Respond to Discussion

Just write a response, 250 words each, one cited source, detailed and well written.

First one you need to write a response to:(Topic 3: Last year Pepsi introduced 60 new products to the market, what challenges to you expect to face when designing your product and how would you make adjustments in its design to accommodate consumers in your market?)

When looking at Pepsi introducing 60 new products last year, there are some challenges that are expected to face when designing these new products. When it comes down to identifying significant marketplace changes, “Marketers have two advantages for the task: (1) disciplined methods for collecting information and (2) time spent interacting with customers and observing competitors and other outside groups” (Kotler & Keller, 2016, pp.101). Going back to the very beginning, Pepsi and Coca-Cola have been extreme competitors in the soda/cola business. The fight for designing better product between these 2 is constantly going on, but it is still very important to not lose track of the goal of providing good products to customers in an ethical way. In the mid 2000’s we hear on the news that PepsiCo Inc. gets a letter from someone offering Coke secrets, however PepsiCo Inc did not engage, and they went straight to Coca-Cola with this letter. "Competition can sometimes be fierce, but also must be fair and legal – Pepsi spokesman Dave DeCecco said” (Associated Press, 2015). Although Pepsi has a goal to design more and more product that will beat competitors, they want to design these products on their terms and ethically. Weeks later we come to hear that multiple people have been scheduled to appear in court for potentially being involved in the stealing on confidential information. “Business legislation is intended to protect companies from unfair competition, protect consumers from unfair business practices, protect society from unbridled business behavior, and charge businesses with the social costs of their products or production processes” (Kotler & Keller, 2016, pp.118).

Also, there will need to be some adjustments in design to be able to accommodate consumers in the market. Measuring the market demand is something that needs to be looked into here and it starts by breaking down the market. Some productive ways to do this include: the potential market, the available market, target market, and penetrated market. “If the company isn't satisfied with its current sales, it can try to attract a larger percentage of buyers from its target market” (Kotler & Keller, 2016, pp.120). In 2019, Pepsi announced the released the news of Pepsi Café which will be debuting in April 2020 in the US. This is an item that will still keep the taste of Pepsi cola; however, it will be joined with the touch of Arabica coffee. “We know that the consumers today are looking for products that meet the needs of energy, indulgence, and refreshment during that afternoon pick-me-up occasion. We are confident that cola fans, iced coffee drinkers and anyone in need of an extra caffeine boost will love the unexpected flavor medley of roasted coffee infused into the refreshing, crisp flavor of Pepsi” (Pepsi Will Help Americans Tackle That Afternoon Slump with New Pepsi Café, 2019).

Second one:

William Sonoma sells kitchenware and home furnishings. As one of the biggest multichannel retailers globally, it let customers take part in online and physical store locations and use technology to monitor their activities to improve a customer service experience.

Home furnishing is related to the real estate market, which never stays the same. Factors that influence consumer behavior and market trends are the economy, job market, inventory, interest rate, election, new economic policies. Considering these elements, investors will invest in the market. William Sonoma can easily monitor the market, keep an eye on these critical factors to predicate future sales.

Perhaps depending on the housing market was not sufficient to sustain in the market, using its premium position, William Sonoma launched a new business-to-business division to focus on corporate clients such as hotels, private offices, and healthcare providers.

As a William Sonoma marketer, I would conduct qualitative data analysis to gather required information regarding consumer behaviors and purchase trends, keeping specific time of year in mind. Transactional information like which product is high in demand will be published on the cover page to engage consumers. Communicational information will be required to communicate with the customers using e-commerce. While making an online purchase, some consumers leave the item in the bucket and do not complete the purchase. Communicational information will help approach those customers offering an extra discount to complete the purchase. The online activity tracker will help ease the process of knowing which item is viewed the most, defining consumer behaviors and market trends.

Personal information, like customer address, telephone, and email, will be gathered to send out the catalog. Social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provides a holistic view of marketing that helps generate awareness among society members. Bloggs will help facilitate understanding of consumer attributes and behavioral parts, focusing on what is trending. “Facebook is in the home stretch to reaching the two billion user mark.” (Fiegerman, 2017)

The catalog provides a people-based marketing approach that provides an interface to a consumer to enable shop at home experience. A customer wants to have a convenient and fraction free experience. The business usually offers discounts, value products, and coupons at the end of the catalogue to encourage customer buying behavior.

The catalog is essential to be designed in the right way to achieve projected sales numbers. It should highlight the competitive advantage business has upon its competitors, providing a 360-degree view of consumer understanding uniquely identifying their needs. By observing where our customers live, we can make a better decision to open retail stores.

As Laura Alber, CEO of William Sonoma, said, “They are reducing costs, not just on the cost of goods by moving them, but also in other parts of our company.” (Clifford, 2019)

Providing real-time experience is possible by optimizing the media budget to combine consumer profile data with the prospect. Marketing intelligence can be achieved by optimizing a budget where consumer attributes combine with a different audience. I would take all this information to improve my sales growth to evaluate the relevance of a key performance indicator.

I would use communicational information to connect with customers, send out surveys to determine the strength and weakness relative to various competitors, and perform customer value analysis. It will also help a business to understand customer satisfaction; if it is underperforming, meeting, or exceeding customer expectations will ultimately improve customer loyalty.

As mentioned in our Marketing management book, Periodic surveys can directly track customers’ overall satisfaction and ask additional questions to measure repurchase intention, likelihood or willingness to recommend the company and brand to others, and specific attribute or benefit perceptions likely to be related to customer satisfaction. (Kotler & Keller, P133)

The catalog uses as a promotional push and promotional pull strategy. It pushes the message out to the market, letting the targeted audience know what business offers before the customer even demands it. Promotion pull strategy works when a consumer sees a coupon or a promotional deal in a catalog and rush to the store to avail it before it expires,