Rosewood Hotels and CLV

CLV is a very interesting concept, determining the value of your company based on the number of customers it has. I do not believe the company I work for explicitly knows the value of its customers because they are not using sophisticated marketing strategies. They are only using promotions. They mostly try to get new customers in the seats of the theater when an event is being hosted.

The company could possibly use CLV if it had more returning customers. They have customers who come to most of the show but they will need more to be truly valuable. Once this is established, I believe that the CLV rate can be well used as a bargaining chip to get investors. They can say we have a certain amount of customers attending our shows and you can advertise to these people if you invest in our business.

The practical issue of implementing CLV is whether you have a lot of customers and if those customers are periodically or using your services often.

The major issue in the Rosewood case is that customers can have an enjoyable experience at one location but if they are going to another location it may not be the same experience. All of the Rosewood locations do not offer similar services or facilities. That makes it harder to create a stable customer base when you can get mixed reviews on the properties. If one location is more popular than others, customers may frequent that location and leave the other locations to lose out in business.

The advice I would have for Rosewood management is to advertise all of their locations equally, and point out the unique qualities each location has. I would advertise locally to the neighborhoods that are close to the specific location. Once each location is getting fair marketing and advertisement then business will most likely pick up.

Although all of the Rosewood brands are fairly recognizable, me being from New York, I am mostly familiar with the Marriot. That is a very popular hotel chain. I think I would like to visit there because that is what I am most familiar with and I have had good service from this hotel in the past.

Professor Kevin Lane Keller on brand value and marketing

Video on Brand Value and Marketing.

Brand Value

Brands become valuable by their popularity, and the reputation they maintain once the public knows them. They become valuable once they are reputable and are able to use its name to make a profit by selling products and services. A brand like Apple, Microsoft, The Gap, have all built a reputation for carrying products that the public wants to purchase, thus making their brand valuable. When they announce new products the market pays attention.

Brands create good products and services to make it valuable. Once the brand is established as a reputable institution, it can create value by releasing its products and services.

Some of my favorite brands are Club Monaco, TopMan, Apple, French Connection, and Ralph Lauren. They always create products that I like. It has gotten to the point where I don’t even look at other brands unless I get a suggestion. The clothing brands I named always fit me the way I want the clothes to fit and they are always stylish. I always find something that I want there. Apple is just a good brand because all of their products are cool and easy to use.

Brands probably should be on a balance sheet because the popularity of your brand does have some affect on how your company will perform. If you are a popular brand, odds are you will be doing better than non-recognizable brands. This is something that should be incorporated in a balance sheet because you can put some monetary value on this.

How Brands Grow - Knowledge Works lecture 2010 at UniSA

Interesting video on how Brands grow.

Culinarian Cookware Pricing and Promotion

I think the Culinarian Cookware brand has well established itself as a leader in the cookware market. I think that the previous promotion was effective in achieving its goals because the customers who received discounts were very satisfied and this for the name of Culinarian Cookware to a wider audience.

The aspect of the promotion that worked the best is that it caused existing customers to buy new product and also introduced Culinarian Cookware to new customers. This is good and bad because yes, it increased sales and brand recognition but on the other hand, the new customers might have just bought it because of the lowering in price. It is hard to say whether customers will still but their products at regular price.

It is always good to give discounts because it will start a boost in sales where customers are given the incentive to buy your product at a reduced price. On the other hand, the price may far outweigh the desirability of your product and the customer will not make any further purchases.

On the other hand, introducing your customers to your product in this way can show them how good your product is and get them familiar with the functionality of your product and make them want to make return purchases. This can be the case with Culinarian. Customers got the opportunity to use the product and may return for future purchases.

I do not think Culinarian should run a promotion prospectively because they want to make sure the brand is continued to be know for its high quality. Constantly reducing the prices will cheapen the brand, as Donald Janus has feared. I think if the price stays as it is and they promote the quality of the products they will have a proper increase in sale. It is more important to maintain the integrity of the brand and keep it in the high-end retail market.

Apple - Introducing Siri on iPhone 4S

GREAT ad by Apple

Best Marketing Strategies used by Apple, Microsoft, Google & Walmart

Good Tech Marketing

Apple as a company controlling their pricing

A company that I firmly believe in and I’m pretty sure everyone is familiar with is Apple. They have created a reputation for themselves where people will buy any of their latest products just because it’s cool. They made being a technology geek very popular. They create a beautiful symphony for their customers. They provide great customer service when you are buying their products. They have good trouble shooting with the Apple store so you always have someone to help you at the Genius Bar. They are always updating their products every year so you have the most up to date version. They are in such high demand with their products and it doesn’t seem like they are slowing down.

Apple has the standard in mp3 players. When someone thinks of an mp3 player they think of Apple’s iPod. When people think of a tablet they think of Apple’s iPad. Also, their MacBook Pros are slowly becoming the favored computer when it comes between a Mac and a PC. The iPhone is one of the most popular touch screen phones available. Everything they create becomes the best product to use in that category.

The target audience for the company’s market audience is very broad. Everyone can use Apple products and they Market it in different ways. When it came to the release of the iPhone 4, Apple marketed the Facetime feature by showing a grandfather communicating with his daughter and his granddaughter. That was very family oriented and showed how a telephone can keep families in touch.

The tangible products Apple offers are the iPod, iTouch, iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iMac, and Apple TV. These are all very popular products and everyone in America is familiar with this line of products. They sell very well and there are always updated versions of the products being released.

The prices of Apple’s products rarely change. They don’t even do big sales during Black Friday. That just goes to show you how much of a demand they have on the market that they don’t even need to lower their prices or offer incentives to compete in the Market. They do offer reasonable prices if you look at what you’re getting for your money but people pay the process Apple demands no matter what.

Apple does have a unique approach to the way they communicate with their target audience. First and foremost, when a new product is released, they announce it at their annual conference. Everyone always makes a big deal out of this conference and it is highly covered by the media. After that they run a couple of TV ads and everyone feeds into the Apple frenzy. People go so far as to wait in line for hours for the release of one of their products. I’m ashamed to say that even I have done this. 

Apple is just a great company with great products that is marketed well. This just goes to show that great products will market themselves. Every company should strive to follow in Apple’s footsteps.

Cleopatra Case Study

Team 8. Cleopatra Case Study submitted. No Blog Entry.

CES - Samsung's Smart Window

Check out this AMAZING new product!!! How do you think this will be Marketed? What if this product was made by Apple? Would they need to market it much since everyone loves their products so much? Can Samsung succeed with this product being their brand isn't as powerful as Apple?

Product Life Cycle: When a new product arises

A product that I use a lot would probably be my videogame console. Right now I own a Nintendo Wii because I have always been a fan of the games that Nintendo has made. Something they had over the other systems that are available is that they had their own games such as Super Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Kirby, and all of the other Nintendo franchise games.

My Nintendo Wii will probably become obsolete when the next videogame system is released. It will have better graphics, better games, better capabilities, and the Wii will just be old news. Before I had my Wii I had a Nintendo GameCube and that was useless after the Wii came out. With the Wii I was also able to play my old GameCube games so there was no point in me still using my GameCube.

Technology has definitely affected product development because technology is always advancing. New technology is always released that is faster, and easier to use making old products obsolete. In the videogame world, the new product is always marketed and the old is scrapped from the company’s marketing plans.

Product development is affected by shorter life cycles because by the time something new is released the old products have to be put on the backburner for production of the new product. This is very interesting for the customer because if they get the product too late, a new product will be out with better capabilities and they may not have any support for the product they just purchased.

Product Life Cycle Diagram

Small Business Market Position

The Importance of Market Positioning

Market Positioning is very important in regard with where you stand with your competitors. Your market position helps define where you are with the market and where you are with your customers.

The Market position is essentially your identity and how you measure up to the rest of the competition.

The company I work for is one of a kind because they are one of the only non-profit theatres in the city. However, there are plenty of other venues in Indianapolis and that is where they fall short. The for-profit arenas, clubs, and anywhere else performances can be had has a bigger budget and can bring in bigger acts and put on different performances.

The position for the theatre is in good standing I believe among the other non-profit organizations; but in comparison to the other venues in the city, the theatre can barely compete. This is where good marketing can help improve the positioning of this company. The marketing in general can increase the standing of the theatre in the Indianapolis community.