Marketing Strategies - COCA_COLA

Earlier in this project, you considered who your likely customers might be. You also thought about how to use research to better understand customers' needs. Now you're going to look below the surface for additional insights into how your customers make buying decisions. You'll also consider whether to market in other countries and how to plan for digital marketing and social networking. Save your answers as you continue with your marketing plan.

Marketing Strategies

1. If you're targeting consumers, what level of involvement do customers typically have with products like yours? Consider your product's price, the amount of effort needed to search for it, time spent on the buying decision, and brand preference. When and why might customers be most interested in your product? Is price a very important consideration for your target market? about the likely decision-making process for products like yours (use a competing product as a model if your product doesn't yet exist). Then explaining the implications for your marketing plan, such as needing widespread distribution for a low-priced product that consumers won't spend much time or effort searching for.
2. Consumer buying behavior can be influenced by three interpersonal factors. These external factors include cultural influences, like choosing a type of food because it has traditionally been enjoyed by your ethnic group; social influences, such as buying fashions similar to those worn by celebrities and other trendsetters; and family influences, like spouses jointly shopping for a car. Of these three factors, which one might be the most important for your product? For example, if you're planning to market frozen pizza, stressing how families can enjoy it together at home could tap into the core American belief in the importance of family and home life. Choose one interpersonal factor and explaining its importance and how you can include it in your marketing plan.
3. Turn your attention to the psychological factors that influence consumer behavior. People's internal, distinctive needs and motives, perceptions, attitudes, learned responses, and self-concepts may affect what they buy. For example, how an individual perceives, or attributes meaning to, an event like a Walmart opening nearby can influence whether that person reacts positively or negatively to an ad featuring the new store. Select one personal determinant and analyze its implications for your marketing decisions. For instance, will your brand of house paint enable homeowners to express their concept of themselves as creative and individualistic? explaining this factor's importance and how you can include it in your marketing plan.
4. If you're marketing to business consumers, consider how environmental influences might affect their buying decisions. Of the five environmental influences - economic, political, regulatory, competitive, and technological - which one is likely to be the most significant for buyers of products like yours? For example, would buyers be especially interested in your brand because it can help them compete more effectively? Or are certain regulations important for your product category? about the environmental influence you choose and how you can incorporate it into your marketing plan.
5. Still looking at marketing to business customers, consider how organizational, interpersonal, and individual factors might influence the business buying decision for your product. These three types of factors affect the buying center, the group of people who make buying decisions for companies and other organizations. What do you know about the buying center and the factors that influence this group's decisions about products like yours? For example, if you're marketing computer repair services for corporate offices, would purchasing policies (such as becoming an approved supplier before submitting a proposal) be important to research? At what level in the organization would decisions about your goods or services be made? about these influences and how you should include them in your marketing plan.
6. One more question about marketing to businesses. What are the main concerns of business customers when they buy a good or service like yours? For instance, are businesses, nonprofits, or government agencies most interested in buying at the lowest price? Or does your product have to meet strict specifications or performance standards established by business customers? about these concerns and how you can make your offer competitively superior.
7. Most marketing plans today include digital marketing and social networking. How can you use digital media, including the Internet, mobile devices, and interactive channels, to market your product? Which social networks do customers like yours typically use? tell about your approach to e-marketing strategy, knowing you may have to update these ideas as you make decisions about your product, distribution, pricing, and promotion during this project?
8. At this point, consider the possibility of operating in global markets. Do you think global demand exists for your product? If so, how might the six global environmental forces (sociocultural, economic, political/legal/regulatory, social and ethical, competitive, and technological) influence your ability to market a good or service in another country? If you were to enter an international market, would you use exporting (or importing of supplies), licensing, franchising, or another entry method? Whether or not you think global marketing is right for your product during the period covered by your plan, tell about the possibility, highlighting the implications for your marketing plan, including possible schedule and budget issues.