Marketing Planning and Promotion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Marketing Planning and Promotion - Essay Example Focus provides businesses with the main and unique selling proposition that enables marketing planning to target the prospective audience. According to Barney Jopson, recession affects mostly the middle tier businesses. Therefore, this paper will seek to examine critically the current value of middle market brand and provide carefully argued recommendations about how to improve their prospects (Jopson, 2011). During the financial crisis people in the west made changes in their shopping system. Some of them believed it was an emergency response to the prevailing hard economic times whereas others reacted due to anticipated fear of it. Financial institutions have been able to bounce back from difficult economic times however; people’s habits of shopping have not yet shown signs of complete reverse to the previous ways. As such, Jopson, in his article believes that this trend is causing the middle market fashion a big deal of difficulty to handle. Following the financial hard tim es, most of the American and European shoppers started directing most of their expenditure at the opposite side of the retail scale. This happened because, shoppers wanted to scavenge for the lowest-prices which were available on the other end of retailers. This meant that they were able to save adequately in order to go on with splashing out on the odd lavishness (Jopson, 2011). With this respect, Barney analyzed the current value of the middle market brand as undergoing hard financial times since, as elaborated in this paragraph; shoppers are spending much on lower retail spectrum thus depriving the middle brands of their market share. Having lost market to the lower retail spectrum, middle market brands continue to record figures of wilting sales due to the crude version of financial difficulties. Nevertheless, middle market brands have depicted one fine distinction in the past three years that this category has become curiously compelling zone for ultra-hip designers. They have been able to launch what they particularly call diffusion lines by shedding prejudices as well as inhibitions. As a result, they have made middle market brands more affordable, off the rack and wear products through their so-called diffusion. With reference to Barney’s literature, the president of Loeb Associates and a veteran retail consultant Walter Loeb puts across that middle market brands are doing bridging lines because of the fact that their prospective clientele is in a saving frame of mind and hiking prices is unreasonable. The analytical sense derived from this middle market practice is that these companies want to improve the underlying system of communicating with their customers. By so doing they stand to risk big time because they might end up diluting their core brand and shoppers may end up perceiving them as dumping down. Nonetheless, for the middle industry intellectuals, this move is comprehensively tacit since it is an alternative way of extracting new rev enue torrent out of the already established investment brand. By engaging in bridging lines, middle market brands are reaping benefits form the investments made while establishing and broadcasting the distinctiveness and fascination of this core brand. As a theoretical and practical method of improving customer relations, middle market brands are using influential broadcasting channels that are premiering attraction and appeal for this new core brand (Jopson, 2011).

Has the internet shifted power to consumers Discuss Essay

Has the internet shifted power to consumers Discuss - Essay Example Many technological products such as laptops and cell phones can be bought online. Other types of products are furniture shopping that allows consumers to conveniently make their purchases online without the hassle of actually going to the outlet and placing the orders. Online shopping is a highly easy and convenient option for consumers. Also some organisations have the facility of money back guarantee if any customer is not satisfied with the actual product and service that has been received by the consumer once the order was placed online. Also online shopping allows the consumers to choose their preference and customize the product options according to likeness. Dell computers for example allow consumers to customise their laptop details and accordingly the products for the consumers are formed. 2. Knowledge about Market With the advent of internet, consumers now have a lot of awareness and knowledge about the different varieties and ranges of any certain product. The quality, com position and all other details of the product can be known. The companies that are providing a typical type of product can be known through the internet. This increases the options from which the customers have to make a choice. Market knowledge is known by the consumers and the decisions of the consumers are based upon the knowledge of the market. Before as there was no internet, consumers had to travel physically and then gain the knowledge about the market and that too only few markets could be studies but now having the complete knowledge about the market is not at all a difficult process. As we know that knowledge is power, and consumers are empowered highly with the knowledge that they receive through the browsing of the internet. 3. Marketing Intelligence Organisations usually develop strong marketing intelligence tools for catering their customers. This aspect again has empowered consumers strongly via the internet. Consumers, if they get attracted towards an advertisement o nline may click it and then develop interests for buying the product or not. This shows that organisations need to compete in their marketing intelligence areas so that they can target the consumers and attract them towards their products and services. Consumers usually base their decisions on advertisements that catch their attention and prove its worth in a single glance rather than probing deep down in their details. The more attractive tools used by the organisations; the more they can impact the decision making of the consumers. Internet allows consumers to view all online advertisements clearly with all the details and product features. 4. Comparison of prices Internet as we all know is an open portal for all the businesses and all the consumers to conduct their business transactions or other personal transactions. Internet has increased the competition amongst the organisations as consumers are empowered with the ability of conducting price comparisons of the different produc t ranges while they make their purchasing decisions. Gas prices can be compared by consumers online and they may make decisions of where to buy the gas. Prices of products and services can be compared with the international market as well. If consumers feel that international markets are providing better offers then through the online portals they can order things from the international