Question

Q1. Using brand development and management strategies as well as communications and PR, create a brief marketing contingency plan for a business whose sales are being drastically negatively affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic. What opportunities and threats (profit/not-for-profit activities) do you foresee? What are the direct/in-direct effects on their bottom line/brand image/public perception? Apply what you’ve learned.

Q2. A friend of yours wants to begin selling maple syrup that he makes on his forest property. He has asked you, as a marketing student, if he should sell his maple syrup product through retail or wholesale channels.

a) Explain the difference and pros/cons of each marketing channel for your friend and suggest a channel based on your knowledge. Also include promotion mix strategies for your friend’s new business.

b) What are the main (marketing) concerns you have about this business venture?

Q3. Create a profitable pricing strategy for the following product and situation. Select a price point for your product and support/explain your strategy using marketing concepts. Based on a quick PLC (product life cycle) and new product adoption, how do you ensure the optimal profit level is reached?

• You are an existing tech company in healthy financial position

• Releasing a radical new tech product, patent pending

• Oligopolistic competition

• Your cost: $187.39 per unit

• Competitor’s price for similar yet less innovative product: $249.99

• Approximate factory capacity: 20,000 units/week

Q4. You are a student staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic. You discover a need in the market for a new product. Suppose you want to start a company to sell this new product and fill the market gap.

a) How will your company create and capture value in such uncertain times?

b) What do you foresee for the future of your company as the pandemic slows? How will you maintain market share?

BONUS: Using an example, explain why a business must identify and leverage its competitive advantages in order to gain and maintain market share in competitive industries.

Answer 1

Q1)MARKETING CONTINGENCY PLAN of a café

I anticipate the accompanying Opportunities and Threat

Proprietor of a south Mumbai-based brisk assistance café that is enrolled on biggest and most important online nourishment requesting and conveyance stage, got a call from the stage's delegate. The nourishment tech stage had as of late wandered into staple conveyance and the get was to see whether Shah knew any merchant who would sell basic food item through it. which was doing lively business till a couple of months back, had seen its day by day arranges drop 80 percent because of the lockdown.

Enhancement into ESSENTIALS

Detecting a chance, eatery offered to bend over as a food merchant, as he had the space to stock and sell, labor and other fortitude. There has been no thinking back from that point forward. Beginning with three items, it has extended to in excess of 100 items in the previous multi week and it presently sells everything — from basic food item and vegetables to cheddar and spread. In a limited ability to focus, café has become the top dealer in worth and volume terms on stage.

Inspiration for the group

In spite of the fact that the edges are slim and leaves him with just 2 percent subsequent to taking care of 8 percent as commission to the nourishment tech stage, it's an extra income stream and has supported the resolve of the staff in the midst of a respite period of the principle business.

Motivation for the Industry

Empowered by the reaction, nourishment conveyance stage is connecting with other eatery accomplices and measuring their enthusiasm for bending over as merchants.

The way in to a strong alternate course of action is correspondence.

Moving to a virtual occasion, look into virtual occasion conveyance alternatives. For certain occasions, for example, roadshows (with appropriate wellbeing estimates like utilization of covers, gloves, social distancing,etc.), an online class conveyance stage may get the job done. Grow promotion inventive and email messages presently to be prepared to declare the wiping out or delay and be set up to rapidly swap these messages into battles when and if important. Obviously convey home working approach to laborers. Interchanges, including interior and outer correspondence of wellbeing measures and reaction plans with representatives, clients, providers, moneylenders, controllers/government bodies and other key partners in the business.

Check, screen and agree to WHO rules and the prerequisites and direction gave by government bodies and nearby experts regarding the wellbeing and security of representatives, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States (CDC).

Check, screen and consent to notice commitments required by government bodies (counting nearby elements) and make all suitable control, separation or isolate courses of action.

Survey and know about the commitments and privileges of the organization under business understandings and aggregate dealing understandings, and under work enactment, including material security rights and commitments.

Acquaint new arrangements with forestall the spread of COVID-19 (and consider refreshing works board and aggregate bartering understandings where fitting) and discuss unmistakably with representatives:

a) Provide representatives with the vital hardware and innovation to work remotely where proper (e.g., workstations).

b) Instruct (to the degree passable under pertinent laws in your nation) or potentially request that representatives take their work gear and innovation home toward the finish of each working day.

c) Consider presenting brief adaptable working approaches.

d) Consider having fever thermometers close by for willful self-checks of representatives or to offer/direct wellbeing and fever checks for workers, to the degree allowed by relevant law.

e) Consider training (to the degree allowable under pertinent laws in your nation) and additionally requesting that representatives remain at home and not to go to the workplace/working environment regardless of whether they show just mellow cool side effects.

f) Consider whether representatives ought to be told (to the degree passable under pertinent laws in your nation) as well as permit workers to remain at home and not to go to the workplace/working environment assuming family or family individuals have been determined to have COVID-19 or are in any case in self-disconnection.

g) Limit or disallow business travel, especially to high-chance regions, and debilitate eye to eye gatherings. Rather, present 'virtual' meeting arrangements, for example, videoconferences. View self as isolate measures for workers coming back from non-business travel.

h) Require representatives to tell the organization of conceivable introduction to COVID-19 (counting following travel to high-hazard zones), subject to security laws.

I) Provide preparing, gear and backing to forestall the spread of COVID-19.

Set up game plans to perform business-basic capacities, if a material piece of staff is missing (e.g., movement of staff from high-chance regions).

Consider back-up courses of action and substitutes for key staff/capacities.

To the degree accessible in your nation, consider applying for brief timeframe work remuneration (e.g., so calledKurzarbeitgeld in Germany) as well as pay from open experts in case of isolate measures being forced on representatives.

Guarantee methodologies, strategies, measures and interchanges (I) are proportionate to the wellbeing and security objective, (ii) maintainable after some time and (iii) consent to hostile to segregation and protection laws.

III. Administrative Matters

Plan, facilitate and speak with important specialists at the proper time to address (potential) regulation, (impermanent) shutdown of activities as well as destinations, isolate or changes to the business tasks, assuming any. In the event that need be, illuminate specialists with respect to lead times for decrease of basic operational exercises and levels.

Set up plans to evade or relieve shutdowns, move to and additionally perform tasks or basic capacities in generally safe regions, on the off chance that a material piece of activities is situated in (potential) high-hazard zones as well as subject to control limitations, (transitory) shut-downs or isolate (e.g., migration of tasks from high-chance territories).

Update crisis and business progression intends to have documentation accessible while organizing and talking about regulation, shutdown of tasks or potentially destinations and isolate with pertinent specialists.

Survey whether any control, (brief) shutdown or change to the business activities triggers a commitment to tell the administrative specialists. Distinguish skilled specialists and seek out dependable staff on your side.

Think about postponed reactions and endorsements from administrative specialists from staff deficiencies because of remote working, travel limitations, and so on., and suggestions for pending measures.

Normally check (expanded) travel limitations gave by national or government specialists.

Normally check expanded traditions leeway as well as master control limitations.

Routinely check for industry-and area explicit turns of events and administrative updates—specifically, in the medicinal services and life sciences ventures.

IV. Business Agreements/Supply Chain Disruptions

Recognize and relieve any potential store network interruptions brought about by regulation zones, industrial facility terminations, travel limitations or worker unlucky deficiencies because of disease or isolate.

Consider transient changes to store network and coordinations models to stay away from disturbance (e.g., qualify elective source substitution providers or sellers and think about creation options).

Assess and think about effects on sellers' capacity to convey and clients' capacity to pay on schedule.

Survey legally binding courses of action to distinguish the organization's privileges and commitments emerging in regard of deferrals underway or inability to satisfy remarkable requests (e.g., occasions of default, cross-default, notice and end prerequisites, and materialness of power majeure) and any related results of a penetrate, including debate goals arrangements and potential relevance of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

Survey ampleness of power majeure terms of material agreements.

Present elective correspondence channels with clients and providers fully expecting and keeping in mind that movement limitations stay as a result.

Consider transient promoting and deals reactions to request stuns.

VI. Financing

Guarantee adequate liquidity is accessible to face the hardship (and execute proactive money the board measures).

Routinely dissect the effect of COVID-19 (specifically, interference of ordinary business exercises, production network disturbance, diminished deals, and broadened regulation and travel limitations) influencing incomes and EBITDA (i.e., budgetary pressure testing).

Think about refreshing/altering field-tested strategies and spending plans to address changes in activities and potential defaults coming about because of government activities, including regulation zones.

Survey and screen commitments under existing financing game plans to:

a) Comply with impromptu commitments to tell the lender(s) about issues that could antagonistically influence the budgetary condition as well as tasks of your business.

b) Verify consistence with concurred general endeavors and portrayal and guarantees.

c) Verify consistence with concurred money related pledges (specifically, on the following testing dates) and evaluate (if necessary) accessibility of extra assets from investors to value fix potential breaks of monetary contracts.

d) Engage with loan specialists and different partners to energize proactive conversations with a view to (briefly) forgo or potentially suspend occasions of default (counting cross-defaults) and other material prohibitive arrangements.

Check in the event that you are qualified for any appropriations or other money related help from national specialists with respect to budgetary misfortunes brought about due to COVID-19 (e.g., brief timeframe work pay remittance plans).

VII. Rebuilding

Screen bankruptcy recording commitments and guardian dut

Q2)Displaying Channels

In the field of displaying, channels of spread exhibit courses or pathways through which product and adventures stream, or move from creators to purchasers.

We can describe formally the scattering channel as the game plan of related exhibiting associations looking into the advancing activities drew in with the turn of events or the movement of items or organizations from the basic creator to an authoritative buyer.

The prime of object of creation is its usage. The improvement of thing from producer to purchaser is a critical limit of advancing. It is the responsibility of the producer to make stock available at right spot, at ideal time right expense and in perfect sum. The path toward making items open to the purchaser needs convincing channel of transport. Along these lines, the route taken by the product in its improvement is named as channel of allocation.

Spread channels are the arrangement of affiliations, including creators, wholesalers, and retailers, that scatters items or organizations to purchasers. A dissemination channel is the arrangement of individuals and affiliations drew in with getting a thing or organization from the producer to the customer. Scattering channels are in any case called promoting channels or exhibiting dissemination channels.

A businessman has different elective channels available to him for appropriating his things. These coordinates change in the number and sorts of specialists included. A couple of channels are short as they genuinely interface creators with customers. In spite of the fact that various directs are long and in an indirect manner associate the two through one or a couple of specialists.

To lay it out simply, the allocation channel can be described as 'the route through which items and adventures or portion for those product or organizations make an outing from the merchant to the clients'. Transport channel can be as short as a quick trade from the merchant to the customer, or may fuse a couple of interconnected center individuals on the way, for instance, the followings –

1. Wholesalers

2. Dealers

3. Administrators and

4. Retailers

The recently referenced are the channels of transport. A channel of spread or trade channel is described as the way or course along which product move from creators or makers to extraordinary customers or present day customers. Toward the day's end, it is a course arrange through which creator puts his things in the market and passes it to the certifiable customers.

Inclinations of Marketing Channels

Exactly when a customer is contemplating buying a thing he endeavors to get to its motivating force by looking at changed elements, for instance, its movement, availability, etc., which are clearly influenced by channel people. So likewise, a promoter too while picking his flow people must access what regard the part is adding to the thing.:

1. Results in Customer Convenience – Channel scattering gives assembling and gathering organizations, which infers they purchase from various suppliers the various items that a customer, may ask for. Besides, channel apportionment is proficient as the customers can find all that they need in on$ retail store and the retailer.

2. Customers can buy in little sums – The wonder of breaking mass sums and selling them in smaller sums is known as mass breaking. The customers have the upside of buying in humbler sums and they furthermore get a bit of the advantage the retailer makes when he buys in mass from the supplier.

3. Customers get budgetary assistance – Resellers offer cash related activities to their customers which make portion more straightforward for the customer. Customers can buy on loan and using a portion plan, etc.

4. It is Cost Saving – Distribution direct accessories are experts in what they do therefore, they perform at much lower costs than associations endeavoring to run the entire course channel without any other person.

5. It is Time Saving – Time of transport is diminished due to capability and experience of the channel people. For example, the market gets movements from the distributer in entireties required and at a suitable time and much of the time in a singular truck. Thusly cost similarly as time is saved.

6. Redirect people also help in boosting bargains – Resellers routinely use alluring methodology to persuade customers into buying a thing thusly growing arrangements for that thing. They routinely use diverse restricted time offers and exceptional thing shows to bait customers into buying certain things.

7. Channel people give huge information – Manufacturers s rely upon the agents to give information which will help in improving the thing or in growing its arrangement. Critical level channel people normally give bargains data. On each and every other occasion the maker can for the most part rely upon the member to give him customer input.

8. More prominent Reach – A channel of scattering makes it possible to oversee customers that the association couldn't fiscally reach with own business force or store. An arrangement of wholesalers or retailers gives moment consideration of various locale or the whole country without the association contributing.

9. Extended Market Knowledge – Distributors give association neighborhood grandstand data, engaging it to enter new markets quickly and satisfactorily without the cost of measurable looking over or advancing projects

10. Extended Core Competency – An autonomous organization needs to focus its benefits on thing improvement and produce pay. Using channel scattering grants a privately owned business to focus on those inside capacities without utilizing new work power

11. Results in extended Efficiency – the middle people help to develop a singular line of contact for each customer. That line of contact would consolidate demand game plan, defective thing returns, portion collections, thing questions and thing returns. This assistants in growing the viability of the producer.

12. Results in Growth – A worldwide channel distributer can empower a free organization to show up at business divisions wherever all through the world

Burdens of Marketing Channels

1. Loss of Product Importance as a result of deferral – in case of transportation delays, the thing loses its hugeness in the channel and the arrangements persevere.

2. More noteworthiness to contender's thing – Similarly a contender's thing may acknowledge increasingly essential importance as the channel people might be getting a higher uncommon propelling power.

3. Nonattendance of Communication Control – Manufacturer loses control over what message is being given to the last customers. The associate may partake in near and dear selling to fabricate the thing bargain and pass on about the thing to his customers. He may distort about the upsides of the thing this may provoke miscommunication issues with end customers.

4. Pay hardship – The maker offers his thing to the representatives at costs lower than the expense at which these specialists offer to the last customers. In this manner the producer goes for an adversity in pay.

Unique Strategy

Mass Market:

We have had contact with different purchasers of mass syrup and have been ensured they will get our syrup gave we pass on quality things. Two of these purchasers are arranged in New Brunswick and one is arranged in Nova Scotia. We will continue developing additional contacts inside the mass business.

In year one, we plan to have 94 gallons available to our mass suppliers. This will addition to 265 gallons in year two, 547 gallons in year three, 1093 gallons in year four and 1250 gallons in year five. These address uncommonly humble amounts to purchasers of mass syrup.

Mass syrup is normally sold in 32 gallon barrels. We will have around 40 barrels prepared to move in year five (40 x 32 gallons = 1280 gallons)

Regardless of the way that we don't have unequivocal understandings set up whereby we have ensured about arrangements, we have obligations from purchasers to get our syrup. As our mass volume is pretty much nothing, we don't plan to convey any syrup to various countries. If, of course, we consider the to be advertise in Canada as dismal or the expense for syrup in Canada is low, we will give authentic idea to entering the mass market outside Canada. In any event, we intend to enlist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as we will sell interprovincially.

It is entrancing to observe that Quebec has 70% of the world market, regardless, they convey 80% of their mass creation. Ontario, of course, has 7% of the world market, regardless, they convey hardly anything. We feel with the little sum we have available, with the most ideal headways, practically no ought to be sold into the mass market.

Retail Market:

The arrangement into the retail market will require additional time, effort, and included costs. Costs fuse utilizations for bundling equipment, containers and names, publicizing and progressions costs.

From a past outline, under 40% of close by Smith Island purchasers realized that unadulterated maple syrup was open at the retail level. The survey in like manner indicated unadulterated maple syrup sold quickly, regardless, supply was uncertain.

Our retail publicize center will include:

Colossal Retail Grocery Chains

Prosperity Food Stores

Smith Island Speciality Shops (the movement business)

Customers at Sugarhouse

Farmer's Markets

Q3)

Let us initially comprehend the fast item life cycle and its suggestions. A brisk item life cycle implies the item will arrive at development level very quick and afterward after-deals will begin declining this will occur in a generally limited capacity to focus time.

another reality is to take note of that the selection pace of the new item is additionally high, it implies that the item which is created through development.

Along these lines, the evaluating technique ought to be a greater amount of skimming the benefit before the items lose their upper hand because of advancement.

Since the item is being produced in enormous amount along these lines, the excellent evaluating system won't fit.

At present, the organization has kept the costs a lot of lower than the opposition in an oligopolistic showcase it demonstrates the economy estimating system, which isn't the correct technique for the item which has an increasingly upper hand as a result of the item being tech item and dependent on development.

Consequently, in my proposal, the item ought to be estimated at part with rivalry to skim the benefit until the time item arrives at the development level and deals begin to decay. In an oligopolistic showcase it is generally simple to benchmark the cost and since for this situation the immediate rivalry is from the one principle contender, the organization must value like them so as to build up the item's one of a kind contribution because of higher level of development.

Q4)

a) The item can be an online computerized item that can be created at home during the isolate/lockdown circumstances all over the place. The organization will initially require individuals to structure the specialized parts of the item dependent on my thought. This will at that point should be created, tried by the organization, tried by clients (beta testing) lastly propelled to clients. As an understudy it is critical to me to minimize the costs which should be possible -

- utilizing heavenly attendant speculators (somewhat far-fetched in this time and with just an understudy's thought, connecting with contacts may have the option to get an underlying capital to fire things up)

- utilizing just open source programming and apparatuses is an extraordinary method to construct programming that costs short of what others in the market. There are a great deal of open source prospects in the open space and these can be audited to locate the best choice for the proposed item

- drawing in engineers/understudies the world over who should contribute and approve of a deferred installment system that will just kick in after the item is propelled and begins making deals. A great deal of game and programming designers love to code for its unadulterated delight and will happily test out in if the thought is one that impacts them - medicinal services related, lightening of torment, worldwide network building and so forth.

One essential piece of beginning an organization and making esteem is to recognize all the parts of significant worth that the item can bring to shoppers - for example an interface that advances information sharing among people far and wide could be utilized by one lot of clients to get the data and the other set to distribute content. Online studies are a viable instrument that can be used to assemble what the clients believe is their need and how best to satisfy it. This can reveal viewpoints beforehand not thought of and permit you to make a superior item that will enchant clients.

When the item is made and propelled it very well may be utilized to get the 'voice of client' input by -

- Beta testing - distinguish a little example bunch that reflects the bigger client base and approach them to utilize the item for nothing to help in disengaging any issues, challenges, bugs.

- Official dispatch and input from paying clients - paying clients are probably going to be increasingly basic and beginning criticism will acquire a great deal of data sources that were not viewed as before. These can be joined in the early months to guarantee the item continues advancing and showing signs of improvement.

Worth can be characterized in income, rating on play store/amazon and so on., consumer loyalty studies, which can all be followed topographically to help comprehend the various gatherings of the item.

b) As the pandemic eases back, it is normal that ordinary ways of life are probably going to be recommenced. Notwithstanding, it is commonly concurred that a few changes are probably going to persevere for certain months/years. The present dominance of innovation use may be shunned for open air exercises. This could cause a radical drop in use of this item which is the reason it is significant that the item's lifecycle incorporate viewpoints that permit it to coordinate into any progressions that may come. On the off chance that the social separating needs to proceed through to one year from now the application ought to have the option to deal with extra clients as increasingly more sign on. The organization should conjecture a few quarters ahead to check whether the item will stay suitable in various conditions or of it will be not able to adjust and decay. Viable arranging from input will likewise guarantee any item changes are arranged well to take into consideration a smoother progress once again into a world without a pandemic - this can incorporate physical augmentations to the application, for example, talks/courses and so forth that can repeat a similar substance yet in an alternate structure, it can likewise take a gander at associations and joint endeavors that permit the item to be more multi-dimensional in nature.

As the world gradually changes back to its berserk pace, it will be a smart thought to adjust the item or give includes that help coordinate it to the more up to date speed for example shorter peruses/rundowns of news stories to suit shoppers who may get a kick out of the chance to peruse during their drive. Building a considerable piece of the pie will necessitate that the item be multiplied over the standard limits of geology, age, sex, race and so forth. The simpler the item is to be versatile (for example language support, greater text style for senior populace) the bigger the forthcoming client base is probably going to be.

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