dQ1
Define relationship marketing and how it might fit into the mission or vision for any given product in the overall organizational plan? How can the marketing mix elements of branding and advertising use relationship marketing to increase customer satisfaction with a brand?
Dq2
What is a store brand and why do many of them imitate national brand packaging? Consider the effects social, marketing, situational, and psychological influences on consumer decision making. Is it ethical for a store brand to imitate the packaging of a national brand?
Chasity response
As explained by Kotler & Keller (2016), relationship marketing is a strategy designed to promote customer loyalty, interface, and long-term engagement. It was devised to foster solid connections with consumers by providing them with material directly suitable to their needs and interests and by promoting open interaction. For relationship marketing to be prosperous, you need to learn everything you can about your consumers and work to increase the value to every interface with your company. Building a strong relationship with your brand and mission can provide a free word-of-mouth marketing and ongoing business.
Branding and advertising are tools that a company can use to help foster the business. These tools can provide the foundation on how to acquire and maintain customers, as well as drive sales and revenues. The brands get to know their consumers’ likes and displeasures. This enables them to recognize what to keep doing and what to dodge so that the clients remain loyal. Whether you’re budding new prospects or maintaining established customers, you can apply this marketing principle. This should help your brand remain your consumers’ first choice.
Reference:
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). A framework for marketing management (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN-13: 9780133871319
jayson response
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors,” (Kotler, et al., 2016). Many stores or local companies will imitate national brand packaging to create a brand extension. In this strategy, the store hopes to earn the trust from customers who are used to similar products from a national brand company. “Consumers form expectations about a new product based on what they know about the parent brand and the extent to which they feel this information is relevant,” (Kotler, et al., 2016). This trust from the consumer is built from social, marketing, situational, and psychological influences. For example, a store can buy advertising on social media platforms to monitor your behavior to target specific consumer groups who are in the market for products they search on a routine basis. Creating a commercial with special messaging in the script about needing that product can create a psychologic response to someone wanting that product or a product like something they already know. It is unethical for a store brand to piggy-back off a national brand of a similar product or service unless it is a franchise. Of course, these problems exist all the time. Take companies that imitate other commercials from their competitors. Companies like Pepsi and Coca-Cola have used similar marketing campaigns to win over customers who are seeking a similar experience from that of their rival. A store brand should always develop their own strategies and brand that is unique and different from other companies if they wish to be sustainable.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). A framework for marketing management (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN-13: 9780133871319
Erica response
After extensive research on this topic, store brand products are more competitive to national brands than one may think. A store brand is often a product that resembles a highly or popular advertised brand. It could have a name you do not recognize well, but it is also likely that you have never considered these brands to be a retailer brand, but more of a true brand – because that’s what store brands are becoming (Payne 2016). Store brands are still very much a competitive brand, especially those consumers consider to be similar in taste or results and less of a price. In my opinion, there are some store brand products I prefer over the national brand but on the flip side there are some that do not come close when comparing to the national brand. The generic brands are almost always cheaper which can be a good thing for anybody’s grocery bill but do not always promise the same quality.
As for the ethical debate on packaging similarities, it is difficult to fully determine. Several products and business ideas are similar if not the same. They co-exist with slightly different missions perhaps, maybe target a somewhat different market and probably even share customers at times. This could be said for packaging as well. In some circumstances, this could be considered taking advantage of vulnerable consumers. Since the generic brands generally attract a customer in a different income pool, the marketing of the product should still be ethically focused (Morse, 2017). This means, just because the product is cheaper, does not mean it can be unsafe or unusable. Generic labels strength generally varies with economic conditions. Meaning, generic label market share generally goes up when the economy is suffering and down in stronger economic periods (Quelch & Harding, 1996). National brands often have copyrights to their labels, which protects the original work (Kotler, 2016). So ultimately, I am not sure that it is fair to say imitating packaging is unethical. As a customer who only used to shop store brand products, it was my choice to bypass the national or more popular brand; this was specifically for me because of the price. The label had little to no impact whatsoever when applied to my shopping habits.
There are many missions, values, and ethical situations a business or product line can find itself in (Kotler, 2016). I am not really convinced similar labeling would be an unethical feature. As stated in other posts on this topic, the intent or motive of a company’s action is what supports a certain mission statement or ethical principle. If a label is created down to every exact detail with unnoticeable changes intentionally, that could be and probably is more of an attempt to take advantage of customers who cannot pay full price, than it is if the label is similar with noticeable differences. Not to mention, it is just blatantly copying. A generic label that looks comparable is simply taking a less aggressive marketing approach when it comes to creating brand awareness and reminding the customer they have different options.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). A framework for marketing management (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN-13: 9780133871319
Morse, S. A. (2017). Vulnerable consumers in regulated industries. National Audit Office. https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Vulnerable-consumers-in-regulated-industries.pdf
Payne, K. (2016). Blurred lines between store brands and national brands. Retrieved 09 August 2021 from https://pregelamerica.com/pmag/articles/blurred-lines-between-store-brands-national-brands/
Quelch, J. and Harding, D. (1996) Harvard Business Review. Brands versus private labels: Fighting to win. https://hbr.org/1996/01/brands-versus-private-labels-fighting-to-win
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