Brand
Essays

Wal-Mart has several strengths from which it can pursue its vision. The first of these strengths is its brand. Wal-Mart's brand is easily recognizable in most of its markets. The brand association of low cost goods is…

The paper is basically on the evolution of technology from the 1980s to the present date. It highlights the various technological changes that have taken place and the forces behind them, the process of maturity and the achievements that they have brought to the current world. It also looks at the challenges involved in this process.

Databases and Privacy: An Ethical Issue for Marketers

The catalyst for growth in both manufacturing and services small businesses is the nurturing continual strengthening of teams. Far from a panacea to the pains of small businesses, teamwork is one of the most demanding…

Five Forces Analysis: What is your industry definition? Why?

A budget apart from being a coordinated and comprehensive financial plan for the resources and operations of a given future period is also intended to promote the managerial functions of control and planning. Over the years a budget has been perceived as a tool for forced planning as it constitutes the most important and basic management functions since other managerial functions such as staffing, organizing, controlling and directing are dependent on effective planning. Planning entails aligning company goals and objectives and finding out means in attaining these. Besides, decision making being at the heart of planning, effective strategies and policies must be able to contribute to the objectives and plans.

In his article on environmental scanning and its effect on competitive strategy and organizational performance in small firms, Beal (2000) completed a thorough literature review to serve as the theoretical foundation of…

As the only element in the marketing mix that directly relates to generating revenue, this article examines the pricing strategy of Starbucks Corporation. The paper has two major segments with the first one exploring these pricing strategies and the role of discounting at the company. The other part provides a brief discussion of the SWOT analysis of Starbucks product/brand pricing.

There are several significant advantages of using qualitative measurements in marketing research. The most significant is the ability to capture the voice of customers that may have evaded the more structured, numerically-based approaches that force respondents to provide a specific set of answers. Qualitative research can also lead to entirely new insights into a new market or service that has not been seen in the past, given the open-ended questions inherent in this approach to research. Qualitative research techniques also can be used to capture the shared knowledge of experts as well, as the Delphi Technique is so well-known and used for. Capturing the tacit expertise and knowledge of a specific group of thought leaders can also be accomplished using qualitative techniques as well. Additional advantages of qualitative measurements include the ability to complete greater exploratory or primary research into a specific subject, often following a specific line of questions as they develop within an interview. An additional advantage of qualitative research techniques are the ability to understand how prospects and customers make trade-offs on substitute products and services. While price elasticity studies are often highly quantitative in scope, the use of interactive discussions of pricing trade-offs can be highly effective in determining just how much a prospect is willing to sacrifice price for a given feature or benefit. The total value of a brand can also be ascertained through the use of these types of qualitative techniques, providing respondents with the ability to define in their own terms the value of the experience a brand delivers. The many advantages of qualitative research are predicated on having more interactive sessions with respondents, including the ability to ascertain how they make trade-offs over time on value versus price. For the many advantages of qualitative measurements, there are several disadvantages as well. First, the results of any study predicated on this approach cannot be analyzed at the higher levels of statistical analysis. As the results of studies and research completed with qualitative measurements are by nature not nominal, ordinal or interval in terms of data orthogonality, they cannot be used to represent an entire customer or segment population. At best they can be used as a means to capture nominally-based data that can lead to only a rough approximation of an overall market size or series of market dynamics. Qualitative data can only be as useful as the means used to capture it as well; if a methodology is very informal and focused on a series of loosely-guided objectives, the overall data will of mediocre quality at best. When the goals and objectives of a research study, in addition to the sampling frame and methodology lack rigor or precise focus, the resulting research can also lack precision and meaning. It is more difficult to create greater levels of meaning and transferability of data when the methodologies are highly qualitative in scope; the data is only relevant for a specific series of objectives and often is defined by applicability to a given point in time as well. Qualitative data is often also open to interpretation, as the methodology can be debated in terms of its relative appropriateness, robustness and value over the long-term. Finally, qualitative data cannot be taken entirely on its own; it must be combined with a series of other research sources to ensure relevancy and accuracy of interpretation, especially over time. In conclusion, qualitative data needs to be taken in context and often balanced with quantitative data to ensure a 360-degree view of a given situation or strategy of interest has the greater level of insights gained from research efforts.

The intent of this analysis is to evaluate the history and core business of Amazon.com and Border's Books, comparing and contrasting their respective management approaches related to Internet marketing include…