The Walt Disney Company is one of the world’s leading producers and providers of

Question

The Walt Disney Company is one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Walt Disney Company decided to start its operation in Saudi Arabia with a theme Park named as Disney Land. The Company hired you as Marketing Manager of Saudi Arabian Region.

Assignment Objectives & Requirements:

5-Analyze the industry by applying Porters Five Forces  

6-How Disney will establish, develop, and enhance mutually beneficial relationships with customers?  

7-How will you plan for marketing Research and maintenance of the customer information?

8-For managing brands what resources you will use?

9-How will you create value propositions to meet the requirements of target customers?

10-What procedures and strategies will you follow use when making pricing decisions?

11-Categorize marketing and advertising strategy and method.

12-Describe what are the ethics and laws within your Disney Land.

13-Conclude your report.

Explanation / Answer

Answer 5: Now, from a marketing manager’s point of view, in order to analyse and understand the entertainment industry, we will have to take the following points in consideration: Porter's Five Forces: Understanding Competitive Forces to Maximize Profitability.

Porter's Five Forces is a simple but powerful tool for understanding the competitiveness of your business environment, and for identifying your strategy's potential profitability.

This is useful, because, when you understand the forces in your environment or industry that can affect your profitability, you'll be able to adjust your strategy accordingly. For example, you could take fair advantage of a strong position or improve a weak one, and avoid taking wrong steps in future.

Understanding Porter's Five Forces

The tool was created by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, to analyze an industry's attractiveness and likely profitability. Since its publication in 1979, it has become one of the most popular and highly regarded business strategy tools.

Porter recognized that organizations likely keep a close watch on their rivals, but he encouraged them to look beyond the actions of their competitors and examine what other factors could impact the business environment. He identified five forces that make up the competitive environment, and which can erode your profitability. These are:

Where rivalry is intense, companies can attract customers with aggressive price cuts and high-impact marketing campaigns. Also, in markets with lots of rivals, your suppliers and buyers can go elsewhere if they feel that they're not getting a good deal from you.

On the other hand, where competitive rivalry is minimal, and no one else is doing what you do, then you'll likely have tremendous strength and healthy profits.

The more you have to choose from, the easier it will be to switch to a cheaper alternative. But the fewer suppliers there are, and the more you need their help, the stronger their position and their ability to charge you more. That can impact your profit.

When you deal with only a few savvy customers, they have more power, but your power increases if you have many customers.

If it takes little money and effort to enter your market and compete effectively, or if you have little protection for your key technologies, then rivals can quickly enter your market and weaken your position. If you have strong and durable barriers to entry, then you can preserve a favorable position and take fair advantage of it.

Answer 6: Five Key Ways to Build Customer Relationships

Money can't buy one of the most important things you need to promote your business: relationships. How do customer relationships drive your business? It's all about finding people who believe in your products or services. And when it comes to tracking these people down, you have two choices:

You can do all the legwork yourself and spend big marketing dollars. But that's like rolling a boulder up a hill. You want to drive your business into new territory, but every step is hard and expensive. There's another less painful--and potentially more profitable-way...

You can create an army to help you push that boulder up the hill instead. How do you do that? You develop relationships with people who don't just understand your particular expertise, product or service, but who are excited and buzzing about what you do. You stay connected with them and give them value, and they'll touch other people who can benefit your business.

Powerful relationships don't just happen from one-time meetings at networking events--you don't need another pocketful of random business cards to clutter your desk. What you need is a plan to make those connections grow and work for you. And it's not as hard as you think. Here are five essential tactics:

1. Build your network--it's your sales lifeline. Your network includes business colleagues, professional acquaintances, prospective and existing customers, partners, suppliers, contractors and association members, as well as family, friends and people you meet at school, church and in your community.

Contacts are potential customers waiting for you to connect with their needs. How do you turn networks of contacts into customers? Not by hoping they'll remember meeting you six months ago at that networking event. Networking is a long-term investment. Do it right by adding value to the relationship, and that contact you just made can really pay off. Communicate like your business's life depends on it. (Hint: And it does! Read on.)

2. Communication is a contact sport, so do it early and often. Relationships have a short shelf life. No matter how charming, enthusiastic or persuasive you are, no one will likely remember you from a business card or a one-time meeting. One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they come home from networking events and fail to follow up. Make the connection immediately. Send a "nice to meet you" e-mail or let these new contacts know you've added them to your newsletter list and then send them the latest copy. Immediately reinforce who you are, what you do and the connection you've made.

You rarely meet people at the exact moment when they need what you offer. When they're ready, will they think of you? Only if you stay on their minds. It's easier to keep a connection warm than to warm it up again once the trail goes cold. So take the time to turn your network of connections into educated customers.

3. E-mail marketing keeps relationships strong on a shoestring budget. Build your reputation as an expert by giving away some free insight. You have interesting things to say! An easy way to communicate is with a brief e-mail newsletter that shows prospects why they should buy from you. For just pennies per customer, you can distribute an e-mail newsletter that includes tips, advice and short items that entice consumers and leave them wanting more. E-mail marketing is a cost-effective and easy way to stay on customers' minds, build their confidence in your expertise, and retain them. And it's viral: Contacts and customers who find what you do interesting or valuable will forward your e-mail message or newsletter to other people, just like word of mouth marketing.

4. Reward loyal customers, and they'll reward you. According to global management consulting firm Bain and Co., a 5 percent increase in retention yields profit increases of 25 to 100 percent. And on average, repeat customers spend 67 percent more than new customers. So your most profitable customers are repeat customers. Are you doing enough to encourage them to work with you again? Stay in touch, and give them something of value in exchange for their time, attention and business. It doesn't need to be too much; a coupon, notice of a special event, helpful insights and advice, or news they can use are all effective. Just remember: If you don't keep in touch with your customers, your competitors will.

5. Loyal customers are your best salespeople. So spend the time to build your network and do the follow-up. Today there are cost effective tools, like e-mail marketing, that make this easy. You can e-mail a simple newsletter, an offer or an update message of interest to your network (make sure it's of interest to them, not just to you). Then they'll remember you and what you do and deliver value back to you with referrals. They'll hear about opportunities you'll never hear about. The only way they can say, "Wow, I met somebody who's really good at XYZ. You should give her a call," is if they remember you. Then your customers become your sales force.

Key Ways to Build Customer Relationships:

1. Identify Your Ideal Client

It’s easier to look for customers if you know the type of consumers you seek. Without a composite of your ideal customer, you probably wouldn’t know where to start looking.

“Have a crystal clear picture in your head of exactly who you're targeting,” says OPEN Forum community member Nicole Beckett, president of Premier Content Source. “Think about what makes those types of people happy, sad, scared, relieved, and then think about how you can make their lives a little easier.”

Narrow down the focus of your ideal client and avoid making broad target market statements, such as every woman, every man or all baby boomers. Few products appeal to that vast of a group of people, and overstating your market will prevent you from developing viable targeted strategies for attracting clients.

2. Discover Where Your Customer Lives

With your targeted customers in mind, “identify those places where they are likely to be found (media, online, offline, mail, etc.), and then create messages for them,” says Jeff Motter, CEO and chief marketing officer of East Bay Marketing Group.

Where you look for customers will depend on the nature of your business. Some good online locations include forums and social media pages, including your own and those of similar or complementary businesses. Offline, you can meet plenty of potential customers at conferences and conventions in your industry.

3. Know Your Business Inside and Out

Thoroughly understanding your industry and having a firm knowledge of your product or service is critical to being able to attract interested clients. When you know your product backward and forward, that fact comes through. The people who would be interested in your offerings can see how knowledgeable you are and will seek your assistance.

4. Position Yourself as the Answer

Give potential clients you come into contact with a good reason to try your services, which is your first step to making them loyal customers, suggests Jason Reis owner and lead programmer for Flehx Corp.

“Provide value and establish yourself as having an in-depth understanding of the problems they are looking to solve,” he says. “This takes the form of creating content via webinars, blog posts, guest blogging, and getting out there and physically networking with people. From all this you will start to attract a following, and as long as you have a structured sales funnel setup, you will be able to convert the followers/fans into paying customers.”

5. Try Direct Response Marketing

Your best bet for reaching out and touching customers is to use tactics to encourage them to complete a specific action, such as opt into your email list or request more information.

Create messages directed at your target market, suggests Motter. “Learn to create ads that attract your ideal clients by giving them something of value for free to get them started in your funnel. Learn all you can about direct response marketing practices, because they will teach you to focus on results that matter. Create compelling messages that tell your ideal audience why they'd have to be a fool not to work with you. Show them you understand their pain, and can make it go away faster and cheaper than they could without you.”

6. Build Partnerships

Teaming up with businesses that offer complementary services offers you the opportunity to take advantage of synergy, which can be very effective in building a business. For instance, if you have a company that specializes in SEO, consider teaming up with a business that builds websites.

When all is said and done, nurturing relationships, either with other business owners or customers, helps you create a client base, Beckett suggests. “Focus on building human relationships. The stronger your relationships are, the more likely your customers will be to tell their friends about you. And, the more likely they'll be to come back.”

7. Follow Up

After your efforts to bring in business, always remember to close the loop, suggests Josh Sprague, CEO of Orange Mud. “Remember to set follow up tasks (follow up to sample sent, etc.), and execute your plan. So many leads and great conversations are wasted because you forget to follow up.” Doing this simple step is sure to get your client base to grow.

Answer 7: The Five Methods of Market Research:

While there are many ways to perform market research, most businesses use one or more of five basic methods: surveys, focus groups, personal interviews, observation, and field trials. The type of data you need and how much money you’re willing to spend will determine which techniques you choose for your business.

1. Surveys. With concise and straightforward questionnaires, you can analyze a sample group that represents your target market. The larger the sample, the more reliable your results will be.

2. Focus groups. In focus groups, a moderator uses a scripted series of questions or topics to lead a discussion among a group of people. These sessions take place at neutral locations, usually at facilities with videotaping equipment and an observation room with one-way mirrors. A focus group usually lasts one to two hours, and it takes at least three groups to get balanced results.

3. Personal interviews. Like focus groups, personal interviews include unstructured, open-ended questions. They usually last for about an hour and are typically recorded.

Focus groups and personal interviews provide more subjective data than surveys. The results are not statistically reliable, which means that they usually don’t represent a large enough segment of the population. Nevertheless, focus groups and interviews yield valuable insights into customer attitudes and are excellent ways to uncover issues related to new products or service development.

4. Observation. Individual responses to surveys and focus groups are sometimes at odds with people’s actual behavior. When you observe consumers in action by videotaping them in stores, at work, or at home, you can observe how they buy or use a product. This gives you a more accurate picture of customers’ usage habits and shopping patterns.

5. Field trials. Placing a new product in selected stores to test customer response under real-life selling conditions can help you make product modifications, adjust prices, or improve packaging. Small business owners should try to establish rapport with local store owners and Web sites that can help them test their products.

Factors to be investigated through market research

Market research can be considered as a method of getting an idea of the needs of the customers, and some of the factors that can be investigated through this process are given as follows:

Benefits of market research

Answer 8: 7 Ways to Build a Brand People

1. Make a Good First Impression

Appearance is usually the first thing we notice when we meet someone new, and like it or not, it has a big effect on our first impressions. The same principle applies to your brand. In a Stanford study, participants most often cited the appearance or design of a website as the factor they used to determine the site’s credibility. And marketers have long known that colors affect our buying habits. Consider the message your brand’s aesthetic is sending — are you attracting customers with a clean, polished design, or repelling them with a color palate that doesn’t work?

2. What’s Inside Counts

Your brand’s look might attract customers initially, but they won’t stick around long if you’re boring. Interesting content is one of the top reasons customers follow brands on social media. Post captivating images and information in your social media feeds to keep your customers engaged.

3. Consider What You Have in Common

People resonate with brands because of shared values, C.W. Park, director of the Global Branding Center at USC Marshall School of Business, told Fast Company. For example, Apple’s “Think Different” campaign connected with customers who valued creativity and originality. Ensure your brand communicates your core values so you can connect with like-minded customers.

4. Treat Your Customers Right

How well your brand listens to your customers and interacts with them can make or break your relationship. According to a Harris Interactive customer experience survey, 73% of respondents said they’d stick with a brand because of friendly employees or customer service reps. On the flip side, 89% said they’d ditch a brand after a bad customer service experience.

5. Spice Things Up

As consumers become exposed to digital media, brands need to provide increasingly sophisticated content to hold their attention. Think of the evolution of websites from plain text to responsive video backgrounds over the last ten years. Consider ways to keep your customers inspired and entertained with beautiful and novel content.

6. Don’t Be Aloof

When it comes to generating love with your customers, playing hard to get doesn’t pay off. The Harris Interactive consumer survey found that customers were turned off by brands they couldn’t connect with easily. Make sure it’s easy for customers to contact you by phone or email.

7. Grow with Your Customers

As in any relationships, your brand and your customers may change over time. Susan Fournier, a pioneer in consumer-brand relationship research, found that major life events, such as a divorce or relocating to a different area, affects customers’ relationships with the brands they love. Understand what’s happening in your customer’s lives and think of new ways to connect with them.

Answer 9: How to Create a Unique Value Proposition

Whether you’re a new entrepreneur or thinking about joining the ranks, one question you’ll have to answer is: What sets your business apart? The answer to that question usually leads entrepreneurs to define their unique value proposition, also called unique selling proposition, or USP.

To help entrepreneurs create a value proposition, we’ve written this handy guide to walk you through the process.

What is a value proposition: Your unique value proposition, selling proposition, or USP (all of which refer to the same thing) is what separates your business from your competitors. It defines your unique position within the marketplace and gives you an edge over other businesses.

Your value proposition isn’t meant to appeal to everyone. On the contrary-you want a value proposition that is attractive and effective to your niche audience. This will help you advertise and market your business alongside competitors while carving out a market share all your own.

Why is a value proposition important?

Every competitor in your field is vying for attention. From marketing plans to advertisements, consumers hear a lot of noise. To cut through this clutter and turn your target audience into loyal customers, you need a value proposition.

In a crowded marketplace, you need a value proposition to compete. That’s probably the biggest reason why a value proposition is vital to your business.

How do you create a value proposition?

Finding a value proposition takes some time and legwork. It’s more than whipping up a clever tagline. To create a value proposition, you have to know your customer and your business. Plus, you have to understand how your product or service fits into our consumer-driven world.

And, that’s just a start. We’re not saying this to scare you, rather to express how in-depth the process is.

6 techniques to help you create your value proposition

1. Define your target audience

You need to figure out who your customers are. Who will buy your product or service? A lot of first-time business owners want everyone to be a customer; this is a rookie mistake. If you try to appeal to everyone, your business and product will get lost in the noise.

Instead, hone in on exactly who your audience is. Research everything about them. You want to know demographic information, income statistics, and family makeup. How old is your target audience? Are they male or female? What kind of income does your target audience have? Get specific. What does your target audience do on the weekend? What kind of music do they listen to? You might think these last questions are a bit far-fetched, but you want to create a complete profile of your target audience.

You can’t create a value proposition alone in your basement, either. You have to test it. Run it by a small group of your target market to ensure your value proposition resonates with customers you’re trying to reach.

2. Know your competitors

To separate yourself from your competitors, you have to know who they are and what they stand for. Research your competitors inside and out, from their mission statement to the types of employees they have. You can only set yourself apart if you know what’s already been done.

3. Define the needs your product or business meets

Write down how your business or product can help others. Can your product do something that other products can’t? Does it save time? Is it more affordable than other products? Take that list and cross off any need that your competitors can claim too.

This exercise is meant to help you find areas where your business is different than others. Simply having the best product, or the best customer service in the market isn’t enough differentiation. Remember, every business thinks they have the best product. Take some time to figure out how your product meets the needs of your target audience in a way that others can’t.

4. Dispel myths

Can your business or product dispel any myths or stereotypes? Let’s say you’re planning to open a computer repair store. What stereotype springs to mind when you think of a computer technician? You might think of a nerdy person in oversized glasses with a vocabulary you can’t understand, right? Well, if your business plans to buck that stereotype, you can use that to build a USP. If your business or product is “going against the norm” in any way, or breaks commonly held myths, you can use that as leverage.

5. Create a clear mission and message

A unique selling proposition goes deeper than a marketing plan; it should connect with your brand’s mission. What does your business stand for? It’s a big question, one that takes some time to figure out. Once you have a solid and clear answer, see if your mission overlaps or coincides with the list of things that sets your business apart. Now you’re starting to hone in on your value proposition.

Once you’ve done your digging, make a list of possible value propositions that fit your business. Again, this isn’t going to be something you whip up in 20 minutes. Write a few down, stew on them for a bit, and refine them. You want a clear message.

Using your list of unique attributes and your brand’s mission, you can start to mold that information into a clear message. Rework it until you have one succinct sentence that will become your value proposition.

6. Bring it to life

Once you’ve defined your value proposition, you have to figure out a way to bring it to life. In other words, you need to figure out how to take that unique selling proposition and turn it into a marketing tool. From mascots to slogans, website designs and packaging, your value proposition should seep into every aspect of your business.

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