Marketing: Real People, Real Choices 9th Global Edition by Greg W. Marshall Solution manual

 
Divide the following list of topics among your team and ask each person to be responsible for developing a set of questions to ask during the interview to learn about the company’s program:
• What customer segments the company targets.
• How it determines customer needs and wants.
• What products it offers, including features, benefits, and goals for customer satisfaction
        • What its pricing strategies are.
• How it uses interactive content to engage customers.
        • How it distributes products and whether it has e countered any problems.
• How it determines whether the needs and wants of customers are being met.
• Explain what marketers mean by the “societal marketing concept” and “sustainability” and ask if
 these are areas of concern to the organization. If so, how do they address them in their organization’s activities? If    
 not, ask if they have any plans to move in this direction in the future and, if so, how.
 
Develop a team report of your findings. In each section of the report, share what you learned that is new or surprising to you compared to what you expected.
 
Develop a team presentation for your class that summarizes your findings. Conclude your presentation with comments on what your team believes the company was doing that was particularly good and what was not quite so good.
 
This project will help students understand the difficulty, but yet the necessity, of focusing on a value proposition in an organization. Obviously, some firms do this better than others do. However, all firms must consider what they deliver to the customer and how the customer accepts this proposition. If there is disparity between what the consumer expects, what the consumer perceives or sees, what the organization says it will provide or do, and what is actually received, problems will arise. This basic project will aid the student in understanding the need to obtain information from the marketplace and focus on delivering value to customers.
 
 
V.  MARKETING IN ACTION CASE: Real Choices At
      coca-cola
  
Summary of Case
 
What do you do when your customer starts to shrink, both literally and figuratively? The sale of soft drinks in the U.S. is not what it used to be. The $98 billion soft-drink industry is being challenged by changes in consumers’ attitudes toward both sugar-sweetened and diet drinks. Historically, soft drinks have been a significant portion of the American diet and sales have grown year after year. In the United States the rates of obesity, diabetes, and other weight-related health issues are on the rise. In 2014, the Centers for disease Control and Prevention found that 35 percent of U.S. adults were obese. And the problem is not limited to adults; with distressing regularity children are being diagnosed as obese. Although obesity and its related issues are complicated and have many different causes, soft drink manufacturers, like Coca-Cola, have been forced to bear a large share of the blame. This combined with the current consumer trend toward a healthier lifestyle has dealt a blow to the beverage industry. Since the 1990s, the sales of soft drinks have fallen by more than 25 percent.
The association of obesity and soft drinks has become so much of a problem that in some cities, politicians are proposing “soda taxes” to reduce the amount of sugar consumed. For now the soft-drink manufacturers are winning the political battles but are in jeopardy of losing overall. One of the consequences of these policy fights is that consumers are being reminded that soft drinks may not be the healthiest choice.
Suggestions for Presentation
This case could be assigned for various online or in-class discussion activities. 
 
Online Assignment Suggestions
Research companies such as PepsiCo, Dr. Peer, Evian, Perrier, Aquafina, and other competitors. What is Coca-Cola’s competitive advantage?
 
Determine how each competitor’s product would be ranked in terms of product, price, place, and promotion. 
 
Visit the Coca-Cola website at www.coca-colacompany.com/ and report on the most recent marketing strategies that are being accomplished.
 
In-Class Assignment Suggestions
In groups or as individuals, discuss the marketing strategy that Coca-Cola should consider, due to increased obesity issues facing soft-drink companies. 
 
Divide the class into groups of three to five students and have each group conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis to determine how Coca-Cola can develop strategies to overcome adverse findings.