Similarities and differences among the concepts of the supply chain, marketing channels, and logistics
Similarities: The three concepts are similar in the sense that they involve the movement of goods, information, or services from the point of production to the end consumer. The eventual result of the three concepts is to deliver to the final end-user.
Differences:-supply chain is a collection of systems necessary for the movement of goods and/or services from the suppliers to the end consumers. This movement involves the transformation of raw materials into utilizable products by consumers. On the other hand, the marketing channel involves those activities required to move products from the producer to the consumer and where the transfer of ownership takes place. To conclude, logistics is a process that manages the flow of goods and/or services, including information from the producer to the final user. It involves the storage, transportation, and security to ensure that the goods reach the customers in the right condition, place, and time. Thus logistics gives the convenience of time and place to the supply chain.
Suppose a snack company introduces a new product called SumSeeds-sunflower seeds with energy boosters like caffeine, taurine, lysine, and ginseng. How would you expect this product’s IMC program to differ from that for regular sunflower seeds sold as snacks?
An integrated marketing communication program is intended to maximize the customers’ inclination to a product through wide-ranging advertising and promotion, resulting in lofty profits and low costs. The snack company will advertise and promote the new sum seeds-sunflower seeds vastly than the regular sunflower seeds while demanding to capture a large pool of customers than their competitors.
It will involve the integration of strategies meant to convince the customers that the product is genuinely different and effective compared to the regular old one. The company will specify the added components, their importance, and why the product should be chosen as a replacement of the other. Therefore, the new product’s IMC program will differ from that of regular sunflower in terms of the extent to which the new sum seed-sunflower seeds will be advertised.
A retail store places an ad in the local newspaper for yoga wear. The sales of the featured items increase significantly for the next two weeks; sales in the rest of the sportswear department go up as well. What do you think are the short and long term objectives of the ad?
Advertising is a practice designed to maximize customers’ desire for a product. It takes place intending to achieve some objectives which are either short-term or long-term. According to the retail store advertising, the short term objective might be;
To induce trial
The ad was destined to attract people to try the sportswear, which might have increased sales as the customers were making their respective trials. The sales increased because of the large turnout of customers who made their trials.
Generate sales leads
The advertising may have been meant to seek the perspective of the retail store customers where the retail might have incorporated gifts to regular customers. It seems to be the case because every customer turned out as a prospective customer to win the gifts leading to increased sales.
The long term objectives of the advertisement might be.
Intensity usage
The advertising might have been meant to boost per capita utilization of the sportswear. It involves inducing people on the alternative ways of using the wear where they already know of the product. The sales increased because many people availed themselves to buy the wears for alternative usage.
Increase awareness
The other advertising objective might be to amplify the consciousness of sportswear users. Maybe the customers were not aware of the existence of the wear, and once they learned of it, the sales increased in the two months.
Should Bernard’s use continuous, pulsing, or flighting for its advertising schedule? Why?
Bernard should choose the advertising schedule based on the return of each of the schedules. Continuous advertising reminds the customers about the products throughout the season. The method is good as it keeps the customers aware, although it is very expensive and consequently not preferred as it takes place even when sales are unlikely or insignificant. Flighting advertising schedule is used when the economy is at the peak.
At this period, the advertising campaign is increased to draw as much customers’ attention as possible. The schedule is not favored as it ignores the decline stage of the economy when sales are low. The pulsing advertising schedule combines both the continuous and the flighting advertising schedules in that advertising throughout but kept at low, during decline stages and high during the peak seasons. Therefore, Bernard should implement the pulsing advertising schedule, which seeks to take advantage of an opportunity exhaust fully.
Suppose Porsche is introducing a new line of light trucks and has already created the advertising campaign. How would you assess the effectiveness of the campaign?
Despite the limitations of assessing the effectiveness of an advertising campaign, if Porsche introduces the new line of light trucks, they can assess the effectiveness of its advertising campaign in a variety of ways. To start with the management should ascertain the concentration of traffic on its website. It is by checking the log of number hits the said site gets within a certain advertising period. Secondly, it is significant to follow the retail traffic done by counting and comparing the number of customers visiting the store before and after the advertisement. The management should also focus on establishing how the customers learned of the advertisement.
It is as effective as the other methods because the management will be able to specify the effective method. Also, the management should check the sales fluctuations. It is done before the advertisement has been placed and after the advertisement to compare the sales.