Term Paper on "Marketing Questions 1. Describe the Marketing Strategy"

r />staff as well, or that they have three delivery options as well. The

restaurant is sending mixed messages with its marketing strategy today. The

restaurant must decide who its primary customer segment is and re-align its

marketing strategy appropriately. Mentioning fine Chinese cuisine and the

exclusivity of a world-renowned chef Mr. Joseph Ma supports a suggested

marketing strategy aimed at the higher end of dining customers, and is one

that can potentially deliver the greatest profits. The mentioning of

preparing Western dishes in Hong Kong style and also having three delivery

options detract from the marketing strategy of concentrating on the higher

end of the dining customer segments the restaurant needs to attract to

fully capitalize on its most unique service differentiator, and that is

having a well-known chef on staff. Concentrating on Mr. Ma and his cooking

expertise is the strongest differentiator this restaurant has; to mention

they are also a famous BBQ specialist and has three delivery options just

detracts from their best possible differentiator.

2. Airbus has had more than its fair share of problems recently. The first

of the A380 planes, the "superjumbo", was delivered to Singapore Airlines

2 years late, and now the aeroplane maker has suffered from a couple of

technical problems with other models. (See below.) How do these problems

affect the firm's marketing strategy? What should the CMO do to put the

firm "back on track"?

With the introduction of the A380, Airbus has taken a unique market

position with its airline customers including Singapore Airlines of

positioning this superjumbo jet as the greatest potential revenue

generating aircraft in the world. Given its several seating areas and room

for adding in high-end features for first class passengers, business class

seating that is the most spacious of any airline, and more coach seats than

any other comparable aircraft, Airbus' marketing defines differentiation of

this aircraft as potential of every flight generating significant amounts

of revenue for airlines. The delay of two years has forced every airline

customer to incur much higher levels of interest on the funds borrowed to

finance the airport expansions, and has lead to a few asking Airbus to

subsidize interest and finance charges due to the A380 being late. Airbus'

problems also include quality control challenges on the A330 and A340, two

plane models that have recently been involved in depressurization and

landing accident.

The delay of the A380 and the technical problems becoming evident from the

A330 and A340 incidents make the company's core value proposition of being

the innovators of aviation increasingly suspect and open to criticism. The

development, sale and delivery of the world's largest passenger airplane,

the A380 was fraught with problems as Airbus learned which sourcing,

manufacturing, and service processes would work as they built the plane.

Meanwhile Boeing, Airbus' nemesis, continued to stress technological

expertise and the cost benefits their future planes would provide in terms

of fuel savings and lower cost of ownership. As Airbus began experiencing

technical problems on existing models and delays on the A380, Being gained

several new sales of their smaller, more fuel efficient and lower cost to

operate planes.

For the CMO of Airbus, the challenge of regaining the trust of both its

airline customers and the public needs to start with the A380 and continue

to existing aircraft. With the A380, the reliability and highly

differentiated, unique experience of travelling and the convenience and

comfort must be aggressively promoted to the travelling public. As Airbus

specifically built the A380 to deliver significantly greater revenue per

flight than any other aircraft, the CMO must focus on getting as many

passengers as possible for its airline customers. By concentrating on the

allure and prestige of flying in an A380, the CMO will also be

strengthening the Airbus brand as well. The A380 must be seen as the

preferred airliner for those travellers who want to have the ultimate

flying experience, and the first class cabins on Singapore Airlines, if

promoted also by Airbus, will help to elevate the brand. With existing

aircraft, the CMO needs to look at the many instances of these planes

surviving extreme conditions including frost, snow storms, hit by

lightening and flying through windstorms untouched. The durability of the

existing planes need to be communicated using extreme conditions to

underscore this positioning.

3. The most popular mountain bike race in BC is the Test of Metal.

(testofmetal.com) In the last 5 years the

popularity of this race in particular, and marathon mountain bike races

in general, have increased to such a degree that the 2007 race sold out

in 48 minutes. After the very muddy 2007 race about 250 of the 800

racers came down with a Campylobacter infection and many were

hospitalized for dehydration. Given that the race is both hugely popular,

and due to some operational problems in 2007 many of the racers got sick,

how would you expect the organizers to market the race in 2008?

In retrospect running Test of Metal on a course that had the potential of

generating not only e-coli, a potentially deadly disease, but also

campylobacter infections in participants who either get caked with mud or

accidentally swallowed it shows how important site validation and

qualification are for this event. What the race organizers need to do is

immediately create an advisory council of the top MDs in BC who have an

interest in and regularly mountain bike. This specific segment of MDs

would find the task of going over potential trail sits enjoyable while at

the same time taking precautionary planning measures to make sure

participants in 2008 aren't infected with the viruses those in 2007 were

infected with. The advisory council would also need to publish a complete

analysis of why the viruses infected so many of the participants so

severely, and also in the report, mention what the advisory council will do

the ensure the level of infections do not occur again. Further, the

advisory council will need to also share all potential sites they are

considering, being completely transparent with the public in general and

with mountain cycling enthusiasts specifically. In addition to all these

activities, the race organizers also need to provide free medical care and

cover the costs of those participants infected during 2007 who did not have

insurance. After creating the advisory council, completing all the

recommended action items, and also covering the uninsured participants who

were infected in 2007, the race organizers needs to underscore that the

trail selection process is being handled by the best MDs in BC and share

their progress on a website and blog specifically dedicated to creating an

open, honest interchange with the public in general and with enthusiasts

specifically to regain and grow trust.

4. Facebook has received some criticism over its Beacon ad programme. (This

tracked the site visits that Facebook users made.) What marketing

objective did this programme hope to achieve? How could Facebook re-

launch the programme in the face of the privacy objections.

Facebook's development and launch of their Beacon ad programme was aimed at

capitalizing on the social networking that pervades its own site and those

of affiliates and partners. Implicit in the structure of the Beacon is the

ability to track current, previously-registered, and even visitors to

Facebook who also visit affiliate sites, reporting back specific pages

viewed and length of time visiting a specific page. Additional features of

the Beacon programme is the reporting of certain actions back to the

Facebook friends' network in what the company is calling Social Ads. The

marketing objective of the program was to capitalize on the… READ MORE