Lecture Mail: Lesson 3 Day 3
Hi All!
Did you read/hear that Target, Wal-Mart and a number of other retailers will
begin to collect state sales taxes for on-line purchases? State governments
and brick and mortar establishments are happy. How do you think e-tailers will
react to the news?
On with our discussion of chapter 3. Check and use the bulletin board, http://www.aug.edu/~sbamdm/marketing/discus/index.html
when you’re confused about
a topic.
Our previous discussion talked about
examining the value chain for ways to improve process. Today we’re looking
at another source of new ideas: consumers. Traditionally, consumer product companies
have relied on end-users to prompt ideas for new or improved products. Sources
have included everything from videotaping consumers using products, questionnaires,
to 1-800 numbers. (Did it occur to you that customer complaints via 1-800 phone
calls are a great source of product improvement ideas?)
Now, think how the Internet has altered or added to this process. It is a phenomenal
resource that can track what consumers actually buy, what they would like, the
unique forms or combinations they prefer, as well as a source for compliments
and complaints. There are lots of examples. Two are provided below. Hard Candy
sells cosmetics to young adult women and Callaway sells clubs to golfers. Both
sites collect information on which products visitors are most interested in.
Both collect zip-code data; both encourage visitors to e-mail the companies
with information about preferences, ideas, questions, so on and so-forth. Not
only does this information help in the modification and design of products,
but it also helps segment the consumer market in several different ways. It
provides demographic information that could be useful for segmenting purposes,
and it provides usage information that could lead to segmenting based on application
or benefits.
Find a web-site for a company that you think does a good job of collecting information
about consumers that could ultimately be used either to improve products/services
or to segment the market.
****Key Links*****
http://www.callawaygolf.com/index.asp
http://www.hardcandy.com