Marketing Plan For The Sonic 1000

We are all University Students that currently live in Halifax Nova Scotia, but have all grown up in various places. Two of our members are from Ontario and the remaining members from various parts of China. Given this geographical separation, our group has some obvious diversity in our individual consumer profiles. This is partly due to our different cultures and values. Our families also greatly influence our contrasting consumer profile - with our differing ethnical backgrounds, different social classes and varying religions. Conversely, we all fit into the age bracket of 18-25 so share some similar purchasing behaviour as millennial consumers (Kardes et la., 2011, pg 38). We have all been apart of many of the same world changes, such as 911 and global warming. This greatly sways our prespective on which products we can identify with and our preferences. Likewise, we all are at the same life stage (Kardes et la., 2011, pg 8). We are all young adults, finishing up university and starting our independent lives with limited disposible incomes. We tend to make most of our purchases online, allowing us to find the best deals in the least amount of time. Most of us find that food is our number one expense and value the bonds people make while sharing a meal. Many of us find it difficult balancing our busy lifestyles and school, but work to covercome these challenges. All of these inflencers guide our purchasing habits.

The visible act of purchasing a good or service is the result of a decision making process that is made by any consumer. This decision process refers to the stage that any buyer or consumer passes through so that they can make a choice of what product, good or service to buy (Poorsoltan 2012, p. 239). There are many factors that affect the decision making process. One of these factors is culture and it largely affects the purchase of luxury goods. The culture of most communities and societies differs from one nation to the next and from one region to another. Cross-cultural analysis indicates that the

The Sonic firm would later have the opportunity to pursue either the Cost Leadership or Differentiation segment. It is important that the Sonic sustain the lowest cost to gain brand recognition in the market. Sonic can pursue targeting identified segments with multi – dimensional satisfaction that includes quality, differentiation, and price (Kotler). The Overall Cost Leadership states that firms work hard to achieve the lowest production and distribution cost. Sonic has not established their brand or image so their price for competing PDAs is lower than competitors. Differentiation sets the product apart and the firm must make the products with the best components. The Sonic PDA must be positioned as a versatile, convenient, and value added product. The focus would incorporate hands free operation for multiple communication, entertainment, and information capability.

We are brought up to follow the beliefs, values, and customs of our society and to avoid behavior that is judged “unacceptable” or considered to be taboo. In addition to segmenting in terms of cultural factors, marketers also segment overall societies into smaller subgroups or subcultures that consist of people who are similar in terms of their ethnic origin, their customs, and the ways they behave. These subcultures provide important marketing opportunities for astute marketing strategists.

Prior studies strongly suggest that the intersection of global brands and iocal cultures produces cultural heterogeneity. Little research has investigated the ways in

Culture: culture impacts consumers’ behaviour as culture is viewed differently across nations, consumers preferences differs due to values, beliefs and customs. Therefore Lidl’s would have to develop marketing communication strategies that appeals to different cultural background in order to gain acceptance in other countries. The marketing messages should connect with its target market in such a way it influences them to make purchase or to enquire about the product.

In this characteristic there are three features influencing consumer behavior: Culture, Subculture, and Social Class. One of the most important reason which creates consumers needs and wants is cultural characteristic. Human behavior is mostly learned and people exposed different sets of values and beliefs(Kotler and Armstrong 2007). These values influence to consumer behavior. These characteristics are important for marketers for understanding consumer behavior and taste. Subcultures are small groups formatted from people that share the same values and beliefs like nationalities, religions or geographic regions. The subculture is an important and effective market segment, which can be targeted, as soon as it is identified. Social class is a structure, consisting of a combination of factors which gather different types of members (Kotler and Armstrong 2007). Some social factors are income, age, education, and

The aim of this research was to investigate which is the best smart phone brand between Blackberry and Iphone by measuring the effectiveness of both marketing mix; Product, Price, Place and Promotions. A theoretical framework has been constructed and the group chose to conduct an online survey; using the website that enables users to create their own web-survey, in order to acquire the needed data for this research. The results indicate that the best smart phone so far is Blackberry because their company marketing mixes have been greatly positioned in the people’s mind and preferences. The marketing mix is a business tools in marketing product. The marketing mix is often crucial when determining a product or brand’s

The conventional product strategies which used to focus upon costs, differentiation, and customer and technology orientations doesn’t seem to fulfill the ever-growing need of better technology. The Smartphone market is more focused on innovation and product development rather than the conventional product strategies.

However, for the Chinese market, the cultural factor mainly reflects on the self-concept territory that involves consumers’ beliefs from their attribution and thought of the products in sectors like price and quality (Solomon, Askegaard & Bamossy, 2004). Self-concept can be also comprehended as the self-awareness of the perceptions (Arnould & Thompson, 2005). In fact, eastern consumers’ self-concept has the obvious distinction, compared with western consumers’ self-concept (Fitts, 1972). Unlike western consumers, eastern consumers focus on the emotional factor and social selves as well (Snodgrass & Thompson, 1997). At the same time, Chinese consumers are discovered that majority of them care others thoughts and view (Doctoroff, 2012). As a result, self-concept usually has the indispensible relationship to self-esteem, which is the psychological factor (Snodgrass & Thompson, 1997). Moreover, self-concept not only relates to the cultural factor, but also has the deep linking to psychological factor that really leads to the big impact on Chinese consumers’ buyer behavior.

When going global, and in order to succeed in international business, understanding consumer behaviours based on their values and perception of other countries is key for implementing a proper winning marketing strategy. Cultural dimensions help managers and multinational companies respond effectively and positively to values and behaviours that shape a given nation and that might be completely different from the way an organization is accustomed to behave in its country of provenance. McDonalds represents a suitable model of multinational companies that succeeded in translating cultural differences into their products, marketing efforts and practices. In Morocco, McDonalds serves “Halal” options that go in line with the predominant Muslim community, whereas in France you can order wine with your meal, and in a different context, the company banned beef products in India because of the taboo around it and introduced vegetarian alternatives that suit the populations’ preferences and tastes.

Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, puts it best when he stated: “If people believe they share values with a company, the will stay loyal to a brand” (Fifield, 2015, para. 8). The values Schultz refers too are defined as “the moral principles and beliefs or accepted standards of a person or social group” (Collins Dictionary Website, 2016, expression 5). In this qualitative study, “Branding in The Global Arena: The Role of Culture” (Krueger & Nandan, 2008) the significance of culture in formulating and maintaining an effective global strategy is discussed. This study by Krueger and Nandan examine branding in the global context, cultural dimensions that affect branding including specific examples from China and India, and key issues for global companies. The purpose of this critique is examinee Krueger and Nandan’s study, by examining the articles key components listed above and identifying strengths and weaknesses of the following; the article’s research purpose, methodology, results, and discussion.

People have different consumption behaviors in relation to the using of various health products. Their experiences and cultures determine if they are likely to purchase given health products. Chinese culture is different to the Australian culture which creates vast differences in how the consumers carry out their purchases as well the decision making process. Even though features such as flavor and brand name is similar across all the nations it is the Australian vitamins that they prefer to buy for the greatest quality. The customer values and the role that the culture is attached to a given product plays a critical role in influencing the purchase behavior. In this case, the consumption of the health products is primarily affected by

In a first part, we will try to understand the impact on culture on consumption and then the need to look at each country particularly. Then we will discuss the main factors that influence the consumers that is to say: attitudes, values and motivations (combined with socio-demographic factors). Eventually, we will present and analyse the research we decided to base our study on in order to develop the constructs and the propositions of the conceptual framework.

Marketing across cultures around the world is increasingly becoming a thriving business with the fast-speed globalisation nowadays. The Four ‘Ps’ of marketing, namely product, price, place and promotion, include most of the elements of marketing decision-making. However, socio-cultural factors, in considering the combination of marketing strategies, will always run through them. Socio-cultural factors have a huge influence in people's concept of product and buying behavior. Lack of cultural awareness not only can lead to a decrease of product sales, but can even collapse the company’s whole international image. In this sense, understanding cultural differences plays an incredibly significant role in process of developing