Customer Value Offered by YouTube, Innocent Ltd, Paddy Power, Red Bull, IKEA, and LEGO - Assignment Example

Case 1 – YouTube (page 23) 1. The type of customer value offered by YouTube YouTube enables a platform where its customers share and watch videos and other information. The viewers are able to access and watch the videos directly, and they do not need specialized software to watch them. 2. How do businesses like YouTube alter the ways that organizations and customers interact? Organizations are able to advertise their products by establishing videos and availing them on YouTube. Consumers are able to understand more about the products by watching them than h\just reading on a paper. Customers make comments on the videos and the companies can make improvements on the products, based on the comments. Customers also know the benefits and destructions of certain products, and they can make informed judgment whether to buy the products or not. 3. Challenges to be faced by YouTube One of the challenges is the revenues challenge. There is no defined way which one will get revenues from all its clients without sending them. The other major challenge relates to the copyrights and legality of the videos uploaded. The company faces legal issues on copyrights. Increased competition is another challenge facing YouTube. New companies are being established and this may affect the operations of YouTube. Case 2 – Innocent Ltd (page 51) 1. What environmental trends created the opportunity for innocent to build its dominant position in the smoothie market? The fast growing wave on healthy living and eating gave innocent Ltd the opportunity to position itself as a dominant brand. It designed its products for people who were rich, health conscious customers who did not have the time to take fruits and make healthy meals. 2. Evaluate Innocent’s marketing mix. What are its strengths and weaknesses? From three recipes, the company has over 30 recipes today packaged in three different sized bottles. The company is able place a premium price on its products since they are pure fruits. The company has increased its sales, as people are willing to pay the prices for the natural fruit juices. The problem with this strategy is that, new companies are developing with cheaper juices, and the company is likely to lose its customers to the competitors. 3. Analyze Innocent’s relationships with its customers. How have these relationships assisted with the development of the brand? The company builds relationships with customers by interacting with them through distinctive company cars and at village fetes. This has helped in the development of the brand as the customers feel as part of the company. Innocent Ltd introduced a website, which gives the chance for the customers to give their recipes and feedbacks to the company. 4. Critique the claim that innocent is an ethical company. Innocent ltd aims to be an ethical company in line with its core values. Innocent Ltd adopted the slogan of improving everything they have unlike when they had. It gives 10% of its revenue to charity to build sustainable futures for poor people. It also collaborates with organizations to start small businesses for poor people. It buys its fruit from accredited plantations and encourages them to go green. The company also makes bottles from recycled materials. This proves that the company upholds ethical behaviors. Case 3 – Paddy Power (page 188) 1. Analyze the ways in which advances in technology have changed the betting business. Technology and the Internet have greatly revolutionalised the betting industry. Online betting made it possible for new entrants into the business. These include females and young people, who could not go into the dimly lit and smoky traditional bet shops. Brighter, improved designed hops have been created making the business more attractive. What are the implications for betting firms? New entrants have joined the market and the business is booming making huge returns. Competition is also on the increase because the businesses are doing well. The companies have to invent new lines of business to keep the business more interesting such as reality television shows. 2. How did Paddy Power go about building its service brand? What are the unique attributes of the brand? The company built its service brand by redefining its mission. Its mission is to make betting more fun and accessible and to become a broader based entertainment company. This enabled the company to provide increased range of services for different clienteles. This has been helpful in making poker more fun and this has resulted in increased customers. The company has unique attributes that has enabled them to grow, first, it design its services for different groups of customers, for instance the female market. These services are fun and interesting and this has enabled the company to beat competition. Their creativity and innovativeness is another unique attribute. 3. Evaluate the services marketing mix used by Paddy Power. What are its strengths and weaknesses? The company has different types of clientele they offer their services to, for instance, the young people, and females. Customers’ requirements should be realized first hand in the company. The company uses different advertisement techniques like their controversial advertisement and online advertisement. The brightly designed bet rooms have been useful in attracting more people into the poker business and games. These have helped the company to create its brand. In its advertisement, the company uses controversial adverts that have negative publicity on the company. The company may also face legal issues. This may affect its image and brand. 4. Analyse Paddy Power’s customer relationship development initiatives. How successful have they been? The company established a friendly image with its customers reflected in the communication with the customers and in the retail outlets. This has been very successful as it led to the increase in the number of customers. The shops are well designed, air conditioned and attractive. Interactive terminals are also established to ensure customers are in touch with the company. The website has been prepared in 3 types of languages to avoid language barriers. 5 Due to concerns from some quarters about the social impact of gambling, advertising is strictly controlled in the UK and Ireland. Paddy Power has circumvented this with some irreverent advertising campaigns and activities that subsequently caused offence to some groups and fell afoul of the Advertising Standards Authority. What is your view of the tactics used by Paddy Power? Are there ethical issues to be considered? Paddy Power’s advertisement techniques aim to generate controversy and publicity at the same time. It is illegal to advertise gambling on radios and TVs and the company had to be creative to create awareness among its consumers. The company, therefore, chooses controversial poster that will ensure that people talk about it. These controversies have seen the company meet its costs and get publicity. There are ethical issues to be considered, for instance, the posters the company uses is sometimes demeaning to some groups of people and the company should invent other means of advertisements without appearing to be demeaning. Case 4 – Red Bull (page 279) 1. Evaluate the elements of buzz marketing used in the successful launch of the Red Bull brand. Why were they effective? Mass media was used to create awareness about the product. Nightclubs and djs were used to popularize the drink in the clubs. Promotions were also carried out at point of sales. Stealth marketing ways like leaving empty cans in bars and clubs helped in building the brand. The product was distributed through wholesalers, retailers and sales people. Students and young people were also helpful in building the brand among the young people. The company was effective in this method because they ensured their drink was readily available in places where they had high markets. 2. Evaluate the role of the company’s salespeople in building the brand. The sales people helped to initiate and create a local feel for the drink. The sales people were a part of the business development team and had selected territories where they popularized the brand. 3. Comparison of the responsibilities of direct communication techniques and mass communication techniques in the brand is marketing strategy. The company relies largely on the direct communication strategy, where sales people go to the targeted market to make sales. The company has employed the buzz communication and word of mouth and this has helped to create a strong brand. The company has avoided the use of mass communication but the brand has grown anyway. 4. Advise the company on the promotional strategies it should use to meet the new competitive challenges that it faces in the market. The company should embrace the use of the internet and social sites to market its products, this is because, its target is young people, most of whom spend most of their time in the internet. The company should also come up with new products that are not yet in the market, this way; the company will be able to market its brand without much competition. It is also important for the company to consider using the mass communication strategy to be able to reach the older generation. This is because, the ‘y’ generation is getting old, and there is need to get new clients. Case 5 – IKEA (page 309) 1. Analyze IKEA’s positioning in the market. Why has it succeeded in achieving global appeal? IKEA is ranked among the top 100 companies regarded as the global brands according to a business week magazine. IKEA is the world’s largest retailer that deals with inexpensive but stylish Scandinavian furniture. The company has successfully achieved global recognition due to their cost leadership, product differentiation, and experience in the furniture industry. The company offers stylish furniture at reasonable costs compared to other companies. It also deals with other items like stands, hooks, and utensils. This ensured that customers could get a variety of items from the same place (Jobber & Fahy, 2009, p.307). 2. What are the key features of IKEA’s store atmosphere? What role has atmosphere played in enabling the company to gain a competitive advantage? All the IKEA stores were the same globally; they were beautiful, yellow, and blue buildings. The stores were round in shape enabling the customers to have a first time glance on them. There were adequate pathways for the customers to move around and access the furniture. The items were arranged beautifully as they would be in a home thus enticing the buyers to buy the furniture. The atmosphere attracted customers to buy from the company as they had a new shopping experience. The company had safe playing grounds for children and parents were comfortable buying while their children played safely. This enabled the company gain a competitive edge. 3. What role does its physical distribution system play in IKEA’s global success? The system enhances the cost-cutting measures in the company. It also ensures standardization of products, and employment of technology to improve the quality of the products. This system also allows production of items in countries with minimum cost of the raw materials and any direct cost. This ensures supply of products that are cheap, and thus the great achievement as global success. 4. The level in which IKEA is a victim of its prosperity The company experiences overcrowding and traffic jams in its outlets, especially during outlet openings. Many people have been seriously injured during stores opening. The proficiency of the services offered are questionable sue to the long queues at the stores. Some customers abandon their carts because of the long wait. Case 6 – LEGO (page 339) 1. Why did LEGO encounter serious financial difficulties in the early part of the decade? The market of the toys changed greatly with consumers preferring technologically gadgets like mp3 players and video games to the traditional toys. This largely reduced the sales for the toys. Competition increase also led to the financial difficulties since toys could be produced cheaply in other countries. 2. Conduct SWOT analysis of LEGO and identify the company’s main sources of advantage. The company has the advantage of being one of the oldest toy manufacturing companies. Many people can identify it and buy its products. The other advantage roots from its ability to turnaround from its debts and losses. Many parents and adults are fans of LEGO and this means that they provide a ready market for the company’s products. 3. Critically evaluate the LEGO’s competitive strategy? The company targets different age groups for the market of its products. The company targets boys of age five to nine, young children below two years and female audiences. This ensures they have products for all children. The company also focuses on advertising the products as educational and plays experiences. This allows customers to identify the products easily. References Jobber, D & Fahy, J 2009, Foundations of marketing, 3rd edn, McGraw-Hill, New York Read More