How are your personal buying patterns affected by globalisation/westernisation?
Answer: my personal buying behaviour is strongly influenced by globalisation. I have a strong liking for luxury and branded products. For example, I find levis or Michael kors more assuring than local brand. The major change I find in my buying behaviour is that I give emphasis on the features of the brand name of the commodity instead of local product (S. M. Sadat al, Yaqub2, 2016). Over the years, the outcomes of escalating development in India, introduction to satellite TV, magazines, foreign news channel and newspaper and consumption pattern in supermarket of customer has changed immensely (D. Hosen3, Muhammad K, 2016). Now the most important factor for me while making buying decision is to look good and feel enchanted. I prefer to spend more foreign products and have increased fond of convenience food like instant tea and noodles, now food and drinks are more as fun, for example visiting McDonalds with friends on weekends. Now days consumer intentionally visits shopping malls not just to shop but to show off themselves modern (Nur Sohad, 2016).
1. Do you think firms should strive to be more socially responsible in marketing terms?
Yes, they should strive to be more socially responsible in marketing terms because it helps the companies to attract those customers who wants to make a positive impact with their purchases. For example, marketing department might start a campaign that emboldens customers to purchase a bundle of socks versus one pair; for every bundle sold, the company will gift a bundle of socks to military staff or to homeless people. The outcomes of these grants would improve company’s image in market and customers will feel proud to get associate them. (Investopedia, 2018). In fact, stats from Nielsen global survey displays that being responsible is directly proportional to purchase, 51% of consumers desires to rewards responsible companies and 53% says that’s they are ready to pay premium for the products of socially responsible company (Hussain, 2014). For example, body lush launched a go naked campaign, to protest the overpackaging of the products and reduce wastage. (Body lush, 2007)
1. How is Dove confronting issues of social responsibility in its Real Beauty campaign and how do you feel about it?
I believe there are 3 main reason I think why dove is comforting issues of social responsibility in its real beauty campaign: –
It features mostly white women – if we talk about the diversity in the AD, most of the participants in the ad were europid or Caucasoid, 3 of them are blonde with blue eyes, all of them of the are thin, and young. For less than 10 second people of colour were featured in a ad of 6:36 minutes (jazz brice, 2013)
It appears to see beauty as being thin and young – ‘‘Looking at the two portraits of herself, one woman described the one meant to be prettier as looking ‘much younger’’ kate fridkis, this appears to be true. Basically, all appeared to be thinner and younger who were portrayed as ‘more’ beautiful in the ad. (kate fridkis, 2015)
Beauty is the only yardstick for women to measure themselves – is the beauty a only evaluator for women’s achievement? Being beautiful is the pinnacle of achievement? this is the main question to be asked by women to themselves. Women should get out of this misconception of beauty as the only way to define their accomplishment (stacy bias, 2013)
1. How has the digital age affected your own personal consumer behaviour?
If I compare my own consumer behaviour 10 years ago and now, it has affected by great degree for example, Instagram, twitter and Facebook are my primary sources of information related to what product is in the trend or news related to company whereas earlier I had to rely on magazines and TV ads (jane Wakefield, 2017). Now I perform analysis before making a purchase of the tech products like phone, camera etc, going through blogs, YouTube unbox or product reviews videos to know the proper information about the product (Greg Jarboe, 2015). Digital platform has helped in making price comparison between the products for example, before booking the flights tickets or hotel room, I usually check the various sites to get the best and cheap deal (Anita, 2018). Digitalisation has made things so simple for me that before I visited London, various social sites and websites helped to decide which places would be the best according to my taste and ease down the complexities like hotel price, locations, transport cost as every information is available on the internet. Thus, I can witness that there is vast difference in my consumer behaviour because of digitalisation as because I am now more informed, aware and has more knowledge to evaluate a product or service.
1. What’s your opinion of Faith Popcorn’s new social values?
I believe that faith popcorn new social values are accurate, and things are more profound now, the more people are getting connected to people far away from them, the more they are getting distanced from the people near them. People are busy in sharing what food they eat, where they go etc. today’s kids are more interested in playing Xbox than playing physical games. It is also true that people boycott those companies those who are not socially responsible, e.g. in America, there was a huge fall in sales of the Volkswagen after they accused for carbon emission scam. Therefore, this shows that how people are more socially aware and informed. According to Forbes, 70-80% all purchases are influenced by women either directly or indirectly. Thus, the prediction of the faith popcorn is very accurate in the contemporary and it can be seen spreading quickly across globe.
1. Explain why the world of retailing has changed so much in the last twenty years.
Technology, especially the internet, has influenced the retail radically over the decades and, the overbuilding of retail space is another reason behind. In 1990, tim berners-lee came up with world wide web which changed the face of retail industry significantly. Not until 1994 did e-economic begin to shine. In 1995, amazon came to birth and from then anything can be bought from online. Internet took the retail to next level, it expelled those retailers with bricks-and-mortar out of market. 10 years has made drastic difference, proving retailers must revise the business model constantly or run risk of failure. Blockbuster and RadioShack are the top example of retailers who did not coordinate their business model with dynamic business environment. Both winded up in 2010 and 2017, respectively (Lucy Beilby, 2017).
As the customer are more informed and aware than earlier due to social media platforms and exchange of reviews, the competition to attract customers is very high, retailers now focus on high quality shopping experience and new loyalty program benefit. Now it is more of entertainment and engagement, making it an ‘experience’ to remember. (JBV, 2018)
2. Which of the e-retailing 7Cs do you think are most crucial and why?
I believe ‘customer service and care, customer value and benefit and consumer convenience’ are the most crucial of all. Amazon ‘the king of E-Commerce’
is one of the best because they focused on these 3 factors more. Better customer service and care encourages customer to come back, if a customer has the bad experience with the company, they might not show up again. However, an excellent customer service can result into repeated sales and gaining the customer loyalty. (Tino Fenech and Bill Merrilees, 2005)
Consumer convenience is necessary to give customer the best shopping experience. Customers are often confused and unsure about what to buy or, does not have information about the certain product while surfing online, so it’s necessary to make things simplified and convenient for the customer for example providing them information about the products, accepting different mode of payments, options within products and reviews etc. (Farald, 2017)
Customer value and benefit is most crucial of all, customer value is the quality of the product and after sales service. If the customer does not get the desired value and better after sales services than he expected, then he is unlikely to keep associated with the company in the first interaction or can-do negative mouth promotion which can hinder firms progress (Charles Dennis, 2015).
1. What are the unique characteristics of B2B markets?
There are couple of unique features of B2B markets that makes them differ from B2C market, first characteristic of the B2B is that they deal with fewer, but much larger buyers compared to B2C market. In B2B market, few buyers usually purchase in a large amount, but the number of buyers is few unlike B2C market which consist of large no. of buyers. (Steinberg m, 2009).
The demand in B2B market is more inelastic. This means that short term changes price does not affect the demand by huge degree. For many businesses the total demand is not drastically affected by price. The reason is, for example, if the price of leather decreases, shoe manufacturer will not buy more than usual, because his demand is directly proportional to consumer demand. If the price goes up, he will still buy the usual quantity to satisfy the consumer demand. (maximilian claessens, 2015).
In B2B market, the buying unit includes more buyer. Thus, the decision-making unit is larger which means that more people is need while deciding about each purchase. For example, an airline company consider many people before buying a new airplane. But in B2C, DMU is smaller. It may one person or whole family decide together while buying groceries.
2. Using an example explain what you understand by business ecosystems.
Business ecosystem congregate multiple players of market consist of different type and sizes together to create and serve the market with commodities in a way that it cannot be achieved by an organization alone. The competition is essential, but it is certainly not an only way of sustaining success. The participants are additional encouraged by sharing common goals, interest, as well as increasing need of collaboration with other to serve the customer needs, to invest in running of ecosystem, to reap mutual benefit. (Eammon Kelly, 2017)
For example, console manufacturers like Sony (keystone) collaborates with autonomous game developers to create an ecosystem around games/software. Developing an ecosystem around a core product enhances its value to the user and complements the greater scope of using the basic product. But such type of ecosystems also hinders the entrance of new competitors, as the newbies not only have to replicate or create a better core product, that is console, but also complete against the whole system of autonomous complementors and suppliers who structured the network. (financial times, 2017)
1. Describe an example of when you as a customer/employee have formed a “relationship” with a company.
The company with whom I build a long-lasting relationship is ‘Samsung’, we have deep trust with the company, we have Samsung’s washing machine, cell phone, television, microwave etc. I am associated with company for last 14 years. Company always updating us with new offers and as we are the old customers, they have given us number benefits like free after sales service, free replacement under 2 years, 3 years warranty etc (simon syper, 2016). company also offers us special discount during festive seasons and gives us rewards points whenever we make a purchase. The company has worked its best to keep the customer in the contact through sending mails, messages and giving special offers (technology news, 2012). Especially the company’s high product value and services are the main reason why many customers like me are associated with the company for so long.
2. Can using digital marketing methods really help foster long-term customer relationships and trust?
Long days ago (1990s), business use to make relation through face to face interaction. This has changed radically in contemporary marketplace, where many transactions and interaction take place online. In today’s world, social media is the best place to link with customers. According to Deloitte 2014 study, 75% of Americans says that their purchasing decision is influenced by product information found on social channels. Not having a proper social channel or poorly managed one, can negatively affect the relationship with customer. (peter roesler, 2017)
Technology has allowed us to fetch and store detailed consumer data. From what things you often purchase at a given store to how often you fly and by what airlines etc the companies are able to collect huge amount of information about the target customers. Once companies gain that information, this can be golden opportunity to utilise the data to build a long-term strong relationship with them. (Frogdog, 2017)
1. How would you advise a company on expanding globally in terms of entry modes?
All the organisation has different reasons of going international and accordingly it influences on which entry mode is best for them. The first and most cost effective, low risk entry mode is exporting (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012). Here, the organisation sells its produce to an agent who further pass it downs to intermediaries. The Austrian energy drink Red Bull Australia used export option as its entry mode. 2nd mode is international licensing which is a cross border agreement that allows firm in foreign country to use the property of the licensor against periodical payment of fees. (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012) this option has also low risk, low exposure to foreign conditions and has high ROI (Agrawal & Ramaswami, 1992). A company can choose Joint venture for multiple reason like risk sharing, take advantage of each other’s strength etc for example ICICI prudential funds in India. if a joint structure is to be successful then two or more firms must have shared objectives in terms of: sharing of technology, joint production etc (Chang, Chung & Moon, 2012). Well established companies often enter foreign market through 100% owned subsidiaries. Company who wants to limit the risk as well as want full international exposure. For example, BOEING in china.
2. Describe an example of a company localising well.
H&M Global retail brand always makes sure that its local websites work best for its customer. In fact, H&M is so many eminent around the world that many people struggle to tell the origin of the brand (its Sweden!). each H&M site accepts relevant payment methods according to the audience, with global optimal translations of the product pages. These elements assist in offering the customers a positive and local user experience (ben Sillitoe, 2014). In 2011, H&M started ‘conscious collection’ campaign, motivating consumer to be more environmentally aware while shopping clothes, at the same to time being fashionable. Environmental consciousness varies from culture to culture and H&M very gently localises itself accordingly. For example, in UK, organic cotton and worker safety were focused while in china, the recycled polyester was mentioned. This reflects how properly they adapts with the culture and with the country. (Josian phillips, 2017)
1. Explain ‘dynamic planning’ using Ocado (or another company) as an example.
Dynamic planning is a planning comprised of strategy and flexibility. It takes broad picture into consideration to make wide and broad plan for the coming year. But it requires you to constantly review and revise it, to ensure things on track. It equips employees to take bold risk, capitalise on uncaptured opportunity, anticipates threat and pull off new ideas (anon, 2018). Ocado is the best example in this aspect, they changed the way people shop. The founder knew that UK grocery market is very lucrative, they also knew that most of the shopper does not like to pull the trolley through the stores every week or month. So, they have recognized this as a great opportunity and thought to use internet to quick and convenient shopping. For two years they worked on the website while developing a distribution facility to home deliver the household items to customer through satellite navigation equipped vans. Ocado was successful despite the presence giant competitors like Tesco. They have introduced new features to their system over the years for example, a customer can shop via iPhone. Since the partnership with Waitrose, the company has grown immensely and building millions loyal customer. (woods, 2010)
2. Do you think marketing planning helps companies to think strategically and plan for the future or is it a bureaucratical exercise that restricts companies?
I believe marketing planning helps companies to think strategically by enabling a business to be proactive and coincide with business’s vision & goals. Having an in-depth planning beside the strategies, it enables the business to be calm and anticipative when unexpected circumstances takes places. Instead of being reactive, it prepares the business to take what step at what time. so that the business does not have to waste time on deciding how to react when things changes and be able to focus on the future. for example, proper marketing plan is the reason behind the rapid success of the ‘AMAZON’. It was the first company to providing the great level of consumer service along with great shopping experience online. They revolutionised the way we shop. All this happened because of the proper laid down marketing plan and great execution of it (anon, 2018). Marketing planning have some flaws that can hamper the business for example if the data is not analysed properly it can lead to faulty marketing decision and can produce unrealistic projection if the figures interpreted wrongly (bellis, 2018). For example, failure for TATA ‘NANO’ in India due to poorly laid and execution of the marketing plan (bindra, 2017).