Search results

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

Discusses consumers' attitudes and buying behaviour and how they have played a major part in the classification of goods, which has been devised to influence marketing strategy. Proposes that consumers have changed the importance that they have attached to different product attributes and, as a result, economy, functionalism, and durability have become more important as a consequence. Examines the Canadian consumer market using tables to show consumption and household facilities and equipment, also the ten leading exporters to and from Canada. Sums up that marketers will have to concern themselves much more in the vein of accountant and statistician, with the raw data being used which can be provided at a relatively inexpensive cost.

While significant empirical work exists around the conceptualization of the notion of market orientation (MO), as well as its relation to company performance, little empirical work has attempted to depict the actual steps a company has to take in order to increase its adaptability to market situation and, thus become market oriented. Furthermore, no empirical work has attempted so far to investigate the degree of MO between companies producing consumer goods vs companies producing industrial goods. By examining a number of research propositions, this paper attempts to investigate the marketing practices of consumer goods producers vis‐à‐vis the practices of companies that participate in industrial markets and to discriminate industrial from consumer goods companies based on their marketing practices and MO adoption profile.

Brand equity has been a topic of interest in consumer goods markets for many years. Several studies suggest that existing consumer‐based measures of brand equity, which have traditionally been used in the consumer goods markets, can also be used to capture brand equity in the services markets. The purpose of this research is to assess the quality dimension in consumer‐based measurers of brand equity in the context of services and to compare it with consumer goods.

A pilot and a main study were conducted. Nine different brands were tested in a consumer‐based experimental online survey. Each participant was assigned randomly to one brand.

In the consumer goods markets customer service can be considered as a marketing instrument. In the services markets customer service is a part of the perceived quality of a service.

The implication leads to the question whether existing measures of brand equity in consumer goods markets should be used without adaptation in services markets. The findings show that the consumer‐based brand equity should be measured different in these markets. Concerning the differences the findings show also that customer service can be seen as a marketing instrument in consumer goods markets and a part of the perceived service quality in services markets.

There is a lack of research in the difference of measuring brand equity between consumer goods and services. This paper explores this difference of measuring brand equity.

Discusses factors affecting marketing‐sales co‐ordination requirements at consumers goods firms, what some firms are doing to encourage better interaction between these groups, the strengths and vulnerabilities of these organisational initiatives, and the managerial implications. Reports in a cross‐section of consumer product categories sold through retail and wholesale customers in different classes‐of‐trade.

Companies spend millions on training their sales representatives. Thousands of textbooks have been published; thousands of training videos have been recorded. Hundreds of good pieces of advice and tips for sales representatives have been presented along with hundreds of sales methods and techniques. Probably the largest number of indicators and measures are applied in sales and distribution. On the one hand, this is a result of the fact that sales provide revenue and profit to a company; on the other hand, the concept of management by objectives turns out to be most effective in regional sales teams with reference to sales representatives and methods of performance evaluation. As a result, a whole array of indices has been created which enable the evaluation of sales representatives’ work and make it possible to manage goods distribution in a better way.

The indices presented in this chapter are rooted in the consumer market and are applied most often to this type of market (particularly in relation to fast-moving consumer goods at the level of retail trade). Nevertheless, many of them can be used on other markets (services, means of production) and at other trade levels (wholesale).

Although the values of many indices presented herein are usually calculated by market research agencies and delivered to companies in the form of synthetic results, we have placed the emphasis on the ability to determine them independently, both in descriptive and exemplifying terms. We consider it important to understand the genesis of indices and build the ability to interpret them on that basis. What is significant is that the indices can be interpreted differently; the same index may provide a different assessment of a product’s, brand or company’s position in the market depending on the parameters taken into account. Therefore, we strive to show a certain way of thinking rather than give ready-made recipes and cite ‘proven’ principles. Sales and distribution are dynamic phenomena, and limiting them within the framework of ‘one proper’ interpretation would be an intellectual abuse.

Gray market activities have become global, occurring not only in less developed or volatile markets, but also in many well‐developed markets. Although the gray market problem has been discussed in the literature, pertinent research from a demand perspective remains scarce. This study establishes a valid measure of consumer attitude toward gray market goods and investigates the relationships between consumer attitude toward gray market goods and their antecedents. Data analysis reveals that both price‐quality inference and risk averseness significantly and negatively affect consumer attitude toward gray market goods. Strategies for managers of international brands to address gray market problems are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate four of Alderson's key concepts to show how they explain mass customization and extend traditional consumer goods classifications. The four concepts are: heterogeneous markets, transvections, the principle of postponement, and routinized transactions.

In this exploratory paper, Alderson's main concepts are compared and contrasted with today's marketing phenomena and are used for updating traditional consumer goods categorizations.

The main concepts of Aldersonian theory discussed in the paper – heterogeneous markets, transvections, postponement and routinized transactions – are a remarkably good fit with today's “mass customization” and logically lead to an enhanced of definition of consumer goods classifications.

This is a conceptual paper meant to emphasize the apparent explanatory power of Alderson's concepts to today's marketing phenomena. Formal propositions have not been developed and tested.

Traditional classifications of goods no longer accurately explain marketing phenomena arising from the growth of the internet and mass customization. Alderson's concepts provide an effective framework for explaining current phenomena and extending outmoded models.

The four main Alderson concepts evaluated in this paper have not been emphasized as a group before, nor have they been utilized to help explain mass customization and extend traditional consumer goods classifications.

The purpose of this paper is to provide managerial insights into how consumer goods companies adopt the traditional mini‐sized retail modalities and adjust their strategies to market sachets successfully in the Philippines.

The study uses case studies through semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with marketing managers from major multinational and regional companies that have used sachets as part of their marketing strategy.

The findings suggest that companies use sachet marketing to facilitate trials of new products and to deliver value across the market by making products more affordable and accessible. The extensive network of corner stores provides the distribution system needed to reach the farthest and remotest markets. To be successful, the brands must be popular and priced in a manner compatible with the coinage system in a market.

There has been little analysis of consumer goods companies' strategies that cause quick acceptance of sachets. This study fills this gap in research and shows how companies have adopted the piecemeal retailing and adapted their strategies to create a burgeoning sachet market.

There has long been a feeling that, because of the dominance of the English language in marketing literature, many excellent contributions in other tongues go unheeded by the scholar. This first issue of the Review of European Marketing Literature (REML) is a modest start to ensure a wide knowledge of what marketing issues are being discussed in French, German, Dutch, Italian and the Scandinavian and Central European languages.