Class/2.2 case studies (1st Quiz)

Kindly read the following cases and answer the attached questions

Marketing Applications

1. Companies can apply the marketing concept on their Web sites by including features that are important to customers and prospects. At the least, Web users want to know about product benefits and where they can buy products. However, sites that give users something beyond product descriptions create additional customer value and build long-term relationships. Many sites target specific customer segments by focusing on language, age, gender, or technical understanding. Finally, an important sign of customer orientation is having an e-mail address that is easy to remember, use, and communicate to the consumer.

Evaluate the  Macintosh website based on its apparent attention to the marketing concept.

1. What is the most important customer benefit stressed at this site?
2. What new products did you find? Which one(s) did you find most interesting?
3. To what extent does this site apply the marketing concept? Explain.
4. Should anything be added to the site? Explain.
5. How does Apple attempt to build relationships with Web site visitors? What "connections" is Apple attempting to make?

1. Few companies do as much to apply the societal marketing concept as Ben& Jerry's Ice cream . The company's two founders have made a strong and sincere commitment to a wide range of ecological and social causes. In addition, the company often takes a light-hearted approach to what others perceive to be serious business matters, such as the annual shareholder's meeting. At Ben & Jerry's, this meeting might well take the form of large picnic or rock concert at which the annual report is sung to the tune of a popular song rather than just being read in a boring way.

1. Visit the Ben & Jerry's Web site. What impresses you most? What marketing efforts are evident?
2. What social and ecological causes does the company support?
3. What values are communicated by the company? Do these values appear to help or hinder its marketing efforts? Its profitability?
4. How does the company attempt to build relationships or "connections" with its customers
5. If you were a competitor seeking to expand market share, what vulnerabilities do you see in Ben & Jerry's that could be exploited? Write a brief plan for doing this.