SWOT analysis: you use it to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that is

involved in a marketing or business project. Setting an objective/strategy/path after doing the SWOT
analysis. Each organisation or business has to deal with both internal and external factors that affect
them. Users of the SWOT analysis can therefore use the first two sections (Strengths and
Weaknesses) to help them identify all of the internal factors. The last two sections
(Opportunities and Threats) will be used to identify all of the external factors.
Strengths(Internal factor / Positive influence)
 What are we best at?
 What intellectual property do we own that can help us with this objective?
 What specific skills does the current workforce have that can contribute to this objective?
 What financial resources do we have for reaching this objective?
 What connections and alliances do we have?
 What is our bargaining power with both suppliers and intermediaries?
Opportunities (External factor / Positive influence)
 What changes in the external environment can we exploit?
 What weaknesses in our competitors can we use to our advantage?
 What new technology might become available to us?
 What new markets might be opening to us?
Weaknesses (Internal factor / Negative influence)
 What are we worst at doing?
 Is our intellectual property outdated?
 What training does our workforce lack?
 What is our financial position?
 What connections and alliances should we have, but don’t?
Threats (External factors / Negative influence)
 What might our competitors be able to do to hurt us?
 What new legislation might damage our interests?
 What social changes might threaten us?
 How will the economic cycle affect us?

used in the Marketing module together with a PEST or PESTEL analysis to produce a comprehensive
audit of the internal and external environment for an organisation

BCG Growth analysis

how the products are doing. The matrix assess products on two dimensions. The first dimension looks
at the products general level of growth within its market. The second dimension then measures the
product’s market share relative to the largest competitor in the industry. Analysing products in this way
provides a useful insight into the likely opportunities and problems with a particular product.
Stars (high share and high growth)
rapid growth and dominant market share. market leading products. need a lot of investment to retain
their position, to support further growth as well as to maintain its lead over competing
products. generating a lot of income due to the strength they have in the market. Star product can
become Cash Cows as the market growth starts to decline if they keep their high market share.

Cash Cows (high share, low growth)

don’t need the same level of support as they were the star.
less competitive pressures with a low growth market and they usually enjoy a dominant position that
has been generated from economies of scale.
Cash cows are still generating a significant level of income but is not costing the organisation much to
maintain.
“milked” to fund Star products or identify more star products.

Dogs (low share, low growth)

a weak market share in a low growth market.
making a loss or a very low profit at best.
Company should kill dog products and divest the resources in star products

Problem child/question mark (low share, high growth)

Usually a new product in a market
Require a lot of investment.
May turn into a star or a dog when the market growth declines
Careful analysis and evaluation of the product to determine whether to invest or divest.

Marketing vocabulary:
Growth market
“Recession proof” products
Nonetheless, it is stepping up its game by rejuvenating its store experiences with interactive setups
and attention-grabbing displays
Cautious consumer sentiments, flagging retail sales, high operation costs
F&B generate "greater buzz and foot traffic for the mall".
The current tenant mix at the mall is made up of hair salons, spas, childcare services, a couple of
cafes and a Cold Storage supermarket. The only retail shops are a tailor and a jewellery store.
Reposition themselves as experience providers
They need to be more defined in their offerings, targeting particular lifestyles or age segments, rather
than trying to become one-stop mass-market malls.
"Retailers could migrate all transactions online, downsize their space and have just a check-out
counter for customers to pick up their buys."

Lecture 7
Individual product decisions
 Product attributes
o Product quality: product performance and customer satisfaction that involve quality level
and quality consistency
o Product features:
o Product style and design
 Branding: helps customers identify product (seller). Positive association in terms of quality (a
benefit for both the buyer and seller), willing to try other products from the same company (seller).
Legal protection (Seller)
 Packing: primary function. Changing to something that reflects quality and says something about
the product
 Labelling: identifies the product or brand. Describe things about the product (origin, producer…)
 Product support services: extra aftersales service
Product line decisions (product line is a group of products that are closely related because they
function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same
types of outlets, or fall within given price ranges. E.g. levono produces several lines of laptops,
notebooks, desktops and workstations)
 Product line length: the number of items in a product line. Usually lengthens over time to satisfy
consumers and increase sales and profits. Affected by company objectives like
 Expanding product line
o Line stretching (lengthens line beyond current range)
 Upward stretch for lower-end firms:
 adds prestige to current products, earns higher margin, full-line objective
 competitive retaliation frk , consumer scepticism
 Downward stretching for higher-end firms
 prevents competitive entry, retaliates against competitor’s attack at upper
end, capitalises on faster growth at lower end, exploit established quality
image, respond to attack from high end
 competitive retaliation from high end, image dilution, cannibalisation
 Two ways stretching for mid-market firms
 Hold off competitor at low end, Attract affluent consumers at high end
 Customers trading down, image dilution, resource drain
o Line filling (lengthens line within current range):
 reaching for extra profits, satisfying dealers, using excess capacity, being the
leading full-line company, pre-empt potential competitors.
Product Mix Decisions
Product mix is the set of all products lines and items that a particular seller offers for sale.
Width: number of lines in the mix
Length: number of items in the mix
Depth: number of versions offered for each item in the line
Product consistency: relationship in terms of end use, production requirement, distribution channels

Branding
Branding strategies: distinct identity, association, acceptance, emotion, value, awareness, difference,
equity

Promotion mix: the specific blend of advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling,
and direct marketing tools that the company uses to persuasively communicate customer value and
build customer relationships.
Advertising: any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by
an identified sponsor
Sales promotion:
Public relations
Personal selling
Direct marketing

To expand business:
To widen mix by adding new lines
Lengthen existing lines
Add depth
Vary consistency

Sales force structure: dividing sales responsibilities along any of several lines
Territorial sale force structure: assigns each salesperson to an exclusive geographic territory in which
that salesperson sells the company’s full line.
Product sales force structure: salespeople specialise in selling only a portion of the company’s
product or lines
Customer sales force structure: salespeople specialise in selling only to certain customers or
industries

Managing the sales force

Designing sales force strategy and structure
Recruiting and selecting salespeople
Training salespeople
Compensating salespeople
Supervising salespeople
Evaluating salespeople
Inside sales force: salespeople who conduct business from their offices via telephone, the internet, or
visits from prospective buyers.
Outside sales force: salespeople who travel to call on customers in the field
Team selling: using teams of people from sales, marketing, engineering, finance, technical support,
and even upper management to service large, complex accounts.

Personal selling steps

1. Prospecting and qualifying: identifying potential and qualified customers
2. Preapproach: learns as much about the customer as possible
3. Approach: makes the first impression
4. Presentation and demonstration: mode of presentation, selling process in which the
salesperson tells the “product story” to the buyer, highlighting customer benefits.
listening to customer’s needs and providing customer centred solutions
5. Handling objections: a salesperson seeks out, clarifies, and overcomes any customer
objections to buying. Using a positive approach to handle objection, take objections
as opportunities to provide more information, and turn the objections into
reasons for buying.
6. Closing: asks the customer for an order, watching out for signals to ask for an order,
offering discounts if the order is placed now or extra quantity at no charge
7. Follow-up: a salesperson follows up after the sale to ensure customer satisfaction
and repeat business
Sales promotion: short term incentives to encourage the purchase or sales of a product or service
Sales promotion objectives:
Consumer promotions: urge short-term customer buying or to enhance long-term customer
relationship;
Consumer sales promotion tools: to achieve the target
Samples (for introducing new products)
Coupons (promote early trial of a new product or stimulate sales of a mature product. Consumers may
delay purchases)
Cash refunds (also called rebates, money back after the purchase instead of the time of the purchase
using “proof of purchase”) encourage purchases, effectively stimulate demand, reduce perceived
product value.
Price packs (also called cents-off deal, offer consumers savings off the regular price of a product, two
for the price of one, effective in stimulating immediate sales)
Premiums (free goods offered as an incentive to buy a product, McDonald’s happy meal toy, to build
goodwill. Consumers may buy for premium, not product.)
Advertising specialities (also called promotional products, gifts to customers with company’s logo or
brand printed on it)
Patronage rewards (loyalty programme): to encourage repeated purchase, build brand loyalty, high
cost for the company.
Point-of-purchase displays and demonstrations (displays and demonstrations that take place at the
point of sales) provide product visibility, hard to get retailer to allocate high-traffic space.
contests, sweepstakes, and games (give consumers the chance to win something.
Contest: requires consumers to submit an entry, judge will select the best entries
Sweeptakes requires consumer to submit their names for a drawing. To encourage present customers
to buy more to minimise brand switching. Sales may drop after sweeptakes.
Game presents consumers with something every time they buy, e.g. part of a puzzle, which may help
them win a prize.

Trade and sales force promotions to support the firm’s personal selling process
Trade promotions: to persuade resellers to carry a brand, give it shelf space, promote it in
advertising, and push it to consumers; using discounts (also called price-offs) off the list price on each
case purchased during a stated period of time, allowances (a large amount off) in return for the
retailer’s agreement to feature the manufacturer’s products in some way. Free goods. Contests,
premiums, displays are also under consumer sales promotion
Sales force promotions: to generate business leads, stimulate purchases, reward customers, and
motivate salesperson
Conventions and trade shows: show and promote their products. Vendors receive many benefits,
such as opportunities to find new sales leads, contact customers, introduce new products, meet new
customers, sell more to present customers, and educate customers with publications and audio-visual
materials.
Sales contests: constest for salespeople or dealers to motivate them to increase their sales
performance over a given period. Trips, cash prizes or other gifts

Designing Sales promotion programme

Decide on size of incentives
Set conditions for participation
Decide how to promote and distribute the promotion programme
Decide on the length of the program
Evaluate the program: effectiveness of the sales promotion

Sales promotion vs Advertising

Advertising: suitable for medium to large companies while sales promotion is more suitable
for small to medium company due to cost involved.

Public relations:
To build good relationships with the company’s various publics by obtaining favouring publicity,
building a good corporate image, and handling or diffusing unfavourable rumours, stories and event.
Corporate image building, product communications, crisis management.
Public relations functions/types of public relations
Press relations or press agency: Creating and placing newsworthy stories in the news media to attract
attention
Product publicity: to publicise specific products
Public affairs: building and maintaining community relations
Lobbying
Development
Public relations roles and impacts
May strongly impact public awareness at a lower cost than advertising, results can be spectacular
Beginning to be used as a tool for brand-building
Public relations tools
News release and conference
Publications and literature
Sponsorships and donations
Special event: brand tours, speeches
Telephone hotline
Online channel: web or social media to release written materials

Direct and Digital marketing (can also be under distribution which is no intermediaries)
Direct connections with carefully targeted individual consumers, often on a one-to-one, interactive
basis.
Characteristics: non-public, immediate, customised, interactive
Well-suited to highly targeted marketing
Benefits to buyers: convenient, easy and private, ready access to many products, access to
comparative information, interactive and immediate
Benefits to sellers: powerful tool for building customer relationships, low-cost, efficient, and speedy,
greater flexibility, gives access to buyers they may not be able to reach otherwise.
Digital and social media marketing:
Online marketing using web sites, online advertising, e-mail, online videos, blogs. Social media
marketing, mobile marketing
Traditional direct marketing:
Face-to-face selling
Direct-mail marketing
Catalog marketing
Telemarkeing
Direct-response TV marketing
Kiosk marketing

Nature and characteristics of a service

Intangibility: service provided cannot be seen  use pictorial representation
Perishability: the service cannot be stored for later use  use promotion to encourage the usage of
the service at non-peak hours
Inseparability: both the service provider and the customer need to be present to experience the
service  barber providing haircut
Variability: service provided may vary from service provider to service provider  send service
providers for training to try to achieve service consistency

Managerial implications given the characteristics of a service

Reliability:
Tangibles:
Responsiveness:
Assurance:
Empathy: