Services

There are many different service processes that are directed at 4 different mediums. One of these mediums is customers' bodies, another is customers' minds, another is customers' physical possessions, and the last is customers' intangible assets.
Customers' bodies include services such as hairstyling, transportation, or health clubs. This medium provides a physical experience for the consumer.
Customers' minds include services such as entertainment, sports, or edutainment. This is when customers experience mental stimulation.
Customers' physical possessions include care repair, dry cleaning, or lawn care.
Customers' intangible assets include banking, consulting, or counseling. This provides the customer with intangible services with intangible assets.
Intangible is when you can't feel, taste, hear, touch, or see a service. These cannot be inspected directly before purchase, they simply have to be experienced.
An intangible service is very hard to rate and describe since there is not much that you can see or hear or touch or taste with this.

Promotion

Being promoted is always a positive thing, whether it is in your job or in an organization. Promotion is the coordination of marketing communication efforts to influence attitudes or behavior. Promotion can be done in many ways. There are two different types of promotion, low control and high control. The higher the control, the more the promotion is known as a mass appeal. The lower the control, the more the promotion is referred to as personal appeals.
Within the mass appeals section, there are many different options. Advertising is the highest control option. This is a way to give off a dynamic image of how you want consumers to establish the brand identity. Sales promotion is also a mass appeal. This includes contests, coupons, and prizes. This is targeted so that it will build interest or encourage product purchase. Also, it could increase sales. Another mass appeal is public relations. Public relations is the communication of activities that create a positive image of a company and its products. These people who are in the public relations part of the company will work with media outlets to get the word out about the great product.
Personal appeals are much less controlling. Personal selling is the direct interaction between a company representative and a customer. This is a worker promoting their product to others who are around. Direct marketing is targeted directly to the consumers.
Along with these personal and mass appeals, word of mouth is a very strong promotional tactic. This is a very low control avenue of promotion because the company loses control of the promotion once the consumer experiences their product.

Zara

The store Zara has perfected the distribution of products. They believe in fast fashion. The store only has a limited amount of each shirt, jean, dress, ect. and they do not reorder if they product is bought as predicted. There is a constant exchange of information through all parts of Zara and their supply chains. All the activities necessary to turn raw material into goods or services and put in the hands of the consumer is a supply chain. The goal of a supply chain is to respond to changes in an efficient and effective manner.
In Zara, this quick response can be found. They have new items delivered at a certain time to each store. This is applied to perfect timing for the selling and restocking of materials. This type of shopping makes the consumers know that the product is only there for a limited time. This knowledge leads to visual merchandising in the store. This is the push to make the shopping experience enjoyable and beneficial.

Marketing Economics

Through my preparation for business school, I took many Economic classes. One of the main points of Econ was elasticity of demand. When I began to read about this in the marketing book, it surprised me to use such a boring subject in Econ in such an exciting way in Marketing. The price elasticity of demand is the measure tof the sensitivity of customers to changes in price. And example would be if the price changes by a certain percent, then the demand would change as a result. There is a specific formula to use: Price elasticity of demand = (percentage change in quantity demanded) / (percent change in price)
There are two different kinds of elasticity: inelastic and elastic. Inelastic demand is that the change in price has little or no effect on the quantity consumers are willing to buy. Elastic demand is that they change in price has a large effect on the change of demand.
When demand is elastic, change in price and revenues work in opposite direction. If the price increases, then the revenues decrease. If the price is decrease, then revenues increase. A good example would be gas. When price of gas increased, demand for gas reduced by a huge amount. When price decreased, then demand returned and possibly went up from the former demand before the price increase.
When demand is inelastic, such as in pizza, the demand remains the same or increase/decreases by small amounts depending on price change. I know that if I see a deal on pizza, it doesn't immediately cause me to want to buy the pizza, but an increase in price doesn't make much of a difference because I also may not know what prior prices were like.
There is also cross-elasticity of demand. This is when changes in the price of one product affect the demand for another item. When products are substitutes, (ex. hot dogs and hamburgers), and price of one increases, then the demand for the other increases. When two products are complements, (ex. hamburgers and condiments), and price of one increases, then the demand for that item decreases and also the demand for the complement item decreases.

Production Life Cycle

There are four stages in the production life cycle. The first is the introduction stage. This stag is the slow growth stage. The new product is introduced to the market and people are finally starting to realize its potential or failures. The length of time the introduction stage varies depending on the product. The acceptance and willingness to buy the product from the consumer is a huge factor in the success. Nearly 40% of all the new products in the introduction stage fail.


The next stage is the growth stage. This is where the product sales are increasing at a very fast pace. The product begins to expand throughout the country or even the world. Competitors start to appear during the growth stage. The initially high price of the new product may be reduced to meet the increasing competition.


The maturity stage is the third and longest stage in the product life cycle. The sales are peaking and the profit is narrowing. A good example of the maturity stage is the original iPhone. The iPhone has been modified to fit different markets and expand their expectations. They have produced the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS, and now the new iPhone 4.


The decline stage occurs when the product is coming to the end of its life. The sales are decreasing and something needs to change. This is found with video stores, such as blockbuster. Also, the attendance to theaters is not found as highly with the new sites to watch movies, download movies, and Netflix has taken over many of the other product lines because of the flexibility.

Innovation

As we were learning about the diffusion of innovation, I could relate many people I know to the different groups. Innovators would by my friends from Microsoft, the ones that have all the new and awesome gadgets before they come out on the market. I feel as though my dad is an early adopter, he waits for everyone else to rate and review the product, then goes out and buys it. I would be in the early majority group. I usually will get the new gift after my dad points out the negatives and positives of the item. My grandma would be in the late majority. Just a few years ago I taught her how to email and text message. My boyfriend's mom would be in the laggards category. She is very smart and with the times, but she does not seem to take in the new and upcoming technology. She does not know how to text, isn't very tech-savvy with computers, and accidently changes her camera from pictures to video without knowing how to change it back.

Target Market

There are many segments of a target market that are necessary to keep in mind when marketing a product. Segmentation is the process of dividing this market into smaller pieces based on certain characteristics of the market. There is segment by demographics such as age. Demographics are the observable aspects that differ in population.
Age demographics are usually solved by generational marketing. This is the marketing of members of a similar generation that tend to share priorities. There is also a segment differentiation for gender. Women generally have different desires in needs then men, but they also can be similar. This similar need would be a target to a metrosexual person. Metrosexual is a straight, urban male who is keenly interested in fashion, home design, gourmet cooking, and personal care.
Segment by demographics also are segmented into different types of family life cycles. People of different family life cycles are unlikely to need the same products. Income and social class is another demographic. Distribution of wealth is of great interest to marketers because it determines which groups have the greatest buying power. Ethnicity is another very strong indicator of preferences. Marketers need to be aware of the differences in ethnicity so nobody is offend.
Place of residence is also a very important demographic to pay attention to. Geodemography is a segmentation technique that combines geography with demographics. Geocoding is customizing Web advertising so that people who log on in different places will see ad banners for local businesses. Another segment is psychographics. Psychographics is the use of psychological, sociological, and anthropological factors to construct market segments. Segment by behavior is a useful study to figure out what consumers want to DO with a product. Behavioral segmentation is a technique that divides consumers into segments on the bases of how they act toward, feel about, or sue a good or service.