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InstructionsIn each unit, the student may choose to complete Learning Activities. Prior to working on the Learning Activities, he or she should read through the chapters and the unit lesson. If a student feels comfortable with the concepts in the reading, he or she may not need to complete all of the Learning Activities. However, working on the Learning Activities will increase confidence with the concepts. The student should be encouraged to complete all of the practice activities.Prior to completing the Final Assessment, a student must submit a total of two practice activity units. He or she can choose to submit the Learning Activities from any two units in the course. Ideally, these activities will help the student to develop skills and knowledge required to pass the competencies, which will be evaluated by the assessments. The two Learning Activity units may be submitted at any time prior to the Final Assessment, in any order. The professor and student need to communicate to determine which two activities will be counted for credit.Upon submission, the professor should review each practice activity, provide constructive feedback, and give up to 50 points for successfully completing the task. The student may submit additional activities (beyond the first two) to receive feedback. Learning Activity units contain two, three, or four parts. All parts must be completed in order for the student to receive points. After the first two units have been completed and evaluated, the student may submit whichever activities he or she chooses; he or she does not need to complete all parts in order to receive feedback. If all goes well, a student will e-mail the professor whenever he or she has uploaded work (activities or assessments) to the Dropbox. You should e-mail the student after the assignment has been reviewed. Activity 1: CO 2, Competency AChapter 4 Discussion and Critical Thinking: Discussion Question 3Write a short essay in which you explain the role of secondary data in gaining customer insights. Where do marketers obtain secondary data, and what are the potential problems in using them? AnswerSecondary data consist of information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose. Researchers usually start by gathering secondary data. The company’s internal database provides a good starting point. However, the company can also tap into a wide assortment of external information sources, including commercial data services and government sources (see Table 4.1). Companies can buy secondary data reports from outside suppliers. Using commercial online databases, marketing researchers can conduct their own searches of secondary data sources. Beyond commercial websites offering information for a fee, almost every industry association, government agency, business publication, and news medium offers free information to those tenacious enough to find their websites. There are so many websites offering data that finding the right ones can become an almost overwhelming task. Web search engines can also be a big help in locating relevant secondary information sources. Secondary data can present problems. The needed information may not exist—researchers can rarely obtain all the data they need from secondary sources. Even when data can be found, the information might not be very usable. The researcher must evaluate secondary information carefully to make certain it is relevant (fits research project needs), accurate (reliably collected and reported), current (up to date enough to make current decisions), and impartial (objectively collected and reported).Page 129: Marketing EthicsE-book sales have now surpassed print book sales, resulting in lower margins for all companies in the publishing industry value chain. However, there is a silver lining to this trend—e-books can read the readers. Publishers and e-book retailers are gathering billions of bits of information from e-book readers. The publishing industry has been notorious for not conducting research, leaving authors to lament that they didn’t know who their readers were or what they wanted. The only way to know whether readers liked a book was from sales data after the fact. Not anymore. Now companies know how many hours readers spend reading books and how far they get when they open them. Some publishers are even testing e-book manuscripts, revising them based on feedback, and then publishing the print versions. Scholastic Inc. has set up online message boards and interactive games to learn what story lines and characters are connecting with readers. Coliloquy digital books let readers choose their own stories, which the company then aggregates and sends to the authors to shape future books. Amazon Kindle users sign an agreement giving the company permission to store their reading behavior data, and the company then highlights some of the data on its website. For example, the most highlighted passage in Catching Fire, the second book of the popular Hunger Games series, is “Because sometimes things happen to people and they’re not equipped to deal with them.”Most e-book readers do not know that their reading behavior can be tracked. What ethical concerns might readers have? Are there any protections in place for consumers who may not want their reading behavior tracked?What would your textbook reading behavior data reveal to publishers? How would textbook marketing change based on your behavior?AnswerStudents will have different answers based on their own experiences, buying behaviors, and ethical beliefs. Answers should show an understanding of consumer behavior and should be supported with an appropriate amount of detail.Activity 2: CO 2, Competency BChapter 6 Discussion and Critical Thinking: Discussion QuestionsExplain how the market structure and demand differ for business markets compared to consumer markets. AnswerThe business marketer normally deals with far fewer but far larger buyers than the consumer marketer does. Further, business demand is derived demand—it ultimately derives from the demand for consumer goods. Many business markets have inelastic demand; that is, total demand for many business products is not affected much by price changes, especially in the short run. Finally, business markets have more fluctuating demand. The demand for many business goods and services tends to change more—and more quickly—than the demand for consumer goods and services does.Name and describe the three types of business buying situations. AnswerThere are three major types of buying situations. At one extreme is the straight rebuy, which is a fairly routine decision. At the other extreme is the new task, which may call for thorough research. In the middle is the modified rebuy, which requires some research. In a straight rebuy, the buyer reorders something without any modification. It is usually handled on a routine basis by the purchasing department. A company buying a product or service for the first time faces a new-task situation. In such cases, the greater the cost or risk, the larger the number of decision participants and the greater their efforts to collect information will be. The buyer makes the fewest decisions in the straight rebuy and the most in the new-task decision. In the new-task situation, the buyer must decide on product specifications, suppliers, price limits, payment terms, order quantities, delivery times, and service terms.Name and describe the roles played by buying center participants in the business buying process. AnswerThe buying center includes all members of the organization who play any of five roles in the purchase decision process.Users are members of the organization who will use the product or service. In many cases, users initiate the buying proposal and help define product specifications.Influencers often help define specifications and also provide information for evaluating alternatives. Technical personnel are particularly important influencers.Buyers have formal authority to select the supplier and arrange terms of purchase. Buyers may help shape product specifications, but their major role is in selecting vendors and negotiating. In more complex purchases, buyers might include high-level officers participating in the negotiations.Deciders have formal or informal power to select or approve the final suppliers. In routine buying, the buyers are often the deciders, or at least the approvers.Gatekeepers control the flow of information to others. For example, purchasing agents often have authority to prevent salespersons from seeing users or deciders. Other gatekeepers include technical personnel and even personal secretaries.Explain what is meant by systems selling, and discuss why it is a preferred approach to buying for many organizations. AnswerMany business buyers prefer to buy a complete solution to a problem from a single seller rather than buying separate products and services from several suppliers and putting them together. The sale often goes to the firm that provides the most complete system for meeting the customer’s needs and solving its problems. Such systems selling (or solutions selling) is often a key business marketing strategy for winning and holding pare the institutional and government markets and explain how institutional and government buyers make their buying decisions. AnswerThe institutional market consists of schools, hospitals, prisons, and other institutions that provide goods and services to people in their care. These markets are characterized by low budgets and captive patrons. The government market, which is vast, consists of government units—federal, state, and local—that purchase or rent goods and services for carrying out the main functions of ernment buyers purchase products and services for defense, education, public welfare, and other public needs. Government buying practices are highly specialized and specified, with open bidding or negotiated contracts characterizing most of the buying. Government buyers operate under the watchful eye of the U.S. Congress and many private watchdog groups. Hence, they tend to require more forms and signatures and respond more slowly and deliberately when placing orders. Activity 3: CO 2, Competencies C and DChapter 7 Company Case: Darden Restaurants: Balancing Standardization and DifferentiationSynopsisDarden isn’t a well-known name. But Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and LongHorn Steakhouse are. Darden runs these and a few other restaurant brands—a total of 1,800 restaurants a year that serve up over 400 million meals each year, producing over $7 billion a year in revenue. The story in this case is Darden’s ability to standardize restaurant purchasing and operations in a way that customers don’t know it. Darden differentiates across each of its restaurant chains in ways that appeal to different types of customers for different occasions. In many respects, Darden has pulled off the perfect blend of standardization and differentiation.?Using the full spectrum of segmentation variables, describe how Darden segments and targets the sit-down dining market.Certain things should be considered here. Most of Darden’s targeting is the same across all three of its main restaurant chains. Income: The price range of Darden’s “big three” is relatively similar and is moderate by sit-down dining standards. Thus, there is not much differentiation here. In this respect, Darden is targeting the same segments of customers as far as income goes. Benefits: Across all Darden restaurants, customers are looking for convenience of location, a clean “authentic” atmosphere, quality personalized service, and a consistent product. Geographic: Olive Garden and Red Lobster are nationwide. LongHorn Steakhouse is in the eastern half of the United States, although Darden is moving to change that. However, in some ways, Darden segments across its chains. Country: The United States is the primary market. However, information not contained in the case reveals that Darden has struck a recent deal with American Group to develop at least 60 of its restaurants in the Middle East. It is looking to expand to other countries as well. Occasions: Although all Darden restaurants cater to regular occasions and special occasions, the biggest way that Darden segments customers across its chains is by the type of food that a customer likes or is in the mood for. Some Darden customers will go to all three chains. In this case, the chain is targeting based on what a customer wants on a specific day or occasion, ensuring that Darden has a little something for everyone. Other customers may only like one or two of the chains. In this respect, Darden is segmenting by “Italian” customers, “seafood” customers, and “steak” customers. Has Darden differentiated and positioned its brands effectively? Explain. In the restaurant business, a great deal of differentiation is based on cuisine. In this respect, Darden has applied a standardized formula to three different cuisines. Each of these chains is very different in that respect. One would need to scrutinize very carefully in order to determine the similarities and common ownership. Beyond that, these are clearly three very different brands, each with menu items specific to itself. Olive Garden is positioned as an Italian family-style restaurant with décor and menu items to suggest such. Red Lobster has seafood available nationwide for middle America. Although known as a fried seafood place, Red Lobster is now positioned as “wood-grilled” seafood. LongHorn Steakhouse is positioned as a classic Western-style steakhouse. Meats are fresh, not frozen. Although Darden’s efforts to standardize across brands have contributed to its success, how might such practices backfire? The only thing that could backfire is that at some point, too much standardization would make all three restaurant experiences seem like “same place, same thing.” Thus far, it does not seem that Darden faces that danger. So long as menus and atmosphere are kept distinct, this should not be an issue. One of the benefits for Darden is that even if similar items are sourced (meat, seafood, etc.), there is a lot of flexibility in how those things are prepared. Given current conditions, will Darden Restaurants continue to dominate the market? Why or why not? The case presents some compelling information on this. Most notably, sit-down dining has been declining for at least 17 years. During that time, the number of casual-dining restaurants has grown twice as fast as the U.S. population. Thus, having more companies in a declining market makes things very difficult as far as growth is concerned. All things equal, Darden would have to take share from other companies to fuel future growth. Darden is the biggest, but it is certainly not the only player in a massive industry that is comprised of many small companies. To say that Darden will continue to dominate is speculative at best. But Darden certainly has certain things going for it that play well: scale of operations, expertise in execution, sharing across chains, and other strengths.What recommendations would you make that will help Darden’s future growth? Saturate markets: In spite of the comments for Question 4, much of the appeal of a Darden restaurant is familiarity and a reputation for consistency. In the past couple of decades, the restaurant industry has swung noticeably toward the national chain over local flavor. Many people want what they know. They don’t want to take chances. Thus, the first recommendation is to continue building restaurants in places where they do not have any. And because people only want to drive so far to go to dinner, there is still plenty of room for more Darden restaurants. LongHorn Steakhouse certainly has plenty of room for expansion in the Western states. But even the other two chains would likely do well in places where there is another restaurant of the same chain within a distance that is too far for most people to run out and get a bite to eat. International expansion: The move into the Middle East is a good one. That may sound odd, but the Middle East alone is experiencing a massive expansion of American dining brands. TGI Friday’s is one casual dining chain that has made inroads there. The American Group, the company that is licensing Darden operations, already runs more than 1,200 restaurants in the Middle East region. Most of them are American chains. Darden should heavily invest there and other places that represent growth markets for dining.Proprietary items: Olive Garden has its breadsticks, Red Lobster has its cheesy biscuits. A few items like this per chain get people coming back again and again. ReferencesLearning Activity Materials:Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2014). Principles of marketing (15th ed.). NJ: Pearson. ................
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