Can Field Sales and/or Retail Stores Survive in the Face of Internet

MBA Level Marketing Paper - Business to Business Marketing (2 Pages Max)

Can Field Sales and/or Retail Stores Survive in the Face of Internet Competitors? Until recently, this assignment questioned the ability of internet players to compete with traditional sales and marketing channels. Given the rapid growth of internet sales, that question seems to have been answered. So we now flip the question over and ponder what it takes for the more traditional methods to compete.

1. For this assignment, select a sales situation where the customer may choose between a face-to-face option and an online transaction. For example, one may ask a salesperson to present their wares in person at your job site, or one may go to that vendor’s website and place an order. Another example, you may choose to visit an auto insurance company’s local office or go to their website to obtain coverage. Or, you may choose to go to a pizza joint for dinner or place your pizza order over the internet and either pick it up or have it delivered. Or, you can go to a bookstore and select your latest reading choice or have it delivered via UPS from Amazon or access it via your iPad or Kindle. In each of these cases the “shopping experience” is very different.

2. On the first page of the paper, capture the features and service outputs provided in a face-to-face sales situation. This is your chance to prove that you are not a philistine incapable of artistic and sensory insights! The sales arena is full of drama—sights, sounds, emotions, and sometimes aromas (a pizza place or a department store’s cosmetics area). In most sales categories, people still prefer the face-to-face setting so they must be getting something out of the experience. Next, spell out the features and service outputs provided by the alternative online option. How do they compare? What are their respective advantages/disadvantages?

3. On the second page, personally score the two options (traditional versus internet) using the NPS scale most recommended by Reichheld. In addition, enlist a few colleagues and/or family members to complete the same exercise and report the combined score. Be sure you indicate the question or questions asked, the scale used (you are expected to use the traditional Reichheld approach), the data points for each of your respondents and yourself and how you calculated the overall score. Do not worry about sample size or representativeness. We are just having some fun! Finally, do not forget to answer the question posed in the title of this assignment.

Please note that all papers are strictly limited to two pages. For further instructions, please see the attachments. The video lecture is roughly 7 minutes and provides details on what to write and what not to write. I can provide additional lectures (to view) and details if necessary. Thank You, Good Luck!