Discussion on Marketing

Discussionon Marketing

InstitutionAffiliation

Discussionon Marketing

Marketing involves coordination of a product, pricing, placement andpromotion. In marketing, proper selection of product should relatewith the intended customers. The product is promoted through variouschannels that create awareness to the consumers. The paper willdiscuss various marketing issues.

BrandEquity

Brand equity is the use of a recognizable name of a brand thatcommands more sales in the market than using an unknown name. Acompany can improve the brand equity by using a recognizable andmemorable name. In addition, brand equity is increased by usingmarketing campaigns to make the consumers aware of the existence ofthe brand, which improves the sales. Advertising is one of the majortools that increases brand equity (Stahl,Heitmann, Lehmann and Neslin, 2012).

Similarly, companies improve the brand equity by ensuring the brandmaintains positive effects on the consumers. The positive aspect willcreate a good perception, which will improve the benefits thatorganization gets from a brand. In addition, the design of theproduct attracts consumer’s recognition while the use of visualelements increases customer`s awareness of the existence of acommodity.

The company can also improve the brand equity through developingstrategic investment plans. The plans include educating consumers onthe benefits of using the brand. In addition, use of communicationchannels like television increases awareness of the brand. Otherstrategies include the use of incentives like adding prestige valueon a brand. The value will make the brand more competent than otheralternatives of the product, hence increasing sales.

ProductLife Cycle Concept

Product life cycle concept refers to the stages of a brand durationin its marketing up to when it decreases or disappears from themarket (Stark,2015). There are four stages of product life cycle.

Introductionstage

In this stage, a company faces many challenges, and it is the mostexpensive among the four stages. The company launches a new brand toa small market. Due to the small market, the level of sales isminimal, and hence low profit is realized. However, an organizationincurs many costs since high capital is required for researching,development and performing consumer test. The plan further becomeschallenging in a competitive market.

Growth stage

In this stage, the brand has partially established itself in themarket, and the number of customers is increasing. As a result, thelevel of sales increases and high-profit margins are realized. Atthis stage, an organization is required to invest more in marketingthe brand, which will increase chances for further growth.

Maturity stage

Having established the brand, a company majors on maintaining themarket share they have scooped. It is a competitive stage as otheralternative brands start competing for the same market. Moreinvestment is required in developing effective marketing strategies.They should also modify the product, which will provide a competitiveadvantage. In this stage, the level of sales and profit are at theirmaximum.

Decline stage

It is the final stage of a brand. The number of consumers startsdecreasing. Market shrinkage is attributed to saturation in themarket where most consumers have purchased it. In addition, somecustomers start settling on alternative and more competitive brands.The shrinkage is inevitable, and the companies should plan ways ofincreasing profit from few sales. Reducing the cost of productionwill maximize profit.

Innovationsin Interactive Television and Online Services

Using an interactive television creates a mental picture that is usedlater when purchasing products. The information and picture elementswe view in the television are recorded in our memories, and thememories will recur during the time we will require to purchase asimilar type of good. Marketers use television channels as a thirdwave shopping system to capture the interest of several interestedconsumers. In addition, the system has changed the way of purchasingproducts online. A study carried indicated that about 25% of thepopulation uses interactive television to buy goods and services atthe end of each year (Lugmayr,Niiranen and Kalli 2013).&nbspMost advertisers are adopting this form of advertisements, whichprovide a two- dimension view of concepts.

Use of internet has also expanded the online sales and marketing ofproducts. Recently, sales people developed the e-commerce whereconsumers could buy or request for good and services through the useof websites or from the interactive televisions. The method is simpleand economical as it is available 24/7 and requires basic computerknowledge to request and complete payments.

The desire to useand follow interactive televisions is increasing daily. Marketershave developed an effective use of online and interactive television.The plan ensures that consumers are not only able to buy productsonline but also visualize the display of good and services.

Marketers are targeting the most common channels used by consumers.The channels are not only involving the young generations but alsomiddle age females who are high spenders. In addition, innovation hasbeen observed that it does not advance regularly. However, marketersare providing more innovations in e-commerce to improve their salesfrom the channels. Recent innovation strategy to increase purchase isthe use of mobile technology to advertise goods and services.

Personaland Business-Related Privacy Issues in Database Marketing

Some of the personal and private issues when developing a marketingdatabase include database security. The database security shouldremain private and confidential. The owner only should withholdauthentications. Any database insecurity increases chances ofunauthorized personnel accessing the system and getting unnecessaryinformation. Great losses that can lead to shutting down of a companycan follow. To maintain database security, the owner should useencryption, which prevents cyber criminals from accessing the program(Siskins andNathan, 2015).

There is also identity privacy. Some information like the targetedmarket should be private. Records of customers like frequent ofbuying and their habits should confidential. Leakage of theinformation would be lethal as it can be used by other organizationsto analyze the strategies used by an opponent. Then they would usethe strategies to fight the products and compete for the availablemarket.

Identity theft is another security problem. The identity includes thetelephone numbers, names, and addresses. The information could beused easily to fake the identity of a person. As a result, theinformation and credentials it is important to limit their access toevery person. Criminals have been using a fake identity to gainaccess in restricted places, which result in loss of importantresources. Such people have been conducting malicious activitiesonline including transmission of viral programs that corrupt data andhacking information.

Directmarketing

It is advertising techniques used by organizations and companies tohave a direct interaction with their customers. In direct marketing,organizations promote their brands without involving the middleperson. Companies can present important information directly to theirinterested customers. Middle people can distort information to suittheir personal interest without considering the effect to theorganization. In addition, use of direct marketing is cheap in termsof time and money. The form of marketing involves directing customersto your website, influencing them to visit your store and enticingthem to seek further information about your products (Olsonand Chae, 2012). Some of the real world examples ofdirect marketing include

Ikea Lack SideTable

Ikea is a company known for its quality furniture. They use aninnovative method to convince people to buy their product. Lack sidetable is a 3D form of a table that is popped out in their magazine.The advertisement provides a more practical image of their products,hence convincing many customers.

Land Rover

They are well-known vehicle manufacturers. The company uses a novelway of inviting customers to the opening of a new showroom inLiverpool. They wrapped balloons and put them in boxes, which weresent to customers. Then they attached tags on the balloons, whichpresented the marketing message.

In conclusion, marketing is an essential in increasing the level ofsales and profit. Various marketing techniques have been adopted. Useof interactive televisions and internets is the emerging form ofmarketing. The method creates awareness to a large number of peoplewithin a short time. Customers are also able to purchase goods andhave an overview of products before purchasing them. However, directmarketing is another effective form of advertisement whereorganizations directly involve their customers. The method has provedto be cheap and more convincing.

References

Lugmayr,A., Niiranen, S., &amp Kalli, S. (2013).&nbspDigitalinteractive TV and metadata: future

broadcastmultimedia.Springer Science &amp Business Media.

Olson,D. L., &amp Chae, B. K. (2012). Directmarketing decision support through predictive

customerresponse modeling.&nbspDecisionSupport Systems,&nbsp54(1),443-451.

Stahl,F., Heitmann, M., Lehmann, D. R., &amp Neslin, S. A. (2012). Theimpact of brand equity on

customeracquisition, retention, and profit margin.&nbspJournalof Marketing,&nbsp76(4),44-63.

Stark,J. (2015). Productlifecycle management.In&nbspProductLifecycle Management&nbsp(pp.1-29).

SpringerInternational Publishing.

Zyskind,G., &amp Nathan, O. (2015, May). Decentralizingprivacy: Using blockchain to protect

personaldata.In&nbspSecurityand Privacy Workshops (SPW), 2015 IEEE&nbsp(pp.180-184). IEEE.