Marketing and services marketing overview

Marketing Summaries

Mattioli, D. (2011). Grocers Are Testing Smartphones. Wall Street Journal. Accessed 10 October 2011. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903532804576568811114380144.html

This article details the increasing use of technological innovations and integrations, and particularly the use of smartphone applications, in the marketing and sales promotion of items at individual grocery stores. In other words, grocers and other retailers are looking at ways to maximize on the way the people utilize smartphone technologies as well as at new ways in which consumers could use "apps" and other smartphone-based information to be directed towards specific purchases. For example, some retailers are looking at ways that people use comparative shopping features and experimenting to see if there is a way this could be done in a manner that allows for the marketing of additional like-items, or create larger purchases overall; sometimes it is believed that simply having more information available in the modern age can help a retailer (or a manufacturer) make a sale.

A major problem for many retailers has been that despite knowing about the importance of technological adaptations and having additional information available for consumers, costs have seemed prohibitive. The low margins in the retail grocery industry do not leave a lot of room for innovation in marketing strategies, especially when the costs of technology are seen as so high. With smartphones, though, the costs of creating information and avenues of access for consumers are minimal, as long as the right methods are employed.

These methods finally appear to be emerging, and this means that retailers will be able to better direct and better predict sales through the concentration and aggregation of their marketing efforts and new smartphone software. From accessing competing prices, companion offers, and basic product information through the use of Quick Response Codes to helping customers find items in stores, retailers are hoping that these new marketing technologies will both cut costs and increase sales at a time when economic uncertainty is still creating major worries for the industry. Increasing efficiency and effectiveness is always the name of the game in business, and it is of paramount importance in the current era; utilizing the now near-ubiquitous technology of smartphones and their applications is a must for savvy grocers.

Mourdoukoutas, P. (2011). How Greek Yogurt Captured the American Market: The other Half of the CNBC Story. Forbes. Accessed 10 October 2011. http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2011/07/22/how-greek-yogurt-captured-the-american-market-the-other-half-of-the-cnbc-story/

Greek Yogurt, which was all but unheard of in the United States less than half a decade ago, now outsells traditional yogurt giants by wide margins and is an enormously popular product. This article details the rise of this product, tracing its popularity back to the first importer of FAGE brand Greek yogurt, a small retailer in New York City. Simple word of mouth from his Greek-Americna customers to others saw sales of FAGE rapidly expand, and from their the product really took off.

Kostas Mastoras first started importing the yogurt following a trip to Greece for the tasting and purchasing for feta cheese for his shop. By 2000, he was importing so much that FAGE approached him about starting a joint venture to distribute their product trhoughoutthe U.S.. Though FAGE and Mastoras could not agree on terms, FAGE did open a U.S. distribution subsidiary and Mastroas continued to sell the product at his New York locations and worked with the team at FAGE to develop the product for the American market. The lower fat and non-fat options that were developed in part at Mastoras' insistence became FAGE's most popular sellers, and when Trader Joe's and Whole Foods began carrying the product demand increased so significantly that FAGE was no longer able to keep up.