Using a Refund Promotion to Collect Information for Product Development

INTRODUCTION

The marketing concept states that the nature of the marketing orientated organization, whether product or service based, profit or non profit based, is the identification and genuine satisfaction of customers needs and wants, more effectively and efficiently than the competition (Lancaster, 1999). The marketing concept has been consistently evolved into more contemporary and sophisticated ways. Among these is the existence of new technologies that covers the overall process of marketing. However, the tools that is normally used has also adapted to the changing times. It proved to be very flexible considering that marketing techniques has been employing the use of modern technology to enhance their efficiency as well as their capacity to provide the needs of the consuming public.

The complexities of the emerging stiff competition and pressuring demands in the global marketplace affect the entire product development and engineering. These complexities are not only the case of product development and engineering but of the product itself. It has been identified that the awareness of complex products requires enormous amount of knowledge particularly in reference to the needs of the target market, the characteristics, availability and applicability of technologies, the properties of materials, and the capabilities of manufacturing methods matters in the process of product development and engineering (Committee on Bridging Design and Manufacturing, 2004). “Indeed the ability to bring innovative products to market rapidly and effectively is becoming the critical competence for manufacturing success," says Jeffrey K. Liker, co-author with James M. Morgan of the Toyota Product Development System. Today, as most corporations are becoming resilient to the idea of sustainable competitive advantage, more and more innovations are introduced to the mainstream organizational processes. Profit-making businesses try to balance their availability of raw resources as well as financial provisions in order to improve the products and services they offer to the consumers. There are numerous changes that are being considered, while others are implemented. Some organizations focus on their management strategies while others are obsessed in marketing techniques. With the learning brought about by research and development (R&D) efforts, experiences encountered by the organization throughout its operational years, new knowledge-based principles, and other business factors for enhanced productivity and market existence, most corporations continuously deliver the needs of the target market and accomplish the goals of the business.

In order for an organization to be more competitive in the marketplace, the management must always see to it that they use a management system and strategy that would sustain the capability, strength and competitive position (Pearce and Robinson, 2000; Thompson and Strickland, 2003). In any business, it is important to recognise the most appropriate strategy to be used in promoting the deliberate goals. With this, the management‘s decision in conceptualising the strategy to be utilised in all the operations of the business is crucial. The position that the management will take in relation to this matter can make or break the overall stature of the business. The variability of businesses and their operations determines their most suitable need for improvement. For instance, the manufacturing industry (e.g. mechanical equipment, automobiles, electronic appliances, etc.) is now busy battling the production costs in the manufacturing of the products. In general, designers do not have any means that quickly evaluate the costs associated with alternative designs. Today, current cost-estimating approaches require detailed engineering diagrams that create excessive product costs and too many parts that end up being quality and reliability problems (Constance, 1992). As a result, product engineers are enhancing the company’s product by reducing the number of parts and offer several advantages including fewer processing steps, adjustments, mating points, tolerance stack-up problems, operator frustrations, material control problems, and assembly fixtures. These given advantages are credited to the efficiency of mainstream and contemporary product development models.

Every business is subject to factors that affect the firm’s function as a whole. These factors are the ones attributed for the success or even the failure of a business. In the light of this, there are certain ways or techniques that can be considered in order to emerge and continue to be competitive within the market place. The marketing concept has been identified as the key to achieving organizational goals and it rests on market focus, customer orientation, coordinated marketing and profitability. In a profit making business, the firm obviously has to try and achieve this level of customer satisfaction as a way of staying ahead of the competition and making a profit. Traditionally, marketing has been utilized by the private sector in decisively increasing the capabilities of an organization. Marketing can be considered as one of the most important element underpinning successful business creation (Hills, 1994). Perhaps because of its complex applications, marketing have been defined in a variety of ways (Sheth, Gardner and Garrett, 1988). The marketing concept was first promulgated in the late 1950’s (Elliot, 1990). The importance of marketing concept incorporates oft-repeated elements such as: customer orientation; integrated marketing efforts; and resultant profitability. Today, more and more people and organization are trying to be recognized in the business arena. With this objective, these organizations had been able to competently and effectively adapt to the situation in the market place by using different strategies that enhanced their competitiveness.

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive marketing and management strategy for product development using a refund promotion to collect information for the process. The gathered information is used for product development. In addition, information from refund promotion is very vital to product development since it includes survey questionnaires in the refund envelope. In this setting, the marketing manager of a certain battery manufacturing company is expecting to receive at least 10% valid answers from the sent survey questionnaires to the customers. However, it is obvious that when consumers receive a mail with a refund check, their concern is the check, not the survey questionnaire. Thus, it is the concern of marketing manager to produce an effective strategy that will make the customers more interested to the survey questionnaires. On the other hand, validity of the responses should always be considered. In addition, the company also tries to offers an incentive so that at least 10% of the consumers who will be getting a refund check are willing to spend their time on the questionnaire and send it.

Thus, this paper aim to develop an incentive(s) that consumers feels attractive using $5,000. This paper also aims to minimize dishonest responses. Actually, if the incentive looks too small or the chance of getting an incentive is too little, the response rate will be low. On the other hand, if the incentive looks too large, the marketing manager may increase the number of responses, but also there will be many dishonest responses that are not valid, which will complicate the data analysis. This study will present a summarizing discussion of using survey questionnaire that should be answered first by the customer before the intended refund. To motivate consumers to answer survey questionnaires, a lifetime discount card is issued as initial offer aside from the refund check waiting upon submitting the answered survey questionnaire. The critical evaluation of the marketing condition of the entire battery manufacturing industry is also conducted.

DISCUSSION

Analyzing the status, strategies and resources of businesses and their products or services is very essential as it allows operators to determine how they will progress in the years to come. This also enables them to identify their strengths and how they will optimize them. On the other hand, business analysis also makes operators realize their weak points, allowing them to address them immediately with effective strategic actions. Conducting a business analysis also helps organizations to prepare for their future development and growth. Considering that competition in the business field is continuously growing, implementing efficient strategies through business analysis is indeed significant for all operators in any industry.

Analysis of the current situation: Porter’s Five Forces and SWOT Analyses

In the epoch of various occurrences (e.g. globalisation, industrialisation and technological advancement), the international marketplace including its particular areas and systems is perceived to be overly affected by the processes intrinsic to them (Thierauf, 2001; Hitt, Hoskisson, and Ireland, 2003). Among the observable impacts of such emerging business conditions is competition. Competition among the various industries in every given economy is rapid and stiff. It is as if ‘survival of the fittest, extinction of the weakest’ trend. Accordingly, the global market is considered to be in hyper competition mode (D’Aveni, 1995) and its rate is increasing as technology and industry concentration is intensified. With the international conditions of businesses, the aim for competitive advantage and market superiority remains to be one of the most important factors at hand. Aside from ensuring effectiveness in management, profit-oriented corporations are also considering a total evaluation of their organisational standards. In relation to the battery manufacturing companies, the current conditions are mainly characterized with stiff competition. Thus, every company is determined to use the most appropriate marketing and management strategy that will serve as its competitive edge against its rivals.

Analyzing the external environment of the battery manufacturing industry is also a significant part of a business analysis. For this purpose, Porter’s five forces model will be used. Michael Porter and his five forces model concentrates on the threat of entry, power of the buyers, power of the suppliers, threat of substitutes and competitive rivalry (Porter, 1980). Below is the application of this business analysis tool to the battery manufacturing industry in general.

Rivalry/Competition

Rivalry and competition is considered as the strongest among all other forces in the model. The strength of rivalry or competition is determined if rivals are aggressively employing various means of overcoming competition as well as means of acquiring bigger sales and stronger market position. In the case of the battery manufacturing industry, competition is intense. There are a number of factors that support this judgment. One is the presence of several businesses that operates in the same industry and targeting similar audience. All of these competitors produce similar products as well as offer same services to consumers. Due to this, rivals tend to apply new consumer and marketing approaches that make their products stand out from others.

The growing advantage of e-commerce paved way to the utilization of the web in dealing with the culture and convenience of online shopping (Dennis and Harris 2002, p.4). This tremendous growth of technological advancement has become the driving force of contemporary industries the battery manufacturing companies. The Internet, for instance, had made products and services across the globe a low-cost alternative to traditional international firms (Saadat and Greer, 2003). Its diffusion has revolutionized the business arena. It also changes high-tech marketing overnight while different industries have been trying to use it as part of their marketing strategy. It has not only reconfigured the way different firms do business and the way the consumers buy goods and services, but it has also become an effective instrument in transforming the value chain from manufacturers to retailers to consumers, creating a new retail distribution channel (Donthu and Garcia, 1999).

To combat competition, numerous battery manufacturing industries ventured in online-based actions using their own website, internet advertising, partnership, and even merger and acquisition. Using the mighty powers of the internet, the current position of the battery manufacturing companies to the online marketplace is comparatively competitive. Its performance specifically to the online marketing is high. Today, research studies ascertained that online shopping was perceived to be more time saving than other traditional approaches of shopping by customers. Roberts, Xu and Mettos (2003) extenuated that Internet shopping helps to support the needs of busy working people as it is convenient for them to shop online. Merging and acquisition is among the strategic actions that the management is taking into practice. This is a way to expand their market and distributional coverage. Today, every business is highly competitive and striving to go along with its competitors regardless of external conditions like the world economy. The management continuously create innovative marketing solutions hat may be perfect in its online shopping operation. These innovations are always directed to satisfactory, convenient, and customer-oriented service.

Entrants

The entrant factor of the five forces model is dependent on the barrier of entry. A barrier to entry pertains to a factor that can lower the market share potential of entrants upon entering a certain industry. Thus, if the barriers of entry are high, the threat on new business entrants is low. Government regulations, trade restrictions and access to distribution channels are some examples of barriers to entry. The battery manufacturing industries are protected by a number of barriers to entry, which makes it difficult for new business entrants to rise and compete. One of these important barriers present is the large capital necessary to operate a company with various branches and considerable number of employees. In order to acquire the right workforce, supplies and distribution channels, the starting company must have a high initial capital. This barrier to entry then prevents other firms to compete effectively with other global battery manufacturing companies.

Another barrier is the difficulty of accessing distribution channels abroad. In order to carry out this important aspect of the battery manufacturing business, corporations must have an effective globalization strategy and applies the right international practices. These important strategies on the other hand, take years to develop. Moreover, in order to acquire an international connection with foreign companies, certain requirements like business stability, market and revenue must be met. Thus, not all retailers are able to distribute their products abroad and acquire large international markets.

Buyers

This factor of the five forces model refers to the power of the buyers over the company or manufacturer. The threat derived from the buyers is gained when buyer power is high. In the case of the retailing industry, the buyer power is high. There are a number of factors that support this claim. For instance, buyer power is high as many substitutes are made available to the market. With this source of buyer power, buyers tend to have a greater control over the manufacturers. As battery manufacturing companies are dependent on the need of the consumers, it is deemed that the target market is segmented and posses a strong power.

Suppliers

The power of the supplier is also an important aspect of the five forces model. Similar to buyer power, if the supplier concentration is high, the supplier power cannot be considered as a threat. In this case, prime suppliers are used for its production and increase of product line. Through these suppliers, various battery manufacturing companies are able to offer products that are of high standards. Although there are a number of suppliers, a corporation must have an established of high quality chain of suppliers so as not to affect its production. Considering that there are other similar businesses, suppliers will not be greatly affected if they drop a customer. Moreover, the supplies offered by the supplier are diverse; this means, suppliers are able to give supplies to an even greater number of companies or manufacturers. In response to problems attributed to rapid growth, it should be considered that battery manufacturing companies can find other suppliers that can provide its supply needs. Thus, the power of the suppliers in the industry is then counterbalanced by the availability of substitutes. With this, the degree of supplier power for battery manufacturing companies is relatively fair.

Substitutes

Substitute pertains to the availability of alternative products in the markets. Naturally, if the degree of substitutes is high, the threat of this factor is high as well. For battery manufacturing companies, it was mentioned that there a considerable number of competitors operating within this industry. This implies that consumers are exposed to a significant amount of product choices and options. The high rate of substitutes for products is then considered a threat in the whole operations of the industry. In addition, there are many major retailers of battery and other global companies operating within the industry, making brand preference and loyalty a matter of concern.

Furthermore, in order to determine the different resources and capabilities of the battery manufacturing companies, a SWOT analysis is appropriate. This specifically analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a corporation. Situational analysis, where the SWOT technique is applied, is an integral procedure and a very powerful tool for businesses to instigate effective marketing plans.

Strengths

As mentioned above, the battery manufacturing companies has been known as one of the largest and most competitive industries in the world. This recognition can be attributed to the strengths of the company. One of its strength is its ability to anticipate the demands of the customers and its ability to provide upscale, trend-forward, high-quality and innovative products which in return make their customers become loyal of availing all their services and products. Companies have been able to implement a strategy that suits the needs to provide quality services and continually make the business become a tough competitor among its rival.

Battery manufacturing companies posses the sophisticated and able technology that can cater to the fast changing global marketing management trends. It has core competence in its use of information technology that can support its management and marketing operations. E-marketing is a powerful tool used by its management. It is defined as the process of achieving marketing objectives through the use of electronic communications technology. Smith and Chaffey (2001) have provided a 5Ss’ mnemonic for how the internet can be applied by all business firms for different e-marketing tactics. These 5S’s are selling, serve, speak, save and sizzle. Thus, adding to its innovations in service providing among the wide range of clienteles. Its IT supports competent procurement of goods in e-marketing or online shopping aspect.

Weaknesses

Although the battery manufacturing industry encompasses much strength to continuously fight for market dominance in the respective regions, the industry also has its weakness. One of the weaknesses of the company is the inability of the management to anticipate price increases which affects their operations. In addition, the company is also lacking the capacity to carefully manage their business because of the large entities and separated units of the business. Further, due to the extensive coverage of products and services offered, the industry may not allocate specific attention in the flexibility of some of its persistent rivals in the market. Considering its IT advantage, battery manufacturing companies may not excel in some areas because of its vast coverage of control. These weaknesses, if not given attention may lead failure for the company to achieve its goal of providing quality products and services among its clients.

Opportunities

With the management system of the company and the strengths that it has, the industry has bigger opportunities to still dominate and catch up with the competition in the industry in terms of providing more quality and less price products and services to its clients or even have an opportunity to be the number one in the whole industry while eventually applying proposed plans in the future. Another opportunity that can be attached to the industry is it would gain more customers if it would be able to determine the latest trends for products to meet the demands of their target market. With the continuous innovations of the whole industry and the support that it shows to different managerial and environmental conditions, and more importantly societal and humanitarian issues and concerns, the industry can gain loyalty from their customers to make them more competitive in the marketplace. The continuous initiatives of the industry in diversification of its revenue resources also open new opportunities to make the business become stronger to outgrow all its rival companies. Such opportunities will include e-business development by strategic alliances among global retailers as well as suppliers, leveraging the company’s investment in the World Class Customer Satisfaction Systems, and other business opportunities in both non-core and core areas.

Threats

Operating in the most competitive marketplace, battery manufacturing companies are faced with the inevitable threat of stiff competition. For an enterprise to succeed in global competition there is a continuous plan to develop new products with higher quality than its competitors. Kay (1993) analyzes that new product and new business development must be highly effective and efficient, however that alone will not ensure its competitiveness. The expansion of its operations to other areas means adjusting to the trade policies and political problems of the locality. The dynamic needs and demands of customers served to be a challenge to the management. Furthermore, consumer behavior and satisfaction with regards to the product/service procurement is also a risk. If the company will continue to be a vertically integrated corporation, the company may fail in terms of management ability. In terms of production and manufacturing, companies may encounter cost inefficiency in its procedures. Large manufactures and retailers are faced with the considerable pressure of keeping their prices low due to competition and the demands of price-conscious consumers (Gosman and Kelly, 2002). Additionally, fast paced technological advancement may be a threat. In terms of the competitors, the whole industry should be able to provide unique and more technologically advanced services to be able to survive in the stiff competition in the battery manufacturing industry.

Facts and findings

As identified, competition is the most powerful consideration in devising new products while developing and improving existing ones. In the battery manufacturing companies, there is really a need to conduct research and development (R&D) activities that will paved way to eventual growth of the business. Similar with almost all industries, the battery manufacturing industry is dependent on the needs and demands of people as well as to the economic conditions of the areas in which they operate. Therefore, the idea of people’s satisfaction ad welfare is seen to be the most immediate and deliberate need to produce products or services that are incomparable.

Companies that embrace the ideals of globalization will benefit from improved manufacturing processes particularly those that capitalize on computer-assisted engineering, JIT, and advanced information technology (Kadzban and Motwani, 1995). They will design more cleverly, design for manufacturability, and do it in a more timely and cost-efficient manner. Designs will assure error-free assembly and ensure high quality and reliability, felicitously meeting customer needs. Additionally, they can benefit from strategic networking with suppliers around the world, optimizing distribution and reducing time and distance barriers (Khan and Raouf, 2006). The approach of McGrath and Hoole (1992) suggests that by integrating nationally disparate operations into securely connected, distributed production systems, companies can harvest manufacturing scale advantages. With quality and delivery in place, and focus on manufacturing flexibility, companies can incorporate rapid design changes and allow for the speedy introduction of new products at low costs.

Initially, the understanding buyer behavior is one of the more perplexing tasks confronting every manager (Schiffman and Kanuk 2000, p. 3). The difficulty arises from the heterogeneity of buyers, from their being groups of individuals who differ from one another. But differences notwithstanding, consumers do share attitudes, opinions, reactions, and desires at various times (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000). Business experience, marketing research, theoretical constructs and models, and trial-and-error methods help to find some of the common denominators. Furthermore, understanding culture is important in analyzing consumer needs and behaviors. According to Kotler and Armstrong (2001), consumer buying behavior refers to the buying behavior of the individuals and households who buy the goods and services for personal consumption. Consumers around the world are different in various factors such as age, income, education level and preferences which may affect the way they avail of goods and services. This behavior then impacts how products and services are presented to the different consumer markets. Companies now face the challenge of making its target consumers respond accordingly to their marketing efforts. Those who understand its consumers’ responses will have a great competitive advantage. The starting point towards this is through the stimulus-response model of buyer behavior which involves examining the marketing and other stimuli in the consumer’s black box that translates into buyer responses (Kotler and Armstrong, 2001). Marketing stimuli often consist of the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place and promotion or marketing mix while the other stimuli may include economic, technological, political and cultural factors which exist in the marketing environment.

Using the general facts and findings above, the use of survey questionnaire in gathering information that will be used in product development is appropriate. However, the most appropriate strategy to elicit reliable and credible responses form consumers is the hardest challenge. Thus, refund promotion is used.

Implications and discussions

The structured method of marketing research has enabled countless of producers and consumers alike to better understand their relationship (Patzer, 1995; Betsch and Haberstroh, 2004). Generally, the role of marketing research in every business environment is to provide information that are necessary in the decision making processes for the development and benefit of the company. The value of information in decision making is proven especially in enhancing performance, reducing uncertainty, and processing business plans (Deshpande and Zaltman, 1982; Turner, 1991; Glazer, 1991). The information collected through marketing research, may it be qualitative or quantitative in nature is essential in the overall being of the company. Decisions based on marketing research information are an important factor in overall business success (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990; Narver and Slater, 1990).

As stated the use of survey questionnaire and refund promotion is perceived to be the most appropriate method in gathering information that will be used in product development. Survey questionnaires should be answered first by the customer before the intended refund. To motivate consumers to answer survey questionnaires, a lifetime discount card is issued as initial offer aside from the refund check waiting upon submitting the answered survey questionnaire. In doing so, the following considerations should be strictly observed:

• The company should use simple and direct questions that will induce cooperation. Most consumers are busy with their individual activities and answering a survey with long questions is an additional burden. Similarly, the questionnaire should be one page only.
• The presence of brief introductory statement on the purpose of the survey must be indicated. This it to give the respondent an idea on where will the company use the facts elicited in the survey. It should be emphasized that the responses of the consumers will serve as valuable source of information that will be used in improving the products and services of the company.
• In relation to the initial offering which is a lifetime discount card, the consumer is motivated if the motivation is relatively attractive. With the growing trends of various promotional gimmicks such as loyalty, discounts, advantage and other bonus cards, the respondent will impulsively attracted with the offer. Aside from the fact that there is another reward waiting for him/her after the survey and that is the refund check.
• In the survey questionnaire, there is a strict and brief reminder that honesty is highly required and expected. To solve the problem of reliability and validity of responses, the company must consider the use of the combination of close- and open-ended questions. Close-ended questions are questions that already have choices while open-ended are the opposite. This strategy will also reconcile the disadvantage of both schemes – wherein close-ended questions limit the respondents’ freedom and open-ended questions increases the risk of inaccuracy in responses.
• There must also be an assurance in the refund check. Consumers are indeed interested in a rebate or return of expenses. Thus, after completing the survey, a presence of waiver to be showed upon claiming the check is also recommended.
• In the era of contemporary marketing, the utilization of online survey is very applicable. Aside from the perceive accessibility and efficiency of the medium, online surveys are cheaper and easy to conduct. But then again, the issue of validity and reliability of respondents must be addressed.
• All in all, the process is indeed hard. The management must conduct successive marketing planning and research that will identify the most relevant method as well as qualify the effectiveness of the desired technique.

CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the discussions above, it is found out that the battery manufacturing companies are not exempted to the trends of business competition and quest for competitive advantage. The discussion also revealed that through effective and efficient strategic planning and management, the organization’s resources and systems, organization administrators can add value to the services delivered to customers, reduce risks in the organization’s business, reduce the costs of business development and service delivery and encourage improvement in internal business processes and external service implementation. To employ these processes, there is the need to consider the risks, the opportunities, ability of the employees to handle and use, and the effectiveness in the locale or the setting. Intensive preparation and study should be conducted in order to ensure that these systems are successful and are able to perform its planned tasks or functions. The shaped information regarding marketing strategy and strategic planning will have value and increases insight into organizational needs and the way the business is looked at. Adding more and more advantages to the whole organization and solving the problems as they occur will eventually lead to success and growth as mentioned. Having an experienced strategist in helping the management utilizes its resources, economic progression and corporate growth and success is promising.

To completely evaluate the information management of the organization, it is advisable to adopt the devised decision making model (Alter, 1999). The model consists of the following steps:

identify and define the problem;

identify the desired goal or condition;

consider obstacles to the goal or condition;

identify alternatives;

examine alternatives;

rank alternatives;

choose the best alternative ;

evaluate the actions.

In general, the design process is considered to be the most elementary yet complex stage in product development. As such, designers are facing numerous considerations that will cater to the welfare of the business organization as well as the customers. In product design, it has been customary that products should achieve higher quality, lower cost, improved applications of automation, and better maintainability. Aside from the general guideline given by Crow (1998), Anderson (2004) identified the importance of good product development as follows:

Good product development is a potent competitive advantage.

Product design establishes the feature set, how well the features work, and, hence, the marketability of the product.

The design determines 80% of the cost and has significant influence on quality, reliability and serviceability.

The product development process determines how quickly a new product can be introduced into the market place.

The product design determines how easily the product is manufactured and how easy it will be to introduce manufacturing improvements like just-in-time and flexible manufacturing.

The immense cost saving potential of good product design is even becoming a viable alternative to automation and off-shore manufacturing.

True concurrent engineering of versatile product families and flexible processes determines how well companies will handle product variety and benefit from Build-to-Order and Mass Customization.

Resources are believed to be important when they allow an organization to conjure up of or put into practice strategies that perk up the organization's competence or efficiency (Barney, 1991). Additionally, resources have to have the features of exceptionality. If important resources are owned by a great number of competitors or possible competitors, they no longer correspond to a source of competitive advantage. This is the reason why product design and development is very crucial to every company. In relation to the role of marketing research in decision making processes of the industry, it could be considered that marketing research is undeniable one of the most important tool in starting a business. In order for the battery manufacturing companies to maximize its strengths and minimize or totally eliminate its weaknesses – both in the macro and micro set up, they must be able to use or impose a strategic marketing management system that will help them enhance their operations particularly in product development. In addition, the industry must not only focus on its strengths but must try to also pay attention to their weaknesses and find solution to solve such issues and maintain a competitive business operation and performances.

The emergence of digitalization and globalization in all operating industries in the world paved way to the further improvements of all the aspects related to marketing and management techniques. Regardless of the unprecedented drawbacks of such when being used, every industry, company and management, must manage and control the best possible and beneficial ways possible. Every decision made by the management must be directed to the welfare of the whole industry. With the right strategy and strategic planning, eventual growth, market dominance, competitive edge, and success are not really far at hand.

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