Importance of Negotiation-MRKT 4160

In MRKT 4160 we discussed the topic of negotiation and we were fortunate enough to be able to apply the topic to our client whom we worked with this semester. The client as well as the topic strengthened our knowledge based on the topic as well as helped improve our negotiation tactics for future use. By reading this excerpt you will understand simple steps in which you would have to take in order to have a successful negotiation with a client. A sample work has also been provided to show how the client whom we worked with applied these steps to their routine.

Negotiation

After you have completed your prospecting and have selected the account that you want to go after, it is important to have a solid game plan for your negotiation tactics in order to successfully acquire the account. There are several steps in which you would have to take as account managers during the negotiation process. These steps include:

• Gather Information before the negotiation
• Understand the value of the product or services in which you are offering
• Determine your goals and financial objectives
• Prepare an agenda

Before you start negotiating, you need to gather information. The information does not have to be personal, but rather professional for the client. Understand their background, understand the problem in which the client is facing and how your products and services will help improve them or solve their problem. Also, gather information about their company and their history as far as their previous suppliers. Getting a background story of how their previous relationship with a supplier ended could help you change your offering to make their experience better. You also need to know inside and outside the value that your product or service offers the client as well as their company. If you are unable to convince the client that they need your product, chances are that they will no provide you with the account. It is also highly recommended that the seller, or the account manager, knows what their ZOPA and BANTA are. What price point will you reject the deal? What is the maximum that the client is willing to offer? These are the questions that ZOPA answers. BANTA you try your best to provide a win win situation in the circumstance. Finally, prepare an agenda so you know exactly how to approach the sale and pitch and are structured so you do not waste your time or the clients time.

Sample Work

Understanding Value 

It is important to fully understand value in all regards when it comes to negotiation. Value can be
much more than monetary. It can be intangibles like knowledge of the product, ease of
implementation, reputation associated with your company and how much support given after the
deal is complete. Price is not always at the top of the list when it comes to importance. Quality of
the service and trust that you are honest in your dealing can be of more importance. As the
individual in the negotiation it is important that would know where you and your product stand
with regards to that because in a increasingly competitive business world it can be a big
advantage.

Goals and Financial Objectives 

Prior to negotiations it is important to figure out two different concepts, BATNA and ZOPA.
BATNA being best alternative to negotiated agreement is what you can live with if your
negotiation doesn’t go exactly how you want. It is highly unlikely in formal negotiations that you
will have to make no concessions. This is why it is important to determine what your BATNA is
and try to determine what your customer’s BATNA is too. The second concept, ZOPA, is zone
of possible agreement. The limits of this zone consist of the seller’s walk away point (reservation
value) and the highest point a buyer is willing to pay. This is important so you can figure out a
range that you can negotiate in.

Agenda

Creating an agenda for the talks is a critical step because you want to ease the conversation into
the serious issues or topics. Start off working on small things to achieve little victories to set a
good tone for the remainder of the topics. Look to see if some topic should be discussed at the
same time rather than one after another. It is important to keep in mind that experienced buyers
will create an agenda as well and that can be the first topic of discussion.

Application

Company X focuses on a pull approach in their marketing strategy. Most of their customers
are acquired at the Vancouver shoe show. If a prospect is interested in Company X. Joe Smith
and the buyer will set an appointment to negotiate the further details required to complete the
sale. Before meeting the prospect, Joe Smith gathers buyer information from prospect’s website and
based on his personal experience. He also tries to determine buyer’s budget buy looking at the
size of the business, and length of business operations.

Joe Smith does not evaluate the meeting style in advance because based on his experience majority
of the negotiation are one on one. If he suddenly sees group buyers, he will customize his
negotiation style during the presentation.

Joe Smith is very good at keeping track of the Agenda in the negotiation process. He does often
repeat things that have been successfully addressed in the negotiation process. If he is not sure
about certain offers he will normally tell the customers that he would need to talk to head office
and use time to make the decision by himself.

Joe Smith is very knowledgeable of his product mix and competitive brands in the Vancouver
market. However, he uses a very personal business to customer sales approach and it is very
selective based on his opinions.

Joe Smith is aware of his BATNA and concessions he can offer in a formal negotiation. If price is a
concern he knows his best alternative by reducing the price by maximum 30% or sometimes he
will offer a cheaper product line to his customers. His ZOPA is 30% of the suggest cost price and
he determines his buyers willingness to pay based on the size of the business, growth and during
the negotiation process.

Joe Smith does not fully go into a meeting with a customer with prior knowledge of what the
customer might potentially want. Instead he listens during the sales pitch to figure out what
problems that the needs of the buyers or the problems they have are and how Joe Smith can help
solve their problem. After finding the problem, Joe Smith makes recommendations in order to solve
the issue.

Based on his culture and his own personal beliefs he believes that first impressions are very
important. He is also aware of the value of time his buyers put aside for him and he does his very
best to not waste their time.

 

IMC E Portfolio

 

Print

Description of Ad: The ad shows the bottom half picture of the golden iPhone 5S. The emphasis of the ad is on the new iPhone 5S security feature of the Touch ID technology implemented into the phone.

Link: http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/apples-first-print-ad-for-iphone-5s-showcases-the-touch-id-pic/

Ad Target market:

Geographic	North America
Demographic	–       Male and Female-       25-55-       Professional –       Single or married –       Educated
Behavioral	–       Inputs a password into their phone that they might forget on occasions
Psychographic	–       Fashionable-       Early Adopter-       Concerned about security

Positioning Strategy:

The Apple iPhone 5S is positioning itself as the safest and most convenient mobile device on the market. The header of the iPhone 5S ad is that your finger the your password showing convenience of never needing to remember another password again.

Message Objectives

The objective of this print ad is to showcase convenience. The objective is also to show elegance of the golden iPhone. The message that this ad portrays is that no longer will you need to remember a password, because the most common and safe password is your fingerprint.

Appeal Technique

 

The ad uses rational and safety appeal very successfully. The ad is very simple and the product has been zoomed in to show the actual Touch ID sensor. The ad shows the golden iPhone on a golden background. The tagline of the ad, “Your finger is your password” makes customers feel safe about their information being stolen, should their phones be lost.

Execution

 

The ad uses the informative execution framework in the print campaign. The message is very straightforward, clear and it is not in any way confusing. It provides customers with information based on the product and offers a value proposition for purchasing the iPhone 5S.

Evaluation

Evaluation Criteria	Score out of 5
Emotional Persuasion	5
Clarity	4
Persuasion	4
Attention	5
Message: Simplicity	5
Average	4.6

 

Electronic

Description of Ad: The ad shows that there is a different kind of Prius for everyone to fit their lifestyle.

Video: http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M8aCqmHr3o

Link: http://www.creativebloq.com/3d/top-tv-commercials-12121024/page-2

Target Market:

Geographic	North America
Demographic	–       Male and female-       Married or single-       25 and over –       Have kids
Behavioral	–       Environmentally conscious
Psychographic	–       Looking for economic friendly vehicle-       Looking for affordability-       Owned a big family car previously

Positioning Strategy:

The Toyota Prius is positioning itself as a vehicle that is able to fit the lifestyles of different people. Previous to this ad, the Toyota Prius was associated with someone looking for a small and compact car. This ad shows that not only do they have a compact vehicle; they also have a bigger one and an electric version to feed the needs and desires of multiple people.

Message Objective:

The ad provides the message that there is more than one type of Prius’ available. They have big ones for big family, small ones for the consumer that is looking for a compact vehicle and even one that plugs in for an environmentally conscious user.

Appeal Technique:

The ad uses one of the most commonly used appeals in TV and radio advertisements, music. The ad uses an original song, called “hum” created by the ad agency that produced the ad and it is a very catchy song that will most definitely get stuck in your head as well as create brand recognition with the song.

Execution

The ad uses slice of life as the execution strategy. The ad shows that no matter what kind of lifestyle you are currently living in, there is a Toyota Prius that will be able to fit your needs.

Evaluation

Evaluation Criteria	Score out of 5
Emotional Persuasion	4
Clarity	4
Persuasion	5
Attention	5
Message: Simplicity	4
Average	4.4

 

Internet

Description of Ad: The banner ad is very interactive and allows users to actually create their own banner ads by showcasing the many Ikea products available to them.

Video: http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4t_6pn_CPU

Link: http://mashable.com/2012/05/28/10-insanely-clickable-banner-ads/

Target Market:

Geographic	North America
Demographic	–       30-55-       Male and Female-       Married or single
Behavioral	–       Do it yourself type of attitude-
Psychographic	–       Enjoy simplicity-       Designer-       Self motivator

Positioning Strategy:

With the banner ad, Ikea positioned itself as a one-stop destination for all home and office furniture and encourages customers to build the products themselves.

Message Objective:

A simple banner ad that gives the power to the user so they can create a banner ad campaign for Ikea. Objective is to show that if they can create an Ikea web banner ad, they can assemble the simple Ikea furniture.

Appeal Technique:

The technique used in the campaign and ad was rational. It showed that if you can put together a somewhat comprehensive banner ad online, imagine the possibilities and potential the consumer has with building Ikea furniture.

Execution:

 The ad uses an informative execution by putting the power in the consumer’s hand. The ad provides them with information and provides them with power based on the products that Ikea offers and how easily they can put the ad and the products together.

Evaluation:

Evaluation Criteria	Score out of 5
Emotional Persuasion	3
Clarity	4
Persuasion	3
Attention	3
Message: Simplicity	4
Average	2.8

 

Outdoor

Description of Ad: An outdoor billboard ad that promotes the finger friendly Boston Pizza take out and delivery menu.

 

Link: http://cassies.ca/entry/viewcase/4699

Target Market:

Geographic	Canada
Demographic	–       Males-       25+-       Married with children –       Working professionals
Behavioral	–       Work a 9-5 job-       In charge of the family cooking
Psychographic	–       Look at cooking to be a burden-       Always make the excuse that they don’t have time to cook

Positioning Strategy:

With the help of the outdoor at, Boston Pizza is positioning itself as a convenient destination for offering delivery and take out as a choice of their family dinners. Boston Pizza is positioning itself as convenient by being able to order multiple foods online with just a finger and a click of a button.

Message Objective:

The message of the billboard is to show the convenience of the service. The message of the billboard is consistent with their other mediums by using the tagline “finger cooking”. The billboard promotes dads to go on Boston Pizza’s website and order their family meals for the night.

Appeal Technique:

The ad uses rational as their technique to create interest and desire for the service. The color red also creates a sense of urgency and affirmative action. Boston Pizza is not looking to use these ads to increase their delivery service in the future, but they want to the service to be used right away. The ad would be most effective during rush hour.

Execution:

The ad is very straightforward in execution. It was executed with a very simple message and very simple elegance. The use of color, and the size of the finger used in the billboard helped create urgency and brand awareness.

Evaluation:

Evaluation Criteria	Score out of 5
Emotional Persuasion	3
Clarity	3
Persuasion	4
Attention	3
Message: Simplicity	4
Average	3.4

 

Alternative

Description of Ad: This guerrilla ad was created to promote the TV show The Sopranos and promote the channel it is on, HBO.

 

Link: http://www.designer-daily.com/cool-and-creative-guerilla-marketing-campaigns-13471

Target Market:

Geographic	USA
Demographic	–       Males and Femals –       25+ –       TV watchers
Behavioral	–       Watches cable TV
Psychographic	–       Understands the show –       Has seen movies related to gangster topics before.

Positioning Strategy:

HBO is trying to position the show as the most exciting and interesting show that cable has to offer. The ad positions them by depicting the taxi’s trunk filled with a human body with a arm hanging out of it.

Message Objective:

The message of the ad is to create public interest as well as awareness about the show for HBO. They could also in an indirect way be saying that if you do not watch The Sopranos, you might end up on the back of that cab.

Appeal Technique:

The campaign uses fear, which can at times be controversial. When walking in the very tourist destination of New York it can cause the city to have a bad image with unclear advertisements such as that.  By using fear, it creates a sense of urgency for the viewers.

Execution:

The campaign uses dramatization as a part of their execution. The ad depicts the taxi driver as being a mafia member or a hit man and carrying a dead body.

Evaluation:

 

Evaluation Criteria	Score out of 5
Emotional Persuasion	4
Clarity	4
Persuasion	3
Attention	4
Message: Simplicity	3
Average	3.

AB Testing and its Great Benefits

One facet of marketing that companies tend to overlook is web marketing, mainly because it is a scary subject. The fear factor comes in due to the lack of knowledge based on Google Adwords and Google Analytics and how it can help enhance the website and the user’s experience on it. Well, no need to fear, the web metrics guy is here. Now, there are a few takeaways I would like for you to take from reading this and that is pure knowledge and understanding of what online marketing is and how useful it could be when perfected. By the end of reading this, you will have understood why it is important to do AB testing on your sites and how it can relate to a higher conversion when it comes to your Adwords spending and over all ROI.

AB testing is important because it gives the owner insight based on what works and what doesn’t. This is especially the case when it comes to email marketing campaigns and offering promo deals.  AB testing allows marketers or website owners to see what phrases or what sort of deals contribute to a higher click through rate. When conducting AB testing, it is usually for the same campaigns, but just with different wordings. Why different wordings you ask? Well because customer response differs with it also. If one ad displays “50% off” and the other ad displays “half off”, by conducting AB testing you will be able to figure out which phrasing people responded to. With AB testing, you essentially split your database into half.

AB testing can also be very beneficial when it comes to web development and redesign. When you want to redesign or even begin developing a website, by conducting AB testing, you will be able to figure out which website is the most likely to bring you the desired traffic and which website is confusing and unresponsive. The one drawback with AB testing is that the initial investment is high as you are designing two websites and only one will be used for the launch or for redesign. But, it is a better method than creating a website and redesigning it, launching it, and witnessing it draw a high bounce rate. While AB testing will not guarantee a lower bounce rate, it would guarantee a higher user engagement if the test is conducted properly. This is especially true for companies who are redesigning a website, as it can give insight to them based on their current clientele as far as which website would keep them as a customer.

Hopefully this has taught you what AB testing is and how beneficial it can be in order to generate a higher click through rate and conversion rate, but also considers the fact of your user engagement and potential drawbacks of not conducting this test and going for a full launch without any data to back you up based on the potential success of your website.

Working with an Ad Agency

(Tom Fishburne)

In the world of paid media, one of the biggest players and influence factors of a successful campaign, is the agency that you are working with. Several factors go into keeping an agency happy. They range from compensation, information and direction, as well as allocating enough budget for them to successfully do their job and make your campaign successful. Now before we go further, lets clarify that the success and failure of one campaign does not lie solely on the shoulders of the agency, but companies enjoy pointing fingers at people and events that do not link directly to them especially when it comes to failure. So sadly, the agency tends to catch the flack and most of the time the company ends their contract with them.

Vice versa, it is not always the companies fault, sometimes it actually is the agencies fault. This fault comes from lack of leadership in the agency, lack of experience or knowledge in the industry that they are providing the advertisement for. Motivation factors are also an important aspect to look into for creating a successful campaign. Hopefully by the end of reading this you will have learned two things. 1) what steps you should take to make sure you pick the right agency for your campaign and your company in specific and 2) how to keep them happy and build a strong working relationship with them for the long run.

(Tom Fishburne, 2010)

How to pick the right agency to work with

There are various methods and processes one can go through in choosing the right agency. One way is that you can look at history of success as well as industry knowledge to start your search. Picking an agency who does not have any knowledge about the industry you are operating in would probably be a bad strategic move. This is especially true when it comes to companies who work in competitive, as well as matured industries such as pharmaceuticals. There are many rules, laws, and regulations that the agency must adhere to in order for the ad to run in the first place and if the agency you are working with is not aware of any of the rules and laws, it could possibly jeopardize your whole campaign. Companies should also be careful of picking “false advertisers” who pretend to know a vast amount of information about the industry or company, but in reality are only after your money.

Another way of picking the right agency is by evaluating their history. Rarely do companies and corporations go after newly created agencies mainly due to the risk factors involved. Newly formed agencies might not have the required resources readily available to them to successfully go ahead with the campaign. Experienced agencies also bring possible insight into the campaign for the company. This might allow for less creative being required from the company and the overall success of the campaign being greater due to the expertise of the agency.

The other aspect of history that should be considered when picking an agency is their past clients and success. This ties into choosing an agency who has knowledge about the industry, but in turn you want to look at their work history. First you would want to see a potential list of past and current clients or client types. It is important to make sure they are not working with any of your competitors currently as to avoid any conflict of interest on the part of the agency. As ethics in business goes, no agency would purposely crash your campaign over their clients for a little extra bonus, but for safety standards it would not be bad to see if any potential competitors are working with them currently.

If the agency you are considering picking has previously worked with a competitor or someone in a related industry in the past, it would be important to look at the success of those campaigns. These results can be sought by outright asking the potential agency what their track records are like, or by going to a few selected past companies they worked with and ask them questions based on the results of the campaign as well as the positives and negatives of working with the agency.

Make sure you pick an agency based on: industry knowledge, history of success of past campaigns, past clients, current clients, and success with past clients that best fit your needs as well as company description. This part is just the beginning and easy part, now you need to keep them happy and provide them with the right tools to make your campaign successful.

Information provided to Agency

(Tom Fishburne)

Lets fast track a few months. You have selected the agency that best fit your company and now want to run your first ad campaign through them. You cannot blindly expect the agency to know exactly who your target market is or what your objective for the campaign is. These are information you need to provide to them for each campaign. It is crucial to provide your agency with a creative brief. The creative brief highlights everything for your agency to successfully execute the campaign.

The creative brief provides the agency with an ample amount of information such as: Key market information, objectives, target audience, key message, creative message, support, personality/tone, positioning, constraints and budget. Each of these points provide the agency with information based on your campaign. The key aspect of the creative brief are the target audience, creative message, tone and budget. The agency needs to know who they should be targeting so they can use the appropriate channels. They need to know what your overall message is so they can implement that in the campaign and how you want the ad to come across and what emotions you want it to invoke. Last, they need to know how much you’re willing to spend on the advertising campaign. If the agency does not have a well written creative brief, it will most likely cause the failure of your campaign. The more thorough the creative brief, the higher the chance of success is.

Compensation

There are three different methods of compensation: Commission System, fee system, and payment by results.

Commission System

In this system you pay the agency a percentage out of your budget. The bigger the budget and campaign, the higher the commission will be for the agency. This system has many pros and cons. One pro is that it is based on your budget, so if for one campaign your budget is lower than previous, you would pay a lower commission. In turn if the agency is working on a per commission base, make sure the percentage is reasonable otherwise they will lose motivation. This is one of the most commonly used payment systems in the ad agency world.

Fee System

In this system the agency and the client decide on an hourly, or yearly fixed wage that they would provide. This is good for both parties as the agency knows exactly how much each campaign will provide them in terms of revenue and the company knows how much money to leave aside every year to pay their agency. The negative to this is that if the agency and the company do not have a contract in place, the agencies prices might go up and cause a disagreement and probable dissolving of partnership.

Payment by Result

This is based on a commission system also, but it is based on the results provided. What this means is that if the campaign is successful and generates a lot of revenue for the company the agency will be paid handsomely. If the results are the other way around and the campaign is a failure, the agency will be paid substantially less. The problem with this method is that even if the results are not the fault of the agency, but rather lack of direction or information provided by the company, the agency will take the hit money wise. This will cause unhappy agency workers and unhappy agency in general and jeopardize future campaigns.

The End

Hopefully, by reading this you will have learned what the best method of picking an agency is. As stated paid media is one of the biggest players and influences of a campaign and at times can be one of the most costly. By picking the right agency, and paying them in proper fashion than you can expect better results from your campaign. Do not pick an agency out of thin air and pay them differently every time and expect them to know everything about your company. Provide them with tools to give them a piece of mind, as well as yourself.

Ardavan Bakhtiary

Bibliography

Tom Fishburne. (2010). Brand camp. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from US Digital Partners: http://www.usdigitalpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/brand_camp.jpg

Tom Fishburne. (n.d.). Ad Agency Cartoon. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from Moroch: http://www.moroch.com/_media/comic.jpg

Tom Fishburne. (n.d.). Creative Brief Cartoon. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from Tom Fishburne: http://tomfishburne.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/121126.creativebrief.jpg

How can Apple revolutionize the iPhone?

The question always lingers in the mind of Apple executives, engineers, programmers, designers, and production team is,  how can our next iPhone be better then the last one? Every year, Apple does a simple software upgrade by introducing a new iOS to coincide with a new hardware release 4-5 months later. They introduced iOS 5 and introduced iPhone 4S and iOS 6 was accompanied with iPhone 5. It is evident that the interface of the iPhone has become stale and boring and many people are now moving to the new Samsung Galaxy S4 and the very popular HTC one.

The purpose of this is to show some possible addition and changes Apple can perform on their iPhone line to bring back excitement from not just the day to day consumer, but also the businessman and woman who were very attracted to the iPhone when it was first released.

We’ll go over 2 hardware upgrades and 4 software upgrades that would be beneficial and strategic to include in the next iPhone in order to create a greater public interest in the next iPhone.

Software

Passbook- I use Passbook all the time. Every time I go to the movies, I no longer buy a physical ticket. I buy my tickets online and store the tickets on my iPhone. It saves me time, line-ups and hassle of making sure I remember where I put the tickets. Passbook needs to go one step further, it needs to replace the wallet. Although it is risky as far as the security of it goes, I would love to be able to replace some of my cards such as my store cards, or even credit cards on my iPhone. I hate carrying a wallet and very rarely carry cash that exceeds $20. This Passbook can be used in conjunction with the next software upgrade I’d like to see on the next iPhone.

Fingerprint scanner- This is the biggest rumor on the next iPhone. Apple purchased a finger scanning company Authentec and the big rumor is that they bought it for the finger scanning technology to be used on its future products. So now, if you store your credit card information on your iPhone and make a purchase, the verification would be your finger print. Your finger print will be the purchase approval the merchant would need to complete the sale.

Notification center- Simply put, the notification center on the iPhone is terrible. It does nothing. The notification center should allow the user to turn on their wifi, turn on bluetooth, quickly respond to messages and text and have the ability to have more customizable widgets besides the stock and weather app. It would be nice for users to be able to download their own apps and place it on the notification center per their taste and needs.

Siri- Siri was introduced with the iPhone 4S and since than it has become much more intelligent and useful than before. With iOS 6 Apple also introduced “Eyes free” a feature they added to certain cars such as Honda, Jaguar and a few other cars. The purpose of this feature would allow the user to keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel and place calls and answer text messages and emails. I want to see Siri get smarter by answering questions such as “how is my tire pressure?”, “what is my KM range on my current tank of gas?” Of course this would have to be integrated into the actual cars computer and it would have to have this information on hand at all times and it may not be feasible.

Hardware

Camera- The iPhone has arguably one of the best camera in the smartphone market. It does not sacrifice size of pixels for quality. I would like to see the 8 MP back camera be upgraded to a modest 12 MP and a 2 MP front camera be upgraded to a 1080 p capable 5 MP camera.  To allow better crystal clear Facetime and Skype conversations. I would also like to see some sort of photo editing software embedded into the App to allow for quick editing and splicing of photos.

Watch- The much talked about iWatch should coincide with the launch of the iPhone 5S or the iPhone 6 or whatever the next iPhone will be called. The iWatch should be a compliment to the iPhone, not a substitute. The iWatch should show notifications such as incoming calls, text messages, emails and calendar reminders to the watch where the user can quickly glance over at. This would save time for business men to know what is an important call to answer and it would help the every day parent set reminders as far as what time they need to take their kids to soccer practice or what time the in-laws are coming in to have more time to clean up. Of course it has to be stylish and not very big on the wrist and the face of the watch has to be touch in order to accomodate certain features such as accepting or ignoring calls.

These are just a few ideas as far as what Apple can do to bring excitement back into the iPhone, and its company overall. I’ll post another blog soon going more in depth about better ideas and even elaborating on the ones I just listed now.