BSBCUS402B Assessment 1

Assessment One

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Learning Activity 1

1.1 Assessment Type
Discussion and Creating Individual Word Report
1.2 Requirement

Think of a recent purchase in which you interacted with a sales assistant or choose a product that you’ve given a lot of thought in during the purchasing process.
For example:
Buying a car
Planning a holiday with a travel agent
Booking a room or table for a large birthday party
Write a report describing your specific needs for the product/service and how you have identified the needs. (At least 300 words)
As described by Armstrong et al1, cultural, social, individual and psychological are the factors that will affect the decision making process. The stages of decision-making processes are the need of recognition, information research, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post purchase behaviour. All this stages are taken into consideration when I deliberated purchasing a new car. First is to identify the reason for the purchase of a new car.

First stage is the need of recognition. The purchase of a new car will enable me the flexibility to travel to university and socialise with my friends at a time of my convenience. With a car, I do not have to wake up as early in the morning to wait for the public transport. Therefore, I starts to decide to purchase a new car.

Next is the information search. I have to do research and decide which type of car is suitable. If I was a married man who’s concern is about the safety of family and Volvo might be where I would start due to it’s reputation “You are not just driving a car but a promise” advertise Volvo is focusing on safety. However, I am looking for something that has a little more ‘street cred’.

The third stage of the decision-making process is evaluation of alternatives. I will compare all the cars I can afford in my price range and rank them against my personal criteria; price, age, mileage, distance away and a heavier weighting to looks, which is purely subjective.

Car details
Price
Mileage
Age
Distance away
Looks
Overall rating

The fourth stage is purchasing decision. After making comparison against other advertised makes and models I should logically select the car with the highest rating. Consequently, this car will completely meet my satisfaction.
Learning Activity 2

2.1 Assessment Type
Watching and stating your understanding in a Report
2.2 Video
The Lounge Virgin Blue – Video Clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5ZYALO1jOQ 2.3 Requirement

You need to watch the video clip of ‘The Lounge Virgin Blue’ at the above URL address. Then, answer the questions from 1 to 5 below.

1. What types of customers were unhappy with the Virgin Blue Room? a Young leisure focused people b Elderly c Frequent travelers d Business travelers e Vacation travelers
2. What methods have been used to identify the customer needs?
Alison Chalmer used extensive market research and customer feedback.
3. What did Virgin Blue do after listening to the needs and wants of the customer?
The previous lounges didn’t provide the customers the connectivity and ambience the customer expected. The overall look and feel was targeting the young market rather than the frequent flyer business customers. Changed to an all inclusive lounge,
4. After understanding the customer needs, how did the new Virgin Blue Lounge come into being?
The built a strong business case around the Virgin Blue Lounge concept, collaborating with subject matter experts included designers and marketing. Virgin Blue had contracts with third party contractors at certain airport for passenger and aircraft handling, ticketing and other services which resulted to success and the development of its own reservations Centre and internet booking has allowed virgin blue to avoid travel agent commissions and pass on the savings to their customers.
5. Based on your observation and experience, discuss and give your opinion on the statement below.
“The Airline Industry has successfully identified the customer needs “
Technological factor is crucial importance for Virgin, as consumers can obtain information through its website. Virgin is recorded as constantly browsing the external environment to recognise underlying substitutes for technologies to sustain competitiveness. Additionally, the environment plays an important role in the operating of a firm, especially in airlines. The environment is also crucial importance for Virgin Blue, so the company has take steps of the Carbon Offset Program, aimed to energy conservation, and neutralized emissions.
Virgin Blue has established powerful competitiveness through low cost, low leisure fare, providing corresponding quality compared with other airlines in terms of humanistic services and innovations. Nevertheless, owing to the fast reactions of other airline companies and the newcomers of low-cost offer, the competitive advantages of Virgin Blue are under threats. Nowadays, consumers would not lower requirements since they go on to develop more service comprehension enhancing their hopes from the benefits of staff to convenience in buying plane tickets. When consumers are not content, they will not buy the service offered and look others.
Virgin Blue has obtained strategic competitiveness in the business travel sector. To customers Virgin Blue represents value for benefits, quality, innovation, entertainment and a sense of competitive challenge. Virgin Blue adopts cost leadership to lower the cost through a series of cost cutting measures, and involves the generation of the product and service which is considered as distinct run through the airline industry.
In conclusion I believe that Virgin Blue listened and reacted to customer feedback and turned around the product to meet their requirements.
Learning Activity 3

3.1 Assessment Type
Research, discussion and Individual Report
3.2 Requirement

Choose a fast food outlet from the list provided. Based on your choice, write a report to identify the target market, customer needs and how the business satisfies the needs of the customers. (At least 500 words)
Fast food outlet List:
KFC
KFC corporation has more then 14000 KFC outlets in more than 80 countries around the world which serve 12 millions customers each day. Its part of the Yum! Brands, Inc., which is based in Louisville, Kentucky and is the world largest restaurant company.

The customer are the only king in the today’s fast competitive business environment and if the customers are happy and are willing to purchase again and again from the company then only the company can grow and lead the market as after all what ever the company does for its for the sake of making its customer happy. And it’s the customer buying behavior that at the end define how successful is the branding advertisement promotion and pricing strategy of the company.

Food quality is not promoted in KFC, its advertising and social media marketing predominantly emphasises special offers, and value/cheap and new/improved messages; and promoted new menu item introductions, dollar/value menus, and combo meals. Children’s characters advertised with children’s meals are designed to increase the frequency of parents taking their children. The advertising influenced their beliefs about how often other parents took their children.
A business’ ability to create and maintain consumers is directly dependent upon its ability to innovate its service and products. In order to maintain and increase its market share company must outthink and out-product its competitors not only in terms of the selection of the product and services that it offers but also in terms of its process. In essence, all companies must continually strive to discover how they can better satisfy the needs and wants of consumers.

The purpose of the organization is centered on the consumer, discovering who your consumer is vital.( Peter F. Drucker). So it has become for most important for every company to study to buying behavior of the customer.
In today’s fast moving world where there is a so huge competition its top most important to understand the needs and wants of customers. Businesses and top most executive have to understand the needs of the consumers. There are only two main fundamental to get success in the business according to the Peter F Drucker identify the customers needs and full fill them at a low price. So its vary important to understand and develop the concept of buying behavior so that one can get insight of the trends and the buying needs of theirs. Understanding the customers buying behavior one can prolong the inter relationship between customers and business. But some time exist a gap between customer’s perception and customer expectations.

Learning Activity 4

4.1 Assessment Type

Research and create a report.
4.2 Requirement

Find a popular organisation that recently closed down or lost its market share significantly due to not identifying customer needs. Or you can use the article below on how Monitor Group went down. http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2012/11/20/what-killed-michael-porters-monitor-group-the-one-force-that-really-matters/ 1. Nokia’s background and their market share in the telecommunication sector
Until 2009 Finnish giant Nokia was the global leader in the telecommunications market2 and today it’s retreating its way back to the same place from where it started its operation after establishing itself as the global leader. The success of Nokia was not only short lived but it was phenomenal in such a way that it changed the way the mobile phone industry worked. Mobile phones were considered a toy for the rich and famous and a status symbol which was related to wealth and influence. But Nokia changed all that and started producing mobile phones, which were not only budget friendly but practical as well. Nokia changed the way people looked at phones and transformed mobile phone from a large and bulky communicating device to a handy machine which can used to do anything from sending messages to clicking photographs. Nokia was the pioneer in introducing new features in mobile phones at a price that was affordable and attractive to the consumers worldwide. Nokia is known for its superior hardware quality and easy to use software interface with attractive and unique features which were appreciated and relied on by a majority section of the consumers.
2. Nokia’s motive
After dominating the mobile phone industry for a decade’s period Nokia for the very first time in a long period starting losing its market share. This year brought with itself some revolutionary changes in the mobile phone industry. The increased role of the world wide web and the data exchange over the internet impacted the mobile phone industry as well. Internet facilities were now provided by the network service providers and mobile phones were now armed to run these services. It was this aspect of the mobile phones that stated the decline of Nokia.

Nokia provided internet service on its products and the consumers used them without much hassle but with new and efficient operating system like android, apple operating system and rim (blackberry) etc. and new competitors like Samsung, apple, HTC, blackberry etc. were becoming more popular. Android operating system opened the market completely, with its user interface and Application base but Nokia did not change with the changing environment and continued with their simian operating system with few non major upgrades, on which were relying on for the last many years. The result, sale of Nokia started to dip and Nokia started to lose its market share.

3. Why Nokia failed
Product design and development is an important undertaking in the success of any company. Many companies have failed while others have succeeded depending on how they carry out their product design and development. Thus it is important for the ABC Company to consider these processes in its effort to design and manufacture its new products.

Firstly, product design is very important when the company is planning to design and develop a new product. This will involve considering the potential customers` requirements. Market survey may be carried in order to design the new products according to the needs of the customers. Secondly, advertising in addition to marketing strategies need to be well implemented in order to successfully reach the targeted customers. Promotional campaigns need to be based on true fact and not just creating unrealistic expectations among the customers. Thirdly, the Company also need to introduce new products when economic conditions and other external factors are encouraging. Recession period is not one of the best periods that the company can choose to introduce new products. Fourthly, it is important for the company to choose appropriate brand names for their new products. Edsel Ford was not a good brand name; leading many customers to reject the new model. Finally, there are other factors such as poor quality control and politics within the company that contributed to the failure of Edsel. Thus it is important for the ABC to put these lessons in practice when designing and developing their new products.

4. Suggestions for Nokia to able to sustain in the market
Though Nokia has lost a major chunk of its market share in the recent years, Nokia still has a good chance to regain its lost throne. In addition to taking some important decisions to tackle their competitors, the following steps should also be taken by Nokia :-

Develop a new operating system- Nokia should try and develop a new operating system which should be user friendly. It should be able to compete with its competitors such as the popular Android operating system & the Apple IOS. Instead of relying only on the Windows based operating system, they should try and diversify their reliance from a single operating system like the windows to different systems giving them the chance to develop their own operating system and capture a larger segment in the market.
Design Innovation – Nokia should work on Design portion of their mobile. They should come out with new exclusive design, which may include collaboration with fashion design firms. They can make mobile as a jewellery item.
Accessories – Nokia can come out with new innovative accessories that differentiate their users.
Upgrading their Application base- Nokia can upgrade their Nokia store adding new application that are in demand or may be in demand in future.
Improving the user interface - In addition to developing a new operating system, they should improve the quality of the user interface by giving special attention to the screen of the mobile phone along with an improved battery backup. The screen should be made 3d in some of their high end phones armed with superior scratch resistant screen. The user interface should be smoother to work with. The touch screen of the mobile phone should be more responsive than before as well.
Defining new target market – Nokia can target underdeveloped market, which have absence of their major competitors and must target their consumer base who cannot use or are not ready to use high end mobile phones. They can target markets like that in African continent and few south American as well as few Asian countries. They can create goodwill in these countries, to restrict new entrant to work in these countries.
Stick to basic strategies – They should not deviate from their basic strategy of making strong, durable, ruff and tuff mobile phones. They should keep on continuing their green initiative, which bought them fame even in bad times.
Target Consumer loyalty – Nokia even at this time have a very loyal consumer base, which believes in Nokia. They should pull some, marketing strategy dedicated to those consumers, providing them extra discount or exchange offer/ upgrade offer

5. Conclusion
Nokia was market leader and pioneer in the cell phone industry at one time, but today it is losing its position and facing immense competition and losing market share from other companies like Samsung, Apple and Blackberry. What’s shocking about this downfall is that Nokia is losing its market share at a much accelerated rate than the forecasted estimations by the experts. The main reasons for this downfall can however be broadly classified into factors like the introduction of Android Operating System, high reliability on a single operating interface of Nokia cell phones leading to inadequate expenditure on Research and Development and entry of new competitors providing advanced features at a cheaper price. The irony about the present market conditions is that all the reasons which made Nokia a world leader are the similar to the factors responsible for its downfall.