The Pros and Cons of Online Marketing, Developing an Effective Positioning Strategy, and Understandi

Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Marketing

Please respond or answer the  two questions in your own words after reading the note material for each question.  These not are just to give you a hint on how to answer the question. 200 words for each. And the third question is someone  answer or post. Read and Respond to the person answer of question # 3 in your own words( 100 words).

1. What are the pros and cons of online marketing?

Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Marketing 

Communications Online marketing communications allow companies to offer or send tailored information or messages that engage consumers by reflecting their special interests and behavior. A firm can easily trace the effects by noting how many unique visitors click on a page or ad, how long they spend with it, what they do on it, and where they go afterward. The Internet also offers the ad-vantage of contextual placement, buying ads on sites related to the marketer’s own offerings. And a firm can place advertising based on keywords typed into search engines to reach people when they’ve actually started the buying process. Going online has some disadvantages. Consumers can effectively screen out most messages. Marketers may think their ads are more effective than they really are if bogus clicks are generated by software-powered Web sites.3 Finally, advertisers lose some control over their online mes-sages, which can be hacked or vandalized. But the pros clearly can outweigh the cons, and marketers must go where the customers are—increasingly, that means online. Of the time U.S. adults spend with all media, almost half is spent online (see Figure 16.1).4 Customers define the rules of engagement, however, and insulate themselves with the help of agents and intermediaries if they so choose

2)How can a firm develop and establish an effective positioning?

Developing and Establishing a Brand Positioning

All marketing strategy is built on segmentation, targeting, and positioning. A company discovers different needs and groups of consumers in the marketplace, targets those it can satisfy in a supe-rior way, and then positions its offerings so the target market recognizes its distinctive offerings. By building customer advantages, companies can deliver high customer value and satisfaction, which lead to high repeat purchases and ultimately to high company profitability

Understanding Positioning and Value Propositions

Positioning is the act of designing a company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the target market.2 The goal is to locate the brand in the minds of consumers to maximize the potential benefit to the firm. A good brand positioning helps guide marketing strategy by clarifying the brand’s essence, identifying the goals it helps consumers achieve, and showing how it does so in a unique way. One result of positioning is the successful creation of a customer-focused value proposi-tion, a cogent reason why the target market should buy a product or service. Table 7.1 shows how three companies have defined their value proposition through the years with their target customers.3

Developing and Establishing a Brand Positioning

Deciding on a positioning requires: (1) choosing a frame of reference by identifying the tar-get market and relevant competition, (2) identifying the optimal points-of-parity and points-of-difference brand associations given that frame of reference, including emotional branding, and (3) creating a brand mantra summarizing the brand’s positioning and essence.

Choosing a Competitive Frame of Reference The competitive frame of reference defines which other brands a brand competes with and which should thus be the focus of competitive analysis. A good starting point in defining a com-petitive frame of reference for brand positioning is category membership, the products or sets of products with which a brand competes and that function as close substitutes. It would seem a simple task for a company to identify its competitors. PepsiCo knows Coca-Cola’s Dasani is a major bottled-water competitor for its Aquafina brand; Wells Fargo knows Bank of America is a major banking competitor. The range of a company’s actual and potential competitors, however, can be much broader. To enter new markets, a brand with growth intentions may need a broader or more aspirational

3 What is a brand, and how does branding work? Note below is some one answer or post to this question. Pls read the person answer and  respond to this person answer by adding to it in your own words ( 100 words)

The American Marketing Association states that a brand is 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.” A brand serves as a differentiating factor that helps consumers choose a product or service. A current trend in branding is companies serving the purpose of making someone feel socially responsible and/or ethical. I always think it’s hypocritical of consumers and business leaders like Tim Cook to act like moral leaders when they utilize slave labor. Strong branding serves as a tool for loyalty and provides consistent demand for a firm. Branding also works as a tool for value-based pricing sometimes commanding 20-25% higher prices if the brand is reputable. The book states, “Marketers need to teach consumers “who” the product is-by giving it a name and other brand elements to identify it-as well as what the product does and why consumers should care.” At the highest level of branding there are companies like Coca-Cola who can be recognized by the sound of a can opening. At lower levels in quality of branding there are companies like Walmart or Spirit Airlines who are spoken of with disdain but draw a lot of business because they are cheap. An interesting form of branding in recent years are social media personalities. People like Logan Paul have successfully leveraged themselves as brands and are making insane amounts of money as a result. He recently fought Floyd Mayweather and was paid $20 million.