Thursday, March 25, 2010

Implementation, Evaluation, and Control

At every location DOMINATION is placed we will give each employee three months to show their abilities and after those three months we will place them in their particular positions. We have levels one through three, with one being the lowest and also with the lowest pay. This is based upon sales, customer service, and customer satisfaction. There is always a chance for someone to improve and move up. After three month we will reevaluate their abilities by looking at their sales, service and satisfaction and if they earned it, they will be moved up.

While evaluating the employees this also gives us an opportunity to evaluate our sales and to see if we have reached our goals.

Marketing Mix

"Marketing mix refers to a unique bend of product, place (distribution), promotion, and pricing strategies (often referred to as the four Ps)" (MKTG McDaniel Lamb Hair, Ch 2, pg 24).

Product
DOMINATION has a lot to offer women. Right off the bat our X shaped bottle demands your attention and grabs your curiosity. Unlike any other bottle we make a statement that allows women to have a free spirit. Not only are we selling a fragrance and quality, we are also selling an experience. With handcuff on the front of the bottle it allows women's thoughts to take them wherever they want to go.

Place or Distribution
You will be able to find DOMINATION fragrance at the front of most departments stores. We want to be easy for consumers to find and not have to make them go out of their way or search for what they want. We will be right under their noses. "The location decision is important first because the retailer is making a large, semipermanent commitment of resources that can reduce its future flexibility. Second, the location will affect the store's future growth and profitability" (MKTG 3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 13, pg 204).

Promotion
"Promotional strategy is a place for the optimal use of elements of promotion: advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion" (MKTG 3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 14, pg 211).
DOMINATION plans on placing our ad on billboards, in magazines, internet, television, and on the radio. We realize that you are going to have to spend money in order to make money. "Online advertising continues to grow at double-digit rates-well ahead of other advertising media" (MKTG 3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 15, pg 235). Internet advertising is one thing we are willing to spend money on because our target market, Generation Y, is very connected to the internet with sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. We also realize that "public relations is the marketing function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies areas within the organization the public may be interested in, and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance" (MKTG 3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 14, pg 112).

Price
"To survive in today's highly competitive marketplace, companies need pricing objectives that are specific, attainable, and measurable" (MKTG 3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 17, pg 262). DOMINATION realizes and understands today's economy and that is why we are at the reasonable price range of $45-$75. People often say that you get what you pay for and with DOMINATION you are getting great quality with an unbelievable experience that you cannot pu a price tag on.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy involves the activities of selecting and describing one or more target markets and developing and maintaining a marketing mix that will produce mutually satisfying exchanges with target marketers" (MKT 3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 2, pg 24).
Target Market Strategy
When first coming up with the idea of DOMINATION we sat around discussing what we wanted as our target market and we came up with Generation Y. In general, people from this time are more diverse, street smart, inquisitive, and connected. All of these qualities make for a perfect target market. We are seeking women who shop a places such as Abercrombie, Coach, Chanel, Nordstroms, and Gucci, just to name a few. These are the consumers that are not money conscious and the ones we thrive for. We are also seeking those women who wish they shopped at places such as these and want to be seen as one of them. These are the consumers that will save their money because they feel lucky to placed in such a category.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths
"Market research is the process of planning, collecting, and analyzing data relevant to a marketing decision" (MKTG3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 8, pg 114)
We have done a tone of market research which allows us to choose benefit segmentation.
"Benefit segmentation is different because it groups potential customers on the basis of their needs and wants rather than some other characteristic, such as age or gender" (MKTG3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 7, pg 105).
We will have reliable staff members who have at least 2 years experience in customer service and sales.We have marketing trip planned with staff so we can not only get our product out there but also to get the staff familiar with each other so they can work better as a team.

Weakness
One of our biggest weaknesses is that we are new company and new to the fragrance industry. Being a new company, we have to be very cautious of how we spend our money during our introductory stage. "Sales normally increases slowly during the introductory stage" (MKTG3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 10, pg 155). With the economy the way it is today, consumers are less willing to spend money on such things as fragrance.

Opportunity
We have many opportunities to get our name out there and get consumers familiar with our product. Every marketing trip planned we will be giving out samples of DOMINATION. "Sampling allows the customer to try a product risk free. Sampling can increase retail sales by as much as 40 percent" (MKTG 3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 16, pg 249). Being new gives people a chance to try something different and spice up their lives a little bit.

Threats
Especially in the fragrance industry, because there is so much competition, bringing a new product on the market is a very difficult thing to do. We also are competing with the fact that we don't have a large of a financial bag to grab from for marketing as others who have been around from many years.

Objectives

"Before the details of a marketing plan can be developed, objectives for the plan must be stated. Without objectives, there is no basis for measuring the success of marketing plan activities" (MKTG 3 McDaniel Lamb Hair, Ch 1, pg 18)

DOMINATION has reasonable and reachable objectives for success.
By the first year we plan to be in over a dozen magazines as one of the hottest new fragrances for women. We not only hope for women to buy our product but we would like to create a want for our product. "Business marketing is the marketing of goods and services to individuals and organizations for purposes other than personal consumption" (MKTG 3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 6, pg 83).

Internet marketing is the marketing of the future and we hope to increase our marketing response and sales by 10% within the first year.
"Company Web sites are used to introduce new products, promote existing products, obtain consumer feedback, post news releases, communicate legislative and regulatory information, showcase upcoming events, provide links to related sites, release financial information, and perform many more marketing activities" (MKTG3 McDaniel Lamb Hair, Ch 5, pg 242).

After the first 6 months DOMINATION would like to provide incentives and internal marketing "treating employees as customers and developing systems and benefits that satisfy their needs" (MKTG3 McDaniel Lamb Hair, Ch 11, pg 167).

By 2012 we hope to have enough funds for intensive distribution.
"A form of distribution aimed at having a product available in every outlet where target customers might want to buy it" (MKTG3 McDaniel Lamb Hair, Ch 12, pg 181).
With our price ranging from $45-$75 we know this is a limited outlet yet still very large.

After the first 2 years DOMINATION hopes to have met our global vision: being placed in department stores all over the world. "The word global has assumed a new meaning, referring to a boundless mobility and competition in social, business, and intellectual arenas" (MKTG 3 McDaniels Lamb Hair, Ch 4, pg 47).

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Volkswagon

Volkswagen means “people’s car” in German.

In 1947, Volkswagen signed a deal to export cars to the Netherlands, and it was then that the car, now known as the Volkswagen Beetle became, available to the general public.

The Volkswagen Golf has been around since 1974 .

Volkswagen has been selling clean diesel-powered engines for the European market since 2003.

The Volkswagen Passat (Dasher in the U.S.), introduced in 1973, was again simply a fastback (available as either a hatchback or with separate boot) version of the Audi 80, using identical body and mechanical parts.

About one in one thousand VWs and Audis are certified for lemon claims. VW sold 338,000 vehicles in the US in 2002. Odds are, 338 of them will end up in a lemon claim.

With 2.7% of the market, VW/Audi has 3% of the lemons

The first Beetle goes way back in the 1938 and was manufactured by the German automaker Volkswagen.

The idea for the Beetle came from Adolph Hitler, who while in prison in 1924 following the unsuccessful putsch on the Federal German capital. Hitler conceived of an idea to solve Germany's unemployment problem, the Government would build special roads (autobahns) for motor vehicles.

Third-generation Golf was European Car of the Year for 1992.


In the episode that we watched of Mad Men the most important part about the Volkswagon ad was the fact that the men talked about it for 15 minutes. Bad publicity is still publicity. You want something that makes a statement and gets people talking and they did just that!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

McDonald's $10 Burger

It seems a little crazy to have a $10 burger at a fast food restaurant but it is possible to sell. It depends upon your marketing and what you offer on this burger. "Build your own $10 burger." Allow the customer to choose what they want on their burger. I feel that giving them control of adding or subtracting ingredients will help them feel they are getting their money worth. If they made the burger a little bigger, I feel like that could also help sell a burger that seems unsellable!