Group C is marketing a cell phone that can also serve as your car keys. For instance, it can open your car and start your car, yet also serves as a new high-tech cell phone. Basically, we are a manufacturing company like motorola or samsung that does not sell directly to the consumer, but we plan to have partnerships with verizon and lexus in order to get our product out there easier. We dont want to give away all the tricks to this cell phone, so you will have to wait until Friday to find out all the details.
Since we have been finishing up our research and writing, we will begin posting our information under “Group C” throughtout the week. Hope you enjoy!
Situation Analysis
2.7 Channels
Once our product is manufactured, it can be purchased through various cell phone service providers and stores such as Verizon. Having a partnership with both cell phone providers and car companies allow our product be easily accessed by our customers. Along with an outstanding warranty, our company provides remarkable 24-hour technical assistance.
2.8 Microenvironment
Our company plans on building successful relationships within the company, along with our partners, customers, competitors, and various publics. Having successful relationships with our partners (mainly cell phone service providers and car companies) will prove to be extremely important. Among our customers, we hope that our customer service will satisfy their concerns and to retain a lasting relationship. Our competitors will have our utmost respect as we strive to make life easier for our consumers.
Marketing Strategies
3.2 Marketing Objectives
The company plans on creating a specialty product, targeting very wealthy individuals at first. Over several years, we plan on the product to become more popular and hopefully highly demanded. Therefore, the company would penetrate more of the market, making the product more affordable and more common among consumers.
Target Market:
Our target market for the “Frawley Trolley” will be first year students for the most part. In essence our service is targeted to those who lack transportation either through not owning or not having access to an automobile. Our service is meant to appeal to those who need transportation home or to visit friends. In sending buses to Richmond and Norhtern Virginia at various times we hope to serve most of our market.
During the late 1990s Coke experimented with a new concept, It changed the formula of the originial coke. In a series of blind taste tests consumers much preferred the taste of the new coke. As a result of this positive feed back Coke decided to release the new product for sale on the shelves. What they were met with was unexpected.
Sales declined not as a reuslt of the taste but becasue people felt betrayed by the company. Where was the coke that had been around for decades and remined them of many memories and happy past experiences that coke reminded them of. The taste in fact had nothing to do with it, it was the betrayal of an american tradition. The truth was that coke had already changed its formula slighty in the mid-eighties, by substituting fructose with corn syrup, which gave coke a sweeter taste. People barely noticed and didnt seem to care, but it was the public announcement of a new formula that mafe people lose faith and trust in the company.
The male consumer in todays marketing environment is one which is difficult to target. There seems to be three different types of male stereotypes that marketers seem to be applying their products to. One type is the football watching, beer drinking man’s man. This consumer most likely won’t be swayed by hair gel or commercials for formal dress clothes. A big product marketed towards this recline chair umpire is the line of brautwursts from Johnsonville. They come in different flavors; hot and spicy, beer-battered etc… This ad is targeted towards this market because it is a product that goes well with beer and football. Thus the marketer knows which type of male consumer it is targeting.
A second form of the male consumer is the tech-savy male, who is interested in new and improved cell-phone, computer and video technology. Ads from Best Buy and Circuit City appeal to this group of consumers. This can also extend into the first group when it comes to big screen TVs for ball games. For the most part these tech savy consumers would look to drive economical or more stylish cars rather than the first group who would most likely drive a pick-up or large SUV. This group is tough because it is not easy to target. The reason being is that the persons in this group share a wide range of characteristics and incomes.
The third group is the more stylish concerned or metrosexual group. This group looks for the finer things for their own personal consumption and apparel. They most likely wear designer clothing with the latest fashions. They buy cologne and expensive liquors and wines. This group like the first is not as tough to target as the middle becasue they are on either end of the spectrum making it easier for the marketer to decide which products will sell in each market segement.
Creating Group and Student Categories to Streamline this Blog
Published by October 20th, 2006 in BUAD 310. 1 CommentProfessor Creque has asked me, at your behest, to make student and group Categories to streamline the blog. These categories will show up in the right-hand sidebar, and here is what I will need each of you to do.
- Go into the manage tab and create a new category with your name. See illustration 1
- Make this category a child of your group category. For example if you are in Group A, make sure that your name category has Group A as the Parent category. See illustration 2 below.
- After that, everytime you write a post to the blog (remember the differences between writing a post and a page) you must be sure to select the category section in the right-hand sidebar and check the field with your name in it (you can also check your group feild if that is appropriate).
- You must check the appropriate category with your name everytime you post in order to make your work easily trackable for Professor Creque.
Illustration 1:
Illustration 2:
The Male Consumer
Published by October 17th, 2006 in BUAD 310, Group A and Heather Morgan. 2 CommentsMetrosexual - Appearance oriented - not afraid to pay for it. Sophisticated tastes, affluent
Maturiteen - Tech savvy - researches buying decisions for the entire family using the internet.
Modern Man - Happy mediium. Sophisticated shopper but still enjoys watching/playing sports.
The Dad - peak earning years, just as likely to buy family necessities as “mom”
Retrosexual - Stereotypical male, loud, rude, superiority complex over women.
Similarities seem to be greater on the upper end of the spectrum than the lower. For example, the modern man and the metrosexual both have sophisticated tastes but the metrosexual pursues these tastes to a greater extent. The dad too likes to look nice but may be more money concious as he is paying for his children as well.
Wrangler Jeans Co is an example of a firm trying to target a variety of men. When you look at their website located at http://www.wrangler.com/wr_home.asp a slideshow appears. The first image is of Dale Earnhardt Jr. a race car driver – this is targeting the retrosexual. A sit on the couch on Sunday and watch sports kind of guy. The second image is of a man and his dog on a lake – this could appeal again to the retrosexual or to the dad. It looks like the man is camping. The third image definitely targets the dad as it is a little boy sitting in the floor tying his shoe. This image is marketing furniture to a family I would assume. The slideshow continues through more formal clothing which is probably intended to target the upper end of the male shopper spectrum.
The man in the middle is hard to target because he does enjoy looking nice and watching football on sundays. He is not stereotypical at all and ads geared towards the metrosexual are a little bit to much for him while those targeted towards the retrosexual may make him recoil because he doesn’t picture himself as that crude. Coors light does a good job of targeting this man with their new commercials that feature football coaches and a “press junket”
It is confusing to sell stuff to men because they are a hard group to segment. Marketers have been looking to pursue the extremes and the men that don’t fit these extremes are not being capitalized on. Because marketers have been targeting women for so long they have mastered that arena and are having to now start from scratch with men.
Men are confused by their new found freedoms. Before now they got what they needed and moved on but now that options are available they’re discovering where they themselves are on the spectrum of male. They didn’t really know what they wanted before now. Women are appearing in the workplace and its ok for men to take paternity leave - societal norms are changing and that can be confusing to anyone.
Dyson especially is trying to target “boomer dads”. Men are more frequently getting the kids after a divorce and they need houses and home appliances as much as the next family. People are also staying single longer and these bachelors need these things as well.
Tribal DDB marketed bodygroom using humor. This appealed to a large variety of men because it didn’t single out one group of men to use the bodygroom.
   The words “shopping” and “woman” have long been synonomous in the minds of many poeple. Throughout history, it was always the woman who did the shopping or the women that loved to shop. But because societal foundations are slowly shifting, so to are societal norms. In modern times, manufactures and retailers are finding themselves in a predicament: How does one market to the male shopper? This predicament stems from the undeniable fact that never before have males been a noteworthy market, but in truth this group encompasses a large segment of the population.Â
    This new market is one that marketing departments must take into account or risk facing failure. The confusion that can arouse, though, is defining who the male shopper truly is? Is he the man who is obbsessed with his apprearance, or the one who does not care at all?  The answer to this question and the truth about most men was stated most succinctly in the article when the author noted, the male shopper “cares about his appearance but still likes to drink beer and watch sports.” I think most men don’t want to lose their sense of being “macho” by worrying about what color shirt he is wearing or what stores he purchases from. But as time goes on and more men make concious decisions about their appearance, the more acceptable it becomes. More infrequently does a female see a guy doing the “grunge- i dont care what i look like” look, but rather the look of “this outfit took some thought” is becoming more widespread.Â
   As this article states, males are slowly coming to terms with the fact that ”the better you look, the further you get out there,” and this is what marketers need to latch onto. They should market to help men feel more secure with their decision to be fashion concious, and when they succeed at this, they will create a plethora of customers to sell to.  Â
