Takeaways

One of my takeaways was from the Positioning a New Product or Service article. “Product positioning involves tailoring a whole marketing program, which needs to include product attributes, image, and price, as well as packaging, distribution, and service, so as to best meet the needs of consumers within a particular market segment”. Alexander Hiam and Charles Schewe identified six steps that companies should take in the market segmentation process in their book The Portable MBA in Marketing. These steps include determining boundaries of the market; deciding which variables to use in segmenting the market; collecting and analyzing data; developing a detailed profile of each market segment; deciding which segment or segments to serve; and product positioning. Product positioning “involves developing a product and marketing plan that will appeal to the selected market segment”. Emphasis on quality is one of the positioning options available to marketers; “a zero-defect product with a product design and customer service that meet or exceed customer expectations”. The other “positioning option available to marketers involves offering unique features or benefits that consumers are unable to find in competing products”. This was one my main takeaways because product positioning not only has to do with promoting a product or service, rather it is the entire product, from image, to price, to packaging, etc. Apple is an example of a company that understands product positioning. From personally owning some of their products in the past, I can say that their products are rarely defective, and the simplicity of their products is not available to consumers in competing markets. However, looking at the company from a customer service standpoint, it could do a lot better. I have not had to deal with Apple's customer service in the past, but have heard negative things about their customer service from friends. I did a simple Google search “Apple customer service review”, and it brought up this as the first link. It turns out that many people have had negative experiences with Apple’s customer service.

My second takeaway was from the same article. The end of the article stated that “Above all, it is important to remember that continued market research and innovation are necessary to maintain such a competitive advantage”. I recently passed by an empty building of what used to be a Blockbuster store, and this statement reminded me of Blockbuster. They are an example of a company that fell behind in innovation to companies such as Netflix. According to this article, “Netflix was operating for six years before Blockbuster launched its own movie-by-mail service. So Blockbuster had more than enough time to adapt”.

My third takeaway is from the Marketers and Marketing article. The article discussed globalization as an accelerating trend in the past two decades of marketing. “Not only are multinational companies outsourcing more of the production of their products, but they may also outsource customer service, marketing research, promotion, product distribution, transportation, and more”.  Referring back to Apple's negative customer service reviews on this site, one user made the comment stating that they had a bad experience with Apple’s customer service because they could not understand the person they were talking to while being helped over the phone. This is an example of how outsourcing can negatively affect a company such as Apple.

Sources:

"Apple Customer Service." CustomerServiceScoreboard.com. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/Apple>.

Belk, Russell W. "Markets and Marketing." Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture. Ed. Dale Southerton. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2011. 887-95. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 8 May. 2012.

Gandel, Stephen, and Dallas. "How Blockbuster Failed at Failing." Time. Time, 17 Oct. 2010. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2022624,00.html>.

Laouisset, Djamel Eddine. "Positioning a New Product or Service." Encyclopedia of New Venture Management. Ed. Matthew R. Marvel. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2012. 380-82. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 8 May. 2012.

"The Portable MBA in Marketing (The Portable MBA Series) [Hardcover]." Amazon.com: The Portable MBA in Marketing (The Portable MBA Series) (9780471193678): Charles D. Schewe, Alexander Hiam: Books. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.amazon.com/The-Portable-MBA-Marketing-Series/dp/0471193674>.