Class Assignment: American Well: The Doctor will E-See you know Group Members: Akshay Sharma Nitin

Jalan Ankit Bansal

Problem: If you were in the shows of the American well management, would you pursue any of the next-generation option (product / market) in 2010 or would you just focus on the core platform with the core target market?

Solution: American well at this juncture should focus on vertical market dominance and this can be achieved by focusing on its core platform and core target market, which is online care through technology which allows physicians to deliver care to patients on the Internet in real time.

Its a new product with tremendous potential while the platform can take advantage of the insurance companies, providers, employers and patients by having first mover advantage in the market. But it needs to strengthen its presence as of 2009 only three insurers have adopted the technology in the US and it will be a challenge in the coming future for the company to establish itself as a pioneer in this market.

Seeing that its a new product and quite young in the market launched in 2006, American Well needs to: a) Emphasize and build its core competency b) Not dilute its product before establishing a solid base

Reasons for starting with vertical market dominance: Perusing any expansion activity would likely require additional hiring and securing additional funds which is quite risky for a startup business venture Enormous market potential as of 2009 estimated to top 2.5 trillion dollars and was projected to reach 4.3 trillion dollars by 2018, which is a huge market size and needs to be focused on The platform has been launched initially in Hawaii and is being slowly adopted by other parties present in the U.S which makes it too early to commit huge resources by American well in development and marketing of second generation platform like Team edition Tighter focus also lends towards creating a brand identity for American Well and also generates word of mouth buzz in the medical line which is of paramount importance as American well can establish itself as a leader in online medical care By focusing on its core competency and product American well will become the dominant player thereby lessening the threat of competitive attack.

In a broader sense, the American Well technology solves economic barriers of time and space to connect the excess supply (physician capacity) with excess demand (for patients). This model has tremendous potential once strongly established and at a later stage once the company has a strong base with its core product it can then look at horizontal expansion such as hospitals, clinics and chain pharmacies, or even expand internationally. At this juncture American Well needs to exclusively concentrate on its core product and become a leader in online care.

Hi Guys, Really sorry i am not able to take part in doing this assignment together, Since Amal was not well yesterday and you all wanted to sit today and the fact that i had already made plans even before we got this assignment, I am doing the next best thing sending my views on the project ( mentioned below). Hopefully this is of some use to you, please do call me in case you need any help. Thanks a bunch for understanding guys, really appreciate it. Regards Akshay

Starbucks takes pride in their ability to deliver a retail experience, with the ultimate goal of creating a "Third Place" where consumers could just go and relax and a place that

would be separate from office and home a special place which would mean different things for different people. But the latest market research had thrown up some unexpected results, Starbucks were not always meeting their customer expectation in the area of customer a big blow for a company perusing a goal of enhancing customer experience. Chrisitne Day VP administration has come up with a ambitious plan of investing an additional USD 40 Mn across its stores. Main idea is that the additional funds would improve speed of service and thereby increase customer satisfaction. Why this additional fund makes sense: - More difficult and time consuming beverages are adding strain on their operations and the partners workload becomes quite hectic as not only do they need to cope up with handling new drinks every season but also need to enhance the customer service ( remember the regular customers names and drinks) - The Additional labor dollars will make the partners day less stress full and improve their ability to focus on the speed of service. their level of friendliness and also on the cleanliness. - Analyse exhibit 3 which shows us that: - 40 million is spread across the 4500 stores which equates to $ 8888 per store per year or $ 171 per week - The hourly employee labor is about $ 3240 for a store running about $ 15,400 per week - Labor cost is 21.04 %. To keep labor % of net sales at same level additional $ 812 per week is required and any ticket hovering around $ 4 with which stores need an additional 203 transactions per week or 800 per month. -Analyse Exhibit 9: - Guests which are extremely satisfied tend to double their visits from 4.3 to 7.2

Hence, if you are able to impress 200 satisfied customers making them your loyal customers, they would more than compensate the additional investment this move would actually help the partners in their ability to deliver par excellence customer experience and give profits to the company.

Secondary Brand Associations Primary Association Before I start on secondary associations, it makes sense that I talk about what the primary associations of a brand are. Primary associations are qualities/equity inherently possessed by the brand. These would include those of salience/utility (whether a washing powder cleans clothes or whether fairness cream makes you fair), performance (does the washing powder tackle tough stains well, whether the fairness cream makes you 5 shades or 2 shades fairer), imagery (how reputed the brand is, how successful has it been), judgment (how the brand fairs in comparison to competitors), etc. Secondary Association Secondary association on the other hand is more of a branding-marketing function. It transfers the qualities/equity of other entities to the brand in question. Consider a commodity like salt. One can argue that iodized salt is iodized salt and while one can double filter it and another triple filter it, the two salts cannot be too different. But when one of them is Tata Salt and the other Dandi Namak one would tend to think of the former as of better quality. This is a classic case of the secondary association: Tatas reputation of quality being transferred to the salt. Leveraging Secondary Associations The above example was one of the many ways one can build secondary associations through the parent company. However there are many other ways of doing the same. Some of these are illustrated below: Other Brands Co-Brands: is used extensively by credit cards. Consider a Standard Chartered card that is co-branded with Shoppers Stop. It would indicate that the card is oriented towards the frequent shopper who could avail discounts at Shoppers Stop outlets using the card. An ABN Amro MakeMyTrip.com card on the other hand would be one for frequent fliers and enable one to stock points for each flight booked using this card. As for equity transfer, a StanC-Shoppers Stop co-branded card would work differently when compared to a StanC-Big Bazaar one the previous would transfer sophistication to the card while the later would transfer qualities related to cost effectiveness and value-for-money. Company: Tata Salt is an example of this Ingredients: Take Sona-Chandi Chyavanprash. Gold and silver, being expensive and noble metals, lend their sheen to the chyavanprash making it seem better in quality than, say, a Dabur Chyavanprash. Extensions: Again used extensively. Consider when Cadbury wanted to make a smaller and lighter version of its chocolate snack, Perk. Instead of giving the product a new name it called is Perk Slim. Not only has this logic resulted in Perk XL and Perk XXL, but when Cadbury came up with a new reverse Perk, i.e. a snack which is a wafer on the outside and chocolate inside they named it Ulta Perk! The idea obviously was that the brand equity created by Perk be leveraged in all these new products

People Employees: Examples are few of this kind of secondary association because the consumer rarely comes into contact will the employees of the company behind the brand in question. But there are some where the interface with employees is significant. Consider airlines. Do friendlier ground handling staff and prettier air-hostesses affect your impression of an airline? I bet they do J. Similarly a bank where employees seem ill-dressed and ill-at-ease will seem much more inefficient than one where the employees are smartly dressed and prompt. Endorsers: Belmonte, a little known clothing brand, gets endorsed by Shah Rukh Khan and immediately starts selling more. Why? Because Shah Rukh Khan had a relevant equity (his style statement) to lend to the brand. I am unsure if someone like, say, Govinda, would have worked as well. Places Country of Origin: Swiss Chocolates, French Wines, Indian Basmati need I say more? What inspires greater confidence a Japanese electronic good or one that is China-made? Besides being known for quality products countries often are known for more subtle qualities like German engineering and Italian design. Channel: Where you sell what you sell makes a difference too. Consider Louis Vuitton. They are available in Ambience Mall in NCR, UB City in Bangalore, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai the exclusivity of each of these places adds to that of the brand. Things Events: Manickchand sponsored the Filmfare awards for a long time. This association with an event that served as the spectacle of Indias glamourous and high-fliers enabled Manickchand to later claim to be catering to a high class Unche Log, Unchi Pasand Causes: Sponsorship of events of serves as a strong secondary association too. Toyota sponsored NDTVs Greenathon, with and aim of imbibing the qualities of being environment-conscious from the event. Parting Note When building a secondary association, one should be aware of the relevance of the equity sought for the brand. For example German technology se bana Binani Cement makes sense because Germany is known for its superior engineering strength, German main bana ABCD Chai makes no sense. Further equity when lent to a brand should reinforce and augment the parent brand. For example if Tata Salt turns out to be non-refined and foul, it will not just damage the salt brand but also the name of Tata. A recent example is of how the Satyam scandal has hit the reputation of India Inc. as a whole by virtue of association. Ultimately the aim would be that while initially a brand leverages on secondary associations, it should eventually be in a position where it is not just a good brand in its own right, but also lends positive associations back to the source of its secondary association.

- See more at: http://marketing-and-brands.blogspot.in/2009/02/secondary-brandassociations.html#sthash.aBiguQ4c.dpuf