Master of Business Administration MBA Semester 2 MB0046 Marketing Management

1 a. Explain the different micro-environmental forces with examples. b. Mention the different ad appeals with suitable examples. Answer: a. Micro Environment Forces: The Company : A company Safe Express, a leader in the supply chain management solution wants to hold its number one position in the US $ 90 billion Indian logistics market. The company plans to expand its service areas in the coming months. To meet the targets of the marketing plan, other departments of safe express also expanding their horizon. The Company is coming out with logistics parks in different cities; plans to hold seven million square feet of warehousing capacity in the next three years and invest Rs 10 billion in three years to meet those targets. The above example shows that the companys marketing plan should be supported by the other functional departments also.

Intermediaries Marketing intermediaries: These are firms which distribute and sell the goods of the company to the consumer. Marketing intermediaries play an important role in the distribution, selling and promoting the goods and services. Stocking and delivering, bulk breaking, and selling the goods and services to customer are some of the major functions carried out by the middlemen. Retailers, wholesalers, agents, brokers, jobbers and carry forward agents are few of the intermediaries. Retailers are final link between the company and the customers. Their role in the marketing of product is increasing every day. Publics These are microenvironment groups, which help a company to generate the financial resources, creating the image, examining the companies policy and developing the attitude towards the product. We can identify six types of publics : 1. Financial publics influence the companys ability to obtain funds. For example, Banks, investment houses and stockholders are the major financial publics. 2. Media publics carry news and features about the company e.g. Deccan Herald 3. Advertisement regulation agencies, telecom regulation agency( TRAI), and insurance regulation agency(IRDA) of the government 4. Citizen action groups: Formed by the consumer or environmental groups. For example, people for ethical treatment of animals (PETA) or Greenpeace.

5. General publics: a company should be concerned towards general publics attitude towards its products and services. 6. Internal publics: Employees who help in creating proper image for the company through word of mouth. Competitors. A company should monitor its immediate competitors as its sale will be affected by the nature and intensity of the competitors. The sale of Coca cola will be affected by Pepsi cola, or Britannia cheese by Amul cheese. Michael Porter, the author of Competitive Advantage of Nations suggested that, in addition to direct competition, companies should also consider competition from substitutes. In addition to existing competitors, the potential competitors should also be anticipated. Competition may arise from a. Small firms with low overheads producing duplicates. b. Firms which diversify into certain products by merely being in the particular industry for e.g. Pepsi entered the snacks sector competing with pure snack producers like Haldiram. c. Firms which expand in the same vertical for e.g. Godrej which manufactured office furniture and steel cupboards went on to the entire range of home furniture thereby giving competition to pure home furniture makers. How do companies or enterprises survive and grow under the above circumstances. While we shall study this in detail later, a simple step could be that the product should be positioned differently and the company should be able to provide better services. Suppliers There are many kinds of suppliers to an enterprise or an institution. There are typically, raw material suppliers, energy and fuel suppliers, labour suppliers, office item suppliers and so on. Suppliers are the first link in the entire supply chain of the company. Hence any problems or cost escalation in this stage will have direct effect on the company. Many companies adopted supplier relation management system to manage them well. Suppliers are a source of competition to firms today. For a large retail store like Reliance Retail or Big Bazaar the suppliers play the most significant role in both cost and time. Timely supplies reduce stocking of goods and blocking of space, at the same time meet customer requirements. In a globalised scenario suppliers are even more important as competition goes up manifold! The Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board imports coal from New Zealand despite huge coal reserves in India. For Volvo, India is a manufacturing hub. Customers A company may sell their products directly to the customer or use marketing intermediaries to reach them. Direct or indirect marketing depends on what type of markets Company serves. Generally we can divide the markets into five different categories. They are a. Consumer market.

b. Business market c. Reseller market d. Government market and e. International market The following example illustrates different markets. MRF, a tyre company sells its product directly to consumer (in case of urgency, customer purchases directly from showroom) i.e. operates in consumer market. It operates in business markets by selling tyres to companies like Maruti Udyog limited. MRF also sells TYREs to BMTC and KSRTC, transport organizations of Karnataka government. If MRF sells tyres in African or American countries then it is operating in the international market. If MRF buys the old tyres, retreads it and sells it to the consumer at a profit then company is operating in the reseller market

2 What are the different market entry strategies if a company wants to enter international markets?

Answer: International Market Entry Strategies

Organizations that plan to go for international marketing should know the answers for some basic questions like a. In how many countries would the company like to operate? b. What are the types of countries it plans to enter? Thats why companies evaluate each country against the market size, market growth, and cost of doing business, competitive advantage and risk level. Once the market is found to be attractive, companies should decide how to enter this market. Companies can enter the international market by adoptingany one of the following strategies. They are a. Exporting b. Licensing c. Contract manufacturing d. Management contract e. Joint ownership f. Direct investment Exporting is the technique of selling the goods produced in the domestic country in a foreign country with some modifications. For example, Gokaldas textiles export the cloth to different countries from India. Exporting may be indirect or direct. In case of indirect exporting, company works with independent international marketing intermediaries. This is cost effective and less risky too. Direct exporting is the technique in which organization exports the goods on its own by taking all the

risks. Maruti Udyog Limited, Indias leading car manufacturer exports its cars on its own. Company can also set up overseas branches to sell their products. Adani Exports, another leading exporter from India has international office in Singapore. Licensing: According to Philip Kotler, licensing is a method of entering a foreign market in which the company enters into an agreement with a license in the foreign market, offering the right to use a manufacturing process, trademark, patent, or other item of value for a fee or royalty. For example, Torrent Pharmaceuticals has license to sell the cardiovascular drugs of Chinese manufacturer Tasly. Licensing may cause some problems to the parent company. Licensee may violate the agreement and can use the technology of the parent company. Contract manufacturing: Company enters the international market with a tie up between manufacturer to produce the product or the service. For example, Gigabyte Technology has contract manufacturing agreement with D- link India to produce and sell their mother boards. Another significant manufacturer is TVS Electronics; it produces key boards in its own name as well as for other companies too. Management contracting: In this case, a company enters the international market by providing the know how of the product to the domestic manufacturer. The capital, marketing and other activities are carried out by the local manufacturer, hence it is less risky too. Joint ownership: A form of joint venture in which an international company invests equally with a domestic manufacturer. Therefore it also has equal right in the controlling operations. For example, Barbara, a lingerie manufacturer has joint venture with Gokaldas Images in India. Direct Investment: In this method of international market entry, Company invests in manufacturing or assembling. The company may enjoy the low cost advantages of that country. Many manufacturing firms invested directly in the Chinese market to get its low cost advantage. Some governments provide incentives and tax benefits to the company which manufactures the product in their country. There is government restriction in some countries to opt only for direct investment, as it produces the jobs to the local people. This mode also depends on the country attractiveness. It may become risky if the market matures or unstable government exists. 3. a. State the meaning of Product life cycle and explain the different stages involved in it. b. Define Customer Relationship Management.

Ans: Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and

managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project

goals and objectives. It is sometimes conflated with program management, however technically a program is actually a higher level construct: a group of related and somehow interdependent projects.

A project is a temporary endeavor, having a defined beginning and end (usually constrained by date, but can be by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, usually to bring about beneficial change or added value. The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast to business as usual (or operations), which are repetitive, permanent or semi-permanent functional work to produce products or services. In practice, the management of these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills and the adoption of separate management. The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honoring the preconceived project constraints.[5] Typical constraints are scope, time, and budget. The secondaryand more ambitious challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives. Traditionally, project management includes a number of elements: four to five process groups, and a control system. Regardless of the methodology or terminology used, the same basic project management processes will be used. The project development stages. Major process groups generally include: Initiation Planning or development Production or execution Monitoring and controlling Closing.

4. What are the features of Business markets? How is it different from consumer markets?

Answer: International Market Entry Strategies

Organizations that plan to go for international marketing should know the answers

for some basic questions like a. In how many countries would the company like to operate? b. What are the types of countries it plans to enter? Thats why companies evaluate each country against the market size, market growth, and cost of doing business, competitive advantage and risk level. Once the market is found to be attractive, companies should decide how to enter this market. Companies can enter the international market by adoptingany one of the following strategies.

5. Explain briefly what are the several processes involved in new product development. A product development proposal is a document that puts forth a plan to DEVELOP A PRODUCT. Again, the core of a good product development proposal is a good idea. It is essential not only to have a "good idea", but also to communicate it clearly and early on in the proposal. You must propose to develop a new product and argue its merits effectively. DO NOT simply try to recount what the development process "must have been like" for an existing product or would be like for a product that has already been proposed by some other individual or group. Think about and write the proposal as if you were actually going to carry out this plan. Class lectures will provide selected examples and review the requirements and approach to writing each component of the proposal.

Team Assignment Structure For this assignment, a team will consist of four students. You can form teams yourselves. I have no special rules regarding the formation of groups. Once formed, however, you must remain as a group and see the project through to completion. A major aspect of this assignment is developing skills associated with working as a team. All team members should contribute equally to both the written proposal and to oral presentation. As a team, you must negotiate who will be responsible for different components of the written proposal and the oral presentation. You must also communicate this "responsibility breakdown" (see below).

Proposal Topics Each group will select the topic for their proposal. For this assignment, both CONTENT and FORMAT are important. You must draw upon and utilize electrical engineering and general engineering expertise. Proposals that incorporate multidisciplinary aspects are acceptable. Be sure to include appropriate partners on your fictitious team to have representation of the required skills. You may also have gained some ideas from your efforts on the research paper assignment. IMPORTANT: If you missed the target and did a "product development" proposal (instead of a research proposal) for your first assignment, do not simply use the same proposal for this assignment. Start considering and narrowing your topic immediately!!

Proposal Scope and Constraints Project Period: Consider a project period of two years. Budget and Personnel: Assume a total 2 year budget range of $250K - $1M. Assume that other personnel (by type; i.e., engineer, technician, etc.) may be included in the project. Remember that including fractions (e.g., 10%) of different individuals is common project management practice. Page Length: The proposal can be no longer than 18 pages in length. This includes the cover page, all tables, figures, and the budget. There is no minimum length, BUT it is general practice to utilize the available space to do a good job explaining what you propose to do. Writing that is "too short" (given this modest 18 page maximum) is generally "too vague". Refer to the section breakdowns below.