Causes of Falling Sales

Marketing Research The author of this report has been asked to consider a hypothetical situation where a fictional company has experienced a loss of ten percent of its revenue and now must pick up the pieces and figure out why such a large chunk of its sales have disappeared. This will involve market research to figure out what happened. This has to be done so as to figure out why people in the market are picking different products.

This has to be done so that the company in question for this report can adjust their marketing and/or the product itself so as to get market share back and thus revenue. It could also be the case that the product in question is starting to become or has become obsolete and thus it needs to be updated or completely replaced by something else.

While the reason for the revenue fall could be a number of different things, the precise and complete answer needs to be figured out and the proper reactions need to be crafted and deployed. Analysis When it comes to a product losing favor in the marketplace, there are a number of things it could be. The fictional company up for review in this report is a consumer electronics company and the product in question is a non-4k LED HD TV.

While 4k has come onto the market, non-4k televisions are still fairly strong. However, there are new streaming and other product options that emerge onto the market each year. As such, the company might need to be cognizant of that and react accordingly. While the non-4k HD television market is starting to be replaced by the 4k televisions, there is most certainly a multi-tiered marketplace.

Indeed, when the flat screen televisions first came out in the form of plasma television, the older cathode tube televisions did not disappear right away. However, they are obviously gone now but there have been many changes in the television marketplace beyond that. This includes a shift from plasma to LCD and LED televisions. Resolution started at 720p and eventually extended to 1080i and 1080p. Nowadays, there is 4k to consider.

The point is that the 1080p televisions of today are not relics as of yet but there is a movement beyond them already started. It stands to reason that 4k televisions will be the norm at some future point (Adalian, 2015). Given the above, it has to be figured out why the sales for the company's television is falling. One possible explanation if price point. If the television in question is not priced right from a market standpoint, it will not sell.

The company should look at comparable products and see where they are priced and how they are dong from a sales standpoint. If the price of the company's television is too high, it will need to be lowered. This may be perilous to do if the television's profit margin is slim. However, this should not be a problem if the television is in line with the other products in the market sector in terms of cost of making and typical sale price.

If the current model is not viable from that standpoint, something else will need to be figured out (Lovering, 2015). Another possibility is that the features and the traits of the television make it too obsolete. This is entirely possible but not likely. Again, there are several tiers in the television marketplace and it is probably more about pricing for the right tier rather than throwing out the television as a product that can still be marketed.

Even so, if the current television is clearly out of phase in terms of features and options, then perhaps a new model should be considered. It could very well be the case that the television is in the decline state of its product life cycle and thus something new, or at least an incremental update, should be considered and rendered. Beyond that, there should be a system of planned obsolescence. Rather than being resisted, it has to be accepted and embraced that a product will become obsolete (Spinks, 2015).

Another possibility is that the product is clearly out of touch with what the consumers want. For example, one of the last gasps that Blockbuster used before it folded and was acquired by Dish Network was its streaming option. This only came after a chance to buy Netflix in its infancy (they said no) and there clearly has not been a shift to the Blockbuster online product as other applications like Plex, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and Vudu have clearly dominated the marketplace.

It is to the point that a new entrant into that market would face a very tough road. Indeed, there are other applications like HBO Go and others, but Blockbuster clearly failed. They clung onto the physical video store model for entirely too long and they paid for it with their existence. Regional video stores still exist but the model is obsolete in general.

If the fictional company in this report is facing that, then they need to get with the time immediately or they will face the same fate as Blockbuster. For example, if the television in question is 720p and the vast majority of televisions in general are 1080p or better, the company needs to make a change (McCracken, 2015). Finally, there should be a study of the company's brand image. There could be focus groups done on what customers feels about the company and its products.

If the words "obsolete" and "cheap" come up too much, this is a telltale sign that the company is deemed out of touch and/or inferior as compared to other modern companies. This is similar to the real and concrete status of being out of touch. However, the perception of being that way is just as dangerous and must be dealt with. The marketing and business model might very well need to change.