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T.C.

ANADOLU UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

EREN YILMAZ

13754973582

Business Administration and Management, 3

SPRING SEMESTER 2009 / FINAL ASSIGNMENT

Eskisehir

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Before addressing directly the solution of this assignment, I would like to point

out that; this report was formed by my original thoughts and considerations, and

of course the contribution of many investigations !

1.) Please visit a supermarket to find out the product with the best innovative

packaging. What is unique in this package? What do you think about the role of this

package for the marketing and sales of the product? (read the Packaging part in your

book to remember functions of packaging and write the functions of packaging in a

few sentences )

In order to fully understand the question, briefly I would like to explain the concept of

packaging and its functions. As an item; Packaging is the enclosing of a physical object, typically a product that will be offered for sale. As an operation we can

articulate that; the process of preparing items of equipment for transportation and

storage and which embraces preservation, identification and packaging of products.

I believe; packaging acts as a marketing strategy by itself, which is an important part

of the branding process as it plays a role in communicating the image and identity of a

company. Basically, it is sometimes referred to as the 5th

P in the marketing mix.

According to me, packaging has an enormous impact on each brand's success, as it

directly impacts many of my purchase decisions that I made at the point-of-sale, and

can also influence my satisfaction and likelihood of re-purchase. The happier I am,

the more I buy from that brand.

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Let’s turn back to my experience about innovative packaging.

According to me, ‘Nestle’ has the most effective packaging style (as you can observe

front-page). When you go shopping in supermarket it is almost impossible to not

realize the bright and dark blue colour packages of Nestle. Of course, the brand equity

of Nestle is also another fact that appeals me but the main subject actually is its

appearance I decide.

Packaging of Nestle products can behave like a silent salesman to the customers from the shelves. Also, by the use of packaging, Nestle promotes its corporation identity,

provides information to customers, and clearly advocates it’s glamorous of Nestle.

Assume that, this is marketing strategy, thus it has potential to boost firm’s competitiveness among other players operating in the same sector and keep you ahead

from competitors.

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2.) Describe “line extension” and “brand extension”. Find an actual example of line

extension strategy and also brand extension strategy. (the example of each strategy

may be from a different or same company) Then for the case (example) of each

strategy that you’ve found, make an assessment about the success, potential

advantages and risks.

A product line extension is the utilization of an established product’s brand name for a new item in the same product category. In other words, we can define line extension

as multiproduct branding strategy whereby a firm markets one or more new products under an already established and well known brand name. (Deriving benefit from

current brand awareness)

Note: when the primary benefit and the target audience are the same, line extensions make sense. When the primary benefit is different or the target audience is different,

line extensions probably don't make so much sense.

From my observation, I determined at Frito-Lay Corp. world well-known potato-chips

producer, was incorporated with Pepsi-Cola in 1965 to form PepsiCo. Frito-Lay is

managing several brands in Turkey, such as Doritos, Lay’s, Ruffles, Cheetos etc.

Couple of mounts ago, administrative committee of Frito-Lay Turkey had decided to

launch several new tastes. They would stay in the same product (potato-chips) and

release more products with different features to try and attack themselves.

Formerly, they had been serving Turkish market with few product alternatives which

based on differences of flavours in it. But, after implementation of product line

extension strategy to their marketing operations, they had offered the market with a

several kind of new products like Doritos a la Turca (tomatoes/ hashish/ spicy etc.), also Nacho (with cheese), Tacho (with spicy), Hot Com Dippas (hot).

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Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm

marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a

different product category. In other words, brand extension is using the leverage of a

well known brand name in one category to launch a new product in a different

category. This strategy increases awareness degree of the brand name.

The objective is to serve different customer needs or market segments while taking advantage of the widespread name recognition of the original brand.

Exp; Mudo, brand which each Turkish citizens must heard about it, is a really good

example of the success of brand extension strategy. Firstly, Mudo Company imposed its name to the society as a producer of quality and modern clothes. Then they had

extended their brand into different fields like home decoration, kitchenwares and so on.. Now, people who were customers of Mudo formerly are likely to buy Mudo’s

other scope of products rather than other brands.

Assessments;

• For Frito-Lay Comp.

The purpose of adopting line extension strategy is to protect the brand against

competitors, customer satisfaction and maximize profit of course. Frito-Lay succeeds all these goals. After launching several new products in the same line, the demand for

Frito-Lay products are boost and profits are increased as well.

• For mudo.concept

Obviously, brand-extension strategy yields numerous opportunities to Mudo Comp. Lower Mudo Company’s launching cost; compared to launching a new brand, brand

extension strategy is cheaper especially because the new product use the name of an

already well-known brand. Therefore Mudo Company has taken advantage of using

their name in other segments (like furniture, home decoration and so on).

Consumer trust increases; After Mudo had entered different segments, and became a

successful, the trust level of consumers to Mudo products has been increasing.

Also there are disadvantages of performing brand extension strategy. From the

Mudo’s side, dilution of the existing brand image was enormous risk they said. But

they were pretty self-confident and sure on the success of Mudo in the other sectors as well as clothing.

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3.) If you were in a jury to nominate the best new product of the last 10 years, which

product would you nominate? Why do you think so, what value/values that product

offers to consumers?

If I were in a jury to nominate the best new product of the last 10 years, of course it

would be ‘Mp3 Players’.

Music industry, current picture states that; the advent of file sharing technologies has

changed the balance between record companies, song writers, and performing artists. As there activity becomes popular, people are willing more to pay portable music

players.

Walkmans were quite famous at the beginning of 90’s but as technology advances,

new equipments arose among people. Mp3 players were born at the middle of this

stage actually.

Gradually, people who listens music at home from radios, or cassette players, now

have a chance to listen music while walking to work, travelling to somewhere, even

swimming☺. According to the researchers, as mp3 players enter the music market,

consumers do not prefer CD players, walkmans as much as before because now it is quite easy to download a song to your small device and listen whereas to pay money

for cassette or CD you desire to listen.

Also, another thing is, not for the music, you can use your device to keep anything digital you want. So this is what you can get I mean advantages if you have mp3

players briefly.

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4.) Please compare the prices of two competitive products (such as IPod versus

Creative). According to you, what makes the price difference, the image, quality,

product attributes, and design???

I have determined two competitive products to analyze. One side would be Sony Vaio

notebook, and then the other part is going to be Fujitsu-Siemens notebook.

As we all know, Sony has been one of the most popular brand in electronics industry

for many years. It is known with its quality, reliability, variety (offering a width range

of product), and respectful to the customers considerations. Per contra Siemens,

German home appliances producer, is operating in Turkish market for many years.

Today, if you visit an electronic market in Eskisehir, you can easily see the price of Sony Vaio which is between 3500 – 5000 TL. But, on the contrary Fujitsu-Siemens

notebooks prices change between 1500-2500 TL.

Thus, what makes the price differences? Even if the exactly similar features both

brand have, their prices are totally divergent.

Actually the answer is so clear. Sony Corp. has brand equity, I mean; Sony has

legitimacy among its stakeholders. Generally, who uses Sony products once during

their life, cannot easily go and buy another brand anymore. This creates brand loyalty

and consumers become less sensitive to prices of Sony products.

If we discuss design of Sony products, I think it depends to person to person. Some of consumers can like the design and some are not. But I think, Sony has one of the most

creative brands in the world as well (They have numerous awards from designing).

Well-known brand image is primary objective in Sony, that’s why their motto is ‘It’s

a Sony’

We can say that, Siemens is a new player for notebook market. They have been

producing laptops since 1997. So, still they have time to improve their products

design, quality and etc.

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5.) Please visit a retailer (store) targeting young people (for example Collezione,

Tiffany, Benetton, Levi’s, Adidas, mobile phone seller, technological products seller).

Considering the questions below explain your observations and assessment. (read the

related parts in the Retailing and Wholesaling chapter)

• What do you think about the target market/markets of the store?

• What is the length and breadth of the store’s product assortments?

• How is the stores’ atmosphere (store décor, music, colour, spaces etc)?

• The services offered by the store(limited service or full service, the role of

• sales people in the store).

• The type of the retailer based on organizational approach (a national chain

store, franchise, independent etc)

• Assume that you are responsible for the distribution channel relations of the

brand (if the retailer is selling different brands choose one of the brands) and

you are visiting the store in Eskisehir. What will be your assessment and

suggestions (for example you may think that the atmosphere of the retailer is

not compatible with your brand or you may think to sell your products in a

different type of retailer)?

• Is there different distribution channels used by the company also? (for

example, does this brand have a virtual store or e-retailing activity?

I decided a store targeting young people named ‘Pull and Bear’. This brand is a new

trend among youngsters and a candidate for becoming permanent preference in

Turkish customers anymore. According to me, this company provides quality clothes,

shoes, and etc. with reasonable prices. I had searched about Pull and Bear and

encountered that it was a part of Zara which is quite famous Spanish brand.

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About the target market of Pull and Bear, of course it addresses to youngsters between

(17-26), it can fluctuate plus/minus 2 years. Especially, in Eskisehir, the university

students have enormous potential for this kind of stores (by the way, I emphasized the

store Pull and Bear in Espark Avm).

Also, as I mentioned above, range of products in the store are pretty much the same

amount with other type of clothing producers I decided. Neither less nor more assortment you can find in this store. Sometimes you cannot even find a large fit of

one t-shirt. Obviously this is their shortage

We you walk around the stores in Espark one Saturday evening, you can come across with well-designed display window and a mystic, little flu internal design which are

easily appeal to you. So we can say that, they behave very professionally about preparing charming atmosphere for customers.

Pull and Bear Inc. is a type of retailer which belongs to Zara Corp. Spain. They are

operating several countries all over the world like Spain, Netherlands, Germany,

France, and Turkey even China. Operations are performed by partners so, if you want

to make business with Pull and Bear, you have to be a member of this national chain.

Actually, I had an opportunity to visit a store of Pull and Bear in Spain (hometown of

the brand). They have pretty much the same atmosphere with the store of Pull and

Bear in Espark, Eskisehir. I can easily say that, they have same concept wherever they

are operating in. So if I were responsible from the distribution channels of Bull and

Bear Inc, I would totally say that, Espark Pull and Bear store doing well of their

business.

In conclusion, of course this company uses multimedia channels to reach target

customers. For exp, they have web page named http://www.pullbear.com/ where you can go and order the things you desire.

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6.) Select one television advertisement or one print advertisement. Try to describe the

television ad. Insert the print ad or a photocopy of it to your homework. Answer the

below questions considering the advertisement you’ve selected. (Read the related

parts in Advertising, Sales Promotion and Public Relations chapter)

• What might be the objective of the advertisement? (Read possible advertising

objectives)

• Which type of appeal (rational, emotional, moral) is used in the

advertisement (Read message content)

• In which execution style was the message presented (read, message execution)

• Try to assess the media selection decision for the advertisement. If you were

the media planner for these brands what would be your decisions about the

selection of the media type, vehicles, timing etc? (Read, Selecting Advertising

Media)

Advertising is one part of the promotional mix, and therefore advertising objectives

will be set in line with overall promotional and marketing objectives. In my

assignment, I would use printed advertising campaign as an example, which is

prepared by Gillette Corp.

The main objective of print advertising of Gillette Mach3 is reaching out to large

numbers of potential and existing customers, persuading them to consider purchase,

motivating them to act and reminding them about your product or service and its

unique benefits. As you can see at the very right bottom of the advertising next page,

there is motto of Gillette Mach3, The Best a Man Can Get clearly shows the target

group of this marketing strategy.

Gillette wants to communicate with target market by catering their rational approach. As you can see on the advertisement, there is a razor blade at the middle of the

picture, surrounding by small definitions which are address the part of it. So authorized had made it intentionally to refer customers’ logic.

As we all know, there are several ways to communicate your message in the

marketing. Such as; straightforward messaging, by making comparison, and etc. Gillette Comp. executes messaging style by using demonstration technique. You can

get the most efficient performance if you use this way, etc.

In addition, Gillette is performing spokesperson/endorsers technique as well. Andrea

Agassi, David Beckham... are used as a phenomenon in the visual media to attract

consumers’ preferences.

I have chosen this advertisement from a monthly business magazine, which is quite

popular among men working on the finance sector. So if I were the manager,

determine the features of the advertisement, I would deal with one famous person, and

issue exciting visual advertisements as well.

Shaving actually can be accepted as regular activity, it does not matter a lot about

timing I believe. Each month at the magazines, and each evening at the television

(especially the channels related with business).

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7.) Describe an actual example of a consumer sales promotion campaign (premiums,

contest, sweepstake, sample, bonus packs, coupon, event marketing etc.).Who

may be the target market of the activity? What may be the objectives of the company

for this sales promotion? (Read Sales Promotion)

In order to explain this question, we must known little bit about sales promotion and

the functions of it.

Briefly, sales promotion describes promotional methods using special short-term techniques to persuade members of a target market to respond or undertake certain

activity. As a reward, marketers offer something of value to those responding generally in the form of lower cost of ownership for a purchased product. (This is

exactly what Tansaş did). Now turn back to my observation;

Tansaş, the oldest and biggest supermarket chains in Turkey, had started for a campaign in their stores. When you enter one of these Tansaş’s stores, and buy some

goods which are equal or more than 10 TL, they provide you a sticker, and a bulletin that you can fasten all stickers on it. What is this for actually?

The purpose of gathering those stickers is to offer you glass bowls (Borcam) for free

which the Turkish housewives killed them for it. As I emphasized the sentences

before, the target group of the campaign is housewives. If you save 20 of those stickers, you can have a small one, than if you bring 40 of those stickers, you can have

a biggest one. Also, there are other alternatives. If you save 5 of them, you can earn charming discounts in order to buy those bowls.

Now, here is the question. Is this strategy work? I pretty sure about its success

actually, because even my mother has started to gather those stickers. ☺

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Bibliography;

• Principles of Marketing (Philip Cotler)

• Marketing Magazines

• Slides of Marketing Management Course (Lectured by Sevgi Ayşe Oztürk)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/

• http://epubl.ltu.se/1404-5508/2004/144/LTU-SHU-EX-04144-SE.pdf

• http://www.essays.se/essay/2665a11a85/

• http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/Advertising-objectives/