IMT – 40: MARKETING MANAGEMENT-MT2

PART – A

Q1. What do you understand by marketing concept? Distinguish between marketing concept and production concept ?

Q2. What are the components of country analysis. Why is country analysis considered a vital diagnostic tool by companies going global. 

Q3. How does research improve decision making in marketing. What are the types of marketing research methods? 

Q4. How can companies emotionally connect with its customers? Give some examples to show the emotional connect between companies and customers. 

Q5. Which variables are used to segment organisational markets?

PART - B

 Q1. Marketing mix is the most versatile tool to create the desired positioning. Explain.

Q2. Give the classification of consumer products. 

Q3. What are new generation products? Is it possible for technology based companies to ignore new generation products for long?

Q4. Outline the factors that influence pricing decisions.

Q5. Explain the various types of retail formats. Does the emergence of Modern Trade (MT) pose a serious threat to the existance of Traditional retail ?

THIRD SET OF ASSIGNMENTS Assignment-III = 5 Marks

PART – C

 

Q1. What is the basic purpose of sales promotion ? How can a new sales promotion scheme be tested?

Q2. List down the various methods of establishing the advertising expenditure. Why does “ percentage of sales method” continue to be a popular method for setting advertising budget?

Q3. Most companies seem to be allocating more funds to non-media advertising. Comment on this trend. 

Q4. List the selling skills every aspiring salesperson should learn. 

Q5. Under what conditions “ Hold Objective” the best form of competeive marketing strategy.

 

CASE STUDY – I 

Print Media under serious threat 

Bennett , Coleman & Co. Ltd., better known as the publisher of English daily The Times of India, is India's largest media group. Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. is the flagship company of The Times Group.

 

The Times Group has: 11 publishing centers ,15 printing centers , 55 sales offices ,over 7000 employees ,5 dailies including two of the largest in the country . Add to that 2 lead magazines and 29 niche magazines .The combined reach of group publications was in 2,468 cities and towns of the country.

 

Mr. Vineet Jain, the CEO of Bennett , Coleman & Co. Ltd., wore a worried looked at a hurriedly summoned meeting of print media barons at Mumbai. The subject of his worry was an article that he read in Wall Street Journal, Washington DC. In his speech to the other print media owners he read out the excerpts from the article

“ Search engine marketing expenditures will grow 14% this year, jumping from $14.6 billion in 2009 to $16.6 billion by the end of December, according to research from the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).

 

This growth does not come without some trepidation, however. SEMPO found that measuring return on investment is the biggest challenge facing marketers.

 

Where’s the money coming from? Nearly half (49%) of respondents indicated they are reallocating budgets to search engine marketing from print advertising. More than a third (36%) are shifting money away from direct mail, and almost a quarter are moving budgets from conferences and exhibitions (24%) and Web display advertising (23%).

 

Google, unsurprisingly, is the big beneficiary of this trend. Nearly all (97%) respondents are paying to advertise on Google AdWords. Of these, almost three quarters (71%) pay to advertise on the Google search network while 56% use the Google content network (keyword targeted).

 

Google is apparently maximizing its dominance. More than half of advertisers (56%) and agencies (62%) say that Google keywords have become more expensive over the last year. Meanwhile, only around a third of advertisers noted an increase in Yahoo (32%) and Bing (29%) keyword costs.

 

Leaving Google aside, marketers named personalization of search results and the rise of local search were two trends worth watching.

 

The report is based on an online survey which was fielded during January and February among SEMPO and consultancy members. Results were collected from 1,471 respondents, including 527 advertisers and 944 supply-side respondents carrying out search engine marketing on behalf of clients (including agencies or consultants).”

 

Mr. Vineet Jain wanted print media barons to dwell upon how much of a challenge does internet media offer to print media. The situation appeared disturbing, while the circulation of newspapers and niche magazines was going up, the ad revenue was not going up in the same proportion. Most blue chip clients on advise from their ad agencies earmarked larger budgets to online media year on year basis. In their meeting, the media barons were unanimous that personal selling efforts by sales team need to be bolstered to meet up the traditional clients and get a larger part of media budget.

 

Questions

1. How serious is the threat to revenues of print media by online media in India?

2. How can newspaper groups apply the principles of CRM to bind more with their customers i.e. clients who contribute by way of advertising revenue?

3. Bennett, Coleman and Co, the foremost media group, showed the way to the newspaper industry on how to thwart this challenge from online media? Mr. Vineet Jain decided to implement the new sales raining program to upgrade the skills of his sales and marketing team. What should be the objectives and the structure of this training program?

 

CASE STUDY – II

 Revamp the Sales organization – American MNC

A U.S. owned manufacturing company operating globally with 45,000 employees. They supply a wide range of customers in a vast range of markets including the automotive, aeronautical, and manufacturing sectors. The company looks to revamp its sales organization structure as the CEO feels the present product based structure is not in line with the new market realities facing the company.

 

There are two key elements to their sales strategy:

 

(1) To develop an Account Management approach to the most significant direct customers

 

The sales organization has historically been product division based. The move to account management will provide in a single point of contact for the customer, with the account managers having a resource management role, providing the right resources to the customer as required.

 

(2) Developing the distributor network to service the non-direct accounts

This third party channel will be increasingly important in getting company’s clients products and services to the mass market.

 

Working with the Vice President of Sales Europe, senior sales management, and the European learning and Development Team we have developed a "learning ladder" which provides an ongoing development programme for sales people as they progress through the organisation. Key elements of the programme are:

 

• Core selling skills - this provides the foundation training
• Account Management, for people moving from a territory based role to working with major accounts
• Working with Distributors, for people who move into the distribution channel rather than key accounts
• Negotiation, as this is a core skill for the whole sales team

 

Specific programmes are also available on presentation skills, understanding finance, and a programme specific to the office based sales team who support the field operation.

 

Each programme takes a blended learning approach, which involves participants in self-study work as well as attending short duration practically based workshops. Finally, sales managers attend a coaching programme, to enable them to develop their coaching kills back in the field - this is a key activity in enabling the salespeople to implement what they have learned during the programmes.

 

Questions:

1. Critically examine the account management approach to handle the key customers.

2. Outline the difference in selling process to meet up with the requirements of key accounts and those that of distributor network

3. What are the challenges of revamping the functioning of sales teams in global organizations?