Chapter 01 – Creating Customer Relationships and Value Through Marketing
APPLYING MARKETING KNOWLEDGE
1. What consumer wants (or benefits) are met by the following products or services?
(a) 3M Post-it® Flag Highlighter, (b) Nike running shoes, (c) Hertz Rent-A-Car,
and (d) Amazon online shopping.
Answers: Consumer wants or benefits met by each of four products or services include:
a. 3M Post-it® Flag Highlighter. Enabling college students to study more effectively.
2. Each of the four products, services, or programs in question 1 has substitutes.
Respective examples are (a) a Bic® highlighter, (b) regular tennis shoes,
(c) an Uber or Lyft ride, and (d) a department store. What consumer benefits might
these substitutes have in each case that some consumers might value more highly than
those products mentioned in question 1?
Answers: Consumer wants or benefits that these four substitute products might provide
include:
a. A Bic® highlighter. Low cost; more colors; Seal Guard that prevents “dry out;”
rubberized grip; more and brighter fluorescent ink.
3. What are the characteristics (e.g., age, income, education) of the target market
customers for the following products or services? (a) National Geographic magazine,
(b) Chobani Greek yogurt, (c) New York Giants football team, and (d) Facebook.
Answers: The demographic characteristics of the target market for each product or service
are:
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4. A college in a metropolitan area wishes to increase its evening offerings of business-
related courses such as marketing, accounting, finance, and management. Who are
the target market customers (students) for these courses?
Answer: Target market customers or students for business-related courses offered by a
metropolitan-area college at night include both those pursuing a degree and those not
5. What actions involving the four marketing mix elements might be used to reach the
target market in question 4?
Answers: Marketing mix actions to reach these target market customers include:
a. Product. The content of each degree program, certificate program, or course offered to
6. What environmental forces (uncontrollable variables) must the college in question 4
consider in designing its marketing program?
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a. Social forces. Formal college degrees are required for an increasing number of jobs, so
colleges must recognize this in designing their courses. In addition, some employers
require a certain number of work-related course units every year to have their
7. Does a firm have the right to “create” wants and try to persuade consumers to buy
products and services they didn’t know about earlier? What are examples of “good”
and “bad” want creation? Who should decide what is good and bad?
Answers:
a. Does a firm have the right to “create” wants and try to persuade consumers to buy
products and services they didn’t know about earlier? Yes, a firm has the right to
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BUILDING YOUR MARKETING PLAN
If your instructor assigns a marketing plan for your class, don’t make a face and complain
about the work—for two special reasons. First, you will get insights into trying to actually “do
marketing” that often go beyond what you can get by simply reading the textbook. Second,
The first step in writing a good marketing plan is to have a business or product that
enthuses you and for which you can get detailed information, so you can avoid glittering
generalities. We offer these additional bits of advice in selecting a topic:
a. Do pick a topic that has personal interest for you—a family business, a business,
b. Do not pick a topic that is so large it can’t be covered adequately or so abstract it will
1. Now to get you started on your marketing plan, list four or five possible topics and
compare these with the criteria your instructor suggests and those shown above.
Think hard, because your decision will be with you all term and may influence the
quality of the resulting marketing plan you show to a prospective employer.
In Question 1, a key factor students should consider in choosing a topic for their marketing
plan is whether they can find enough useful information to provide the necessary detail in
Here are examples of successful marketing plans students have submitted for our classes:
• Family business. Sand and gravel business, small manufacturing shop, two-chair
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• Student organization or university activity. Marketing club, campus blood drive,
2. When you have selected your marketing plan topic, whether the plan is for an actual
business, a possible business, or a student organization, write the “company
description” in your plan, as shown in Appendix A (following Chapter 2).
In Question 2, if the company already exists, the company description highlights the recent
history and recent successes of the organization. So, students should seek to:
a. Recent history.
1. Provide a brief introduction about when the organization was founded (if relevant),
b. Recent successes. Where possible, identify and briefly describe what recent activities
or results show how the organization has been successful in terms of sales (dollars or
Helping with Common Student Problems
Enthusiastic students often pick marketing plan topics that are simply too grandiose to be
completed in the time available—a new brand of car or a new airline to serve small U.S. cities.
A subtler problem—alluded to above—is in picking a marketing plan topic that requires an
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TEACHING NOTE FOR VIDEO CASE VC-1
Chobani: Making Greek Yogurt a Household Name
Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant, bought an old Kraft yogurt plant in New Berlin,
New York in 2005. After eighteen months of perfecting the recipe, he and his five-person team
introduced Chobani Greek Yogurt in 2007. An authentic strained Greek Yogurt, Chobani is
thicker, creamier, and is higher in protein than regular yogurts.
Starting with his new-product launch, Hamdi Ulukaya fought to gain distribution in the
Teaching Suggestions
Before teaching the Chobani Greek Yogurt video case, consider asking a series of
questions to determine student’s consumption of yogurt and awareness and consumption of
Chobani Greek Yogurt:
1. How many of you eat yogurt in a typical month?
2. How many cups of yogurt do you typically eat in a month? 0 cups? 1-5 cups? 6-10
cups? More than 10 cups?
3. What kind of yogurt do you eat? A traditional yogurt? A Greek yogurt?
4. How many of you have tried or eat Chobani Greek Yogurt?
5. Among those of you that eat Chobani Greek Yogurt, what are the main reasons you buy
and eat this yogurt? [NOTE: Consumers often divide into (1) healthy eating and (2) like-
6. Have you ever tried Chobani Bite? Chobani Flip?
This discussion enables students to have a better perspective when they study and discuss
the Chobani video case and answer end-of-case questions.
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Answers to Questions
1. From the information about Chobani in the case and at the start of the chapter,
(a) who did Hamdi Ulukaya identify as the target market for his first cups of Greek
Yogurt and (b) what was his initial “4Ps” marketing strategy?
Answers:
a. Target market for Chobani Greek Yogurt. Hamdi Ulukaya saw his Chobani Greek
Yogurt as appealing to all American consumers—the mass market—when he first
introduced his Greek Yogurt in the United States. That is exactly the reason that he
b. Chobani’s initial 4Ps marketing strategy. Consists of the following marketing
actions:
• Product strategy. Offer a Greek Yogurt for a mass market that is healthier than
competing U.S. yogurts and does not have artificial ingredients and preservatives.
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2. (a) What marketing actions would you expect the companies selling Yoplait, Dannon,
and PepsiCo yogurts to take in response to Chobani’s appearance and (b) how might
Chobani respond?
Answers:
a. Marketing actions of competitors. Consists of the following actions:
b. Chobani’s response to these competitors. Consists of the following responses:
3. What are (a) the advantages and (b) the disadvantages of Chobani’s Customer
Loyalty Team that handles communications with customers—from phone calls and
e-mails to Facebook and Twitter messages?
Answers:
a. Advantages of Chobani’s Customer Loyalty Team. The overall advantage to
Chobani lies in the Customer Loyalty Team’s effective implementation of its high–
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b. Disadvantages of Chobani’s Customer Loyalty Team. The main disadvantage is the
4. As Chobani seeks to build its brand, it opened a unique retail store in New York City:
Chobani SoHo. Why did Chobani do this?
Answer:
Chobani SoHo offers innovative, carefully curated yogurt creations that are served in
beautiful glass jars. Consumers can select from a variety of creations starring Plain
5. (a) What criteria might Chobani use when it seeks markets in new countries and
(b) what three or four countries meet these criteria?
Answers:
a. Criteria to select new countries for Chobani to enter. There are both non-marketing
and marketing criteria in selecting new countries to enter:
• Reliable source of a huge volume of high-quality milk.
Chapter 01 – Creating Customer Relationships and Value Through Marketing
b. Three or four countries that meet these criteria. U.S. yogurt consumption today is
about 11 to 12 pounds per person annually. In Europe, per capita consumption is about
Epilogue
In February 2014, Chobani aired its first Super Bowl ad to introduce a 100-calorie Greek
1
Candice Choi, “Chobani to Debut at Super Bowl in Major Ad Push,” StarTribune, December 9, 2013. See
http://www.startribune.com/business/235026491.html.
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2. Form 4-student teams.
3. Give the following mini-lecture about marketers and their responsibilities:
“All of you purchase products and services every day, ranging from necessities, such as
food, clothing, and shelter, to discretionary items, such as candy, music, and education.
4. Ask students the following questions about their candy purchasing behavior:
• Question 1: How many of you buy candy? Why?
5. Pass out the “Designing a Candy Bar” Handout to students.
7. Bring up Ghiradelli’s Web site and give the following mini-lecture to students.
“The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company has produced and marketed premium chocolate
9. Ask students the following questions about this candy bar:
a. Who is the target market?
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c. What would you charge for a bag of 12 of these “Squares”? Why do you
think Ghirardelli charges this prices?
d. What advertising medium might Ghirardelli use to promote this product?
e. Where do you think consumers would buy this product?
f. How is the Ghirardelli candy bar different from those already on the
market?
10. Give the following instructions to complete this ICA:
“For the next 10 minutes, your team will design a candy bar based on your personal
experiences as candy bar consumers and your new role as potential marketers. When
designing your candy bar, be as creative as you can. However, the candy bar you
design must answer the following questions, as shown in the handout:”
a. To whom will your candy bar be sold? The answer to this question will specify
b. What is the product? The answer to this question will specify the features, such
c. How much will consumers pay for it? The answer to this question will specify
d. How will consumers find out about it? The answer to this question will specify