The Using Perceptual Maps in Marketing Simulation Essay

The Using Perceptual Maps in Marketing Simulation - Essay Example The purpose of the simulation is to construct a perceptual map for a marketing plan of Thorr Motorcycles. During the first round of the simulation the first step was to create a perceptual map of the company to attract customers due to the fact that the firm was facing declining sales from its existing product, the Cruise Thorr. â€Å"A perceptual map is a visual representation of what the customer thinks of a brand† (Using Perceptual Maps in Marketing Simulation, 2013). The student had to choose four parameters among the following nine parameters: lifestyle image, product design and styling, cool, product uniqueness, service offerings, price, engine capacity, safety, quality engineering. The parameters selected were lifestyle image, service offering, price, and quality engineering. According to the simulation the four parameters selected were the fundamental parameters for Cruise Thorr perceptual map. Lifestyle image was chosen because image plays a fundamental and critical r ole in the buying decisions of customers in this industry. Price is a no-brainer because people purchasing any type of product evaluate its price to determine whether the price is justified for the good or service a person is acquiring. The high price Thorr Motorcycles charge for the Cruise Thorr is obtained due to the brand image of the company and the perception of the customers that they are acquiring a superior product than the competition. The use of a branding strategy enables companies to charge a premium for its products or services (Kotler, 2003). Quality engineering was selected on the fact that this parameter is a good indicator of the quality of the product the firm offers. Service offering was chosen because motorcycle enthusiasts are attracted by companies that offer a wide variety of services. During the second round of the simulation the player was faced with the dilemma of the market position of the Cruise Thorr not being able to target customers adequately to achie ve the desired sales output. The simulation gave the option to either reposition the Cruise Thorr or to introduce a new product geared towards the economical market. The idea of introducing a new product to target young customers by making the motorcycle less expensive is a bad strategy that the company should not pursue. The firm since its inception has worked hard to create a brand value and corporate image beyond what anybody in the industry holds. Introducing an economical model is not aligned with the mission of the company and would be counterproductive because it would deteriorate the sales of the Cruise Thorr and anger the customer base of the company. The decision taken was to reposition the Cruise Thorr. The positioning strategy selected was to provide financing options and increase services. Providing financing options increases the potential customer base of the company because it allows people that cannot afford to purchase the bike by paying cash the ability to acquire the motorcycle by virtue of their credit. Increasing services is a smart move because it increases the value of the product for the customers. The simulation forced the player to choose a marketing mix for the new repositioning strategy. The price of the motorcycle was maintained without any changes. Decreasing the price would hurt the profitability of the company, while an increase in price will create customer dissatisfaction. The following three promotional options were selected: organize

Draper IT(case study) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Draper IT(case study) - Assignment Example Company is investing heavily to remain competitive in the market but the current business needs to revive. The out sourced IT division has been sold to Hardy media solutions eighteen months ago. Hardy's performance and poor services also dissatisfied the previous customers. Due to the problems faced by Drapes, it started developing its ERP system with the view that in future company has to remain competitive in the market place. It has to improve its services, launch new products, which should be cost effective as well as technologically best in the market. Recently company has more business options, which could be explored by the company and to motivate its managers to grab the opportunities, so that performance of the company could be improved. As we already know that the said company draper is medium sized IT company. The company is in the business of providing technological solutions to its clients. It is a fast moving technologically complex and innovative industry dominated by lots of firms with well-developed communication and technological innovations. The firms which cannot be able to keep pace with innovations forced out of the business. So industry has been affected by external environment as well as internal changes. So any analysis or strategy, which could be formed in and around company, must follow the various strategic management paths. Companies must not only developed new businesses, but also carefully prune, harvest or divest tired, old businesses in order to release needed resources and reduce costs. The overall evaluation of a business's strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is called SWOT Analysis. SWOT analysis consists of an analysis of the external and internal environment. A SWOT analysis summarizes the key issues from the business environment and the strategic capabilities of an organization that are most likely to impact on strategy development. In general, a business unit has to monitor key macro-environment forces (demographic-economic, technological, political-legal and socio-cultural) and microenvironment actors (Customers, Competitors, distributors and suppliers) that affect its ability to earn profit (Johnson, & Scholes, 2002). Then, for each trend or development, management needs to identify the associated marketing opportunities and threats. Each business needs to evaluate its internal strengths and weaknesses in marketing, finance, manufacturing and organizational capabilities. In applying the SWOT Analysis it is necessary to minimize or avoid both weaknesses and threats. Weaknesses should be looked at in order to convert them into strengths. Likewise, threats should be converted into opportunities. Lastly, strengths and opportunities should be matched to optimize the potential of a firm. So applying SWOT analysis on draper engineering Ltd. as discussed above as follows: Strength: Draper Engineering Ltd. is an industry, which is growing and progressing all around world. In present circumstances, IT is an industry, which is an integral part of almost every industry, and human life cannot be thinking of without information technology. So being in an industry, which is growing, and progressing Draper Engineering Ltd. have an inherent strength of the industry as a whole. Draper has sufficient number of clients and market. It is a medium sized company and already has four