Monday, March 12, 2012

Week 10 EOC: Benefits vs. Features


Chocolate Boosters is a product that doesn’t have a lot of extra features, maybe a cool box and logo, but overall its just small little chocolate vitamins.  What my product really has to offer is all the benefits.  When positioning a brand, the marketer should establish a mission for the brand and a vision of what the brand must be and do. (Armstrong/Kotler, Marketing, pg. 40)  These benefits are going to be the key element to the selling of Chocolate Boosters.  The consumer will be able to take the supplements they already use and enjoy them on a different level.  When discussing my pricing, I had to look at what my product offered.  They fact that Chocolate Boosters are fairly simple and more focused of health and energy benefits, influenced price.   Rather than cutting prices to match competitors, they attach value-added features and services to differentiate their offers and thus support higher prices. Armstrong/Kotler, Marketing. Pg. 10) My price reflects the health and energy benefits of the actual supplements.   I am selling youth and the energy and health you once enjoyed as a kid.  I want to buyer to look at Chocolate as chocolate covered youth.  Consumers see products as complex bundles of benefits that satisfy their needs. When developing products, marketers first must identify the core customer value that consumers seek from the product. (Armstrong/Kotler, Marketing, pg.6)  My hope is that the consumer will use Boosters and regain the way they used to feel and keep coming back for more and begin to make changes to their lives and focus on living healthy with a little bit of fun.  

Monday, March 5, 2012

Week 9 EOC: 3 Great Mission Statements


The mission of Chocolate Expressions is to create laser engraved chocolate greeting cards to provide customers with unique, beautiful and tasty ways to give their message to friends and loved ones. Larry Clay

This is a great opportunity to let my audience know why I am here, in their market. My Mission Statement for Mighty Beer is to: Deliver A rich and exotic way of drinking!  Javier Garcia

 Our business mission statement is to create the alternative road to wine snacking. Rather than it just being a product, it shall be a service that some people may find in other places. A comforting hug and uplifting feeling is what Cherry Poppers has in mind.  Fernando Trueba

Marketing strategies and programs must be developed to support these marketing objectives, to increase its market share,(Armstrong & Kotler, Marketing pg, 43) 
I feel that these three mission statements portray the product in a clear and professional way.  By reading theses statements I am able to gain an understanding of what the product is about and the focus of the company.  I felt that these companies truly cared about the costumer and creating a great value.  They are very clear and to the point.  They are not to long and don’t seemed to be focused on selling and making money, but more focused on pleasing the costumer. 

Monday, February 27, 2012

Final Project: Implement Evaluation Control


If a new product developer thinks he can just put his product on shelves and watch if fly and make money, he is sorely mistaken. It is crucial to evaluate how your product is doing, and see where its strengths and weaknesses are.  Its is your product,  you have control and responsibility for it.  Control consists of measuring and evaluating the results of marketing activities and taking corrective action where needed. Finally, marketing analysis provides information and evaluations needed for all of the other marketing activities. (Armstrong/Kotler, Marketing, pg 31)  It is important to take the information gathered and make changes in your marketing plans where needed.  It is also just, if not more important to take the positive information and capitalize on it and increase what is working.   Opportunities are favorable factors or trends in the external environment that the company may be able to exploit to its advantage. (Armstrong/Kotler, Marketing, pg. 31)  This will be a key part of the success of the new product. 

Final Project: Promotion


Promotion is going to the fun part of my marketing plan.  When people walk into stores they take a scan around the entire store just to get a good look of what they have.  Most of the health and nutrition stores I have seen are bland with very little color.  People nowadays are looking for low prices, so they are focusing on tags and numbers.  Consumers have become more deal oriented. In the current economy, consumers are demanding lower prices and better deals. Sales promotions can help attract today’s more frugal consumers.  (Armstrong/Kotler,Marketing, pg. 37)  My plan is to distract the buyer with the youthful colors and images of cartoon-like rocket ships and kid stuff.  My promotion goals are to bring youth onto being healthy.  A given promotion runs the risk of being lost in a sea of other promotions, weakening its ability to trigger immediate purchase. (Armstrong,Kotler, Marketing, pg. 37)  My big fun ideas may be a gamble due to the risk of the above quote.  I don’t feel my promotion runs the risk of getting lost among other promotions.  My approach is different than most others in those types of stores.  Adds in nutrition stores have the slogan “ you can look like this”  Mine is focused on “you can feel like this”  Promoting Chocolate Boosters in this fashion is going to be a positive experience when consumers are using them and feeling better.  

Final Project: Price


Chocolate Boosters (pack of 30 pieces)$24.99
Pricing can be a tricky aspect of introducing a new product. It is even harder when your product is just a different version of an existing product.  You never want the consumer to say “why would I pay this price, when this one is cheaper and it’s nearly the same thing?”  That can be damaging.  My first instinct is to price Chocolate Boosters a little more than similar products at first, so the consumer knows the quality and value of it.   Companies should be very wary of risking their brands’ perceived quality by resorting to deep and frequent price cuts. Some discounting is unavoidable in a tough economy and consumers have come to expect it. (Armstrong/Kotler, Marketing, pg 43) I feel I will keep the price of consistent, because the quality and value doesn’t change, why should the price.  If by some reason the market fluctuates, I may follow the market with my prices. If Chocolate Boosters are selling off the shelf, of course I will adjust pricing accordingly.  Dynamic pricing makes sense in many contexts—it adjusts prices according to market forces, and it often works to the benefit of the customer. But marketers need to be careful not to use dynamic pricing to take advantage of certain customer groups, damaging important customer relationships. (Armstrong/Kotler, Marketing, pg, 47)  Pricing will be a trial and error process.  I want to find a perfect medium between a high price to generate a descent profit and the right price for what its worth and its value.