Hi-Tec Case Study

1. Product with a feature not offered by competitors that gives it distinctive appeal in the marketplace.

 
2. Hi-Tec shoes have always had a high technology focus. The brand’s unique selling proposition now also emphasises the company’s four core values:
 •hungry, as there is always a desire to improve products
 •proud, as Hi-Tec delivers more than the competition
 •honest, as products deliver on their promises

 • fun, as it works creatively to provide positive solutions

Over the last two years Hi-Tec has undertaken a market research programme. The company wanted to know how best to encourage consumers to engage emotionally with Hi-Tec products. It wanted its brand to be recognised both for sports and also for an outdoor lifestyle.


3. Hi-Tec develops attractive and comfortable shoes which are lightweight and high quality. They are sold in the mid-price market segment.Hi-Tec adapts its marketing mix for each of its main market segments. Examples of its approach in specific markets include: The junior market – this is a strong sector for Hi-Tec and it offers hard-wearing shoes on the high street at prices to attract parent purchasers.

4. Hi-Tec has targeted consumers through collaborations with several organisations. It has set up partnerships with the UK’s National Trust (to promote a new walking boot) as well as with the Caravanning Club (an audience who might be interested in instantly comfortable and lightweight outdoor footwear).Hi-Tec uses many different methods of marketing communications and above the line and below-the-line promotion to achieve this goal.

5. Liquid Mountaineering aims to create a sense of adventure and push back physical boundaries. At the centre of the campaign is a video commissioned by Hi-Tec which went live on YouTube in May 2010. This video 'documentary' shows three men apparently running on water. They achieve this miraculous feat thanks to their water-repellent shoes.To date (November 2010), the video has attracted more than 7.5 million viewers. It has been heavily featured in the press, including The Sun, Daily Star, and The Guardian, as well as on television channels around the world, including Rude Tube. This has opened up the Hi-Tec brand to a worldwide audience. Hi-Tec has also received very positive feedback on the campaign from
trade organisations. This has boosted awareness and reinforced the fun element of the Hi-Tec brand.The ongoing marketing campaign for ‘shoes that love water’ will encourage consumers to consider buying Hi-Tec products.

Digital Communications Trends– the new promotion

Blendtec Will it Blend?
http://www.willitblend.com/ Website.


is a viral marketing campaign consisting of a series of infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of
blenders especially the Total Blender. In the show Tom Dickson the Blendtec founder attempts to blend 
various unusual items in order to show off the power of his blender. Dickson started this marketing campaign after doing a blending experiment with a box of matches in October 2006, it has attracted more than 160 million views. Has been featured on major mainstream media outlets like The Today Show, The Tonight Show, The History Channel, The Wall Street Journal and others. Within five days of posting their videos on YouTube and on their own website, the videos had garnered six millions YouTube views. To further boost the spread of the videos, Blendtec later began to purchase advertising with Google and Yahoo! and they have carefully chosen YouTube tags in order to bring in the largest number of search engine hits. At least 10 television appearances (NBC, CBS, Fox, WGN, History Channel, Discovery Channel, etc)Keynote Speeches (Ad Age Idea Conference , PubCon 2008, Hewlett Packard, etc) Print and Electronic Media Articles (Wall Street Journal, Salon.com, Scientific American, Businessweek, etc) Global Media Interviews News Blogs Co-Promotionals (Nike, Google, AT&T, Weezer, Novell, etc)At least 10 other television publicity events (Food Network, ABC Australia, BBC World,CNBC News, etc) Blendtec now sells Will It Blend? merchandise, including a spoof shirt with the slogan "Tom Dickson is my Homeboy".Theres  all sorts of blogs and ads and there's a contest on pinterest and a lot of people are aware of this viral compaign. Radio station KDRF (eD-FM) in Albuquerque, New Mexico enlisted Tom Dickson to do a Will It Blend? version to promote the radio station. The three 30-second commercials show different styles of music CDs being blended showcasing the station's variety format. 
As far as awards Will it Blend? has been nominated for the 2007 YouTube award for Best Series winner of .Net Magazine's 2007 Viral Video campaign of the year and winner of the Bronze level Clio Award for Viral Video in 2008. The iPhone episode of Will It Blend? won Ad of the Week in episode 8 of the Australian show The Gruen Transfer. As of February 21, 2012, the Blendtec series of videos had collected a total of 188,170,865 views on YouTube.

Ipad- BlendTec-Will it blend http://youtu.be/lAl28d6tbko

7 Main Types of Promotion

Personal SellingAdvantage- Allows the salesperson to target the message specifically to the audience and receive immediate feedback. Disadvantage- Can not reach as many potential customers as advertising, plus the cost of each contact is much higher. 

                                                                      Direct Marketing                                                                                                                              Advantage- Quick to produce/respond, less competition, more personal, highly targeted.   Disadvantage- Junk mail, time, impact, laws, limited reach.


Advertising
Advantage- Targeted to a specific audience, more customers.  
Disadvantage- Expensive






Public Relations
Advantage- Credibility, Cost is reasonable, target market.
Disadvantage- Potential for not completing communication process.

Sponsorship

Advantage- Takes care of the financials in a certain extent.
Disadvantage-  May not be always available and may have to agree to certain terms of the sponsor.

Sales Promotion 

Advantage- Create urgency draws attention to a particular product/service, keep stock flowing.
Disadvantage- Miscommunication, price.

Digital Communications 
Advantage- less expensive, more reliable, easy to manipulate, flexible, compatible with other digital systems.
Disadvantage- Sampling Error

The Price is not right

June 13, 2003 Suzy Shier had placed price-tags on garments indicating a ‘regular’ and ‘sale’ price when in fact the garments were not sold in any significant quantity or for any reasonable period of time at the ‘regular’ price. The civil Ordinary Selling Price provisions of the Competition Act are designed to ensure that when products are promoted at sale prices, consumers are not misled by reference to inflated regular prices. The civil Consent Agreement, filed with the Competition Tribunal, will remain in effect for 10 years. Under the terms of the Agreement, Suzy Shier will :

• ensure that all future regular price representations comply with the Ordinary Selling Price provisions of the Act;
• implement a corporate compliance program designed to ensure the company’s compliance with the Ordinary Selling Price provisions of the Act;
• publish corrective notices in newspapers across Canada; and
• pay an administrative monetary penalty in the amount of $1,000,000.

Extension Strategies

Skittles is an example of an introduction of new flavours or scents of a product.







Mini cans of pepsi is an example of introduce new sizes of of a  product.

Toliet paper is an example of a  improvement of  the style product design or package.

Royal Bank is an example of a product that attract competitor's customers.

Product Life Cycle

1. The will is an example of  a fad relatively short life cycle  from 1-3 years. The Wii was launched in the United States on November 19, 2006 at $249.99. Since its launch, the monthly sales numbers of the console have been higher than its competitors across the globe. According to the NPD Group, the Wii sold more units in the United States than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 combined in the first half of 2007. It was a successful selling porduct at the time and everyone was buying them but now we dont see a lot of them and not a lot of people arent considering buying them anymore because they made more game devices everyone liked better.




2. Cigarettes are an example of a long lasting product (packaging may have changed but product itself is the same) is more than 20 years old. By 1830 the cigarette had crossed into France, where it received the name cigarette; and in 1845, the French state tobacco monopoly began manufacturing them. In the 20th century prior to World War II consisted primarily of full page, color magazine and newspaper advertisements.Many companies created slogans for their specific cigarettes and also gained endorsements from famous men and women. Some advertisements even contained children or doctors in their efforts to sway new customers to their specific brand. Much of these advertisements sought to make smoking appear fashionable and modern to men and women.After World War II, cigarette companies advertised frequently on television programs. Cigarettes were a huge hit back then and still are very popular today. Still to this day cigarettes exsist and you always see the cigarette packaging changing for health purposes. I personally think some of the packaging they create is really disturbing and if i smoked i would deffiantly consider quiting not only because its so bad for you but the packaging makes you want to quit its so gross.

3. Apple iphones are an example of a technological product from 3-5 years. Jobs unveiled the iPhone to the public on January 9, 2007 at the Macworld 2007 convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The iPhone went on sale in the United States on June 29, 2007, at 6:00 pm local time, while hundreds of customers lined up outside the stores nationwide. On July 11, 2008, Apple released the iPhone 3G in twenty-two countries. In 2010, a total of 73.5 million iPhones were sold. Iphones are still really popular and probably will be for awhile now. Iphones are one of the top phones to buy today.

Manolo Blahnik-Limitless Luxury

Manolo Blahnik was born and raised in Spain and he graduated from the University of Geneva in 1965 while he studied art in Paris. He worked at a fashion boutique called Zapata and told him he should design only footwear. So in 1972 he was invited to create shoes for a runway show and with a loan of 2,000 he bought Zapata from its owner and open his own boutique. His boutiques are located in London, New York, Las Vegas, Dublin, Athens, Madrid, Istanbul, Dubai, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore and Stockholm. Monolo Blahnik shoes range from $800-$1,295. His intended target market is obviously females that love their high heels or any type of footwear really. This product appeals to me because of all the different types,styles,colours, and he creates a big variety of shoes which i  personally like about his products. There's definitely a lot to chose from. People would be willing to splurge on this luxury good if they like a pair of shoes with every outfit they have. If i had the money i would totally buy a few pairs of his shoes their really nice. 

Product Planning

Product Planning

Involves making decisions about those Features that are needed to sell a business’s products, services, or ideas.

Product Mix

Includes all the different products that a company makes or sells.

Pick a company and copy and paste their product mix below:

Product Line

A group of closely Related Products manufactured and/or sold by a business.

Pick a company and show an example of their product line.

Product Item

A Specific , model, brand, or size of a product within a product line.

Pick a company and show an example of their product item.

Product Width

The number of different product Lines a business manufactures or sells.

Product Depth

The number of product Items offered within each product line.

Pick a company and show an example of their product width and depth formatted like the slide show example.

Product Mix Strategies

•      The Plan for how the business determines which products it will make or stock

•      May develop completely New products

•      May Expand  their current product lines

•      May Drop existing products

Developing New Products

• Generating Ideas

–Come from a Variety of sources

– Creativity is essential

• Screening Ideas

–Ideas are Evaluated against the company’s overall objectives.

•Developing a Business Proposal

–Consider a product’s potential Sales, Costs and production requirements.

• Developing The Product

–The new idea takes Physical Shape

–Marketers Develop a marketing Strategy

•Testing the Product With Consumers

• Introducing the Product

–The product has been Researched Successfully

–This stage also is called Commercialization

• Evaluating  Customer Acceptance

–Marketers Track new product Performance

Developing Existing Products

•      Line Extensions – new product lines, items, or services

•      Product Modifications – an alteration in a company’s existing product

Deleting a Product or Product Line

•      Obsolescence

•      Loss of Appeal

•      Conflict with current company objectives

•      Replacement with new products

•      Lack of Profit

•      Conflict with other products in the line

Case Study: Coca-Cola- How they use market research

1.       What part does market research play in the marketing concept? (hint: the marketing concept is to: identify, anticipate, satisfy and meet needs profitably”)

2.       How will market research help Coca-Cola to develop an appropriate marketing mix for one of its products, e.g. Powerade? Placing marketing at the heart of the organisation enables Coca-Cola GB to grow the product range in ways that best meet consumer requirements through developing:new drink categories e.g. sports drinks

3.       Why is it important to identify different segments of the soft drinks market through market research?By dividing a category into segments, businesses can identify different groups of consumer wants. It is then possible to design products to meet those requirements

 

4.       Market research carried out by Coca-Cola revealed a growth in the number of smaller households. How did this market research information help to inform product design?

5.       Why does Coca-Cola sometimes use quantitative market research rather than qualitative research?collecting information from a broad population sample e.g. by conducting extensive surveys, used when Coca Cola GB wants to gauge appeal across a wide audience

 

6.       Why does Coca-Cola sometimes use qualitative market research rather than quantitative research?working with small 'focus' groups. This involves far more detailed investigations, e.g. gathering a small group of 'typical' consumers to taste test products or to talk about their preferences and experiences of using different products. Qualitative research, whilst not representative of the views of the general population, provides greater insight into 'why' people think what they think. 

 

7.   What are the benefits of carrying out a simulated test market before going for a full launch?simulated test market was carried out. On the basis of the background market research it was possible to forecast likely sales volumes. This calculation was based on the type and level of support the brand flavour launch would receive (e.g. advertising, sampling, promotions, price and distribution), consumer perceptions and claimed behaviour (what the consumers said they would do). The results were favourable and supported the launch of this flavour in Great Britain.

 

8.       Coca-Cola Vanilla was already an established successful product in the US. Why then was it necessary to research the feelings of the market about Coca-Cola Vanilla before launching the product in the UK?There had not been flavour innovation involving Coca-Cola since 1986 when Coca-Cola Cherry was launched. However, recently Coca-Cola Vanilla had a successful launch in the USA, so it was decided to test its potential in Great Britain

 

Blackberry vs Apple SWOT Chart

Apple
Strengths-  Quality, Value, Brand, Good service, experience in marketing, quick, efficient, competitive advantages, Marketing reach.

Weaknesses-Financials? Getting enough products in stock.

Opportunities-Trends, updating products, Developing new products, Niche target markets.

Threats - New technologies, services, ideas.

Blackberry
Strengths- Brand, Marketing reach, lifestyle trends, developing new products.

Weaknesses- Supply, reputation, service, lack of competitive strength, Gaps what they sell or dont sell.

Opportunities- Niche target marketing, updating exsiting products.

Threats- New technologies, services, ideas. Example Apple Iphone.

Competitors

Leader: Lay's
Challenger: Doritos
Follower: Pringles, Miss Vickie's, Sun Chips
Nicher:

Leader: iPhone
Challenger: BlackBerry
Follower: Android, Samsung
Nicher:

Leader: Covergirl
Challenger: L'oreal Paris
Follower: Maybelline
Nicher:

Leader: Neutrogena
Challenger: Clean & Clear
Follower:covergirl
Nicher:

Mass Market and Niche Companies

Mass Market                                                           Niche                                                      GiantTiger                                                             Sun glass hut
Walmart                                                                 Starlet                                                                                                                     
Shoppers                                                              RedBull         
The bay                                                                 La Senza
Costco                                                                  Chapters
Sport Check                                                         Payless
Wendys                                                                 Lids
Bath and beyond                                                  Soft Moc
Jysk                                                                        Starbucks
 A&w                                                                         Lululemon                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Know your competitors

1. If I were going into a business for myself, I would personally research
   local business directories, advertising and searching on the Internet for similar products or services.
   
   
   the products or services they provide and how they market them to customers
2. the prices they charge
   how they distribute and deliver
   the devices they employ to enhance customer loyalty and what back-up service they offer
   their brand and design values
   whether they innovate - business methods as well as products
   their staff numbers and the calibre of staff that they attract
   how they use IT - for example, if they're technology-aware and offer a website and email
   who owns the business and what sort of person they are
   their annual report - if they're a public company
   their media activities - check their website as well as local newspapers, radio, television and any outdoor advertising
   
   
3. I think trade fairs are is an organized so that companies in a specific industry can show and demonstrate their latest products, service, study activities of rivals and examine recent market trends and opportunities.
4. 
   the products or services they provide and how they market them to customers
   the prices they charge
   how they distribute and deliver
   the devices they employ to enhance customer loyalty and what back-up service they offer
   their brand and design values
   how they use IT - for example, if they're technology-aware and offer a website and email
5. 
   If you're sure your competitors are doing something better than you, you need to respond and make some changes. It could be anything from improving customer service, assessing your prices and updating your products, to changing the way you market yourself, redesigning your literature and website and changing your suppliers.

Competitive Analysis Assignment

Iphone vs Blackberry

Take two almost similar phones that are selling today, and put them up against each other, and you get Blackberry Bold vs. iPhone 3G. The blackberry should last a while, but does it?  The iphone is also built very well, the inside engineering is great, the glass is precision-laser-cut, and it should be able to stand a bit more abuse than that of the Blackberry. The Blackberry Bold is black, the sides are chrome, and the back is black leather.  The iPhone 3G is unbelievable as as far as mobile phones goes today. The 3G comes in only two colours; black or white. The Bold may look like a little phone in one hand but the keyboard accounts for most of the space and most likely two hands will be used for the keyboard. The iPhone 3G is slimmer and smaller and easier to hold in one hand than the Bold. The screen of the Blackberry Bold is alright as for Graphics, content, and videos. The screen of the iPhone 3G is way better quality.  Web browsing, email, and videos all look great on the screen of the 3G. The keyboard of the Bold isn't all that great and people find it hard to handle the look, the layout, and the feel of the keyboard. But  keyboard of the iPhone is virtual, which is nice to some people, and so much easier to use. Some people like the operating system of the Blackberry and what its suppose to do. But they been having so many problems a lot of their customers not not impressed. The operating system of the iPhone is said to be the most technologically advanced, out of any other mobile operating system in the world. But that's why so many people like the iphone because it has almost everything you could think of on it. Using the keyboard on the iphone makes working with email fast and easy, anyone could figure it out. The call quality of each phone seems to be very good, except i find the blackberry's drop calls a lot. The iPhone might get the slightest edge as sounding a bit more natural than the Bold. The Blackberry Bold is somewhere in the range of $199-$299 with a 2 year contract, and the iPhone is $199 at 8GB and $299 at 16GB, so the pricing seems to be fairly equal between the two. 25 % of blackberry users consider switching to iphone because of all the problems they have.Wither its the network down, freezing, deleting everything off your phone, randomly dying, you name it.If i had to pick a blackberry thought i would pick the Bold it seems to be the best Blackberry now and doesn't seem to have any problems.. The iPhone is a consumer device, has millions of different apps and most of the original problems have already been addressed. I don't think its had one problem yet. It all comes down to what you like and what you really want in a phone. Each phone is great in its own right, they both have advantages and disadvantages so it all really comes down to you.. the consumer. What do you think, Blackberry Bold or iPhone 3G? I personally think I like the iphone better!!

The Millennials

They were raised by doting parents who told them they are special, played in little leagues with no winners or losers, or all winners. They are laden with trophies just for participating and they think your business-as-usual ethic is for the birds. And if you persist in the belief you can, take your job and shove it.
(CBS) - News article; This story was originally broadcast on Nov. 11, 2007. It was updated on May 23, 2008.


There are about 80 million of them, born between 1980 and 1995, and they're rapidly taking over from the baby boomers who are now pushing 60.Characteristics of the generation vary by region, depending on social and economic conditions. It is so generally marked by an increased use  with communications, media, and digital technologies. This group is technically literate like no one else. Technology has always been part of their lives, whether it's computers and the Internet or cell phones and text pagers. Millennial are usually team-oriented, they like to be together to date and socialise rather than independently . They work well in groups,  good multitaskers, having juggled sports, school, and social interests as children so expect them to work hard. Millennials seem to expect structure in the workplace. They acknowledge and respect positions and titles, and want a relationship with their boss. This doesn't always mesh with Generation X's love of independence and hands-off style.They are new to the professional workplace they are definitely in need of mentoring, no matter how smart and confident they are. And they'll respond well to the personal attention. Provide lots of challenges but also provide the structure to back it up. Like breaking down goals into steps, as well as offering any necessary resources and information they'll need to meet the challenge. Millennials always work good in groups, because they work so well in team situations. That way they can act as each others resources or peer mentors. I can relate to a lot of this information  if not all, i think it suits me. I'm the type that works better in a group for projects and assignments because i like to brain storm different ideas and talk about it with someone else. I also agree with the technology part too. If I'm not one the computer for research or homework I'm on the computer on my spare time like socialising through facebook and all that good stuff.