Q2 ( b )

Sales forecasting is a self-assessment tool for a company. You have to keep taking
the pulse of your company to know how healthy it is. A sales forecast reports,
graphs and analyzes the pulse of your business. It can make the difference between
just surviving and being highly successful in business. It is a vital cornerstone of a
company's budget. The future direction of the company may rest on the accuracy of
your sales forecasting.

Companies that implement accurate sales forecasting processes realize important

benefits such as:

 Enhanced cash flow

 Knowing when and how much to buy
 In-depth knowledge of customers and the products they order
 The ability to plan for production and capacity
 The ability to identify the pattern or trend of sales
 Determine the value of a business above the value of its current assets
 Ability to determine the expected return on investment

The combination of these benefits may result in:

 Increased revenue
 Increased customer retention
 Decreased costs
 Increased efficiency

For sales forecasting to be valuable to your business, it must not be treated as an

isolated exercise. Rather, it must be integrated into all facets of your organization.

Sales forecasts are also an important part of starting a new business. Almost all new
businesses need loans or start-up capital to purchase everything necessary to get off the
ground: office space, equipment, inventory, employee salaries and marketing. You can't just
walk into a bank with a bright idea and lots of enthusiasm. You need to show them numbers that
prove your business is viable. In other words, you need a business plan.

Importance of Sales Forecasting:

According to Stanton, Etzel and Walker, has been prepared when the sales forecast, covering all
departments of the company. The sales forecast is the basis for deciding how much to spend on
various activities such as advertising and personal sales. With advance sales of the planned
amount of working capital, the use of the plant and storage facilities. These forecasts are also
dependent on the timing of production, hiring workers and purchasing manufacturing materials.
Q3 ( a )

Market segmentation is a concept in economics and marketing. A market segment is a sub-set

of a market made up of people or organizations sharing one or more characteristics that cause
them to demand similar product and/or services based on qualities of those products such as price
or function. A true market segment meets all of the following criteria: it is distinct from other
segments (different segments have different needs), it is homogeneous within the segment
(exhibits common needs); it responds similarly to a market stimulus, and it can be reached by a
market intervention. The term is also used when consumers with identical product and/or service
needs are divided up into groups so they can be charged different amounts. These can broadly be
viewed as 'positive' and 'negative' applications of the same idea, splitting up the market into
smaller groups.

The market-segmentation concept.

The underlying principle of market segmentation is that individual customers have different
product and service needs. Mass marketing, the marketing of a single product to everyone, is
rarely a viable strategy, just as it is to customize products to an individual.

IMPORTANT NOTE- SEE ON DESKTOP ABOUT THE CONCEPT.

Q3 ( b )
Marketers will quickly recognize the early concept of product positioning as nothing more than
the established practice of product differentiation. Referenced in the above statement, however,
are two additional positioning concepts, both external in nature: “company (image) positioning”
and “positioning within the prospect’s mind.”

An examination of the use of the term positioning reveals that it is not a single, distinct concept at
all; positioning includes a variety of concepts, often closely related, and it is almost as versatile as
the term marketing strategy. Therefore, perhaps the term that provides the most universal
coverage of positioning is positioning strategy. The scope of this term is sufficiently broad to
encompass both internal and external positioning, positioning as a conceptual vehicle, “head-on”
positioning, social accountability positioning, and all of the variations within these and other
positioning concepts.

Positioning Strategy

The concept of positioning is subject to considerable differences in interpretation.

Therefore, one would expect much disagreement as to what constitutes proper
positioning strategy. For the most part, positioning strategy is used in such general
terms as to be essentially the same thing as the target selection and consequent
promotional aspects of marketing strategy. Only occasionally does someone such as
Achenbaum attempt a definitive analysis of any significantly aspect of positioning
strategy.3 The Achenbaum treatment of the strategy of brand/product positioning is
exceptionally good with respect to the need for research as necessary foundation for
brand-positioning strategy.

Although they are not always clear as to the actual meaning of the various concepts, a
number of marketing experts appear to agree that positioning provides a useful
vehicle for the interpretation of various elements of marketing strategy. Some tend to
stress a single model of positioning, while others appear to offer a mixture of
concepts. For example, one article on product positioning contained the following
recommendation:
Position your product in the marketplace so that it stands apart from
competing brands. You can cover that consumer space as if you had a
patent on it. Find a strong product position and sit on it. Positioning tells
what you stand for, what you are, how you would like customers to evaluate
you. Your position telegraphs the simple truth of your products.4
Different types of PRODUCT STRATEGY

ANS- BOOK PK & GA

Page no- 224, 225 & 226.

Different types of Product positioning

Although there are different definitions of Positioning, probably the most common is: identifying
a market niche for a brand, product or service utilizing traditional marketing placement strategies
(i.e. price, promotion, distribution, packaging, and competition).

Positioning is a concept in marketing which was first popularized by Al Ries and Jack Trout in
their bestseller book " Positioning - The Battle for Your Mind."

Product positioning process

Generally, the product positioning process involves:

1. Defining the market in which the product or brand will compete (who the relevant buyers
are)
2. Identifying the attributes (also called dimensions) that define the product 'space'
3. Collecting information from a sample of customers about their perceptions of each product
on the relevant attributes
4. Determine each product's share of mind
5. Determine each product's current location in the product space
6. Determine the target market's preferred combination of attributes (referred to as an ideal
vector)
7. Examine the fit between:
o The position of your product
o The position of the ideal vector
8. Position.
Q4 ( A )

In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or
need. In retailing, products are called merchandise. In manufacturing, products are purchased as
raw materials and sold as finished goods. Commodities are usually raw materials such as metals
and agricultural products, but a commodity can also be anything widely available in the open
market.

TOTAL PRODUCT CONCEPT

The total product concept

An important product concept is, of course, that of the product itself. We already know from our
early definition of marketing that we are not in the business of selling products, but in the business
of satisfying customers' needs and wants.

Thus a product can be more precisely referred to as the total product concept , and one that
contains three levels:

 the core product, that is the benefits which are being purchased
 the actual product, that is the tangible item(s)
 the augmented product, that is the service components and intangibles.

product "newness"

The degree of newness to both the buyer and the seller impacts the amount of risk taken and
influences the way the new product development process is managed, it depends on who is
making the assessment: the buyer or the seller.

Can one identify the major characteristics of the product class that facilitate or hinder the initial
success of new products? Answer to this question should be of considerable interest to marketing
managements in India who would be in a better position to assess the chances of success or failure
of a new product, given some knowledge of the relevant characteristics of the product category
they intend entering with a new product or brand. The research reported here is an attempt in this
direction. Five different product categories, namely, Tooth Pastes, Washing Powders, Headache
Pills, Light Bulbs and Pressure Cookers were chosen for investigation. A number of factors can
influence the buying intentions of the consumers about the new brands that are introduced in the
market. For the purposes of this research, nine such variables were identified for investigation.
These were brand loyalty, quality variations among different brands available in the market,
certainty of untried brands, danger of consequences of using untried brands, consumer view of
price-quality relationship in a given product category, consumers’ confidence in their abilities to
judge quality of different brands, complexity in the technology involved in manufacturing the
product, extent of alternate brand choices already available in the market and the amount of usage
of the product in the household. Consumers’ perceptions on these nine variables were measured
for the five chosen product categories and their relationships with purchase intentions about new
products were examined.

With so many variables having the potential to impact new product success, it is difficult for
Marketers to discern which factors they can and should control to increase the chances for
success.

Marketing has identified three factors crucial to new product success:

1. Relevance
2. Expensiveness
3. Differentiation
Q4 ( a )