Marketing Assignment Zaidi

Marketing management assignment
1. Question:
a) What is BCG growth – share matrix?
BCG growth – Share Matrix is a portfolio planning model developed

by Bruce Henderson of the Boston Consulting Group in the early
1970’s. It is based on the observation that a company’s business
units can be classified into four categories based on combinations of
market growth and market share relative to the largest competitor,
hence the name “growth share”. Market growth serves as a proxy
for industry attractiveness, and relative market share serves as a
proxy for competitive advantage. The growth-share matrix thus
maps the business unit positions within these two important
determinants of profitability
(http://www.netmba.com/strategy/matrix/bcg/)
b) Explain the following

i. STAR
are units with a high market share in a fast-growing industry.
The hope is that stars become the next cash cows. Sustaining
the business unit's market leadership may require extra cash,
but this is worthwhile if that's what it takes for the unit to
remain a leader. When growth slows, stars becomecash
cows if they have been able to maintain their category
leadership, or they move from brief stardom to dogdom.
ii. Cash Cow

Cash cows are units with high market share in a slow-growing
industry. These units typically generate cash in excess of the
amount of cash needed to maintain the business. They are
regarded as staid and boring, in a "mature" market, and
every corporation would be thrilled to own as many as
possible. They are to be "milked" continuously with as little
investment as possible, since such investment would be
wasted in an industry with low growth.
iii. Dog
Dogs, or more charitably called pets, are units with low

market share in a mature, slow-growing industry. These units
typically "break even", generating barely enough cash to
maintain the business's market share. Though owning a
break-even unit provides the social benefit of providing jobs
and possible synergies that assist other business units, from
an accounting point of view such a unit is worthless, not
generating cash for the company. They depress a profitable
company's return on assets ratio, used by many investors to
judge how well a company is being managed. Dogs, it is
thought, should be sold off.
iv. Question Mark
Question marks (also known as problem child) are growing

rapidly and thus consume large amounts of cash, but because
they have low market shares they do not generate much
cash. The result is large net cash consumption. A question
mark has the potential to gain market share and become a
star, and eventually a cash cow when the market growth
slows. If the question mark does not succeed in becoming the
market leader, then after perhaps years of cash consumption
it will degenerate into a dog when the market growth
declines. Question marks must be analyzed carefully in order
to determine whether they are worth the investment required
to grow market share.
2. With reference to your company, explain the following;
a) Marketing environment
The marketing environment surrounds and impacts upon the
organization. If I to have a company that sells mobile phones, the
marketing environment would be involving the supplier of the
phones, the shops, customers, consumers, competitors, and the
whole mobile phone world.
b) Micro environment
This environment influences the organization directly. It includes
suppliers that deal directly or indirectly, consumers and customers,
and other local stakeholders. Micro tends to suggest small, but this
can be misleading. In this context, micro describes the relationship
between firms and the driving forces that control this relationship.
It is a more local relationship, and the firm may exercise a degree
of influence.
In referring to my company, the phone suppliers, staffs,
stakeholders and customers would affect directly to my business.
c) Macro environment
This includes all factors that can influence and organization, but
that are out of their direct control. A company does not generally
influence any laws (although it is accepted that they could lobby or
be part of a trade organization). It is continuously changing, and
the company needs to be flexible to adapt. There may be
aggressive competition and rivalry in a market. Globalization means
that there is always the threat of substitute products and new
entrants. The wider environment is also ever changing, and the
marketer needs to compensate for changes in culture, politics,
economics and technology.
In my case, I need to catch up with the phone technology to

compete in global market. Need to plan carefully how to stock
products and give the customers all available updated services in
order to stay competitive.
3. Explain 5 stages in the buyer decision process with suitable examples.
Buyer decision processes are the decision making processes undertaken
by consumers in regard to a potential market transaction before, during,
and after the purchase of a product or service.
A general model of the buyer decision process consists of the following

steps:
1) Problem recognition
Perceiving a need to buy something for example a mobile phone.
2) Information Search
Searching for information regarding product such as models available,

values and other specifications in various places, internet, magazines
and phone shop.
3) Evaluation of Alternative
Accessing the value by comparing the most advanced mobile phone

with previously model to know the improvement. Listens to opinions
from friends, and self-evaluation on performance vs price.
4) Purchase decision
Make a decision according to the evaluation and wait for the price to
drop down and then buy it.
5) Purchase Behavior
After buying the phone, compare real performance with earlier

expectations, whether satisfied or not. Share the experience with
others through friends or online community.
4. Question:
a) Explain the following
i. Marketing segmentation
Process of defining and sub-dividing a large homogenous

market into clearly identifiable segments having similar
needs, wants, or demand characteristics. Its objective is to
design a marketing mix that precisely matches the
expectations of customers in the targeted segment. Few
firms are big enough to supply the needs of an entire market,
most must breakdown the total demand into segments and
choose the one or few the firm is best equipped to handle.
Four basic factors that affect market segmentation are (1)
clear identification of the segment, (2) measurability of
its effective size, (3) its accessibility through promotional
efforts, and (4) its appropriateness to
the policies and resources of the firm.
ii. Target marketing
Target Marketing involves breaking a market into segments

and then concentrating your marketing efforts on one or a
few key segments.
Target marketing can be the key to a small business’s

success.
The beauty of target marketing is that it makes the

promotion, pricing and distribution of your products and/or
services easier and more cost-effective. Target marketing
provides a focus to all of your marketing activities.
So if, for instance, I open a catering business offering

catering services in the client’s home, instead of advertising
with a newspaper insert that goes out to everyone, I could
target my market with a direct mail campaign that went only
to particular residents
iii. Market positioning
Efforts to influence consumer perception of a brand or product

relative to the perception of competing brands or products.
Its objective is to occupy a clear, unique, and advantageous
'position' in the consumer's mind such as 'the best driving
car,' 'the most economical car,' or 'the safest car.'
b) List and explain 4 bases for segmenting consumer markets.
The four basic market segmentation-strategies are based on
i. Behavioral
Some marketers regularly attempt to segment their markets
on the basis of product-related behavior, they utilize
behavioral segmentation. Behavioral segmentation divides
buyers into groups based on their knowledge, attitudes, uses
or responses to a product.
ii. Demographic
Demographics are the most common basis for segmenting
consumer markets. They are frequently used because they
are often strongly related to demand and relatively easy to
measure. The most popular characteristics for demographic
segmentation are age, gender, family, life-cycle, income and
education.
iii. Psychographic
Psycho graphic segmentation divides buyers into different
groups based on social class, lifestyle or personality
characteristics. People in the same demographic Group can
have different psycho graphic makeup. So psycho graphic
segmentation helps the marketer in examining attributes
related to how a person thinks, feels, and behaves.
iv. Geographical differences
Subdividing markets into segments based on location, the
regions, countries, cities and towns where people live and
work is geographic segmentation. The reason for this is
simply that consumer wants and product usage often are
related to one or more of these subcategories. Geographic
characteristics are also measurable and accessible.
5. List and explain with examples, the following:

a) Convenience product
A category of consumer products with characteristics that include:
appeals to large market segment, purchase is frequent; pricing is
relatively low; and product is widely distributed. Examples include
most household items such as food, cleaning products, and
personal care products.
b) Shopping product
Products consumers purchase and consume on a less frequent
schedule compared to convenience products. Consumers are willing
to spend more time locating these products since they are relatively
more expensive than convenience products and because these may
possess additional psychological benefits for the purchaser, such as
raising their perceived status level within their social group.
Examples include many clothing products, personal services,
electronic products, and household furnishings.
c) Specialty product
These are products that tend to carry a high price tag relative to
convenience and shopping products. Consumption may occur at
about the same rate as shopping products but consumers are much
more selective. In fact, in many cases consumers know in advance
which product they prefer and will not shop to compare products.
But they may shop at retailers that provide the best value.
Examples include high-end luxury automobiles, expensive
champagne, and celebrity hair care experts.
d) Unsought product
Unsought products are products whose purchase is unplanned by
the consumer but occur as a result of marketer’s actions. Such
purchase decisions are made when the customer is exposed to
promotional activity, such as a salesperson’s persuasion or
purchase incentives like special discounts offered to certain online
shoppers. These promotional activities often lead customers to
engage in Impulse Purchasing.

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Marketing management assignment

BCG growth – Share Matrix is a portfolio planning model developed

b) Explain the following

ii. Cash Cow

Dogs, or more charitably called pets, are units with low

iv. Question Mark

Question marks (also known as problem child) are growing

In my case, I need to catch up with the phone technology to

A general model of the buyer decision process consists of the following

Perceiving a need to buy something for example a mobile phone.

Searching for information regarding product such as models available,

Accessing the value by comparing the most advanced mobile phone

After buying the phone, compare real performance with earlier

Process of defining and sub-dividing a large homogenous

ii. Target marketing

Target Marketing involves breaking a market into segments

Target marketing can be the key to a small business’s

The beauty of target marketing is that it makes the

So if, for instance, I open a catering business offering

Efforts to influence consumer perception of a brand or product

b) List and explain 4 bases for segmenting consumer markets.

The four basic market segmentation-strategies are based on

5. List and explain with examples, the following:

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