Marketing management assignment cycle -2

Unit 3 (cluster 4)

Q8. Why is product life cycle important?

Ans : A product life cycle is the amount of time a product goes from being
introduced into the market until it's taken off the shelves. There are four stages
in a product's life cycle—introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.

Importance of product life cycle in business :

1. It works as a forecasting tool-

This is the first importance of product life cycle and it means is an important tool
for sales forecasting because with the study of product life cycle management
becomes aware of a problem that a product faces at different stages.
2. It works as a control tool-
This is the third importance of product life cycle and it means it helps in
controlling because the marketing manager can make the necessary arrangement to
make a product available to the market and repair for plans to control losses.
3. It provides an estimate for profits-
This is the fifth importance of product life cycle and it means the rate of profit
increases or decreases vary with the turnover ratio of an organization. At the
introductory stage, profits are negligible after which they go and began to fall
gradually and then become nil.
All this can be stimulated through the study of product Life Cycle. If profit will
decrease, that means the business is at a declining stage and vice versa.
4. It works as a planning tool

This is the second important and it means is an important tool used for planning a

particular object because it provides necessary data to plan marketing strategy and
policy for compilation.

It also helps to adopt the competitor’s policies and programs for making a suitable
marketing strategy. This tool is very important for making the data reports
of product life cycle management.
Q9. Explain the stages in product life cycle.

Ans:

A product life cycle is the length of time from a product first being introduced
to consumers until it is removed from the market. A product’s life cycle is
usually broken down into four stages; introduction, growth, maturity, and
decline.

Stages in product life cycle :

There are four stages of a product’s life cycle, as follows:

1. Market Introduction and Development

This product life cycle stage involves developing a market strategy, usually
through an investment in advertising and marketing to make consumers aware of
the product and its benefits.

At this stage, sales tend to be slow as demand is created. This stage can take time
to move through, depending on the complexity of the product, how new and
innovative it is, how it suits customer needs and whether there is any competition
in the marketplace. A new product development that is suited to customer needs is
more likely to succeed, but there is plenty of evidence that products can fail at this
point, meaning that stage two is never reached.  For this reason, many companies
prefer to follow in the footsteps of an innovative pioneer, improving an existing
product and releasing their own version.

2. Market Growth

If a product successfully navigates through the market introduction it is ready to

enter the growth stage of the life cycle. This should see growing demand promote
an increase in production and the product becoming more widely available.

The steady growth of the market introduction and development stage now turns
into a sharp upturn as the product takes off. At this point competitors may enter the
market with their own versions of your product – either direct copies or with some
improvements. Branding becomes important to maintain your position in the
marketplace as the consumer is given a choice to go elsewhere. Product pricing
and availability in the marketplace become important factors to continue driving
sales in the face of increasing competition. At this point the life cycle moves to
stage three; market maturity.

3. Market Maturity

At this point a product is established in the marketplace and so the cost of

producing and marketing the existing product will decline. As the product life
cycle reaches this mature stage there are the beginnings of market saturation. Many
consumers will now have bought the product and competitors will be established,
meaning that branding, price and product differentiation becomes even more
important to maintain a market share. Retailers will not seek to promote your
product as they may have done in stage one, but will instead become stockists and
order takers.

4. Market Decline

Eventually, as competition continues to rise, with other companies seeking to

emulate your success with additional product features or lower prices, so the life
cycle will go into decline. Many companies will begin to move onto different
ventures as market saturation means there is no longer any profit to be gained. Of
course, some companies will survive the decline and may continue to offer the
product but production is likely to be on a smaller scale and prices and profit
margins may become depressed. Consumers may also turn away from a product in
favour of a new alternative, although this can be reversed in some instances with
styles and fashions coming back into play to revive interest in an older product.
 Unit 4(cluster 5)

Q8. Explain the role of marketing channel in in today’s business scenario.

Ans:

A marketing channel consists of the people, organizations, and activities

necessary to transfer the ownership of goods from the point of production to the
point of consumption. It is the way products get to the end-user, the consumer; and
is also known as a distribution channel.

Role of marketing channel in todays scenario :

1)role in Price Stability:

Maintaining price stability in the market is another function a middleman
performs. Many a time the middlemen absorb an increase in the price of the
products and continue to charge the customer the same old price. This is because of
the intra-middlemen competition. The middleman also maintains price stability by
keeping his overheads low.

2)role in Financing:
Middlemen finance manufacturers’ operation by providing the necessary working
capital in the form of advance payments for goods and services. The payment is in
advance even though the manufacturer may extend credit, because it has to be
made even before the products are bought, consumed and paid for by the ultimate
consumer.

3) role in Promotion:
Promoting the product/s in his territory is another function that middlemen
perform. Many of them design their own sales incentive programmes, aimed at
building customers traffic at the other outlets.

4) Help in Production Function:

The producer can concentrate on the production function leaving the marketing
problem to middlemen who specialize in the profession. Their services can best
utilized for selling the product. The finance, required for organising marketing can
profitably be used in production where the rate of return would be greater.
Q9. Discuss various market channel flows with suitable examples.

Ans:

A marketing channel consists of the people, organizations, and activities

necessary to transfer the ownership of goods from the point of production to the
point of consumption. It is the way products get to the end-user, the consumer; and
is also known as a distribution channel.

Various market channel flows :

There are basically four types of marketing channels:

 Direct selling;
 Selling through intermediaries;
 Dual distribution; and
 Reverse channels.

Direct Selling

Direct selling is the marketing and selling of products directly to consumers away
from a fixed retail location. Peddling is the oldest form of direct selling.

Modern direct selling includes sales made through the party plan, one-on-one
demonstrations, personal contact arrangements as well as internet sales.

A textbook definition is: “The direct personal presentation, demonstration, and sale
of products and services to consumers, usually in their homes or at their jobs. ”

Selling Through Intermediaries

A marketing channel where intermediaries such as wholesalers and retailers are

utilized to make a product available to the customer is called an indirect channel.

The most indirect channel you can use (Producer/manufacturer –> agent –>
wholesaler –> retailer –> consumer) is used when there are many small
manufacturers and many small retailers and an agent is used to help coordinate a
large supply of the product.
Dual Distribution

Dual distribution describes a wide variety of marketing arrangements by which the

manufacturer or wholesalers uses more than one channel simultaneously to reach
the end user. They may sell directly to the end users as well as sell to other
companies for resale. Using two or more channels to attract the same target market
can sometimes lead to channel conflict.

Reverse Channels

If you’ve read about the other three channels, you would have noticed that they
have one thing in common — the flow. Each one flows from producer to
intermediary (if there is one) to consumer.

Technology, however, has made another flow possible. This one goes in the
reverse direction and may go — from consumer to intermediary to beneficiary.
Think of making money from the resale of a product or recycling.

There is another distinction between reverse channels and the more traditional ones
— the introduction of a beneficiary. In a reverse flow, you won’t find a producer.
You’ll only find a User or a Beneficiary.
 Unit 5 (cluster 6)

Q8. Explain the significance of public relations in marketing

Ans

Public relations (PR) is the process of maintaining a favorable image and

building beneficial relationships between an organization and the public
communities, groups, and people it serves. ... For this reason, PR is often referred
to as “free advertising.” In fact, PR is not a costless form of promotion.

Helps Manage Reputation

PR helps to manage reputation. How? Let’s have an idea about it. Trusted media
connections are prerequisite reputation management. For an example in your
business journey, you will confront appalling situations like advertising gone
wrong or unsatisfied customers hitting out on social media about how bad your
product is. In times like these, media connections can help you to repair the
damage through a simple press release. PR agencies provide businesses the
opportunity to build such connections.

Promote Brand Values

In any industry, trust plays a pivotal role in determining whether a business will be
successful or hit the ground. Lack of trust can also lead to loss of sales. However,
when they hire someone in public relations, those experts can work and increase
credibility by improving an organization’s reputation through thought leadership
pieces, influencer connections, and networking strategies.

With the help of PR you can send positive messages to your audience who are in
line with your brand image by using the ideas that your target customers respond to
more positively.

Strengthens Community Relations

Public relation strengthens the community relation. When you make new
connections, it means you are building ties with the local market by joining groups,
donating time to charity or any causes related to your business. Being an active
member of a community establishes your reliability. Great public relation means
setting up on-going relationships with many important influencers and knowing
how your business may become an excellent data source for the influential.

You may use professional email marketing software that will help you work with
your emails and communicate with many customers at the same time.

Public Relations is Opportunistic

Your public relation communications with influencers need not always be about
your business. Offering accessibility to your consumers in order to help the
influencer to see how they’re solving issues using your organization’s services and
products. Definitely the influencer understands that you are not going to give him a
consumer who is unsatisfied, yet without your support, he isn’t likely to gain
access. And, he will have the chance to speak with your customer about your
competitors and see what they are doing more broadly than only your business.

Q9. Discuss the personal selling in promotion mix.

 Ans:

The Promotion Mix refers to the blend of several promotional tools used by the
business to create, maintain and increase the demand for goods and services

The personal selling is one of the types in promotion mix.

Personal selling :

Personal selling is when a company uses salespersons to build a relationship and

engage customers to determine their needs and attain a sales order that may not
otherwise have been placed. The personal selling process is a seven step approach:
prospecting, pre-approach, approach, presentation, meeting objections, closing the
sale, and follow-up.

The sales cycle, more generally speaking, turns leads into prospects, suspects into
prospects and prospects into customers.

Prospecting is the step where salespeople determine leads or prospects. The pre-
approach is used for preparing for the presentation through customer research and
goal planning for the presentation. The approach is when the salesperson initially
meets with the customer and determines a customer’s wants and needs. Once the
salesperson knows the needs, he or she is ready for the presentation that will entice
the customer to commit. After the presentation, a salesperson must meet objections
or address customer concerns. Gaining commitment comes next. Finally, the
salesperson must remember to follow up after the sale is made.

The sales department would aim to improve the interaction between the customer
and the sales facility or mechanism and or salesperson. Sales management would
break down the selling process and then increase the effectiveness of the discrete
processes as well as the interaction between processes. For example, in many out-
bound sales environments, each step in the typical process outlined above has
sales-related issues, skills, and training needs, as well as marketing solutions to
improve each discrete step.

Importance of Personal Selling:

 Two-Way Communication
 Personal Attention:
 Detail Demonstration:
 Complementary to other Promotional Tools
 Immediate Feedback
 Individual Services
 Flexibility:
 Customer Confidence