Question 1a:
Apple is known to be the best smartphone-developing company in the high-end phones category. iPhones sales are always high, Apple has a large base of fans and loyal customers, it has earned trust with good quality of its products and high level of service. Apple has great marketing strategy, the company knows how to make people buy their products, so Apple can afford itself to sell iPhones at a high price without fear of criticism and low sales. The higher the price the better is the product approach is truthful for Apples smartphones.
Samsungs flagship smartphones Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are positioned as high-end devices with great technical specs which are direct competitors for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Samsung Galaxy S5, in its time, has not been sold in large numbers for various reasons, and was not able to overtake the iPhone 5S sales (Boxall 2014; "Iphone 5S Is Still The Best Selling Smart Phone Model | Soyacincau" 2016).With new Galaxy S6, Samsung wants to seize the smartphone market and take the lead by surpassing Apple. Samsungs pricing strategy is similar to Apple, Galaxy S6 is a great smartphone with cutting-edge technologies - it has better and bigger display, battery, mobile operative memory, central and graphical proccesors than iPhone 6 Plus, and Galaxy S6 is pricier to build than iPhone 6 Plus ("Samsung Galaxy IHS Online Newsroom 2016). Both Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 have similar prices, but Samsung made Galaxy S6 cheaper because it wants to exceed Apple and become the first company in high-end smartphones market. Samsung offers better and cheaper product in the same category as iPhone 6, so the customers will buy Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge instead of iPhone 6 or 6 Plus.
Question 1b:
Samsung and Apple are well-known companies in smartphone market, they occupy a considerable share of the market, offer innovative technologies in their devices. Both companies are known to have large development and marketing strategies, so Samsung and Apple can offer themselves to sell premium products at a premium price. Both companies do not have significant competitors in the higher price segment.
Question 2:
If we read an IHS article about Samsung Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 technical specs, we will find out that The cost of all the materials for Galaxy S6 Edge with memory size of 64GB is $284.85 plus the manufacturing cost $5.60. The usual retail price for the Galaxy S6 Edge is around $799.99. Apple iPhone 6 Plus with 64GB memory size, on the other hand, has the list of materials that cost $236.04, which rises to $240.05 after the manufacturing cost is added, and iPhones official retail price is $849.00, this is $50 higher compared to S6 Edge ("Samsung Galaxy IHS Online Newsroom 2016).
As we can see, Samsung and Apple are trying to sell products with a very high retail price comparing to the bill of materials price. I dont think that such smartphones are worth its value because they are unreasonably expensive for the majority of buyers. There are many companies like Xiaomi, Meizu, ZTE and Huawei that can offer similar products with cutting-edge specs for much lower price ("Top 10 Chinese Smartphones You Should Buy Instead Of The Iphone 6" 2014).
I think that some people definitely need high-value gadgets like iPhone, but I would choose smartphone of a less known company, but with the similar characteristics compared to the iPhone 6, Galaxy S6 etc. That type of a smartphone will have high quality, good technical specs and much lower price than products of well-known companies.
Question 3:
Here is the list of strategies, that I personally will implement if I would go as a new player on the smartphones global market.
First of all, it is important to produce several smartphone models in various price categories, generally for medium-price category. Bigger quantity of smartphone models will allow to interest more customers and satisfy their different needs. This will cover a wider share of the mobile smartphones market. Focusing on the middle and lower-cost models is important because most buyers will not be able to purchase the devices of high-price segment.
The second - every smartphone needs to have high quality, be reliable and have up-to-date technical specifications plus it needs to have lower price comparing to competitors. Compliance with these requirements will raise the reputation of my company, will raise its credibility, the customer will know that my product is worth money. Lower price and good quality of the smartphone, its box, instruction papers and included headset will increase the customers number, allowing to occupy market share. In addition, some models of smartphones can have some unusual technical specs, for example, smartphones with big battery capacity and metal case for the people with active lifestyle, or smartphones with the mp3-player control buttons and excellent technical characteristics for quality music playback.
The third brand-new smartphones need to be advertised. One of the good ways, in my opinion, is to send some smartphones to different reviewers that are reliable to customers. If the smartphone is good, reviewer will write about it and disseminate the information about this model all over internet with ones review. The begginers of global smartphone market usually do not have too much money for massive marketing propaganda, so if a well-known customer-trusted person, website or journal will write about brand-new smartphone that has good quality, unique features, nice technical specs and low price, people will want to buy the new smartphone and check out other products of the company that produced it.
Question 4:
Promotional mix (promotional tools) is a set of operations that are focused to promote marketers product and create product awareness among customers; also known as the tools of the marketing communication mix. Promotional mix includes advertisement, sales promotion, personal selling and public relations. As for the factors that guide a marketers decision in his promotional mix, they are: setting advertising objectives, setting the advertising budget, developing an advertising strategy, evaluating advertising (Kotler and Armstrong 2012).
Advertising objectives need to be in the advertising plan as part of finding potential customers, objectives can be aimed to create customers interest in the product or to make the customer buy the product or service. For example, advertisement of diet cookies can contain such information: those cookies are tasty, low calorie and cheap. Such advertisement can draw attention of specific audience of people that go in for sport and want to be slim but still prefer tasty food.
Advertising budget opens opportunities to choose the way in which the actual advertisement will be shown to the customers. The budget measures how many times and what kind of advertisement will be presented for the customers, promotion of new products usually requires higher advertising budget compared to well-known products. The budget needs to be increased if the marketer wants cover the bigger market share and customers audience. Every product always needs advertisement to interest potential customers, sometimes, the advertisement budget is not big and marketers search for unique ways to promote the product, for example, by making virus-type advertisement on the internet.
Advertising strategy consists of two elements: creating advertising messages and selecting advertising media (Kotler and Armstrong 2012). Advertising message needs to attract target groups attention to discover contents of the message. Advertising media needs to cover as many customers of the target group as possible. For example, there can be short but interesting promo-advertisement of the product both on the internet and on the tv so the young and mature customers that do not use internet too often will see the advertisement. Customers will be interested in the product if the advertising message matches their expectations and needs. Advertising messages are usually acceptable for the target audience, easy to understand. For example, advertisement of a gaming laptop which includes all important technical specs of the product.
Evaluating advertising is important to understand how effective was the advertisement. Measurement can be made by studying communication effects and the sales effects the more product is sold the more effective was the advertisement. The key parts of the evaluation are: how many customers are interested in the product after advertisement, how many information customers know about the product and how the sales have changed. As an example, marketer can evaluate the advertising by recording the number of internet visitors, that have viewed the website that contains all information about the product.
By taking into account all 4 factors, a marketer can make ones advertisement more effective, create better strategy of advertisement, find more customers and create more product awareness among customers.
Question 5:
a) In my personal opinion, as Zanterra is a global renowned dairy product manufacturer then it is important to know that every big company can have different troubles and issues for various reasons. As a consumer, I would not buy only specific Zanterras products which are similar to those that had toxic chemical. And I shall hope and believe that such a big company will solve this problem and, after solving, make people know that now, according to some independent investigations and researches, there is nothing to be afraid of in Zanterras dairy products. I think that we can give second chances to global companies as they have big impact on world market.
b) If I were the Zanterras owner, first of all I would pay damages to any people that suffered from this problem. This will make customers know that I am really worried about this problem and want to correct the mistake. Secondly, I would carry out the investigation on how this problem has occurred and who is guilty. It certainly will be open investigation so every single customer and news agency will be aware of my actions and results of the investigation. I would apologise and declare that there will not be any issues with products of my company in the future. Thirdly, I would revise or even stop the production of such dairy product and improve the product analysis department of my company. And again, I would let everybody know about actions that I have made.
Question 6:
As a brand manager, first of all I shall make a beautiful brand of the parlour, make unique logo with shapes and colors recognizable for customers. Great looking signboard and logo will attract potential customers. Secondly, I can put a sign with production assortment near the parlours entrance with beautiful photos of the ice-cream and create label The taste of joy and pleasure on it (plus on the logo). In addition, I can put photos of happy and satisfied customers with their commentaries about how tasty is the ice-cream and how they love the ice-cream parlour. Thirdly, I can place unique advertisement of the ice-cream parlour on the internet or place posters with some unique information of taste qualities and wonderful composition of the ice-cream. Such advertisement will tell the customers about highest quality of the parlours premium products, great comfortability and highest level of parlours service.
References
Boxall, Andy. 2014. "Top Job Shake Up Possible At Samsung After Galaxy S5 Sales Disappoint". Digital Trends. http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-sells-fewer-galaxy-s5-phones-galaxy-s4-phones/.
"Iphone 5S Is Still The Best Selling Smart Phone Model | Soyacincau". 2016.Soyacincau.Com. http://www.soyacincau.com/2014/07/15/iphone-5s-is-still-the-best-selling-smart-phone-model/.
Kotler, T. Philip and Armstrong Gary. 2012. Principles of Marketing. 14...
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