Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Economy

Product: Core Marketing Mix Element

A product is a good or service that satisfies a need. Without a defined product, it's impossible to effectively implement strategies for price, distribution, or promotion.

Key Elements of a Product

• Product Attributes

  These are the specific characteristics of a product, such as its color, quality, size, and design.

• Brand Identity

  A brand is a name, term, symbol, or design (or a combination of these) that identifies a company's product and differentiates it from competitors.

  • Unique Brand: A single brand used for all of a company's products.
  • Multiple Branding: Several distinct brands for different product lines or market segments.
  • Private Label: Products manufactured by one company but sold under another company's brand

1. Volatility of Returns

- Small company stocks

2. Christine's Return

P0= $42.40, P1= $38.20, Divd= 1.4%

- [(38.20-42.4)/42.4] + 0.014 = -8.51%

3. Scott's Annual Return

200 shares, P0= $48, n= 4 months, dividend= $0.22

HPR= -0.120

- Annual return= (1-0.120417)^(12/4)-1 = -31.95%

4. Annualized Return

Annual returns: 15%, 12%, -18%, 2%, 37%, n=5

- Standard deviation= 20.03%

5. Stock Return Range

Stock return= 14.6%, standard deviation= 19.2%, two-thirds of the time?

- -4.6% to 33.8%

6. Forecasting Returns

Historical dollar-weighted... If you want to forecast, the best:

- Arithmetic average return

7. Jeanette's Future Value

Investment= $12,000, n=4, arithmetic average= 8.72%, geometric average= 8.43%

- FV= 12,000(1+0.0843)^4 = $16,587

8. Black Stone's Geometric Average

What is a Business Plan?

A Business Plan is a Written Document that details proposed venture: Describes the current status, expected needs and projected results of a new Business /Covers the project’s research and development, manufacturing, management, marketing, critical risks, financing and milestones or timetable

Demonstrates a road map of where the venture is aimed to reach and how the entrepreneur proposes the route it will reach by.

Elements of a Business Plan:

Sec 1: Executive Summary: summary or brief statement of a longer report or proposal about the project for the reader to be acquainted with without reading the full details Sec 2: Business Description: Is the key element of a full business plan (how to make profit), ranges between... Continue reading "Understanding Business Plans, Marketing, and Financing" »

Selling Externally

Just as employees must “sell” ideas internally, entrepreneurs with plans based on new business models must sell them to other parties, such as investors or potential collaborators.

Technique Nº 4: Prototyping

It's a methodology for exploring different possibilities until a truly good one emerged. It's a central part of an inquiry process that helps participants gain a better sense of what is missing in the initial understanding of a situation.

Prototyping is a powerful tool for developing new, innovative business models. Like visual thinking, it makes abstract concepts tangible. In recent years, in business discipline, it has gained traction in areas such as process design, service design and even organization and strategy... Continue reading "Innovative Business Model Techniques: Prototyping and Storytelling" »

Defining International Marketing

International Marketing can be defined as the tasks involved when a company introduces a product into a foreign market. It includes the multinational process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.

The Role of an International Marketer

The work of an international marketer is mainly concerned with:

a) Adapting the marketing mix to enter a market in another country.

Controllable Factors in International Marketing

Controllable factors in international marketing are:

c) Promotion and Price.

Understanding Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism can simply be defined as:

d) The notion that people

1. The CEO of Gulf Italia could probably justify paying a bribe to Italian government officials if he embraced a Utilitarian ethical framework.

2. When a company creates a wholly owned subsidiary in a foreign country, it makes a direct investment to establish a business that it solely owns and controls there.

3. Which of the following is NOT true about Whole Foods? Workers are encouraged to form unions.

4. According to the Friedman Doctrine, 'the business of business is business.'

5. According to management Guru Peter Drucker, the main responsibilities of a manager include all of the following EXCEPT: Disciplining people for bad.

6. European multinational firms commonly use a region-country focused approach because they are operating in multiple... Continue reading "Ethical Frameworks and Global Business Practices" »

Social Networks

are spaces on the internet formed by communities of individuals with interests and activities in common, such as friendship, kinship, work, and that allow contact between them, so they can share content and interact.

No one thought that social networks were going to be a success

Many believed that they were just going to be a fad and would soon disappear. What is even more surprising is that it is now a consolidated universal platform, a highly requested and necessary tool for a brand, company, business, or artist. But it is not only of great help for various sectors, also for any individual who is in them.

Now, networks are already generating employment

but it was never thought that it would ever exist. New jobs were born due to

Balanced Budget

Balanced budget is when current revenues equal current expenditures; however, when a deficit budget occurs causing revenues to fall short of expenditures, it requires the government to borrow money or even tap into reserves to make up the difference. This becomes a requirement that shapes the entire budget process, thus making budget deliberations revenue-driven when revenues determine the level of spending. Balanced budget is elusive when authorities propose a balanced budget but the council approves an unbalanced one or state or local laws allow the deficit at the end of the year to be carried over to the next year. Furthermore, there are no consistent or enforced standards for the balanced budget since it may be manipulated... Continue reading "The Importance of Balanced Budget and Tax Neutrality in Financial Management" »

Product

Product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption, in order to satisfy customer needs.

Consumer Products

are bought by consumers for personal consumption.

Industrial Product

are bought by other companies for further processing or use in conducting a business.

Product Value (Creating and communicating value): 2 ways

• The customer-value hierarchy

Perceived value will differentiate a company from competitors and will make the product more attractive for the market.

• Core benefit
• Basic product
• Expected Product
• Augmented Product
• Potential Product

• Value Proposition

consists of identifying the Benefits, Barriers, and Needs. Describes the benefits customers can expect from your products and services.

• Benefits
• Experience
• Barriers
• Needs
• Features

• The

Characteristics of International Division Structure:

• Organized by function, product, or geography – such as country units within a region.
• Reflects a shortage of capabilities: With few employees having knowledge and experience in international operations, it made sense to cluster them together rather than to spread them throughout the organization.
• Used mainly by firms with a low ratio of foreign to domestic revenues and low foreign product diversity.

Global Product Structure Decision Involves:

• Locating manufacturing and other value-creation activities in the most appropriate global location to increase efficiency, quality, and innovation.
• Considerations made on coordination and integration problems.
• Locating a structure that can coordinate resource