EOC - Marketing Mix : Product

“Comparison shopping has never been easier. Millions of bytes of information are just a click away. Shopping for a new high-definition television and would like to compare offerings? No problem! Just search “hdtv comparison guide” in an online search engine such as Google and more than a million results return. Google experimented with returning a greater number of results per page and found usage dropped off because it took a fraction of a second longer for results to appear—too long for today’s consumers.” (Marketing an Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 170) In a competitive world it is imperative to make sure that the product itself is in some way more worthwhile to the customer base than other businesses in the same competitive markets. This is especially important in an environment with extremely convenient means of getting products in various ways. For instance, “[w]ith a simple touch, you will be able to order a pizza, get the weather forecast, find the perfect recipe, watch a YouTube video, and, oh yeah, make a phone call. That call will be delivered through VoIP technology, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. Forecasters predict that 20 to 50 million households will adopt this technology by 2013, depending on whether service providers subsidize the cost of the new media phone devices. There is a substantial business market for media phones as well. They will be found in offices and hotel rooms around the world. “ (Marketing an Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 239)

EOC - Target Market Strategy

Getting various information about targeted audience members who would become customers at the business and allowing general feedback from customers will help provide a successful target market strategy for the business. “In addition to marketing intelligence information about general consumer, competitor, and marketplace happenings, marketers often need formal studies that provide customer and market insights for specific marketing situations and decisions. For example, Budweiser wants to know what appeals will be most effective in its Super Bowl advertising. Google wants to know how Web searchers will react to a proposed redesign of its site. Or Samsung wants to know how many and what kinds of people will buy its next-generation large-screen televisions. In such situations, marketing intelligence will not provide the detailed information needed. Managers will need marketing research.”(Marketing an Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 106) It is important to know who your customers are and what they want in life aside from great customer service in order to deliver an excellent product that provides the enrichment in life that they are looking for. It is also important to know information from target markets in order to help understand as much as we can about the buying decisions that consumers make every day. “Consumers make many buying decisions every day, and the buying decision is the focal point of the marketer’s effort. Most large companies research consumer buying decisions in great detail to answer questions about what consumers buy, where they buy, how and how much they buy, when they buy, and why they buy. Marketers can study actual consumer purchases to find out what they buy, where, and how much. But learning about the whys of consumer buying behavior is not so easy—the answers are often locked deep within the consumer’s mind.” (Marketing an Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 137)

EOC - Situation or SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis will indicate how our business can fit into the market as well as keeping us informed about where we need to improve.  “Strengths include internal capabilities, resources, positive situational factors that may help the company to serve its customers and achieve its objectives. Weaknesses include internal limitations and negative situational factors that may interfere with the company’s performance. Opportunities are favorable factors or trends in the external environment that the company may be able to exploit to its advantage. And threats are unfavorable external factors or trends that may present challenges to performance. (Marketing an Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 55)  Strengths begin for our business with superior product and customer service.  This will allow our business to carve out its niche in the food service environment of Summerlin.  Weaknesses include a saturated market, low startup capital, and a non-permanent location.  These weaknesses can be addressed through a proper targeted marketing campaign and superior product and services.  Opportunities in this analysis include a mobile business that can go to convenient location for the maximum amount of customers, and with superior product and service ensure a share of the market.  Threats for this business include other food based businesses that may be mobile, or restaurants with superior products and customer service.  Our company needs to be able to answer all weaknesses and threats and this can be achieved by outlining a detailed marketing plan and knowing our competitions product and prices. “Thus, whereas marketers see themselves as selling products, customers see themselves as buying value or solutions to their problems. And customers are interested in more than just the price; they are interested in the total costs of obtaining, using, and disposing of a product. Customers want the product and service to be as conveniently available as possible. Finally, they want two-way communication.” (Marketing an Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 55)