SUMMARIES FOR CHAPTERS 1-5
Chapter 1
Defining Marketing for the 21st Century
Key Concepts:
1) What Is Marketing
Each student is to select a company of their choosing and prepare a listing of all of
the marketing messages the company disseminates through their various
communication channels. The student is to examine the company’s publicrelations messages, their television advertising, Internet advertising, and printed
messages. Students should collect this information and try to discover if there is a
commonality of message, preference for one form of communication over another
(by frequency), or a series of nonrelated messages.
2) Marketers and Prospects
In small groups (five students suggested as the maximum), have them visit their
local coffee shop or Starbucks and compare their visit to the services provided in
the opening vignette of the chapter. Does their local Starbucks or coffee shop
contain wireless Internet access? What is the climate of the establishment—
friendly or hurried? Is marketing prevalent in this establishment? If so, how and to
what extent are they exposed to marketing messages? Have the students keep a list
of every marketing message they encounter.
3) Marketplaces, Marketspaces, and Metamarkets
In small groups, ask the students to visit an on campus eatery. During this
experience, have the students keep a diary of their exposures to marketing
messages. How are the messages being communicated—visually through signs
and posters, by sound, or via verbal communication? Ask the students to break
down these messages into 1-minute segments, and then total the amount of
messages for the time spent in the eatery. What conclusions can you draw from the
number of messages exposed to in the time period for marketers?
Have the students reflect upon their favorite product and/or service. Then have the
students collect marketing examples from each of these companies. This
information should be in the form of examples of printed advertising, copies of
television commercials, Internet advertising, or radio commercials. During class,
have the students share what they have collected with others. Questions to ask
during the class discussion should focus on why this particular example of
advertising elicits a response from you. What do you like/dislike about this
marketing message? Does everyone in the class like/dislike this advertising?
4) Marketing Environment
Have the students visit a retail mall or other type of retail establishment. During
their visit, ask the students keep a log of the marketing messages they encounter.
Such messages can be in the form of emotional advertising, price-point
advertisements, store design and layout, or sensual advertisements such as smell or
sound. Ask the students which retail establishment enticed them the most and
why? Have the students share these experiences and ask the class if others in the
class would be similarly affected (male versus female for example).
5) Shifts in Marketing Management
Have students (in groups or individually) select a local firm in their community, or a
local division of a national firm, and ask the executives how their firm has responded
or is responding to the 14 major shifts in marketing management today. The students
can then present these findings to the class in a group or by individual presentations.
This could be a full semester project or limited to a few weeks of the semester.
Consider the broad shifts in marketing. Are there any themes that emerge with these
shifts? Can they be related to the major societal forces? Which force contributed to
which shift?
Chapter 2
Developing Marketing Strategies and Plans
Key Concepts:
1) Marketing and Customer Value
For the semester long project, with this chapter, we continue the formation of
groups; first presentation of “product” to the instructor for approval; review of
process; and calendar of “due dates.”
2) Core Competencies
Where possible, have the students visit an H&M as mentioned in the opening
vignette of the chapter. While at the store, the students should record their
impressions of the store in relation to the company’s stated strategy or business
concept: “To give the customer unbeatable value by offering fashion and quality at
the best price.” Does the store offer value and quality at the best price? Why did
your observations confirm this? Why did your observations not confirm this? The
students should be very specific in their answers.
3) A Holistic Marketing Orientation and Customer Value
Assign the three titles found in the box, Marketing Insight, Keys to Long-Term
Market Leadership to three groups of students. Have each group read and prepare
an oral report of what they learned from reading these books and have them
analyze whether the ideas and concepts of these books can be helpful or would be
helpful to marketers in today’s environment.
4) Value Creation
Visit the Web site for Netflix (www.netflix.com) does this company and its Web
site demonstrate the stated three distinctive capabilities of market sensing,
customer linking, and channel bonding to you? Why or why not? Be specific in
your answers.
5) Defining the Corporate Mission
Students should be encouraged to review selected company’s annual reports to
collect from these reports the corporations’ mission statements, strategy
statements, and target market definitions. The collected material can be discussed
in class comparing the company’s overall business, marketing, and customer
strategies.
6) Assessing Growth Opportunities
Have students read Peter Doyle’s Value-Based Marketing: Marketing Strategies
for Corporate Growth and Shareholder Value, Chichester, England: John Wiley &
Sons, 2000 and report on their findings in a written and/or oral presentation.
7) Business Unit Strategic Planning
Select a local firm or have the students select firms in which they are familiar
(current employers or past employers for example) and have them answer the
questions posed by the Marketing Memo, Marketing Plan Criteria regarding the
evaluation of a marketing plan. Make sure the students are specific in their
answers.
8) The Business Mission
Marketing Debate: What Good Is a Mission Statement?
Virtually all firms have mission statements to help guide and inspire employees as
well as signal what is important to the firm to those outside the firm. Mission
statements are often the product of much deliberation and discussion. At the same
time, some critics claim that mission statements sometimes lack “teeth” and
specificity. Moreover, critics also maintain that in many cases, mission statements
do not vary much from firm to firm and make the same empty promises.
Take a position: Mission statements are critical to a successful marketing
organization versus mission statements rarely provide useful marketing value.
Chapter 3
Gathering Information and Scanning the Environment
Key Concepts:
1) Internal Records and Marketing Intelligence
Commission a marketing research study on topic(s) of interest to the students at
your institution. During the course of the semester (15–16 week), have the students
develop the questionnaire, collection method, conduct the survey, and tabulate the
results. The students can be divided into groups for this project. Suggested topics
might include the school or university students’ opinions on campus issues such as
the athletic program, sale of alcohol, use of and availability of technology, or
students’ perceptions of their current education experiences.
2) The Marketing Intelligence System
To illustrate the concept of marketing intelligence, select a different group of students
to conduct similar research to Key Concept 1 above using other universities and
colleges of similar size. These findings should then be presented to class as a
comparison to the findings prepared from the group(s) researching your own
university or college. Challenge the students to suggest the factors that differentiate
the two studies and ways to reverse or to continue the trend.
3) Population Age Mix
Obesity has been officially called an epidemic as cited in the opening vignette of
the chapter. In small groups, have the student’s collect from the university or
college administrators, information about the students eating habits (on-campus
students would be one group; commuting students another group), exercise, and
lifestyle. For example, how many students (as a percentage of the total student
population) regularly take advantage of the available exercise facilities? How
many students presently on campus are clinically obese? This is a very good
project to demonstrate the skill of data mining and the use of secondary data.
4) Ethnic and Other Markets
Each student is a member of an identifiable ethic and demographic segment of
society. As an individual assignment, ask each student to describe their subsegment in terms of population, age distribution, growth potential, income,
education level, and other demographic characteristics. The conclusion of their
report should explain the marketing implications of their findings in terms of
potential market, over-saturated market, declining market, or hidden or ignored
market with potential.
5) Geographical Shifts in Population
Marketing Debate—Is consumer behavior more of a function of a person’s age or
generation?
One of the widely debated issues in developing marketing programs that target
certain age groups is how much consumers change over time. Some marketers
maintain that age differences are critical and that the needs and wants of a 25-yearold in 2002 are not that different from those of a 25-year-old in 1972. Others dispute
that contention and argue that cohort and generational effects are critical and that
marketing programs must therefore suit the times.
Take a position: Age differences are fundamentally more important than cohort
effects versus cohort effects can dominate age differences.
6) Social-Cultural Environment
Select or suggest a current “fad” or “trend” exhibited by students on campus. Each student is to select either a fad or
trend and then research this it in light of the marketing opportunities present. Would a firm be successful in
capitalizing on this “fad”? If so, why? Should companies capitalize on this “trend”? What are the “upsides” for
producing products that are currently “trendy”? What are the “downsides”? What generation do these fads and trends
appeal to? How large is the potential market for the fad and/or trend? Students should prepare a report with as much
detail into the specific characteristics of these markets as is available. This is a good secondary data and data mining
assignment.
7) Natural Environment
“Green Marketing” has been a challenge to firms producing environmentally
friendly products. The obstacles stated range from overexposure and lack of
credibility, to the consumer not willing to pay a premium prices for “green”
products, to poor implementation on the part of companies engaged in the practice.
Question: When faced with a decision to market its products as “environmentally
safe” or to market its products along conventional lines (matching competitive
positioning) does the company have a responsibility to choose the more socially
responsible manner or should the dictates of the marketplace (i.e. consumer)
decide its marketing strategy?
8) Growth of Special-Interest Groups
The Marketing Insight, Ten Megatrends Shaping the Consumer Landscape
illustrates those megatrends predicted to affect the consumer in the coming years.
Select a particular product or service (medical devices for example as a product;
insurance sales as a service) split the class into ten equal sections and ask each
section to comment on how their particular megatrend will affect the product
and/or service.
Chapter 4
Conducting Marketing Research and Forecasting Demand
Key Concepts
1) The Marketing Research Process
Commission a marketing research study on topic(s) of interest to the students at your
institution. During the course of the semester (15–16 week), have the students
develop the questionnaire, collection method, conduct the survey, and tabulate the
results. The students can be divided into groups for this project. Suggested topics
might include the school or university students’ opinions on campus issues such as
the athletic program, sale of alcohol, use of and availability of technology, or
students’ perceptions of their current education experiences.
2) Data Sources
During the course of the semester, ask students to retain all customer surveys,
satisfaction surveys, or other types of research material sent to them, their parents, or
others. Each survey should be critiqued by the student for appropriateness,
completion, bias, etc. per the tenants outlined in this chapter. Why do these surveys
contain errors?
3) Survey Research
In small groups, conduct a series of personal interviews with faculty members of your
college or university. The research should involve a specific topic (of the students
choose). The students must gain approval from the instructor, via written presentation,
their types of questions, sample size, and sampling procedure prior to implementing
their interviews.
A second group of students can conduct the same research but must use either a mail
questionnaire, online or telephone interview techniques. In a class presentation setting,
students should compare and contrast their findings based upon these two different
methodologies. Students should be prepared to answer some of these questions: Why
is the data different? Where is the data forming the same or similar conclusions?
What were the challenges to using each of these methods? What can be done in the
future to minimize these challenges?
4) Experimental Research
In the Marketing Memo, Pros and Cons of Online Research, the author describes four
advantages and two disadvantages for conducting online research. Selecting an online
research site from the Web, each student is to comment on the “value” of this type of
research vis-à-vis the advantages and disadvantages of the marketing memo.
Specifically, do the negatives of online research, in their example, outweigh the
positives? Can, and more importantly, should marketers develop marketing strategies
from just the findings of online research? On the other hand, is more qualitative or
quantitative research needed before strategy is defined?
5) Research Instruments
Research conducted by Purdue University shows that up to 75 percent of
consumers fail to complete their online purchases, primarily because of sluggish
Web sites, poor site design, and related factors. Seeking to learn what online
visitors do and do not do at its Web site, Northwest Airlines has added a new
software tool to its online operations. “The success of our online business comes
down to our customers and how satisfied they are with our products and services,”
says Northwest’s manager of e-commerce. “This new tool,” he says, “makes it
very easy to determine where we should focus our efforts,” by analyzing the online
behavior of visitors, finding out which affiliates send the most visitors to the site,
and tracking response to online promotions. With this information, the airline will
be able to make the site function more efficiently and more effectively to increase
sales and customer satisfaction.
Browse Northwest’s home page (www.nwa.com) and then follow the link to the
“Talk to Us” page. Sample several of the links on this page to see how customers can
submit questions and feedback. Would such data be included as part of Northwest’s
marketing information system, marketing intelligence system, or marketing research
system? Where would the airline store the primary data about online visitor behavior
that its new software tool is collecting? What kind of research approach does this
primary data represent? How else might Northwest use its Web site to gather primary
data?
6) Questionnaires
Query your college or university regarding what kind of research they conduct
regarding their student population and their competitive positioning versus other
similar colleges and universities. After collecting this data, analyze it according to the
following criteria: Is it current, accurate, specific, and/or applicable? Is this research
composed of primary data, secondary data, or a combination of both? What research
companies does the college or university contract with for their research? Is the
research based upon more quantitative or qualitative research? Present these findings
to the class in oral and written formats.
In the Marketing Memo, Questionnaire Dos and Don’ts, the author lists 12 ways to
phrase questions that will maximize unbiased responses. Prepare a set of questions
(10–12 questions) for a hypothetical consumer products company trying to break into
the toy business. Make sure that your questions meet each one of the 12 criteria.
Comment on how easy or hard such question formatting is.
Chapter 5
Creating Customer Value, Satisfaction, and Loyalty
Key Concepts:
1) Customer Perceived Value
Have students (in groups or individually) select a local firm in their community, or
a local division of a national firm. Then, request permission to interview their
corporate executives on their corporation’s definition of customer satisfaction,
loyalty, and what their particular firm does to foster such customer relations. This
project can be combined with the project on marketing research and as such,
students can create questionnaires suitable for mailing to these executives. The
students can then present these findings to the class in a group or by individual
presentations. This could be a full semester project or limited to a few weeks of the
semester.
2) Delivering High Customer Value
Key retailers emphasize service, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. Retailers such
as Nordstrom, Saturn, Lexus, Infiniti, and others have a reputation for outstanding
customer service and satisfaction. In small groups, have the students visit these key
retailers (and other retailers pertinent to your trading area) and write down their
observations regarding what service quality clues they experienced during their instore visits. Secondly, these same students should visit contrasting retailers and
look for similar signs and clues to quality service. In a prepared report, students
should note what elements of customer satisfaction was and was not present at
each level of service provider. Taking the position then of a “shopper” students
should comment on which retailer would most likely retain customers and why.
3) Total Customer Satisfaction
Key manufacturers and others must be concerned with how their customers view their
products (customer satisfaction perceptions) being disseminated throughout the
“electronic world” via the Internet. No longer can one discount the “power of the
mouse” for affecting potential customers. In small groups, students are to select a
particular firm or product and research what is being said on the Internet regarding
this company/product. What affects/effects does this type of dissemination of
consumer opinions via the Internet have on the company’s marketing strategies?
What can the company do to stem the tide of such comments? How does a company
defend itself against blatantly untrue consumer opinions?
4) Customer Expectations
Students who regularly shop at one of the main Internet sites (eBay.com,
Amazon.com, LandsEnd.com, etc.) experience some customer bonding with the
provider. Ask students to comment on their experiences with these providers in terms
of: Does the customization aspect of the provider encourage you to shop more, or is
the customization aspect of the provider more of an intrusion or hindrance? Does the
customization provided concern you as to the level of personal information collected
by the company? Do you feel that some of your “right to privacy” is being
compromised for the sake of developing “bonds”?
5) Measuring
You and your class colleagues have decided to start a business upon graduation.
Your expertise is in marketing so you have decided to start a marketing consultant
firm. As one of your basic underlying competitive distinctions, you have decided
upon “exceptional service is our minimum” as your tag line. Now you must define
“exceptional service” and translate that tag line into specifics. Using each of the
major headings contained in this chapter, detail how you plan to communicate
“exceptional service.”
6) Maximizing Customer Lifetime Value
In small groups (five students suggested as the maximum), have the students make
appointments with local insurance agents, financial planners, or other service
professionals in their area to discuss the agent and his company’s philosophy on
customer value, satisfaction and loyalty. Specific questions to ask include How does
your company (and you individually) define customer satisfaction? How do you go
about delivering value to your clients? How do you (and your company) calculate the
lifetime value of a client? Students should prepare a report to be presented either to
the class or as written group paper.
7) Competitive Advantage
The research firm J.D. Power and Associates lists eight categories of products for
consumers to research before purchasing the product or service. Breaking up the class
into eight groups, have the students research the top performers for each category
then share their findings as to which characteristics, policies, procedures, and vision
these top-rated companies have in common. Is there a “common” link among all of
the winners? Are there differences? In terms of the material contained in this chapter,
how would you explain these similarities and differences?
8) Customer Equity
Consider the customer lifetime value (CLV). Choose a business and show how
you would go about developing a quantitative formulation that captures the
concept. How would organizations change if they totally embraced the customer
equity concept and maximized CLV?