Marketing Class VU - Gene Olson

Homework assignment
Week 1 -Week 2- Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5

Homework
For this week's homework, I would like you to invent a new product (fictitious, of course!) It can be any kind of product -- something you might find at a local grocery store, in a department store, in a bank, even a service that might be advertised in a magazine.

1. Briefly describe your product (a one paragraph description will suffice).

I will introduce, a personal convenience item that solves an old problem. A variation on the product exists but it is not marketed properly. I would be selling the product but more likely selling the marketing campaign to the patent holder.

I actually did come up with this about 10 years ago, and then before having done anything about it, about a month later read an article about a fellow who had come up with a variation on the theme, patented it, and sold the patent to a high end company. I think the company dropped the ball. The market for the item is every household and they decided to include it as a special item in their top of the line products. ie- none of you have ever seen one and if you did you were unaware of what it was.

2#
2. Assume that you have been asked to develop a promotion mix to market this new product to the public. Write a short description of how you would use each of the four strategies mentioned above (advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations) to market your product. Since I have not yet given details of how these marketing tools work, base your strategies on what each title suggests to you.

General strategy

As I noted above, this product exists but the Patent holder made complicated plated metal versions built into it's top of the line products and has probably sold several. The true market for the device is in retrofiting existing facilities. My device is inexepensive, it fits nearly every major brand and comes with complete installation kit and simple instructions that make installation easy.

advertising

In that this item is of a personal nature and the lack of it sometimes causes emarassingly "humorous" situations. I would use animated cartoons to highlight the situation, and make a number of short memorable commercials with "celluloid talent" , provide the solution, and direct the viewer to the retailers handling the product, or to the direct marketing web site/ sales organization. The web site would feature the same cartoons as well as other humorous skits, leading to the sale of other products.

personal selling

I would contact existing sales networks selling personal items to offer the item amongst their wares so that it could be purchased easily and discretely.

sales promotion

I would create point of purchace displays that could be set up on a generic product in stores, featuring the simply drawn cartoon hero presenting the product in storyboard form, with an optional on demand ad/install demo video. available for high traffic areas.

public relations

This is odd enough to make the news, properly orchestrated it could make a splash. News coverage and flapping tongues would be the best advertising.

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