QUESTION ONE (15 Marks)

You are the newly appointed brand manager for TechBiz Partner, an IT firm that focuses on producing IT products that target generation Z members. Sales of your brand have been declining for quite some time and recent exploratory research conducted by the company suggests that your brand is no longer price competitive. From your study of marketing, you think that a reconsideration of the market segmentation used previously to better understand the target consumer might be the key to this dilemma.

a)From your own investigation of organisations similar to yours, you discover that many marketers of IT products for this group of customers sharpen their marketing strategy by adopting a multivariate demographic segmentation (i.e. combining two or more demographic variables) approach. Using examples, explain why and how such a segmentation approach might be used to inform strategy in attempting to resolve the sales decline. (5 Marks)

b) What pricing strategy or strategies might work best with your suggested segmentation approach to recover this situation and why? Illustrate your argument with example(s). (5 Marks)

c) With reference to the case above in what ways can social media be used to alter the relationship between the between marketers and consumers.

(5 Marks)

QUESTION TWO (15 Marks)

Growing roses in household gardens is not easy. Angelica Nurseries has developed a rosebush that needs no spraying, pruning, or dusting and has prolific flowering. What advice of direct relevance to this situation would you give Angelica Nurseries to develop brand recognition and sustain consumer loyalty for:

a) Their new product; (5 Marks)

b) Their product range more generally; and (5 Marks)

c) Their corporate nursery brand? (5 Marks)

ASSIGNMENT TWO

1)Assume you are about to graduate. How would you apply marketing principles to your job search? In what ways would you be able to create, communicate, and deliver value as a potential employee, and what would that value be, exactly? How would you prove that you can deliver that value? (10 Marks)

2)The marketing concept emphasizes satisfying customer needs and wants. How does marketing satisfy your needs as a college student? Are certain aspects of your life influenced more heavily by marketing than others? Provide examples (10 Marks)

3)One of your friends is contemplating opening a cyber cafe near your college campus. She seeks your advice about size of the prospective customer base and how to market the business according to the four Ps. What strategies can you share with your friend to assist in launching the business? (10 Marks