MKt 500 all discussion (week 1-11) Strayer university

MKt500 all discussion (week 1-11) Strayer university

Week 1 Discussion 1

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"Marketing Concepts" Please respond to the following:

· Provide a recent example of a product you purchased that demonstrates marketing as an exchange relationship. Analyze the 4Ps as it relates to this purchase’s exchange relationship.

· Make an argument for the most important and the least important aspect of the 5Cs

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Week 1 Discussion 2

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"Marketing’s Impact" Please respond to the following:

· Determine the challenges marketers currently face with clutter and its impact on marketing communication. Suggest two solutions to this dilemma.

· Imagine how your life would be different if there were no or limited marketing. Determine the positive and negative social impacts you would foresee. Provide your rationale.

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Week 2 Discussion 1

COLLAPSE

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"Segmentation at the Grocery Store" Please respond to the following:

· Pick an aisle in a grocery store; for example, the cereal or snack aisle, or a specific food (yogurt or baby food, etc.). Analyze the segments that are targeted and be detailed in your response. Provide your rationale with your answer.

· Using the same product category, predict what products in your category will be replaced with new products and new segments. Provide a rationale for your choice.

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Week 2 Discussion 2

COLLAPSE

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"Making Waves" Please respond to the following:

· From the case study, assess the challenges of marketing in a Third World country and propose how to address the challenges.

· From the case study, develop a marketing strategy that will encourage the villagers to pay for a WaterHarvester.

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Week 3 Discussion 1

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"Target Audiences" Please respond to the following:

· Many beginning marketing students make the mistake of assuming that some products can appeal to everyone. Pick a product that you believe has mass appeal and analyze

· From the case study, propose the next steps that Kirkwood should take and how to reach these steps. Support these suggestions with information about the target audience

· Week 3 Discussion 2

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"Positioning" Please respond to the following:

· Pick a nonprofit organization with which you are familiar and believe the organization should be repositioned to serve its core clientele better or a new clientele altogether. Identify the organization, its current position, and your recommended reposition, including the existing or your proposed target audience for the recommendation.

· The Gulf of Mexico Coast’s tourist industry was devastated by the BP oil spill. Pick a specific Gulf location and explain how you would reposition this tourist area that invites and sells the value of the location to tourists.

Week 5 Discussion 1

Brands" Please respond to the following:

· Pick your favorite restaurant. Analyze its current brand strategy and make one recommendation for changing or strengthening the existing brand strategy.

· From the case study, determine which video game endorsement offer best aligns with the Lebron James brand.

Week 5 Discussion 2

"New Products" Please respond to the following:

· Pick a long-time existing brand, such as Cheerios, Crest, Purina Dog Chow, etc., with which you are familiar and have been using for an extended period of time. First, start by indicating where this product is now in the PLC. Then, analyze how this specific product has evolved through the PLC since the time you started using the product. Then, speculate what the brand may do next to stay where it is in the PLC.

· Pick a product that you believe would be beneficial for line extension. Justify your choice and discuss the strategy you would adopt for the new product.

Week 6 Discussion 1

Pricing Strategies" Please respond to the following:

· Pick a health and beauty brand and item you use regularly; for example, shampoo, shaving cream, moisturizer, razor blades, etc. Imagine this brand is extending its reach to a new target audience with a new product. Identify this new target audience and then outline the beginnings of a pricing strategy for this new product, by offering specifics instead of generalities about the strategy. For example, do not merely say “I suggest a competitive price.” Instead say, “I suggest a high-volume, low-introductory price.” Provide a rationale for your strategy choice(s).

· In today’s economic climate, retailers are continuously conducting sales in order to get customers in their doors. Analyze the short-term and long-term effects of continuous sales to all stakeholders.

Week 6 Discussion 2

"Distribution Channels" Please respond to the following:

· Imagine you are a brand manager for your favorite food product. You have been challenged with finding a new distribution channel for a product under your brand supervision. Think through how you would approach this challenge and then outline this new distribution channel.

· From the case study, analyze the distribution channels for Zappos to reveal weaknesses and then recommend how to strengthen the weaknesses.

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· Week 7 Discussion 1

Integrated Marketing Communication" Please respond to the following:

· Evaluate overall how politicians engaged in the 2008 or 2012 Presidential campaign have integrated their marketing message. Then, evaluate one specific candidate of your choice.

· Pick a product which has experienced a failing promotional campaign. (Be sure the failure is due to a bad promotional campaign rather than a failed product, i.e. New Coke or IBM’s PC Jr.). Analyze why the promotion failed and recommend how it could be fixed if that same promotion was to be recycled this year.

Week 7 Discussion 2

"Advertising" Please respond to the following:

· Advertising during the Super Bowl is pricey and reserved for mega brands, but local television stations are allowed to air local advertisements during the broadcast. Size up your local market to determine at least three local businesses that could justify the extra advertising expense to air a commercial during the Super Bowl. Be sure to support your answer with evidence on how the advertising would benefit these businesses.

· Entrepreneurs are often tasked with wearing many hats, including building sales, marketing, and operations, to name a few. Advise a friend who wants to open a coffee shop in a popular neighborhood which currently does not have a coffee shop on how to spend her marketing time and budget (presume both time and budget are limited).

Week 8 Discussion 1

"Customer Evaluations" Please respond to the following:

· Yelp and Facebook are among the many growing social media sites allowing customers to give feedback about products, services, and experiences. This method allows for a passive approach to a problem or bad experience. For example, if someone had to wait 10 minutes in line for a latte, there may be no way for the barista to know this person waited this long or is disgruntled by the long wait. Design a process in which a small business can ensure customers are satisfied so that they do not quickly take a passive approach to merely complain to a large audience without first making someone at the business aware that a problem exists.

· We see surveys on all kinds of store receipts allowing consumers to give feedback in exchange for being entered into a drawing for a prize. Evaluate the purpose and usefulness of these surveys. Consider all stakeholders in your answer.

Week 8 Discussion 2

"Marketing Research " Please respond to the following:

· Of the marketing research tools identified in the textbook, evaluate those that would be most appropriate for a small business.

· When it comes to marketing research, speculate to the blunders that beginning marketers commonly make. Provide a rationale with your response.

Week 9 Discussion 1

"Marketing Strategy" Please respond to the following:

· Imagine you have been promoted to a brand manager for a frozen pizza. The promotion is a challenge being that sales for the pizza have gone backward three years in a row. Assess what you will need to know or what questions need to be answered before you can size up what is not working about the current strategy.

· Pick a new product category that has been introduced in the past six months. (Be sure to pick a new product category such as the tablet, instead of a newer version of an existing product, such as the iPad 2). Develop a strategy to assess how to measure the new product’s success or failure over a 12-month launch period.

Week 9 Discussion 2

"Changing Marketing Strategy" Please respond to the following:

· Chose a company that you feel needs a tweak to its marketing strategy and recommend a change. Provide a rationale for your recommendation.

· In 2011, Netflix made two major blunders that impacted the number of subscribers, revenue, and the stock price: the separation of the DVD business and the increase in subscription fees. From the first two e-Activities, assess the situation today. Determine what price Netflix paid to get where they are today.

Week 10 Discussion 1

COLLAPSE

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"Effective Marketing Plans" Please respond to the following:

· Assess what makes an effective marketing plan. You can be generic in your answer or use a specific brand or product in your response.

· An entrepreneurial neighbor admits to you that he does not have a marketing plan. Instead of a marketing plan, he religiously follows his business plan, which has elements of a marketing plan. Analyze this statement and provide a rationale response based on what you know about marketing plans and what it takes to have a successful business, brand, product, or service.

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Week 10 Discussion 2

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"Peapod Video" Please respond to the following:

· Discuss the process you would utilize to develop a marketing plan for Peapod.

· Discuss how Peapod utilizes its data warehouse to customize its product and its promotion.

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Week 11 Discussion 1

"Marketing Plans" Please respond to the following:

· From your perspective, assess the element of a marketing plan that you would struggle the most with implementation. Then, speculate to how many other marketers may feel

· Hypothesize whether marketing plans, in general across all U.S. businesses and organizations, are effective. Support your hypothesis with evidence from this course or outside research, or both.

Week 11 Discussion 2

"Looking Forward" Please respond to the following:

· Imagine it is 25 years from today. Postulate how marketing has changed.

· Predict one promotional element change that will take place in the next 10 years. For example, social media will converge to offer “real-time” focus groups that allow feedback on a variety of commercial storyboards, speeding up the time to make promotional decisions.