Mkt 571: Price and Channel Strategy Assignment

The product

The company selected in the previous assignment is Facebook; Facebook is the largest social media company in the world with a database of over one billion people who actively share their life including their tastes. Given the amount of data that billions of users submit to Facebook, the company is in an excellent position to introduce a new kind of on-demand food service that leverages user information into a product that forecasts food demand in different locations and allows consumers to purchase on-demand food from the website. For instance, if Facebook notices a trend whereby users from New York are constantly posting about pizza it will include an option for New York users to purchase pizza directly from the website, order fulfilled by a third-party company such as Domino’s that has mastered the logistics of food delivery.

Product lifecycle

There are several elements to the product lifecycle of the product introduced by Facebook; the first stage of the product lifecycle is the initial stage. The priority of the company in the introduction stage is to create awareness about the product and alert consumers how they can benefit from the new product (Stark, 2015). The marketing and advertising strategy developed for the product is extremely significant in the introduction stage and includes product branding; here, the company creates a unique identifier for the product. Pricing, distribution, and promotion are also aspects of the introduction stage. If Facebook pulls of the product launch correctly, the product will seamlessly move to the growth stage.

The growth stage is the second element in the product lifecycle. The aim of the company in the growth stage is to establish the product further and increase its market share. In their efforts to develop and growth of the profile of the product, the company fine-tunes the new product to increase its quality and ability to meet the needs of the customer. The company may also reduce the price of the product in order to take away market share from competitors (Baker, 2014). Distribution is also essential in the growth stage; a faulty distribution channel acts as a bottleneck in the growth of the product, for Facebook to truly unleash the potential of the new service, it must partner with companies that have mastered the art of food distribution such as Domino’s pizza.

Another element of the product lifecycle is maturity, in the maturity stage, the product is no longer a novelty, and sales begin to decline as competition intensifies and customers tire of the new product (Baker, 2014). To achieve longevity, the company must launch new marketing strategies aimed at existing consumers, the intention of this marketing strategy is to defend market share. An example of a company that successfully uses marketing to keep sales momentum despite the product being decades old is Coca-Cola. A stellar advertising is key in maintaining market share dosing the maturity stage (Baker, 2014).

Determining success or failure

In assessing the launch of the new product, there are several ways to evaluate success or failure, one of the methods to evaluate success or failure is the number of consumers signing up to use the services, a large number of users indicates success while a low number of users indicates failure. Another metric that enables the company to determine success or failure is the conversion rate; this is the number of signed up users who start paying and using the service versus the number of users who sign up but do not pay for the service. A high conversion rate indicates success. User engagement is also an indicator of success; a company assesses user engagement by asking questions for example:

• Is the advertising increasing traffic to the product?

• How many users are clicking on the advertisements?

The responses to these questions can determine success or failure depending on the focus and what the consumer wants.

Media methods

The print media method will focus on newspapers and magazines. Advertisement in the newspapers and magazines will contain Quick Response Codes that unlock special discounts if users scan them with their phones. The print media will help drive traffic to the product.

The non-print media will focus on television advertisements. Creative advertisements that highlight the usefulness of ordering food from within the social network will create awareness about the product. The use of television for advertising enables the company to compete with other on demand food-delivery services that also use the same media.

Push and Pull

The marketing efforts used to create awareness about the new product use the push strategy. In the push strategy, the company promotes the product towards the consumer irrespective of demand (Chang, Chen, & Liu, 2014). The company encourages consumers to use the new service through exclusive discounts and aggressive marketing strategies.

Advertising strategy

The adverting strategy will focus on creating awareness of the novel new product and how it improves the consumer’s life, the print and television strategies will especially highlight the convenience of ordering food while browsing Facebook. When the consumers understand how the product can help them, they are in a better position to use the service.

References

1. Baker. (2014). Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.

2. Chang, Chen, & Liu. (2014). The push, pull and mooring effects in virtual migration for social networking sites. Information Systems Journal, 24(4), 323-346.

3. Stark. (2015). Product Lifecycle Management. In Product lifecycle management (pp. 1-29). Springer International Publishing.