents would may include drugstore closer to the manufacturer, mass merchandisers, convenience stores, supermarkets, and dollar stores. I would, therefore, sell the detergent to the merchandisers who would then sell the detergents to the final consumer.
Secondly, I may also opt to use a salespersons who would sell the product to the final consumer.
4B. you are Amazon. Who is the intermediary between you and the customer every time you fulfill an order? (You can use an example or the type of intermediary)
A relevant intermediary in this case would the online payment service providers such as PayPal that act as the link between the customer and amazon. It is the service providers that enables amazon receive the customer’s money and also send the money to the sellers.
Reference
Peltz, J. (2015). Offering breakfast is a made-to-order success for McDonald’s. Los Angeles Times. [Accessed February 11, 2015]
