Tuesday, April 1, 2008
High context and Low context culture
High context and Low Context are terms first introduced by Edward Hall. He used these terms to classify societies or cultures on the basis of their style of communication.
High Context cultures use a lot more context in communication. They have less verbally explicit communication and rely on context cues like body language, implicit cultural references, time and place and relationship between the communicators. They are also more indirect and tend to avoid disharmony and conflict. They tend to group together with others who have similar experiences and expectations. Japan, Asia, Middle East, South America are examples of high context cultures.
Low context cultures are the opposite. They are more direct, value independence and tend to use a lot of written and explicit communication. It is customary to end discussions with a written agreement or contract. North America, Great Britain, German speaking countries, Scandinavian countries tend to be low context.
Polychronic Time(p-time) and Monochronic Time(m-time) are time management methods.
Typically high context cultures tend to use p-time and low context cultures tend to use m-time.
When using m-time, one gives more importance to scheduling work. One gives importance to deadlines and generally concentrates on one job at a time. Scheduling is a natural result of this behaviour as it lets us schedule different times for individual jobs. Individuals also tend to respect privacy, and private property and try not to disturb, borrow or lend to others.
When using p-time one tends to give more importance to human relationships and time is considered secondary. Multiple jobs are undertaken at the same time. They are more open to changing their plans on the fly and are more accepting to distractions.
Business Lessons:
These concepts are important in a multi-national company or when one has business relationships with companies in other countries. When communicating with people from other cultures, one has to be sensitive to their style of communication and time management methods.
Advertising to high context cultures is also different than to low context cultures. It is not enough to just translate text into different languages. Sometimes the entire advertising strategy needs to be changed to communicate the message more effectively. For e.g. using local cultural cues in advertising to establish a frame of reference will be more effective in a high context society.
High Context cultures use a lot more context in communication. They have less verbally explicit communication and rely on context cues like body language, implicit cultural references, time and place and relationship between the communicators. They are also more indirect and tend to avoid disharmony and conflict. They tend to group together with others who have similar experiences and expectations. Japan, Asia, Middle East, South America are examples of high context cultures.
Low context cultures are the opposite. They are more direct, value independence and tend to use a lot of written and explicit communication. It is customary to end discussions with a written agreement or contract. North America, Great Britain, German speaking countries, Scandinavian countries tend to be low context.
Polychronic Time(p-time) and Monochronic Time(m-time) are time management methods.
Typically high context cultures tend to use p-time and low context cultures tend to use m-time.
When using m-time, one gives more importance to scheduling work. One gives importance to deadlines and generally concentrates on one job at a time. Scheduling is a natural result of this behaviour as it lets us schedule different times for individual jobs. Individuals also tend to respect privacy, and private property and try not to disturb, borrow or lend to others.
When using p-time one tends to give more importance to human relationships and time is considered secondary. Multiple jobs are undertaken at the same time. They are more open to changing their plans on the fly and are more accepting to distractions.
Business Lessons:
These concepts are important in a multi-national company or when one has business relationships with companies in other countries. When communicating with people from other cultures, one has to be sensitive to their style of communication and time management methods.
Advertising to high context cultures is also different than to low context cultures. It is not enough to just translate text into different languages. Sometimes the entire advertising strategy needs to be changed to communicate the message more effectively. For e.g. using local cultural cues in advertising to establish a frame of reference will be more effective in a high context society.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
EU and flights to Japan
http://www.allvoices.com/newsevents/162454-raid-airline
Everything u need to know about the EU price-fixing probe ...
Everything u need to know about the EU price-fixing probe ...
GLOBALIZATION, REGIONS AND THE NEW ECONOMY
Kenichi Ohmae:
Leading business strategist. senior partner in McKinsey & Co.
Developed 3Cs model , a strategic look at factors needed for success
Corporation
Customers
Competitors
Seems to be a super capitalist, seems to have the role of government is the advancement of business and nothing else.
Leading business strategist. senior partner in McKinsey & Co.
Developed 3Cs model , a strategic look at factors needed for success
Corporation
Customers
Competitors
Seems to be a super capitalist, seems to have the role of government is the advancement of business and nothing else.
Intel in Costa Rica
| Costa Rica GDP (PPP) | 2006 estimate | |
| - | Total | $48.77 billion (84th) |
| - | Per capita | $12,000 (62nd) |
Intel:
Revenue : $ 38.3 B
Costa Rica chosen because:
Political and social stability
• Economic openness and liberalization
• Receptive investment environment
• PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE!
• Improving infrastructure
• Strategic location
• A “yes” attitude: proactive solution providers
What is expected of Government:
Provide stable, secure environment
financial system
education
healthcare
Infrastructure like power, transportation
Business friendly atmosphere, low taxation
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The iPhone Gray Market
Gray market is where branded original products are diverted from authorized distribution channels and distributed through other channels. I will examine the dynamics of the iPhone gray market and its effects on Apple.
Reasons for the gray market:
1. Apple's marketing team for the iPhone, did an excellent job in promoting the iPhone prior to launch. Rather than making it available widely to the journalists to try out, they controlled its exposure prior to launch in the typical Apple secretive approach to new product announcements. Significant consumer interest was generated prior to launch of the iPhone. The iPhone sold out of most stores within 4 days.
2. The iPhone was first released in the United States on June 29th 2007. Subsequently, Apple released the iPhone in other countries in a phased manner. Apple has not yet released the iPhone worldwide.
3. The Apple iPhone was launched exclusively on AT&T Wireless networks. AT&T holds exclusive distribution rights to the iPhone for 5 years. That meant that users with existing cell phones on non AT&T networks had to switch to AT&T if they wanted to use an iPhone. In 2007, Verizon Wireless led the US wireless data market share, with 17% followed by AT&T at 16%. AT&T was not the wireless carrier of choice for many consumers who would want to use an iPhone.
In summary very high demand, limited or no availability in specific geographic regions and unnattractive bundling of the iPhone with AT&T wireless were the primary reasons for the growth of the iPhone gray market.
The iPhone gray market:
There are two areas where the iPhone gray market has thrived. One is the selling of iPhones at a premium on online auction sites and the other is the unlocking of the iPhone. The unlocking has also resulted in an explosion of demand for the iPhone globally, enabling gray markets in countries where it has not been officially launched. The unlocking of the iPhone is possible through software or hardware hacks. While the initial hacks were difficult to implement for all but the most tech savvy users, they have increasingly become simpler.
Why doesn't Apple do anything?
The primary reason is that it simply cant do much to stop the gray market forces. Apple does release software updates that render hacks useless, however the hackers soon find new ways to hack the iPhone. It also voids the warranty of the iPhone if it has been hacked, but it is trivial to reset an iPhone that has been hacked through software so that the hack is undetectable. Also, hacking the iPhone is not illegal. Hence Apple or At&t really does not have any legal recourse to go after the hackers. Another possible reason is that Apple isn't really losing out too much due to the gray market. The real loser is At&t which definitely had to pay a premium to Apple for exclusivity. While Apple does make some money whenever an iPhone user starts a new contract with At&t, it is not much compared to the profit made by Apple on selling the iPhone itself.
Sources:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080211_152894_page_2.htm
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=0320000140IO
Reasons for the gray market:
1. Apple's marketing team for the iPhone, did an excellent job in promoting the iPhone prior to launch. Rather than making it available widely to the journalists to try out, they controlled its exposure prior to launch in the typical Apple secretive approach to new product announcements. Significant consumer interest was generated prior to launch of the iPhone. The iPhone sold out of most stores within 4 days.
2. The iPhone was first released in the United States on June 29th 2007. Subsequently, Apple released the iPhone in other countries in a phased manner. Apple has not yet released the iPhone worldwide.
3. The Apple iPhone was launched exclusively on AT&T Wireless networks. AT&T holds exclusive distribution rights to the iPhone for 5 years. That meant that users with existing cell phones on non AT&T networks had to switch to AT&T if they wanted to use an iPhone. In 2007, Verizon Wireless led the US wireless data market share, with 17% followed by AT&T at 16%. AT&T was not the wireless carrier of choice for many consumers who would want to use an iPhone.
In summary very high demand, limited or no availability in specific geographic regions and unnattractive bundling of the iPhone with AT&T wireless were the primary reasons for the growth of the iPhone gray market.
The iPhone gray market:
There are two areas where the iPhone gray market has thrived. One is the selling of iPhones at a premium on online auction sites and the other is the unlocking of the iPhone. The unlocking has also resulted in an explosion of demand for the iPhone globally, enabling gray markets in countries where it has not been officially launched. The unlocking of the iPhone is possible through software or hardware hacks. While the initial hacks were difficult to implement for all but the most tech savvy users, they have increasingly become simpler.
Why doesn't Apple do anything?
The primary reason is that it simply cant do much to stop the gray market forces. Apple does release software updates that render hacks useless, however the hackers soon find new ways to hack the iPhone. It also voids the warranty of the iPhone if it has been hacked, but it is trivial to reset an iPhone that has been hacked through software so that the hack is undetectable. Also, hacking the iPhone is not illegal. Hence Apple or At&t really does not have any legal recourse to go after the hackers. Another possible reason is that Apple isn't really losing out too much due to the gray market. The real loser is At&t which definitely had to pay a premium to Apple for exclusivity. While Apple does make some money whenever an iPhone user starts a new contract with At&t, it is not much compared to the profit made by Apple on selling the iPhone itself.
Sources:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080211_152894_page_2.htm
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=0320000140IO
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Lessons from Marlboro Monday
Synopsis:
The tobacco industry in the 90's was seeing the private label brands of cigarettes grabbing market share from premium labels due to its lower price for similar quality. The market leading brand was Philip Morris' Marlboro brand, which suffered the most. Michael Miles, the then CEO of Philip Morris was forced to take action as Marlboro was Philip Morris' "cash cow", and he was also facing drop in market share across the board in other premium brands like Kraft and Maxwell House coffee. On Friday April 2 1993, Miles announced a 20% price cut for Marlboro. in addition it also announced various cost cutting measures and increased expenditure on advertising. This was to cost Philip Morris 40% of their pre-tax profits. The price cut launched a price war with other competitors also dropping prices. On the following monday, which later came to be known as Marlboro Monday, investors triggered a selloff of tobacco manufacturers' shares across the board. Investors extrapolated that there could be similar price cutting for premium brands in other consumer product categories, resulting in a sell off of stock of most consumer product manufacturers. One explanation could be that since Philip Morris also manufactured other consumer products like cheese and coffee, investors felt that it may announce price cuts in those categories as well.
Lessons Learnt:
In retrospect, Miles took the correct decision because within a year, Marlboro had surpassed its highest ever market share and profits were again on the rise. However, could he have avoided Marlboro monday? Probably not if he had to turn the brand around. Marlboro monday made it clear that there was low investor confidence in the management's ability to turn it around. They seemed like desparate measures that could be too late.
the larger issue of dropping market share of Marlboro also needs to be looked at. While being marketed as a premium brand, there was not enough product differentiation from the private labels. the high price of premium brands in general and Marlboro in particular was not justified in the minds of the people. the other approach Miles could have taken is to invest in R&D to come up with a new Marlboro cigarette that was better than the private label cigarettes.
Another lesson to be learnt is that management decisions in another industry can sometimes affect other unrelated industries. it would be very difficult to predict this beforehand. But one should be prepared for such an eventuality and address it. For e.g. the management of the other consumer product manufacturers should have calmed Wall Street by issuing statements.
Sources:
http://www.duke.edu/web/soc142/team11/globalvaluechain.htm
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE2DD113FF935A1575BC0A965958260
http://books.google.com/books?id=DGfyhDs88PgC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=marlboro+monday&source=web&ots=ANa8NhGzwD&sig=3jo2QCpoHc9e4NyFAfyKoX8pi7U&hl=en#PPA20,M1
The tobacco industry in the 90's was seeing the private label brands of cigarettes grabbing market share from premium labels due to its lower price for similar quality. The market leading brand was Philip Morris' Marlboro brand, which suffered the most. Michael Miles, the then CEO of Philip Morris was forced to take action as Marlboro was Philip Morris' "cash cow", and he was also facing drop in market share across the board in other premium brands like Kraft and Maxwell House coffee. On Friday April 2 1993, Miles announced a 20% price cut for Marlboro. in addition it also announced various cost cutting measures and increased expenditure on advertising. This was to cost Philip Morris 40% of their pre-tax profits. The price cut launched a price war with other competitors also dropping prices. On the following monday, which later came to be known as Marlboro Monday, investors triggered a selloff of tobacco manufacturers' shares across the board. Investors extrapolated that there could be similar price cutting for premium brands in other consumer product categories, resulting in a sell off of stock of most consumer product manufacturers. One explanation could be that since Philip Morris also manufactured other consumer products like cheese and coffee, investors felt that it may announce price cuts in those categories as well.
Lessons Learnt:
In retrospect, Miles took the correct decision because within a year, Marlboro had surpassed its highest ever market share and profits were again on the rise. However, could he have avoided Marlboro monday? Probably not if he had to turn the brand around. Marlboro monday made it clear that there was low investor confidence in the management's ability to turn it around. They seemed like desparate measures that could be too late.
the larger issue of dropping market share of Marlboro also needs to be looked at. While being marketed as a premium brand, there was not enough product differentiation from the private labels. the high price of premium brands in general and Marlboro in particular was not justified in the minds of the people. the other approach Miles could have taken is to invest in R&D to come up with a new Marlboro cigarette that was better than the private label cigarettes.
Another lesson to be learnt is that management decisions in another industry can sometimes affect other unrelated industries. it would be very difficult to predict this beforehand. But one should be prepared for such an eventuality and address it. For e.g. the management of the other consumer product manufacturers should have calmed Wall Street by issuing statements.
Sources:
http://www.duke.edu/web/soc142/team11/globalvaluechain.htm
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE2DD113FF935A1575BC0A965958260
http://books.google.com/books?id=DGfyhDs88PgC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=marlboro+monday&source=web&ots=ANa8NhGzwD&sig=3jo2QCpoHc9e4NyFAfyKoX8pi7U&hl=en#PPA20,M1
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
List POP and POD differences between brands
Pick anything. e.g. bottled water, makeup, aspirin,
www.knowledgebiz.org/business/downloads%5CABC%202006%20-%20Presentation%20Downloads%5CBrand_Advertising.ppt
I dunno what all of that means ... but I thot it was interesting to read ..
www.knowledgebiz.org/business/
I dunno what all of that means ... but I thot it was interesting to read ..
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
honest broker to share info betn companies
http://www.klinegroup.com/
companies share their info with a honest broker and HB tabulates and sends info to the group
companies share their info with a honest broker and HB tabulates and sends info to the group
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Survey data can be skewed in competition based incentive surveys
Some thoughts...
A popular way to get customer feedback about their shopping/product/service experience is to have them fill out a survey. These surveys typically have incentives such as a free product/service, discount coupon or some other prize. More recently, surveys are administered online, as opposed to having customers fill them out on paper and mailing them in. Soliciting customer feedback in this way is a very cost effective approach. However it has a few drawbacks:
1. A particular type of customer is more likely to fill out these surveys. Typically a young student or lower income class.
2. Based on how the survey is to be filled out (internet vs. mail-in) will also determine the type of customer that responds.
this will result in the survey data being skewed to over represent this particular type(s) of customer. One just needs to be aware of this effect and have other avenues to collect customer feedback for the other customer types.
A popular way to get customer feedback about their shopping/product/service experience is to have them fill out a survey. These surveys typically have incentives such as a free product/service, discount coupon or some other prize. More recently, surveys are administered online, as opposed to having customers fill them out on paper and mailing them in. Soliciting customer feedback in this way is a very cost effective approach. However it has a few drawbacks:
1. A particular type of customer is more likely to fill out these surveys. Typically a young student or lower income class.
2. Based on how the survey is to be filled out (internet vs. mail-in) will also determine the type of customer that responds.
this will result in the survey data being skewed to over represent this particular type(s) of customer. One just needs to be aware of this effect and have other avenues to collect customer feedback for the other customer types.
Social class based buying behaviour
As learnt in class, we know a few behaviour traits based on social class.
Car seating: The scenario is that there are two couples heading for a night out. They are all in the same car. The seating arrangement they chose is dependent on their class as follows:
Upper Class: The couples swap partners when sitting beside them in the car
Middle Class: The couples sit with their own partners beside them in the car
Lower Class: The men and the women sit beside each other.
I researched social class based differences in purchasing consumables. It was found that social classes differ in their buying behavior independent of their economic resources. Also it is not a general differentiation, rather it is based on the type of food and drinking.
Upper class households spent more money for fruits, vegetables and dairy products and significantly less money for meat, eggs, spices, coffee and tea, and tobacco than lower class households. No significant differences between upper class and lower class can be found in relation to expenditures for fish, fats, sugar, wheat and potato products and non-alcoholic beverages.
This information can be used when deciding pricing and products to carry in a supermarket.
For e.g. one can charge a premium price, or can sell premium products in the fruits, vegetables and dairy products category when targeting the upper class. Similarly, when catering to the lower class, one should try to offer cheaper alternatives for the same product categories. Advertising can also be catered towards a particular social class based on the product type.
Source:
The melting away of class differences? Consumption differences between employee groups in Finland, 1955-1985.
Timo Toivonen | Social Indicators Research | 1992-0526:n3, | 277(26) |
Social class differences in food and drinking expenditures:
Change and stability in West-Germany 1969 to 2003
Papastefanou, Georgios (ZUMA, P.O. Box 122155; D-68072 Mannheim,
papastefanou@zuma-mannheim.de, www.gesis.org/zuma)
Grund, Thomas (University of Trier, FB IV - Sociology, Universitätsring 15, 54286 Trier,
thomas.grund@gmx.de, www.uni-trier.de/uni/fb4/soziologie/faecher/amk)
Car seating: The scenario is that there are two couples heading for a night out. They are all in the same car. The seating arrangement they chose is dependent on their class as follows:
Upper Class: The couples swap partners when sitting beside them in the car
Middle Class: The couples sit with their own partners beside them in the car
Lower Class: The men and the women sit beside each other.
I researched social class based differences in purchasing consumables. It was found that social classes differ in their buying behavior independent of their economic resources. Also it is not a general differentiation, rather it is based on the type of food and drinking.
Upper class households spent more money for fruits, vegetables and dairy products and significantly less money for meat, eggs, spices, coffee and tea, and tobacco than lower class households. No significant differences between upper class and lower class can be found in relation to expenditures for fish, fats, sugar, wheat and potato products and non-alcoholic beverages.
This information can be used when deciding pricing and products to carry in a supermarket.
For e.g. one can charge a premium price, or can sell premium products in the fruits, vegetables and dairy products category when targeting the upper class. Similarly, when catering to the lower class, one should try to offer cheaper alternatives for the same product categories. Advertising can also be catered towards a particular social class based on the product type.
Source:
The melting away of class differences? Consumption differences between employee groups in Finland, 1955-1985.
Timo Toivonen | Social Indicators Research | 1992-0526:n3, | 277(26) |
Social class differences in food and drinking expenditures:
Change and stability in West-Germany 1969 to 2003
Papastefanou, Georgios (ZUMA, P.O. Box 122155; D-68072 Mannheim,
papastefanou@zuma-mannheim.de, www.gesis.org/zuma)
Grund, Thomas (University of Trier, FB IV - Sociology, Universitätsring 15, 54286 Trier,
thomas.grund@gmx.de, www.uni-trier.de/uni/fb4/soziologie/faecher/amk)
What does the top 1% own in the US
Some facts:
- The increase in wealth of the top 1% is more than the total wealth of the bottom 20% of the US population.
- The top 1% paid 27% of all federal taxes.
- The top 1% had 18% of all income in the US.
- The top 5% own 59% of all the wealth (back in 1998). That means they own more wealth than the rest of the 95% of the people.
Root Cause Analysis
Root Cause Analysis ( RCA) is a method of problem solving that concentrates on identifying and solving the root causes of problems rather than just addressing the obvious symptoms.
Common RCA techniques are 5 Whys, Pareto Analysis, Cause and Effect diagram or fishbone diagram.
The 5 Whys method is based on empirical evidence that it takes five "why" questions, asked sequentially, each to the answer of the previous why question, to get to the root cause of a problem. However the no. 5 is just symbolic, it could be 3 or 10.
Pareto Analysis is based on the Pareto principal which states that 80% of the events are caused by 20% of the possible causes for those events. It involves arranging the causes by their freq. and then working on the top 20% frequent causes.
The 5 Whys technique can be applied to the Iridium failure as follows:
1. Why was Iridium shutdown?
Ans: It could not meet the $90 million bond payment, so the bank ordered it to be shutdown.
2. Why could Iridium not meet the $90 million bond payment.
Ans: It could not find enough subscribers for its service, hence there was a scant revenue stream for Iridium.
3. Why did Iridium not find enough subscribers for its service
Ans: It did not work as advertised, was not available anywhere in the world, had heavy handsets, did not work indoors, voice quality was poor and the airtime charge was too high for customers to be interested.
4. Why did Iridium have the issues addressed above?
Ans: Inaccurate/insufficient market research. They should have known beforehand that the handsets had to have been lighter, and the price point was too high for widespread adoption. The technical feasibility study, of meeting the standards for availability and voice quality expected by the customer, was found wanting.
5. Why was the market research / technical feasibility study not performed to standards?
Ans: Insufficient importance given, maybe due to inefficient management.
Since, then Iridium has been brought out of bankruptcy and is now called Iridium Satellite LLC. A privately held company. It has seen continuous growth in its subscribers, currently reporting them as 225,000. The calling rate seems to have been reduced to around $1.5/per min. and it boasts of voice quality 3 times better than its competitors. It is however, difficult to know how the voice quality compares to regular cellphones.
Common RCA techniques are 5 Whys, Pareto Analysis, Cause and Effect diagram or fishbone diagram.
The 5 Whys method is based on empirical evidence that it takes five "why" questions, asked sequentially, each to the answer of the previous why question, to get to the root cause of a problem. However the no. 5 is just symbolic, it could be 3 or 10.
Pareto Analysis is based on the Pareto principal which states that 80% of the events are caused by 20% of the possible causes for those events. It involves arranging the causes by their freq. and then working on the top 20% frequent causes.
The 5 Whys technique can be applied to the Iridium failure as follows:
1. Why was Iridium shutdown?
Ans: It could not meet the $90 million bond payment, so the bank ordered it to be shutdown.
2. Why could Iridium not meet the $90 million bond payment.
Ans: It could not find enough subscribers for its service, hence there was a scant revenue stream for Iridium.
3. Why did Iridium not find enough subscribers for its service
Ans: It did not work as advertised, was not available anywhere in the world, had heavy handsets, did not work indoors, voice quality was poor and the airtime charge was too high for customers to be interested.
4. Why did Iridium have the issues addressed above?
Ans: Inaccurate/insufficient market research. They should have known beforehand that the handsets had to have been lighter, and the price point was too high for widespread adoption. The technical feasibility study, of meeting the standards for availability and voice quality expected by the customer, was found wanting.
5. Why was the market research / technical feasibility study not performed to standards?
Ans: Insufficient importance given, maybe due to inefficient management.
Since, then Iridium has been brought out of bankruptcy and is now called Iridium Satellite LLC. A privately held company. It has seen continuous growth in its subscribers, currently reporting them as 225,000. The calling rate seems to have been reduced to around $1.5/per min. and it boasts of voice quality 3 times better than its competitors. It is however, difficult to know how the voice quality compares to regular cellphones.
Mental maps
Mental maps for consumers are generally used with existing brands to see what they associate the brand with, how they see it. One possible use could also be to serve as a guidance for advertising strategy. Marketing could decide what the target mental map is, and then the promotion can be adjusted to target those associations.
From class discussion: Setting the brand name rather than the product name's perception. For e.g. Heinz as a soup sounds right, but Heinz as a anti-freeze doesnt fit.
From class discussion: Setting the brand name rather than the product name's perception. For e.g. Heinz as a soup sounds right, but Heinz as a anti-freeze doesnt fit.
Cultural and Social influences on customer behaviour
As someone from South Asia, It has always amazed me how varied the taste palate of the average American is. The average american enjoys very varied tastes, from "bland" european styles, to raw fish from Japan, to the spicy stuff from South and South east asia. I personally know of very few people from South Asia who enjoy such a varied taste palate. We generally tend to like similar food, hence cuisines like mexican, thai, arabic, persian, lebanese, jamaican food is very popular.
Also, people from South Asia tend to cook a lot more at home and hence infrequently eat out as compared to people from America, Europe or Japan.
Also, people from South Asia tend to cook a lot more at home and hence infrequently eat out as compared to people from America, Europe or Japan.
Census results for Allegheny County
I was very surprised with the ancestry data. The most common seems to be German. I really expected Irish or Italian to be the dominant ancestry origin.
I am surprised that the asian indian community is only 1000 strong. Being acquainted more closely with this community (being an Indian), I wouldnt be surprised if the no. is larger. It would make sense if the census did not count students, or only considers US citizens, which doesnt seem to be the case after looking at some other statistics.
I am surprised that the asian indian community is only 1000 strong. Being acquainted more closely with this community (being an Indian), I wouldnt be surprised if the no. is larger. It would make sense if the census did not count students, or only considers US citizens, which doesnt seem to be the case after looking at some other statistics.
Monday, January 21, 2008
market demand vs company demand
Market demand is an industry wide function, used to determine the total market for a particular
product type offered by the industry. It is generally looked at as a function of the industry marketing expenditure.
Company demand looks at the estimated share of the market demand that the company holds for alternative levels of marketing effort. Its basically looking at the company's part of the pie in a marketing demand function. It gives an idea of how the company's product fares against its competitors, and can be used to determine effectiveness of its marketing programs compared to its competitors, if the products themselves aren't easily differentiated.
( Q for class; how would one determine the industry marketing expenditure?
Is industry expenditure the only factor with which marketing demand can be plotted? )
Ans: You would look at the financial reports of your competitors. Sometimes industry umberella groups may publish such reports for the consumption of all members.
product type offered by the industry. It is generally looked at as a function of the industry marketing expenditure.
Company demand looks at the estimated share of the market demand that the company holds for alternative levels of marketing effort. Its basically looking at the company's part of the pie in a marketing demand function. It gives an idea of how the company's product fares against its competitors, and can be used to determine effectiveness of its marketing programs compared to its competitors, if the products themselves aren't easily differentiated.
( Q for class; how would one determine the industry marketing expenditure?
Is industry expenditure the only factor with which marketing demand can be plotted? )
Ans: You would look at the financial reports of your competitors. Sometimes industry umberella groups may publish such reports for the consumption of all members.
Research Process and Research Instruments
I have been involved in market research ( we called it requirements analysis/user research) when we were developing a new software for researchers and Tissue Bank support staff, to help them get faster and more accurate access to the pathology report archive. I was responsible for defining the user experience for the software.
We pretty much followed the research process as documented in the book. Our steps were:
1. Define the goals for the research.
2. Identify what information/knowledge we need and lack.
3. Identify the best people who could provide that knowledge.
4. Choose a information collection approach. We chose observational research, and semi-structured personal interviews
5. Gather information.
6. Analyze information and extract requirements.
7. Use analysis in deciding on the product features.
Our choice of research instruments helped us gather different kinds of information. Our observational research data gave us valuable insights into the day to day functioning of the tissue bank and a comparision to existing tools that they used. However this did not capture all the user problems, and user desires. These were elicited from the user through a structured interview which had both open and close ended questions. However, since it was a personal interview, the interviewer could further investigate each choice made by the user and note additional comments that helped us understand the user's thought process better.
We pretty much followed the research process as documented in the book. Our steps were:
1. Define the goals for the research.
2. Identify what information/knowledge we need and lack.
3. Identify the best people who could provide that knowledge.
4. Choose a information collection approach. We chose observational research, and semi-structured personal interviews
5. Gather information.
6. Analyze information and extract requirements.
7. Use analysis in deciding on the product features.
Our choice of research instruments helped us gather different kinds of information. Our observational research data gave us valuable insights into the day to day functioning of the tissue bank and a comparision to existing tools that they used. However this did not capture all the user problems, and user desires. These were elicited from the user through a structured interview which had both open and close ended questions. However, since it was a personal interview, the interviewer could further investigate each choice made by the user and note additional comments that helped us understand the user's thought process better.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Using Swarm intelligence to improve sales
From wikipedia, a reference to this article:
"Swarming the shelves: How shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales"
Found it at:
http://xinkaishi.typepad.com/a_new_start/2006/11/economist_psych_1.html
The main idea here is to use swarm intelligence to help increase sales. Swarm intelligence is the theory of how humans behave in the presence of a crowd or swarm. Consumers tend to buy products that they perceive to be more popular among the crowd. A well known example of this is downloading online songs. Songs that have been downloaded a lot of times generally tend to get downloaded more often than the others. I think this is because, when trying to decide between two products, it is always nice to have some external confirmation that you made the right choice. Getting a product that is more popular seems like a safer choice.
The article talks about utilizing this phenomenon to increase sales by informing the customers about which products are bought more.
"Swarming the shelves: How shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales"
Found it at:
http://xinkaishi.typepad.com/a_new_start/2006/11/economist_psych_1.html
The main idea here is to use swarm intelligence to help increase sales. Swarm intelligence is the theory of how humans behave in the presence of a crowd or swarm. Consumers tend to buy products that they perceive to be more popular among the crowd. A well known example of this is downloading online songs. Songs that have been downloaded a lot of times generally tend to get downloaded more often than the others. I think this is because, when trying to decide between two products, it is always nice to have some external confirmation that you made the right choice. Getting a product that is more popular seems like a safer choice.
The article talks about utilizing this phenomenon to increase sales by informing the customers about which products are bought more.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing
Did a search for what is Marketing and came up to this Wikipedia page. The first lines confirm that my new understanding of what marketing is is accurate. ( Assuming ofcourse that the Wikipedia page is accurate) - Need to read the textbook once I get it to confirm this.
Did a search for what is Marketing and came up to this Wikipedia page. The first lines confirm that my new understanding of what marketing is is accurate. ( Assuming ofcourse that the Wikipedia page is accurate) - Need to read the textbook once I get it to confirm this.
The 4Ps of Marketing.
http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/
Coming into this, I used to think that marketing is the process of making the target market aware of the product/service you are trying to sell. It seems like that is just one of the Ps (Promotion), I would now revise my definition of marketing as "the work done to decide on the right product for the right market and then all the work that is involved in making the consumer aware of the product and getting it into the hands of the consumer.
http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/
Coming into this, I used to think that marketing is the process of making the target market aware of the product/service you are trying to sell. It seems like that is just one of the Ps (Promotion), I would now revise my definition of marketing as "the work done to decide on the right product for the right market and then all the work that is involved in making the consumer aware of the product and getting it into the hands of the consumer.
And then there was a blog
As I learn about Marketing Management during the course of the next 14 weeks, I will use this blog as a place to collect my thoughts on what I learn. Typically, I will make posts as I read, learn and explore the week's assignments, and then also post after I attend the class, on if and how my thinking was changed after listening to my classmates and the teacher express their opinions.
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