Answer 1)
Casually cited as ‘Nueroscientist’,Marin Lindstorm,is a well known brand expert around the world and is largely renowned for his ideas on neuro-marketing and how the companies can take the benefit from the tendency of the consumers to follow impulse buying. His most famous work, Buyology, where he analyzed more than 2000 people to buy in the world filled up with clutter crisis, and what role does human psyche and subconscious mind in inducing the buyer to buy the product, the ideas perfectly supplemented the content of the article ‘‘In Search of Buy Button’’. As we read in the article, the author has explicitly stated that even today, advertisers considers advertising as more of an art than the science as they still try to appeal to the emotions of the customers finding their sense of reason. In other words, advertisers try to manipulate the guilt, anxiety, fear, humor and other hundreds of emotions of the customers. However, this method does not guarantee that the they will be able to gain customer attention. In fact, these companies should rely on tools of neuroscience that allows the companies to understand the psychology of consumers and see which product or which feature of the product that gathers maximum attention of the customers.
Answer 2)
Reading the discussion in Module 6, I found that there was a consensus amongst the class over the advertisements, both TV based and Print Media, overcoming the issue of clutter crisis, impactfull storyline and the one that spreads out the word in relation to the company’s objectives. For instance, the Coca-Cola advertisement, which I selected, was unique in all aspects, and no wonder it was out of the box strategy to communicate more about your new product to the potential customers. At the same time, McDonalds print advertisement depicting a farm fresh potato being converted to French fries was an indirect way of communicating the company’s objective of serving only products made from farm fresh material. In short, it was the story line and the emotional appeal that allowed the audience to be engaged with these advertisements
Even the authors of our textbook postulates that , ‘’The storyline must have a beginning, middle, and an ending; this allows the viewer to follow the commercial with ease’’(Lane, 2011)
Answer 3)
With Marriott hotel experiencing astounding growth, the company also faces the issue of trade dress or any third-party utilizing their trademark for personal benefit. It is considerable that being a renowned brand in the hospital industry, the company is widely recognized by the its logos. Therefore, the first step, which the company’s manager should take care of is look for the company or any other entity that has similar trademark or logo as Marriott. While analyzing this issues, the manager must understand that the trademark should be distinctive and should not be used in plural by two parties (Lane, 2011). Secondly, the manager must be aware of all the trademark and infringement laws as when he finds any other company using the Mariott’s trademark, he should be ready with a legal opinion on the subject matter and must address the issue to the concerned party and his acts of violation of trademark related laws. (Lane, 2011)
Answer 4)
Infiltrating the international market is not an easy business related decision as it involves days of thought process. One such part of this thought process is determining the method through which the product will be launched on the global market. While there are many methods available for the company to consider under this scenario, the two most popular are, standardization and adaptation. Below I have discussed the advantages and disadvantages associated with each method:
This refers to method of launching the product without any changes to the product form to what it was being marketed in the home country.
-Advantages:
a) Benefit of brand equity:
Once the company decides to go global, most likely, it has enough brand equity that will help it in gaining an entry into the overseas market, and when the product is standardized, things get easier for the company as the customers already know the value of the product and what to expect from it. For instance, Apple products are standardized around the globe and the company enjoys ferocious brand equity.
b) Low advertising costs
Launching a standardized product eliminates the need for additional changes in the advertising, and this saves much of the additional cost for showcasing the modified product than the original one.
c) Economies of Scale
Manufacturing the standardized product for the global market allows the company to achieve economies of scale through mass production.
-Disadvantages
a) Fails to fulfil cultural requirement
If the company goes for a standardized product without any market research, it may end up offering the product that does not suit the cultural environment of the overseas customers.
Adaptation
This refers to modifying the product and make it adapt to the needs and culture of the target country.
-Advantages
a) Fit overall need of the client
Once the company goes for adaptation model, it will be able to offer product customized to cultural and value needs for the customers of a particular location.
-Disadvantages
a)Additional costing
Modification of original product always comes with the disadvantage relating to additional costing.
Answer 7)
Following the Week 7 discussion, I believe that the class reached the consensus that an entity investing in research and development, and the one that is able to produce product keeping the customer’s emotions and needs in mind, will lead the industry. Here, General Electric, declined to accommodate low pricing trend in the industry, and rather gained synergies in the form of high sales volume and profit figures, and an enhanced market share by investing in research and innovation process.(GE, 2016)
Answer 6)
On the basis of outcome of module 8 discussion, I believe that the whole class has a consensus that the company should not follow a template marketing strategy as it look forward to enter in the US market. In other words, the company should consider the cultural aspects and other communication related issues as it designs advertising strategy for the US market. Additionally, while the company is widely successful in Europe and deals with 12 products at the same time, it cannot expect that these 12 products will receive a same warmth in the US market. Moreover, , the company should be aware that the US market is no short of beauty products brands, therefore, in order to gain a sustainable market share, the company should perform a market study and launch its product only after learning about the emotions of American customers and should only launch those products that appeals to the customers specifically in the United States.(Lane, 2011)
On the other hand,Nike Inc., which was willing to gain an international brand equity, faced the issue of developing the brand image that would reside in the minds of its international end consumers.
References
GE (n.d.). GE Appliance Collections. Retrieved from http://www.geappliances.com/ge/ge-appliance-collections.htm
Lane, W. R., King, K. W., & Reichert, T. (2011). Kleppner’s advertising procedure (18th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Vrontis, D. (2008). International Marketing Adaptation versus Standardisation of Multinational Companies. University of Nicosia.
Wells, M. (2003, September 1). In Search of the Buy Button. Retrieved May 1, 2016, from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/0901/062.html
