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The marketing manager of Jewellworld.com was faced with the problem of a saturated Hong Kong market, and has to consider ways in which to expand the business. In a meeting with the marketing director, who was responsible for the development of the Hong Kong and Chinese Jewelry markets, one of the main topics was the expansion of the online shopping strategy into the B2C area in China; however, the staff of the marketing department held different views. The immediate question was whether Jewellworld.com should move into the B2C area at full speed or wait and see how other competitors fared in the China online market. The other issue was the segmentation that Jewellworld should employ if they decide to enter the B2C market in China. A competitor had established retail stores across China. The question was whether Jewellworld should aim to cover all market segments and product lines, or target young people who tend to use the Internet more frequently.

In November 2004, The Wall Street Journal reported that consumer electronics retailer Best Buy's new customer approach was to shun the "devils" among its customers. The "customer centricity" initiative, which was led by Best Buy's CEO Brad Anderson, was based on an analysis of the purchase histories of several customer groups. The central idea was to revamp stores according to the most lucrative types of customers they served--the "angels" among the company's customers. Encourages an assessment of Best Buy's strategy and, more generally, of the challenges and opportunities in managing customers for profits.

An abstract is not available for this product.

Presents the basic principles of pricing, including value pricing, price sensitivity, and price customization/discrimination.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 506021.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 506-020.

Since the 1980s, Kingsford had continued to enjoy steady, moderate growth of 1% to 3% in revenues each year. During most of this time, the charcoal category as a whole grew as well. However, the summer of 2000 represented the first softening in the category in several years. Forces students to step into the brand manager's shoes, analyze the reasons for the current situation, and come up with recommendations related to pricing, branding and advertising, and merchandising and promotion of the Kingsford brand.

What should you do when your brand becomes "hot" overnight among influential endorsers? Do you exploit this sudden rise in popularity and mainstream the brand, or do you attempt to slow the diffusion process and seek to understand how to market to these consumers? Drawing on the case of Dunlop Volley in Australia, the authors argue that mainstreaming the brand by targeting later adopters results in a short-term fashion cycle rather than creating long-term brand value. Because these brands are "discovered" by consumers, marketers must first understand the value system underlying this adoption and then fit the marketing program to these values. In the case of Dunlop Volley, slowing diffusion rates was achieved through four tactics: rejecting hard-sell marketing, appearing authentic, targeting alternative distribution channels, and delaying launch to the mainstream audience. These activities ensured the ongoing credibility of the brand with endorsers and helped revitalize a brand long thought dead.

Since its conception, the marketing mix has been the marketer's toolkit for success. A firm's marketing plan is basically comprised of the "four Ps" of the marketing mix toolkit, with practitioners and academicians segregating a marketer's tasks into product, place, price, and promotion. A decade of company-based research suggests, however, that it is time to rebuild the marketing machine by focusing on the key strategic issues that companies, and marketers, face in today's rapidly evolving, digitized marketplace. If marketing is to become a way of doing business rather than merely one of several organizational functions, marketers must recognize that the marketing mix toolkit is truly an implement for success. Only after we, as marketers, recognize and conceptualize marketing as a bigger machine than just the four Ps will we be able to bring a market orientation to the forefront of strategic thought.

In a bid to combine the two major perspectives (strategic communications and strategic brand management) of integrated marketing communications (IMC), this article proposes a holistic consumer experience management framework. According to the framework, the key mission of IMC is to manage effectively the mediated impression of and direct encounter with the brand so that synergism ensues among all the interrelated elements of IMC, including research and development, manufacturing, price formulation, channel arrangement, consumer service management, marketing message construction, and communication program execution. As such, IMC is capable of enhancing the holistic consumer experience and creating a holistic brand value structure, which can unite the consumer's sensory, emotional, social, and intellectual experiences in a new and positive way.

Elaborates on the prerequisites for designing a successful marketing strategy: market segmentation, target market selection, and product positioning.

Provides an introduction to key product policy issues.

Having lost the sweepstakes for the endorsement of LeBron James to Nike, Reebok needs to explore new frontiers for business growth. Reebok has decided to establish a stronger and more emotional relationship with the male urban consumer. The undertaking requires a focus on the sneaker as a fashion accessory, incredibly effective buzz marketing, and the ability to penetrate the networks that operate within the hip-hop culture. Further, it needs to devise a way of capitalizing on cool trends to take its new proposition global.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. The growing popularity of mobile hand-held devices is opening up intriguing new possibilities for what the authors refer to as "brand in the hand" marketing. Because individuals can be, and often are, connected anytime and anyplace, mobile marketing can be used to collect data through the wireless Internet to determine not only the exact location of a consumer at a given time, but also why that individual might be there. With that information, more meaningful or relevant advertising messages or promotions can be delivered to the consumer on a mobile device. Before companies rush into this new marketing arena, though, they need to understand some fundamental issues. How does mobile marketing differ from traditional approaches? When should a company pursue a brand in the hand initiative? Does mobile marketing have to be integrated within an overall marketing strategy and, if so, how? Moreover, how should companies address privacy issues? These are of particular concern, in part because of the personal nature of mobile devices.

For years, companies have expanded their product lines in an attempt to better meet the needs of diverse customers. Typically, they do so by adding new flavors, package sizes, formulations, features, and options. As a result, whereas The Coca-Cola Company once sold a single formulation of cola, it now sells more than ten. It has long been believed that product variety is beneficial to consumers, and that a wider assortment will logically better-meet their varied preferences than a narrower assortment. However, the authors call this 'variety-is-good' belief into question, showing that in cases where 'choice deferral' is an option, adding a second attractive alternative to what had been a one-alternative consideration set increases the frequency of not making a choice. The results they present speak to the potential negative impact of product assortment on consumer choice - an effect they refer to as 'overchoice'. Four strategies are described that confront the negative effects of overchoice.

Companies often apply consumer marketing solutions in business markets without realizing that such strategies only hamper the acquisition and retention of profitable customers. Unlike consumers, business customers inevitably need customized products, quantities, or prices. A company in a business market must, therefore, manage customers individually, showing how its products or services can help solve each buyer's problems. And it must learn to reap the enormous benefits of loyalty by developing individual relationships with customers. To achieve these ends, the firm's marketers must become aware of the different types of benefits the company offers and convey their value to the appropriate executives in the customer company. It's especially important to inform customers about what the author calls nontangible, nonfinancial benefits--above-and-beyond efforts, such as delivering supplies on holidays to keep customers' production lines going. The author has developed a simple set of devices--the benefit stack and the decision-maker stack--to help marketers communicate their firm's myriad benefits. The vendor lists the benefits it offers, then lists the customer's decision makers, specifying their concerns, motivations, and power bases. By linking the two stacks, the vendor can systematically communicate how it will meet each decision maker's needs. The author has also developed a tool called a loyalty ladder, which helps a company determine how much time and money to spend on relationships with various customers. As customers become increasingly loyal, they display behaviors in a predictable sequence, from growing the relationship and providing word-of-mouth endorsements to investing in the vendor company. The author has found that customers follow the same sequence of loyalty behaviors in all business markets.

This is the first of a two-case series. The case series explores Smart Telecommunication Inc's innovative approach to serving low-income customers in the Philippines. The case introduces a framework for developing strategies to serve low-income customers in developing countries - the 4A's. This framework is an adaptation of the classic 4P's of marketing that are likely to have been covered early in any marketing course. Case (A) provides an overview of the mobile phone market in the Philippines as of early 2003, as well as demographic and socioeconomic information. According to analysts, the mobile phone market in the country is heading towards saturation due to the fact that the majority of the population is unable to afford mobile services. It is estimated that in a best-case scenario, 35% of the population will be using a mobile phone by 2008. The CEO of Smart, Napoleon L Nazareno asks if it might be profitable to serve the massive but still untapped pool of low-income consumers, or whether his company should focus on pursuing market development opportunities to increase revenues from existing customers.

The (B) case demonstrates how Smart was able to implement a highly innovative marketing strategy to serve low-income customers. At the heart of this marketing approach was Smart Load, a mobile proposition involving sachet-based pricing (similar to that seen in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) world), a revolutionary over-the-air (OTA) mobile reloading technology, and a decentralized distribution approach. Through the implementation of this strategy analysts revised their estimates of market penetration from a maximum 35% of the population, to upwards of 70% by 2008.

You can execute product line extensions without confusing, and losing, your customers.

To sell more goods, separate the necessities from the luxuries.