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Chapter 11
Competitive Dynamics
Key Chapter Concepts:
Competitive Forces
Identifying Competitors
Analyzing Competitors
Other Competitive Strategies
Market-Challenger Strategies
Choosing A Specific Attack Strategy
Assignments:
1) Identifying Competitors
For a market leader, increased sales must come from expanding the total market through
2) Number of Sellers and Degree of Differentiation
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
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3) Entry, Mobility, and Exit Barriers
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
4) Degree of Vertical Integration
Michael Porter’s Five Forces model is as applicable today as it was when it was introduced.
Have the students select a market or market segment (jeans, cell phones, etc.) and using
5) Market Concept of Competition
In challenging a market leader, the challenger has a number of differing strategies to employ.
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Chapter 12
Setting Product Strategy
Key Chapter Concepts:
Consumer-Goods Classification
Industrial-Goods Classification
Differentiation
Product Differentiation
Line Stretching
Up–Market Stretch
Two-Way Stretch
Assignments:
1) Product Levels: The Customer Value Hierarchy
In planning its market offering, the marketer needs to address five product levels: core benefit,
2) Product Differentiation
Product differentiation is essential to the branding process. In choosing to differentiate a
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3) Durability and Tangibility
Convenience items and capital good items can be seen as two ends of the “product
4) Consumer Goods Classification
Assign the following readings to students: Robert Bordley, “Determining the Appropriate
5) Design: The Integrative Force
When the physical product cannot easily be differentiated, the key to competitive success may
6) Product Differentiation
In the Marketing Memo entitled, Making Ingredient Branding Work, the authors list four
requirements for success in ingredient branding. As a group, students should collect examples
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Chapter 13
Designing and Managing Services
Key Chapter Concepts:
Service Businesses Increasingly Fuel The
World Economy
Distinctive Characteristics Of Services
Marketing Strategies For Service Firms
Shifting Customer Relationship
Profit Tiers
Top-Management Commitment
High Standards
Choosing Brand Elements
Establishing Image Dimensions
Devising Branding Strategy
Managing Product Support Services
Assignments:
1) Services are Everywhere
Using the information on marketing research covered in this text, ask the students to prepare a
teaching SERQUAL® form to be administered in all the classes taught in your department.
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2) Categories of Service Mix
As the opening vignette indicated, The Mayo Clinic has been built as one of the most
3) Marketing Strategies for Service Firms
In the Marketing Memo entitled, “Recommendations for Improving Service Quality,” the
4) Managing Service Quality
In the Marketing Memo entitled, “Assessing E-Service Quality,” the authors identify a 14–
5) Customer Expectations
We all have “service failure” stories to tell. As a matter of fact, most people love to tell about
the time that such and such firm provided sub-par service to us as consumers. Sometimes
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Chapter 14
Developing Pricing Strategies and Programs
Key Chapter Concepts:
Understanding Pricing
A Changing Pricing Environment
Setting The Price
Step 1: Selecting The Pricing Objective
Survival
Maximum Current Profit
Step 2: Determining Demand
Price Sensitivity
Step 3: Estimating Costs
Types Of Costs And Levels Of Production
Step 4: Analyzing Competitors’ Costs, Prices,
and Offers
Markup Pricing
Target-Return Pricing
Auction-Type Pricing
Step 6: Selecting The Final Price
Impact Of Other Marketing Activities
Company Pricing Policies
Adapting The Price
Geographical Pricing (Cash, Countertrade,
Promotional Pricing
Initiating Price Cuts
Initiating Price Increases
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Assignments:
1) How Companies Price
Paul W. Farris and David J. Reibstein, in their article, “How Prices, Expenditures, and Profits
Are Linked,” Harvard Business Review (November-December 1979); pp. 173–184, found a
2) Reference Prices
Consumer perceptions of prices are also affected by alternative pricing strategies. Marriott
Hotels, for example, has different brands for differing price points. Building upon the Marriott
3) Price Cues
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
4) Price Sensitivity
Choosing a product that is available online and in stores (books or tires, for example), ask the
5) Promotional Pricing
Katherine Heires in Business Week 2.0 October 2006 wrote “Why it Pays to Give Away the
Store.” Either in small groups or individually, have the students read Ms. Heires’ article and
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Chapter 15
Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing
Key Chapter Concepts:
Marketing Channels And Value Networks
The Importance Of Channels
Push Strategy
Value Networks
Demand Chain Planning
Supply Chain View
The Role Of Marketing Channels
Channel Functions And Flows
1) A Sales Channel
2) A Delivery Channel
3) A Service Channel
Key Functions
Channel Levels
Terms Of Targeted Service Output Levels
Identifying Major Channel Alternatives
Types Of Intermediaries
1) Distributors’ Territorial Rights
2) Mutual Services And
Responsibilities
Control And Adaptive Criteria
To Develop A Channel, Members Must Make
Some Degree Of Commitment To Each Other
Selecting Channel Members
Training Channel Members
Motivating Channel Members
Evaluating Channel Members
Modifying Channel Arrangements
Channel Integration And System
Vertical Channel Conflict
Horizontal Channel Conflict
E-Business Describes The Use Of Electronic
Means And Platforms To Conduct A
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Assignments:
1) The Role of Marketing Channels
Top marketing companies are employing both a “push” and a “pull” strategy to deliver
2) Channel Functions and Flows
Ask the students to comment on the hybrid channel of distribution. The hybrid channel as
3) Service Sector Channels
In the Marketing Insight article entitled, “Transforming Your Go-to-Market Strategy: The
4) Analyzing Customers’ Desired Service Output Levels
Channel members add value to the consumer’s purchase of certain products and services.
Table 15.1 details key channel member functions. Yet some firms have abandoned channel
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Chapter 16
Managing Retailing, Wholesaling, and Logistics
Key Chapter Concepts:
Retailing
Types Of Retailers
Private Labels
The Private Label Threat
Role Of Private Labels
Assignments:
1) Types of Retailers
Shop—have students visit as many differing types of retailers (and non-store retailers) as they
2) New Models of Success
New retail forms and combinations is one of the trends in retailing today. Examples include
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3) Product Assortment
Atmospherics is an important component of store attractiveness. Every store has its own
unique look, feel, and smell. Yet each consumer may react differently to each of these
4) Private Labels
Store brands, or private label brands, account for one of every five items sold in the United
States today. Students should purchase differing store brands/private label items (ice cream is
5) Market-Logistic Decisions
Recently, Dell Computers, a company that wrote the book about managing logistics and
selling to the consumer, announced that it will begin selling its products in Best Buy stores