National Institute of Technology 2009 M.B.A Finance KETING MANAGEMENT - Question Paper

Corporate name combined with individual product names: This sub-branding policy is followed by (Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, Kellogg’s Raisin Bran, and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes), as well as Honda, Sony, and Hewlett-Packard. The company name legitimizes, and the individual name individualizes, the new product.
The 1st 2 strategies are sometimes referred to as a “house of brands” and a “branded house”, respectively, and can be seen as representing 2 ends of a brand relationship continuum, with the latter 2 strategies as being in ranging from and combinations of the two.






Q.4: B) What does a marketing plan include?
ANS:
Marketing Plan:
Executive summary and table of contents: The marketing plan should open with a brief summary of the main goals and recommendations. The executive summary permits senior management to grasp the plan's major thrust. A table of contents that outlines the rest of the plan and all the supporting rationale and operational detail should follow the executive summary.
Situation analysis: This part presents relevant background data on sales, costs, the market, competitors, and the different forces in the macroenvironment. How is the market defined, how big is it, and how fast is it growing? elaborate the relevant patterns affecting the market? What is the product offering and elaborate the critical problems facing the company? Pertinent historical info can be included to give situation. All this info is used to carry out a SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats) analysis.
Marketing Strategy: Here the product manager describes the mission and marketing and financial objectives. The manager also describes those groups and needs that the market offerings are intended to satisfy. The manager then establishes the product line's competitive positioning, which will inform the “game plan” to accomplish the plan's objectives. All this is done with inputs from other organizational areas, such as purchasing manufacturing, sales, finance, and human resources, to ensure that the company can give proper support for effective implementation. The marketing strategy should be specific about the branding strategy and customer strategy that will be employed.
Financial Projections:
Q.5: A) What tools are available to help companies monitor & improve their marketing activity?
ANS:
Top firms audit service performance, both their own and competitors’, on a regular basis. They collect voice of the customer (VOC) measurements to probe customer satisfiers and dissatisfies. They use comparison shopping, ghost shopping, customer surveys, suggestion and complaint forms, service-audit teams, and letters to the president. The 1st Chicago Bank employs a weekly performance measurement program charting its performance on a large number of customer sensitive problems. The bank will take action whenever performance falls beneath the minimum acceptable level. It also raises its performance goal over time.

Earning:   Approval pending.