Question

1.What are the differences and similarities between goods and services? Please provide some examples.

2. Please list and discuss the many components of a promotional campaign. How is it different for international marketing? What activities need to be changed to adapt to the foreign target market?

Answer 1

1) Products is tangible whereas services are intangible. Products have a hedonic component which means it can be touched, felt etc Which is not possible in services. Product can be returned back to the seller but services once provided cannot be reversed. Another aspect is the ownership, when a product is sold the ownership changes but in the case of service it is still with the seller as it cannot be transferred to the customer.

But apart from all this there are similarities between product and services. Both have the sole purpose to give satisfaction to the customer. The product or the service is upgraded with the time and the need for it.

2) A series of advertisements using various marketing tools that share the message & ideas to promote a business or event to a target audience. The component may include 1) newspaper- When you try to capture alot of segment which read newspaper, you can go for advertisement in newspaper. 2) Television- with the increase I living standard the television has become a source of entertainment. This is good to advertise it in tv. 3) free trial- To build the trust the product or service should have free trial so that people can try it and understand the benefits. This will also result in loyal customer in future.   4) phone consulting- Giving product info on phone is a good idea. 5) Public Relation- It is image builder, which are used for announcing a new product, service, sale, special event or major customer.

International marketing is a bigger version. They plan and execute a higher level of four P's so that it can target the international market.

Activities will do change as the culture etc changes from one country to another. So many things has to be taken care of. The promotional activities should be based on the target country. an universal promotional plan wont work. Each country in whichmarketing is done should be studied properly.