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Moreover, determining appropriate pricing strategies for products is challenging and dynamic in many companies because of deregulation In some markets, more Informed errs, Intense global competition, slow growth In some markets following economic downturn and recession and the opportunities for firms to strengthen market position. L Price becomes a proxy measure for product quality, when buyers have difficulty in evaluating the quality of complex products. Strategic choices about market targets, positioning strategies, and product and distribution strategies set guidelines for price and promotion strategies.
Some companies started using price in new and more creative ways to establish advantage and to deliver superior value to customers. Pricing has various roles in the marketing program: a signal to the buyer, an instrument of competition, a means to improve financial performance, and a substitute for other marketing program functions (e. G. Promotional pricing). 2 First of all price offers a fast and direct way of communicating with the buyer. The price is visible to the buyer and provides a basis of comparison between brands.
Price may be used to position the brand as a high-quality product or instead to pursue head-on competition with another brand. Second of all price offers a way to quickly attack competitors or to position a firm away from direct competition. Price strategy Is always related to competition whether firms use a higher, lower or equal price. For example, off-price retailers use low-price strategy against department stores or other retailers. In addition to this, the pricing role is particularly important in hard economic conditions of slowdown and recession.
Thirdly, since prices and costs determine financial performance, pricing strategies need to be assessed as to their estimated Impact on the firm ‘s financial performance, both In short and long run. Importantly, both revenues and costs need to be taken Into account In selecting pricing strategies. Fourth of all, prices may substitute for selling effort, advertising, and sales promotion. Moreover, price may be used to reinforce these promotion activities in the marketing program. The role of pricing often depends on how other components In the marketing program are used .
In deciding the role of pricing in marketing strategy, management evaluates the Importance of prices to competitive positioning, probable buyers’ reactions, financial requirements, and interrelationships with other components in the marketing program. 2. Chapter 13. What are the major initiatives of a salesrooms strategy? The strategic role of sales and selling resources in evolving rapidly in many companies. We consider this strategic sales perspective. The management of sales efforts linked to strategic marketing goals Is examined as salesrooms strategy.
Sales organizations In many firms are undertaking a major transformation, as companies search for new organizational emergence of the strategic sales organization can be explained by several factors: changing customer relationship requirements; the changing sales task, which emphasizes customer relationship strength as well as sales transactions; and the importance of strategic sales capabilities to cope with technology complexity, growing customer sophistication, contamination pressures, and the need for radically different selling approaches.
As well as concerns for strategic sales organization transformation, salesrooms strategy requires clear decisions about how to use personal selling to contact sales prospects, generate sales, and develop the types of customer relationship that management considers necessary to accomplish the organization ‘s salesrooms objectives. Salesrooms strategy includes six major initiatives. First the role of the salesrooms in the promotion strategy is determined. This involves deciding how personal selling is expected to contribute to the marketing program.
Second, the selling process must be determined, indicating how selling will be accomplished with targeted customers. Third, in selecting sales channels, management decides how the sales organization, major account management, telemarketing, and how the internet will contribute to the selling process. Forth, the design of the sales organization must be determined and assessed over time to determine its effectiveness. Recall H-Up’s redesign initiatives discussed in the lead-in illustration. Fifth, salespeople are recruited, trained, and managed.
Finally, the results of the selling strategy are evaluated and adjustments are made to narrow the gap between actual an desired results. 3. Chapter 14. Explain the importance of organizational agility and flexibility. Make sure you give examples to defend your answer. In today’s knowledge age, the ability to transform information into insight in response to market movements is core to sustaining the business. Companies must think of ways to make their processes more flexible. 3 Rapid decision-making and execution are not only important, but essential to a company’s competitive standing, particularly in these times of economic uncertainty. Organizations that are best able to anticipate market movements, re-emerge from the worst system shocks and take advantage of gaps left by those unable to withstand the brunt will win. Doing so requires organizational agility. For most companies, the path to organizational agility involves transformation, the ability to whittle away at inefficiency and regroup around what is truly core to the business. 5 The pressure on companies to rapidly realign strategies and structures with arrest change may be considerable.
Moreover, a particular emphasis is placed on flexibility and agility in the new organization. Markets and competitive scenarios that change rapidly place a priority on speed and responsiveness. Traditional organizational forms may be too slow in response to exploit new opportunities as they occur and respond effectively to competitive threats. Speed may require finding new ways to identify opportunities, launching initiatives with agile teams, breaking the unwritten rules of the organization, outsourcing tasks to specialists, and using the same business model again to exploit further opportunities.
There is a clear advantage established in many businesses by the companies which do things faster than competition. For example the fashion leader Ezra ‘s skill in moving women ‘s apparel from design to the store in weeks instead of months enables the retailer to provides a competitive strength based on flexible technology and structures, and new working practices that allow organizations to remove bottlenecks and points of rigidity. Increasingly, organizations are being designed for agility and responsiveness. 7 In the past organizations were designed with stability in mind.
The priority now is to build organizations that are capable of changing. One of the strengths of self-managing teams and small, close-to-the-customer business units, is greater organizational responsiveness and speed in adapting to changed circumstances. 8 4. Chapter 15: (3 part question) What are the core tasks of a COM? (There are several to identify) In the turbulent global marketplace now faced by many countries, and with the continued impact of economic downturn and recession on different markets, a high priority is effective and insightful leadership by the chief arresting officer (COM).