Excerpts

Rapid changes in the marketplace, in data availability, and in the computing environment are transforming the structure and content of the marketing manager's job. As a profession, marketing is evolving so that it is no longer based primarily on conceptual content and, increasingly, senior managers are requiring marketers to provide compelling financial justification for their marketing plans and programs. While many view traditional marketing as an art and some view it as a science, the new marketing increasingly looks like engineering (that is, combining art and science to solve specific problems). There will always be a central role for marketing concepts. Indeed, to make use of the powerful information tools now available requires sound conceptual grounding. But marketers need more than concepts to fully exploit the resources available to them. They need to move beyond conceptual marketing toward what we call marketing engineering: the use of interactive computer decision modes to help support marketing decisions. We designed this package of materials to supplement courses in new product development and courses in brand strategy. It includes cases and exercises selected from our book,Marketing Engineering(Prentice Hall, 2003) that are appropriate for such courses. These selections are designed to make the corresponding material in the basic courses come alive. Each case or exercise here is designed to accompany a specific marketing engineering software application and, if you purchased this book as a requirement for a course, the bulk of your purchase price covers an access fee for the software. You should find that software installed on your school's network. Although each piece of software has associated with it a corresponding exercise or case problem, most of the software modules (except for Assessor) are completely independent of those cases and can be used separately on other case-problems or on real problems. According to most new product and brand management texts, the most common analytic problems correspond to segmentation, targeting and positioning, product design and new product forecasting. We have selected the material in this book to meet those needs. Case 1: Conglomerate's New PDA Software: Needs-based Segmentation Using Cluster Analysis: This general software tool performs cluster analysis, factor analysis and discriminant analysis. The accompanying case addresses how to segment the market on the basis of needs for a sample of prospective buyers for a new personal digital assistant. The case raises issues such as: (1) How many segments should the firm consider (and how do those segments differ)? (2) Which of those segments should the firm target? (see GE model below). (3) How many different products should the firms offer? (also linked to GE model). (4) How should the new product be positioned? (See Positioning Analysis, below.) Case 2: Product Planning Using the GE/McKinsey Approach at Addison Wesley Longman Software: Targeting/Business Prioritization Using GE/McKinsey Approach: This software tool allows the user to build a customized portfolio of SBUs (Strategic Business Units) and associated attribute dimensions and weights to help prioritize the businesses. The accompanying case looks at a portfolio of three new books being introduced at Addison Wesley Longman. Case 3: Positioning the Infiniti G20 Software: Product Positioning Using Perceptual Mapping: This software tool takes customer perceptions and preferences for products and produces a two- or three-dimensional map that allows the user to view alternative product positions and consider the strategic implications of changes in that positioning. The accompanying case looks at positioning the Infiniti G20: given customer perceptions and preferences for new cars, how should Infiniti position this car in the market? Case 4: Forte Hotel Design Case Software: Excerpted from New Product and Brand Managment: Marketing Engineering Applications by Gary L. Lilien, Arvind Rangaswamy All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.