Online marketing class discussion postings

The instructions for the discussion posts were as follows:

1. Select a product with which you are familiar. What stage is your selected product at in the product life cycle? Provide rationale for your answer. Based on your knowledge of the product life cycle, what types of changes will occur to your selected product as it continues through the product life cycle? How will this affect the marketing of your selected product?

2.Select a product or service. Then select three different organizations that provide your selected product or service and compare the prices associated with your selected product or service. What is the difference between the prices among the different organizations? What is the rationale for this difference?

About the Solutions
Both discussion post answers are reproduced below. If you wish to use any part of them, please purchase them so that the writer can get his due.

Answer 1
The selected product is the iPod which is in the maturity stage of its lifecycle. While Apple was certainly not the first company to come out with an MP3 player, it has become the dominant player in the market and faces aggressive competition from other hardware manufacturers such as Microsoft and Creative who want a slice of the market. Apple’s profits from the iPod remain minimal since it uses the iPod to get individuals to buy music from the iTunes store. Feature for feature, there are cheaper products on the market but Apple continues to outsell them simply because it offers a very strong package which allows for the very easy and very legal downloading of music from the internet.

The competition is certainly intense as competing ecosystems for music have come up from Microsoft and other providers that want to end Apple’s dominance. Some manufacturers have more or less left the business or have dropped production levels since the market has become quite closed. However, in recent times, Apple has continued to update its product line to bring out more features as well as reduced prices to remain competitive. In the future, it can be expected that MP3 players would converge with phones such as the iPhone where the ability to play MP3s would essentially become another feature of a given phone.

Answer 2
An MP3 player such as the iPod is a commonly seen gadget in the modern world. However, the price for a gadget (even with the same general specifications) remains quite different depending on several factors. This can be shown to be true by comparing the iPod, Zune and Creative MP3 players in terms of their prices and some feature sets that may be present in one player but absent from the other.

The Apple iPod Nano, the Microsoft Zune 8 and the Creative Zen 8 are all MP3 players but interestingly, while Apple (2008) and Microsoft (2008) sell their devices at the same price point i.e. $149.99, the Zen is selling for $114.99 (Amazon.com) . Strangely enough, the most popular MP3 player, i.e. the iPod is also the one with the least features. The Zune offers wireless music sharing capabilities while the Zen offers the most features with expandable memory, video recording and picture taking functions through a built-in camera.

However, Apple is able to charge a premium for its iPod because it is the only MP3 player capable of working with the iTunes software right out of the box. In essence, Apple and Microsoft seem to be competing directly with each other since they are both offering a music environment while Creative’s products have to compete on the basis of price and value since they have a lower market share and appear to be less popular.

Works Cited

Apple Inc. 2008, ‘iPod Nano’, [Online] Available at: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_nano?intcmp=AIC-WWW-NAUS-BUYNOW-HEAD-IPODNANO-080910

Amazon.com. 2008, ‘Creative Zen 8 GB Portable Media Player’, [Online] Available at: http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Portable-Media-Player-Black/dp/B000UV4EUG/ref=pd_cp_e_1?pf_rd_p=413863501&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000UV4EU6&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0XSDNM8WB6NP6JR3YHV7

Microsoft. 2008, ‘Zune 8’, [Online] Available at: http://www.zune.net/en-us/products/zuneplayers/default.htm

Other Details about the Project/Assignment
Subjects: Business Management -> Marketing
Topic: marketing class discussion postings
Level: College / University
Tags:

marketing class, discussion postings, product life cycle, price competition

Price: $1.95

Purchase and Download Solutions

Created By

Mike Carver
	Member Since: March 2006 Customer Rating: 95.4% Projects Completed: 759 Total Earnings: *Private* +1 Ratings from clients: 178

Project Details

Subjects: Business Management -> Marketing
Topic: marketing class discussion postings
Level: College / University
Tags:

marketing class, discussion postings, product life cycle, price competition

Customer Reviews

Reviewed 2 Times
Rating

( 5 / 5 Stars)
(Click here to read more reviews)

Reviews of these solutions by others
No customer has left a review for these solutions. Be the first one to purchase them and leave a review for others.

Not exactly what you are looking for?
We regularly update our homework solutions library and are continually in the process of adding more samples and complete homework solution sets. If you do not find what you are looking for, just go ahead and place an order for a custom created homework solution. You can hire/pay a homework expert to do your homework for you exactly to your specifications.

Hire/Pay an expert to do your class assignments, homework or online exam

Hire/Pay an expert to do your class assignments, homework or online exam

Online marketing class discussion postings

marketing class, discussion postings, product life cycle, price competition

marketing class, discussion postings, product life cycle, price competition