Week 7

This week, my team and I have spent a lot of time working on our portion of the marketing plan.  The product we are developing is something that I wish I had, which makes this a little easier.  


This week we discussed the case study about the Cleo soap.  

1. What are the major issues in the Cleo Case from the perspective of the product, and pricing?
1. Research: The results of the research had some impressive numbers seemingly confirming the conjecture that Cleo soap will be successful in Canada.  However, there were some shortcomings (see below).
2. Shelf Position: This soap ended up being pushed to the bottom of the rack, out of the prime view of customers meaning that they wont see it right away.  This was likely due to Colgate's stance with the retailers.  They were not bending over backwards to please the retailers and to keep them happy.  The pull strategy they were focusing on would not work alone unless people were going into the store looking for it out right.  Soap may not have that kind of influence on Canadians.  No deal unit cost, off invoice allowance or feature price was given to benefit retailers and sweeten the deal to move the product. (Dove provides all of these).
2. Are there issues with the market research?
1. Yes.  Both types of research conducted was done in Toronto.  This metropolitan city is very different than Quebec.  Furthermore, English is the predominant language in the province of Ontario (where Toronto is), and does not have the same strong French connections that Quebec has.  This seem to me like doing market research in NYC and selling in South Carolina!
3. What organizational issues come in to play in the case?  Who are the players and how do their positions in the company impact the market entry?
1. There are organizational issues with a lack of solid process for research and marketing strategy.  The key players are Bill Grahm (Boss) based in NY who is willing to listen.  Steve Boyd is trying to get ahead by working on this project as he is working his way up in the company. Ken Johnson is skeptical about this type of market segmentation and wants a universal soap strategy.   Stan House is enthusiastic about Cleo.
4. Did they make the right choice?  Why or Why not? 
1. They did not make the right choice because the soap tanked.  They should have done more research about where to market the soap.  Maybe research would have shown that Quebec is not the right place to launch and Toronto and NYC are the right place.  It was also poor insight to not play to the retailers needs and wants in order to get them to push the soap.  
5. Are companies today any better than Colgate 20 years ago or do they still make some of the same mistakes?
1. I'm sure they make many of the same mistakes now.  It seems like a combination of organizational issues (personality, leadership turnover, frequent process changes) will always plague businesses to some extent.  

Week 6: Product Development Management

This week I read or watched the following:

• Ch 6 Marketing Handbook: Product development is fun and fascinating.  I am working right now to refine and more effectively use a new stage gate NPD process as a project manager in R&D. 
• Colgate Palmolive Case Study
• Form Ruins to Riches (Apple): Very interesting to see the evolution of Apple over the years and see the lessons that one of the greatest companies learned over the years.  It is crazy hearing the reaction of the crowd to the Microsoft cooperation and seeing Gates present at Macworld via webcam. 
• Rory Sutherland Tedtalk: That guy is entertaining; both because of his interesting points and his delivery. The perspective he has for value is strange to think about, but makes sense. 
• David Bell video: I really didn't think I needed an iPad (in addition to a smart phone and laptop) until I got one...now I feel like my wife and I each need one.  Bell found that consumers don't know what they want until they have it in front of them. 
• Camtasia videos:  Great to see a NPDP from the marketing side of things.  I am in NPD from an engineering/operations background working with marketing people. 

Questions from the week: 

1. Consider various "products" you use.  Can you think of the various levels of this product?
1. Core Product: Peace of mind, restoration of files. Actual Product: Automated backup service. Agumented Product: More storage to not have to select which areas are backed up, Sharing capabilities. 
2. Core: Transportation, access to different locations.  Actual: Car.  Augmented: Extra floormats, car wash, wheel spinners etc.
2. Products are tools (drill) that provide consumer benefits.  If the a better tool comes along that provides the same core benefit but is easier to get, cheaper, or more fun then the old tool will be obsolete.  Can you think of cases where products have become obsolete? 
1. Portable music: Cassette tapes. CDs (almost). Mini Discs.
2. Memories: Film
3. More examples are here
3. Considering the diagram of page 102 of your text how do you think product development has been affected by shorter product lifecycles?  Has technology affected product development? 
1. Shorter product lifecycles means that product development needs to be faster to market and more cost effective or higher payouts. 
2. Technology has affected product development by providing tools to more effectively analyze the products, crowdsource better and test concepts more widely. 

Week 5

For this week my team and I worked on our case memo for The Fashion Channel.  It was interesting to read and think about the segmentation of television networks and how broadcast advertising can be narrowed down by the specific content.  I've noticed that when I watch TV episodes on Hulu, the commercials vary depending on which type of show I am watching.  This shows how advertisers study which consumers watch different shows and must have similar research results to the TFC case study.  I wonder what cluster I'd be categorized in.  Who would pay the most for my eyeballs on their advertisement?  

I definitely appreciate relevant advertisements over ads that are about something that I am not interested in. I would much rather see an ad telling me about a cool new phone that I hadn't seen or an upcoming movie that I'd be interested in than an ad for a rascal scooter (remember those?). Come to think of it, I haven't seen a rascal scooter ad in a long time. They must be getting better at STDP! Or maybe I just stopped watching Golden Girls.

Another place I noticed targeting is on iPad apps.  I have interest in getting a pilot's license and have been playing flight games and training apps which have very targeted ads (for the free versions).  There are probably different clusters that advertisers see that use these apps.  Some may be interested in flight schools, while others are interested in remote control toys and others interested in racing or military games.   Some of the ads I saw were for things like auto insurance since people playing this game probably drive and would be likely to use the Internet for insurance research. 

Week 4: Segmentation, Targeting, Differentiating and Positioning

Actions for the week
This week, I read the two coursepack articles about TFC and the post title.  I found it very interesting to ready how The Fashion Channel advertisements work.  It makes complete sense that the more segmented their viewing audience is, the more valuable the time is for advertisers since they will be able to target more specific viewers.

I found this very similar to the way Google adwords works. Google charges a different amount for different search terms you want based on market demand for them.  This market demand is affected by others that want their ads to show up when someone searches for that term.  For example, if I have an ad campaign for tablet computers and want to use the search term, "Best business tablet PC", the cost per click would be around $6.27.  Each time someone search that phrase and clicked on my ad, Google would charge me $6.27.   Insurance search terms like "buy car insurance online" are pushing $70 per click right now.  That is high price to pay for a click on your advertisement!

Questions for the Week
How does segmentation facilitate consumer obsession?
Customer obsession seems to come from the right customers having good interactions with the firm.  Segmentation facilitates this by helping the firm focus it's energy on the right customers.  For example, if Harley can focus energy and interactions on the right people, these people will become obsessed or even more obsessed.  The right people means that they will value the interactions/advertisements/brand building exercises and increase their consumer activity or spread their obsession with others.

When a firm chooses a particular segment for targeting what are its primary considerations?
The primary considerations should be to ensure that the benefit of the firm's product or service is seen as valuable to those in the segment.  For example, if an insurance company pays $70 per click on their ad when someone searches for "buy car insurance online", they better be sure that their web page and insurance services will meet the needs of the type of people that are using this search term.  If those people look at the web page and the products offered are not valuable, they will not purchase anything and the insurance company is out $70 (Of course, Google makes money no matter what the outcome of the click is).

What is positioning?  Where does a firm's position reside.
Positioning is when marketers try to show a products value in the minds of customer by creating an image.  A great positioning statement that comes to mind is L'Oreal's "Because you're worth it".  The marketers at this firm are positioning L'Oreal's products as superior and worth the price because the buyer is worth paying the extra money for high quality products.  The position resides in the positioning statement.  In the book Crossing the Chasm. by Geoffrey Moore, the positioning statement should be:

For (target customer) Who (statement of the need or opportunity) The (product name) is a (product category) That (statement of key benefit – that is, compelling reason to buy) Unlike (primary competitive alternative) Our product (statement of primary differentiation)

Think about a couple of companies competing in the same space with different segment focuses.  Discuss these firms and their various approaches.  Why are they different?
Two firms that offer similar products but with different segment focus are Apple (iPad) and Amazon (Kindle Fire).  The iPad and Kindle fire are both tablet computers with applications, internet access, media provided by firm, color touch screens and web browsing.  There are some very similar aspects of both, but the differentiation between the two is where the segments are divided.  The iPad has all the features, and is the best on the market right now, but the cost is prohibitive to many people.   Amazon's target segment is for those that want all the capabilities of an iPad, but want to pay less.

Segmenting, Targeting, Differentiation and Positioning

STDP in a digital age must be massively easier than it was 20 years ago.  The video below shows how Google ad-words allows you to target your ads to a specific segment or niche audience.  This allows companies and marketers to easily display ads to groups that are similar and learn what works to get the appropriate reaction (click on the link and buy products).

Week 3: Research for Consumer Insights

This week I watched the assigned videos from Rosling and Gladwell.  Despite the fact that I have seen them before, really enjoyed them and was inspired by them.  This time when I watched these TED talks, I wanted to see if I could glean information that would be applicable to marketing and especially research and consumer insights.

The Customer Doesn't Know
It struck me to hear how consumers in the food market don't know what they want. Howard Moskowitz was able to find out what consumers want in spaghetti sauce, not by asking them directly, but by gleaning the information indirectly through the right kind of surveys.  I am in new product development and am constantly trying to get accurate Voice of Customer to determine specific deliverables for these products.  This adds a whole new dimension if I am to get the customers unspoken desires. We need to find out what they want or need by approaching the research in the right way.

Statistical Relationships
Rosling does a great job at showing how statistical relationships, when viewed in the right way can reveal otherwise hidden trends.  Information is available in abundance, synthesizing that information to make it meaningful and actionable is the key to successful strategy.  For my wife's etsy.com store, some data is available that shows search words that lead people to the site, number of sales over time and a few other stats.  The problem with attempting to synthesize this data to direct our strategy, is that we are missing the connection between the sales data and the search terms.  I have no idea if 1 of the 10 search terms results in 90% of sales. 

Google AdWords Test

What better time to create an account and start a Google AdWords campaign than during the quarter I am taking a marketing class?
Today I contacted an Adwords consultant and he is creating a campaign for my wife's business, uVinyl.  He explained to me a bit how it works and offered to create set everything up in the campaign for me to launch it.
Over the next few months I plan to learn more about how AdWords works and try to apply principles I am learning in class to my ad campaign for uVinyl.
A SWOT may be a good place to start...