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Professors on the Go
Chapter 12
Addressing Competition and Driving Growth
Key Chapter Concepts:
Growth Strategies Growing the Core
Competitive Strategies for Market Leaders General Attack Strategies
Market-Follower Strategies Product Life-Cycle Marketing Strategies
Product Life Cycles Pioneering Advantages
Four Stages of Fashion Harvesting and Divesting
Marketing, Product, and Marketing Program Modifications
Assignments:
Identify the major competitors in the blue jeans market. Who has the leading market share, whose
shares have declined? What segmentation is (has) occurring/occurred in the blue jeans market and
why? Did demographic changes affect the market (from baby boomers to Gen X or Gen Y)? What
competitive signs, symbols, events, or occurrences did Levi-Strauss miss? What current shifts in
competition and channel power is occurring and what can Levi-Strauss do to minimize the impact
from these changes?
Have the students read: Tarum Khanna and Krishna G. Palepu, “Emerging Giants.” Harvard Business
Review, October 2006, Vol. 84, Issue 10, pp. 60-69 and comment on the emerging competition from
the “Third World” such as India and China on companies in the United States. Specifically, ask the
students to comment on whether or not they believe that this 1) competition will increase in the future,
and 2) how a U.S. company should respond to this threat.
Professors on the Go
Chapter 13
Setting Product Strategy
Key Chapter Concepts:
The Customer-Value Hierarchy Core Benefit
Augmented Product Product Classifications
Consumer-Product Classifications Industrial-Product Classifications
Differentiation (Product, Service) Design
Luxury Products Environmental Issues
Assignments:
Convenience items and capital good items can be seen as two ends of the “product continuum.”
Convenience items are purchased frequently, immediately, and with minimum effort. Capital goods
are those items that last a long period of time and are purchased infrequently by consumers. Students
should select a convenience good and a capital good of their choice and compare and contrast the
consumers’ value hierarchy and users total consumption system for each item using the concepts
presented in this chapter.
Assign the following readings to students: Robert Bordley, “Determining the Appropriate Depth and
Breadth of a Firm’s Product Portfolio,” Journal of Marketing Research, 40 (February), 2003, pp. 39-
When the physical product cannot easily be differentiated, the key to competitive success may lie in
adding valued services and improving their quality. Examples of adding value in the service
component of a product include computers, education, and pizzas. Each student is to select a product
in which they think that the additional value present lies in the service and quality components.
Students should be prepared to defend their selections using the material presented in this chapter.
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Product differentiation is essential to the branding process. In choosing to differentiate a product, a
marketer has the choice of form, features, performance quality, conformance quality, durability,
reliability, repairability, and style. Collect examples of currently produced products that have been
differentiated and branded for each of these design parameters.
Professors on the Go
Chapter 14
Designing and Managing Services
Key Chapter Concepts:
Service; The Nature of Services Categories of Service Mix
Distinctive Characteristics of Services Customer Empowerment
Assignments:
As the opening vignette indicated, The Mayo Clinic has been built as one of the most powerful
services brands on its firmly held belief and focus on the experience of the patient. As one staff
member explained, “People don’t come to the hospital alone.” In small groups, students should review
their local hospitals (especially the one on campus) to see if their local hospital adheres to the tenants’
of a good service provider. A starting point is an examination of the hospital’s mission statement,
beliefs, and patient rights policies (if available).
In the Marketing Memo entitled, “Recommendations for Improving Service Quality,” the authors
Berry, Parasuraman, and Zeithaml, offer 10 lessons that they maintain are essential for improving
service quality across service industries. Individually or in small groups, have the students analyze
their Department, College, or University against these 10 criteria and list their recommendations for
improving one of the services on campus.
Have students read Elisabeth Sullivan, “Happy Endings Lead to Happy Returns,” Marketing News,
Professors on the Go
Professors on the Go
Chapter 15
Introducing New Market Offerings
Key Chapter Concepts:
New Products Types of New Products
Organic Growth Continuous Innovation
New-Product Success New-Product Failure
Budgeting, Planning, Managing Development Cocreation
Assignments:
Use the class and conduct a brainstorming session using the tips from the Marketing Memo entitled
“How to Run a Successful Brainstorming Session.” Use the students as the “group” and appoint one
as a moderator.
Using the suggestions in the Marketing Memo entitled “Eight Ways to Draw New Ideas from Your
Customers,” set up a project in which students (individually or in groups) observe consumers using
products such as automobiles, use of the Internet, use of the “mall,” etc. to see if they can come up
with some ideas from their observations.
Professors on the Go
The consumer-adoption process is similar to the product life cycle in its stages of introduction, growth,
expansion, and decline. For example, by the time a product reaches the late majority, the product is
also entering the latter stages of the product life cycle and price and promotion become increasingly
important to maintaining sales. Overlaying these two graphs, comment on what their similarity means
for marketers. Why do you think that the length of the adoption process and the product life cycle
stages are similar? What does this similarity say about consumer buying practices? What lessons must
marketers understand, in terms of new product launches, about these two?
Professors on the Go
Chapter 16
Developing Pricing Strategies and Programs
Key Chapter Concepts:
Collaborative Consumption Bartering
Reference Price Price-Quality Inferences
Price Endings New Luxury Products
Steps in Setting Pricing Policy Price Sensitivity
Assignments:
Marketers recognize that consumers often actively process price information, interpreting prices in
terms of their knowledge from prior purchasing experience, formal communications, informal
communications, point-of-purchase, or online resources. Purchase decisions are based on how
consumers perceive prices and what they consider to be the current actual price—not the marketer’s
stated price. In small groups, ask the students to choose a service good, such as education, legal
advice, tax advice, or other such services, and have them map out their perception of prices and what
they consider to be the current actual price. Finally, students should compare and contrast their
perceptions with the stated or published prices for these services. In completing this assignment,
students should explain the differences between perception and stated prices in terms of consumer
buying behavior models from Chapter 6 of this text.
Many consumers use price as an indicator or quality. As a group assignment, students should choose a
product produced by a firm. Subsequently, the students should conduct a small research project
(utilizing the material learned from Chapter 4) and either, confirm, or deny this relationship for the
chosen product. For example, do more women or men rely on price as an indicator of quality for
product X? If there is a difference, what is the quantifiable difference in terms of marketing research
data? Does this difference suggest that marketers must or can revise, or revamp price clues to reach
their target market?
Professors on the Go
For many firms pricing is the domain of the financial disciplines in the company. Using accepted
accounting and financial processes, some companies’ price strictly according to these models. Assign
students the assumed role of “defenders” of this practice and others as “innovators,” challenging these
models and supporting some of the newer pricing models such as “perceived” and “value” pricing for
products. Have the students come prepared to defend their positions using the concepts developed in
this chapter.
Professors on the Go
Chapter 17
Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Channels
Key Chapter Concepts:
Value Networks Marketing Channels
Holistic Marketers Multichannel Marketing
Omnichannel Marketing Digital Channels Revolution
SoMoLo Role of Marketing Channels
Assignments:
Top marketing companies are employing both a “push” and a “pull” strategy to deliver incremental
sales. Take the example of the company called Sepracor, Inc. as defined in the chapter. Its product
Ask the students to comment on the hybrid channel of distribution. The hybrid channel as defined in
the chapter poses an interesting channel for future marketers. As students grow into consumers will
they or won’t they rely on purchasing products exclusively through the Internet? Or will they demand
hybrid distribution choices like free shipment to store sites (like Wal-Mart) or pick up at the store like
Best Buy?
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Channel members add value to the consumer’s purchase of certain products and services. Table 17.1
details key channel member functions. Yet some firms have abandoned channel partners and tried to
