Marketing Report: Notype and Remindme Products

...

Success in Year Three

The next period allowed us to control the amount of commission our sales representatives earned. We agreed that positive reinforcement would yield the most productivity and decided to reward our employees with the highest commission possible (15%). We were right; our sales representatives were highly motivated and we experienced a large increase in net sales, which launched our share of market sales to 40.6%. We were the most profitable in the industry.

Introducing a New Product

Our next big decision came in period five when we had the option of introducing a new product – the DVC. Because it was such a big step, we decided to wait and watch our competitor's performance on the new product and learn from their mistakes. We ordered three reports to gain insight as to how our competitors designed their new DVC, what price they were selling it for and how they were advertising it. Then, in period six, we introduced our own DVC branding it "RemindMe". Our sales were decent; however, the expenses of introducing our new product proved too much to yield a profit. During period seven, we dropped our prices about $25 dollars and kept our expenses low by not adjusting the product design. By doing this, we finally turned a profit on our new product.

Who We Sold To, Who We Sold With & the Environment We Sold InCustomer Analysis

As stated in the previous section, our target market was initially the modern students. Ironically enough, although our product design was intentionally catered towards students, the student market was not the most successful market we sold to. We were best targeted the assistants in the beginning periods, then leveled out to a broad success with all six markets: the students, home users, assistants, creators, managers and parents. The following figures are results of three Market Share by Segment reports ordered from periods one, two and five.

Period One:

********** Report 1: Market Share By Segment **********

VRD Students Home Users Assistants Creators Managers Parents

----- -------- ---------- ---------- -------- -------- -------

NoType 0.027 0.072 0.105 0.056 0.082 0.083

Period Two:

********** Report 1: Market Share By Segment **********

VRD Students Home Users Assistants Creators Managers Parents

----- -------- ---------- ---------- -------- -------- -------

notype 0.138 0.251 0.306 0.174 0.201 0.266

Period Five:

********** Report 1: Market Share By Segment **********

Brand Students Home Users Assistants Creators Managers Parents

----- -------- ---------- ---------- -------- -------- -------

notype 0.242 0.281 0.296 0.266 0.289 0.284

As you can see, sales drastically shifted markets as time went on. This is both because of the changes we made to our marketing mix, as well as the way our competitors performed in the industry.

Competitor Analysis

In our opinion, one of the most difficult things to do was to monitor our competition and attempt to outperform their possible decisions. Our main competition was with the product called VRD3000. The firm behind this product spent 50 times the amount of money in advertising than we did during the first period. We think this was because they quickly jumped ahead in sales. Our competition with them remained tight over the next seven periods. This is because they successfully targeted almost all markets, similar to us towards the later periods. They also had a greater number of sales representatives, a lower price for their product, and a slightly different product design (the VRD3000 had a higher number of special commands, whereas we claimed a higher error protection). Currently, they are more successful than our firm; perhaps your team will find a way to gain the lead.

Market Analysis

Reflecting on these past eight periods, the VRD market has truly developed and changed. We started with "NoType" during its growth stage and shaped it as best we could to evolve into a "star" product with the hope it would land as a "cash cow" (refer to the Boston Consulting Group's Growth-Share Matrix). We predict the different industries and market as a whole to be profitable for the next four to five years, most likely until the next advancement within this field of technology occurs.

On the other hand, the new DVC devices prove to be a young and promising market to be involved in. Currently, there are only two firms competing in this industry. First this will mean intense competition but if marketed correctly, perhaps an exciting chance of monopolizing the market will be possible.

Learning from Our Mistakes

Revising our Strategies

In terms of revisions we made to our strategies, which were previously presented (refer to “Science to our Strategies” section), we only revised our target market. We initially tried to focus on the students but attracted the assistants. However, this was good for us because they are willing to spend more money on our product, which brought in higher revenues for us. Once we were able to acclimate ourselves, we moved forward with a new, more knowledgeable understanding of our customers’ wants.

The two other strategies remained in tact throughout the term: the conservation of our slush fund and our 15% commission rate for our sales representatives were both successful. We recommend you continue these two strategies.

The Good and The Bad

Overall, we have been pleased with our performance. We’d like to highlight a few things we think we’ve done correctly, as well as a few things we would’ve done differently. Take them into account and use this information in your future.

Successes

In terms of success, we generally made good decisions after analyzing other team's numbers from reports we ordered. This information allowed us to capitalize on the moves they made.

...