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1. The answer for Q1:
The product element includes: product variety, quality, design, features, brand name,
packaging, sizes, services, warranties and returns.
1) Product variety means the company produces the main products meanwhile produce other
kind of products to meet market demand.
2) Quality of products is measured by the degree of conformance to predetermined
specifications and standards to satisfies consumers preferences and expectations
3) Design of products combines art, science and technology to create new products that
people can use.
4) Features of product is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a product or service that
helps boost its appeal to potential buyers, and might be used to formulate a product marketing
strategy that highlight the usefulness of the product to targeted potential consumers.
5) Brand name that identify not only a product but also its manufacture or producer. It is
used to attract customers, and might create consumer loyalty of produce.
6) Packaging is the technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage,
sale and use. Packaging can be described as a coordinated system of preparing goods for
transport, warehousing, logistics, sale, and end use.
7) Sizes of product is related to design and features of product, influences packaging and
usage of products.
8) Services under product elements of marketing mix includes pre-sale service, in-sale service
and after-sale service. It will create value for consumers of their purchasing.
9) Warranties is the guarantee from producers, companies or retailers to ensure product
quality and make sure that consumers can use products safely. And it is a kind of after-sale
service.
10) Returns is included in after-sale service. It also can be a guarantee for consumers to
return product when the unartificial of product is found.
In this case, Noel Copon’s textbook is offered by printed book and electronic version and
translated in different language, to provide convenience for consumers’ purchase and use. In
other words, Copon’s textbook is sold by different forms. Because most major consumers are
students, in order to achieve lower cost and price for meeting consumption level of students,
textbooks are provided with top-quality and the hardcopy is designed to be black and white
with few photographs. It demonstrate products should be designed to meet consumer
demands and marketing demands. On the other hand, the feature of textbook MM21C and
TVM are considered that they are not only useful for marketing courses but can take students
out of the classroom and enable students to develop real-world marketing as well. MM21C
and TVM has been adopted for three MBA and EMBA classes and get positive feedback from
students. It means that they start to become influencial for marketing courses. Otherwise,
online purchases service, credit card purchases service, packaging and shipping service are
provided for consumers. Therefore, a successful product can attract interest and attention
from consumers, and get the acceptance. It is designed to meet market demands and
consumer demands as well as to create more value for consumers.
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2. The answer for Q2:
Holistic marketers thus succeed by managing a superior value chain that delivers a high level
of product quality, service, and speed. They achieve profitable growth by expanding customer
share, building customer loyalty, and capturing customer lifetime value. Holistic marketers
address three key management questions:
Value exploration—How a company identifies new value opportunities
Value exploration is finding new value opportunities that involve contemplating customer
cognitive space, company competence space, and collaborator resource space. Cognitive
space is current and future needs of customers and their desire for participation, stability,
change and freedom.
Competence space is the company’s scope of business and knowledge-based capabilities.
Resource space is the collaborator’s horizontal partnerships with other entities based on their
potential and ability to tap related market opportunities, and vertical collaboration with
partners who can serve and enhance company vision and values.
In other words, value exploration has three major stages: i) identification of customer needs,
ii) a company’s ability to address the need through products or services, and iii) making the
product reach customer through distribution channels, or utilizing other manufacturers’
potential to find newer markets.
Value creation—How a company efficiently creates more promising new value
offerings
Value creation refers to the performance of actions that increase the worth of goods, services
or even a business. Many business operators now focus on value creation both in the context
of creating better value for customers purchasing its products and services, as well as for
shareholders in the business who want to see their stake appreciate in value.
Value creation is the primary aim of any business entity. Creating value for customers helps
sell products and services, while creating value for shareholders, in the form of increases in
stock price, insures the future availability of investment capital to fund operations. Value
creation in today’s companies is increasingly represented in the intangible drivers like
innovation, people, ideas, and brand.”
The first step in achieving an organization-wide focus on value creation is understanding the
sources and drivers of value creation within the industry, company, and marketplace.
Understanding what creates value will help managers focus capital and talent on the most
profitable opportunities for growth. If customers value consistent quality and timely delivery,
then the skills, systems, and processes that produce and deliver quality products and services
are highly valuable to the organization； If customers value innovation and high performance,
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then the skills, systems, and processes that create new products and services with superior
functionality take on high value. Consistent alignment of actions and capabilities with the
customer value proposition is the core of strategy execution.
Although the intangible factors that drive value creation differ by industry, some of the major
categories of intangible assets include technology, innovation, intellectual property, alliances,
management capabilities, employee relations, customer relations, community relations, and
brand value. It is important to note that investments made to enhance intangible assets
(research and development, employee training, and brand building, for example) usually
provide indirect rather than direct benefits. In this way, focusing on value creation forces an
organization to adopt a long-term perspective and align all of its resources toward future
goals.
Value delivery—How a company uses its capabilities and infrastructure to deliver
the new value offerings more efficiently
The value delivery process is an amalgamation of value creation and delivery process divided
into three phases. The first phase is choosing value, referring to the homework marketers
must do in terms of market segmentation, appropriate market selection, developing an
offering’s value positioning, or identifying values that company products or services must
meet.
The second phase is providing value, wherein marketers must determine price, features and
distribution method. The third phase is communicating value using the sales force,
advertising tools, promotional activities, and other important mediums necessary for
announcing a product or service’s existence and its features.
In other words, the process starts from customer value identification usually unmet by
existing products or services; creating product or service offering those customer values; and
finally creating product or service awareness through marketing.
3. The answer for Q3:
Through data mining, marketing statisticians can extract from the mass of data useful
information about individuals, trends, and segments. Data mining uses sophisticated
statistical and mathematical techniques such as cluster analysis, automatic interaction
detection, predictive modeling and neural networking. Some observers believe a proprietary
database can provide a company with a significant competitive advantage.
In general, companies can use their databases in five ways:
1) To identify prospects—Many companies generate sales leads by advertising their product
or service. The ads generally contain a response feature, such as a business reply card or toll-
free phone number, and the company builds its database from customer responses. It sorts
through the database to identify the best prospects, then contacts them by mail or phone to try
to convert them into customers.
2) To decide which customers should receive a particular offer—Companies interested in
selling, up-selling, and cross-selling set up criteria describing the ideal target customer for a
particular offer. Then they search their customer databases for those who most closely
resemble the ideal. By noting response rates, a company can improve its targeting precision.
