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Friday 21 September 2012

MM01 Marketing Management: contact us for answers at assignmentssolution@gmail.com

MM01
Marketing Management

Assignment II

Assignment Code: 2012 MM01 B2                Last Date of Submission: 15th November 2012
                        Maximum Marks: 100


Attempt all the questions.  All questions carry equal marks.

Section A

1 a)    To what extent can a brand rely solely on advertising to boost its fortunes?
                                            (10)
b)    Write short notes on the following
(i)    Brand extension
(ii)    Brand rejuvenation
(iii)    Brand loyalty
(iv)    Brand equity
(4x2.5)

2 a)    Consider a major FMCG manufacturer that wishes to add to its range a savory crisps by introducing a new health food crisp that added vitamins and minerals.  Discuss the nature of the test marketing that should be undertaken to minimize the risks associated with introducing such a new product?  Take example of any Indian company?
                                              (10)

b)    Explain what you understand by price elasticity of demand.  Give examples of inelastic and elastic products or services, discussing how the concept might be used in marketing situations?
(10)

3 a)    There are many examples of the role of noise in human communications.  One story concerns a communication exchange which purportedly took place during the first world war.  The message sent by the source was `send reinforcements, we’re going to advance.  As a result of `noise’ in the channel the message which finally arrived was `send three-and-four  pence, we’re going to a dance’.

                                             (10)

(i)    What forms of noise may have contributed to this miscommunication?
(ii)    State some ways in which this noise could have been reduced?





4 a)    Write short notes on the following:-

(i)    Sales Targets and sales quotas
(ii)    Sales Territory
(iii)    Sales control
(iv)    Direct Sales
(4 x 2.5)

    b)    What are key differences between traditional media and internet?
                                            (10)

Section B

5.    Case Study

What Makes Titan Watch Tick

A watch denotes much more than a mere device to tell time.  To the user it is a means or a tool for managing time and to plan the day. More than anything else, it is a personal possession and a constant companion.  For an increasing number of consumers, the watch is becoming an expression of personality or a fashion statement.  Consumers have come to depend on this particular item like none.  There is no wonder therefore that world over consumers like to choose watches by personal involvement.  They also will not like to be seen wearing a watch they dislike.  The diversity in human behavior being what it is, every purchase of a watch is an exercise of consumer behavior.  The consumer is always looking for the “good to wear” attribute along with the basic “good in keeping time” quality in a watch.

The general rise in living standards coupled with the pressure on time in modern society is making an accurate watch a necessity and an essential item.  At the same time for those populations who are moving into higher classes or echelons or society, owning more than one watch is common and owning a latest expensive watch is a status symbol.  It is quite common that a consumer in this class owns two or three watches at a time.  Further, such a consumer may be buying up to a dozen watches during his life time.

Watches have also become a favorite gift item.  Here, the giver as well as the receiver expect it to convey a value message, the brand itself being a significant part of the message.

With this background let us examine the scene in India which is at the same time a typically emerging consumer market and a developing country market.

The state owned Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd. (later renamed simply as HMT Ltd.) and also another state owned to Allwyn Ltd. went for two best collaborations that one can think of HMT went with Citizen of Japan and Allwyn went with Seiko of Japan. Both made good harvest during the two decades leading into the eighties.  That was when the two companies lost way and there came the new bright and bold star Titan.  Though Titan also had an effective French collaboration and a connection with the house of Tata, it went and built a brand of its own.

In the modest words of Xerexes Desai, MD of Titan for many years, luck played a very important part in favour of Titan.  However, market watchers agree that it is the hard work and shrewd brand management and astute distribution in the first place that are responsible for the phenomenal success of Titan.

Every management student wants to known what is the secret behind this success.  Nothing will throw better light on it than the following excerpts which we reproduce from the article “Clash of the Titans” published in Times of India (December 13,2000)
________________________________________________________________________
Date Line December 13, 2000, Bangalore.

Till barely a decade ago, HMT was the undisputed timekeeper of the nation.  Today, that honour goes to Titan.  Titan made watches into a fashion statement, and later go into the lower end with Sonata, where again the company has seen phenomenal success.  Even global biggies like Swatch, Citizen and Seiko have so far had little impact on the company’s market share.  Titan vice-chairman and managing director Xerxes Desai tells Deepanjali Bhas and Sujit John what makes Titan tick.

How is it that foreign watch companies haven’t set up manufacturing facilities in India?

As per the rules, if you want to call yourself a Swiss watch, 50 per cent of the movement components in a watch must be made in Switzerland and the watch itself must be assembled in Switzerland.  The only company which could set up a manufacturing facility here is the Swatch Group.  There’s been talk about this.

As for the Japanese, they have not succeeded in getting their act together.  Citizen is making its third attempt in India.  And it’s not working out well for them.  Citizen and Seiko are very much on the backfoot worldwide.  They have dramatically lost market share in Europe and the US.  They are short of human resources.  They are having trouble in their primary markets.  So when they will actually make a dent in markets like ours, cannot be said.  We have taken their share from them in markets like the Middle East and Europe.

What do you make of the Chinese Challenge?

The Chinese have no brands, but they make their watches incredibly cheap.  Throughout the work we have people buying from China and putting their labels.  They make their watches at very low costs, through heavy exploitation of labour, government protection and they enjoy an indulgent financial sector, which provides loans at low interest rates.

There’s also huge overcapacity in China.  Each manufacturer tries to outbid the other on price.  In fact, they are all doing rather badly.  But they are a threat worldwide now.  The world is flooded with cheap products from China.  But it’s not sustainable, particularly because the Chinese haven’t built any brands.

At the lower end, we too have sonata, which is doing wonderfully.  It is now outselling the Titan brand in volume.  So we are very well equipped to handle the lower end.

You don’t foresee any major challenge to Titan in the near future?

Something of a challenge can come in the middle segment – especially the fashion brands.  They buy their products from China, and they add their name.  Like Esprit.  Other brands in this segment include Guess and Fossil.  But these have built their equity in the US and Europe at a certain price.  These prices are high for India.  And it’ll be difficult for them to sell them here at lower prices.  I don’t know to what extent they’ll pose a challenge.  We’ll combat them in the same way we have been combating all along with out brand name and marketing know-how.  Our sheer size is also a barrier for them.

Have you just been plain lucky?  A decade ago, watches were virtually identified with HMT.

Yes, luck has played a very important role in Titan’s success.  HMT neglected the lower end of the market, and that helped us.

How is it that despite liberalization, in the watch industry Titan has held on to its huge market share?

Ever since quantitative restrictions on watches were taken off about three year ago, we’ve seen a fair amount of activity in terms of advertising and foreign presence in retail, but very little activity in terms of actual sales by our competitors.  Among the national players, Allwyn is dead, HMT and Timex are on life support, Maxima comes and goes.

As for newcomers, I reckon there are formidable entry barriers for them.  Foreign brands haven’t been successful because of such barriers, the fact that we have a strong grip on distribution, and the high prices of foreign watches. Among the Swiss brands, for instance, there are patricians and plebians, kings and commoners.  But they are all expensive.  The kings are beyond anybody’s reach.  And the commoners are really not worth buying at the price range they are in.

But what about the brand value attached to foreign watches?

Yes.  But if people buy these, its just once in 10 or 20 years, or once in a lifetime.  There are hardly any repeat buys of a thing like that.  And if one of those is less than Rs 40,000, it again does not make sense to buy it.  Statistically, Indians do not put down a large amount of money to buy a watch.  Percentage of people how are wiling to pay over Rs 10,000 for a watch I think would be really small.
However, what these Swiss watches would do is to create a market segment for us at the upper end.  People who have so long not seen watches beyond Rs 6,000 – 7,000, are now exposed to watches priced at Rs 100,000 – 200,000.  This we imagine would create a desire to own more expensive watches.  And in turn create an opportunity for us in the upper segment.  We are right now waiting for that opportunity to manifest itself, and it’s beginning to happen.  We are looking at introducing a new brand in this segment, a luxury brand that would have an appeal greater than that of Titan.

We began with the Middle East, built a strong presence there.  In our segment we are among the top three or four brands in the UAE and Oman.  We are No. 1 in Oman in volume terms.  We are doing moderately well in South East Asia, which now needs more attention.  These markets have been neglected by everybody else.  Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar are markets that even the Japanese have neglected.

We are doing modestly well in Europe.  Our initial heavy investments were in getting to know the market, establishing distribution.  We expect current operations to break even this year.  But with one important qualification: the ad spend continues to come from India.  Two, three years from now, the volumes generated in Europe should take care of the ad spend too and the operation should start making profits.  We are concentrating now in a few countries – Portugal, Spain, France and the UK.  If you have to be a global player, you have to show your European credentials.  Europe is a very demanding market.

Have you ever thought of having brand ambassadors, like the Swiss brands do?

Celebrity endorsement does make sense.  Omega has 15 brand ambassadors but it’s a huge expense.  We’ve looked at the possibility but right now, no.  We might do it later for a really premium brand.

Case Questions

1.    What aspects of behaviour of Indian consumers were addressed by Titan.
                                            (4)
2.    Why is Titan not keen on celebrity endorsement at this point of time.
                                            (4)
3.    If Citizen of Japan and Swatch of Switzerland were to enter India what will be the consumers’ brand perceptions vis-à-vis Titan?
                                            (4)
4.    Wrist watch is consumed by both men and women consumers but for different perceptions of need.  Discuss.
                                            (4)
5.    Can Titan promote wrist watches as items of jewellery or as items of investment?
                                            (4)
OM 01
Operations Management
Assignment I

Assignment Code: 2012 OM01 B1                        Last Date of Submission: 15th October, 2012
                                           Maximum Marks: 100

Attempt all the questions. All questions are compulsory and carry equal marks


SECTION – A

1.    a) Distinguish between Production and Operations Management.
b) A housewife needs to manage the house for a family of 4 persons which includes two children. Explain the various Operations decisions she will need to take and what are the Operational Challenges before her.
c)   Consider the following process :
i.    manufacture of ball point pens
ii    Modernization of the Delhi Airport

For each of the above products identify the type of process that you would recommend and the major issues that would be faced by the Operations Manager.

2.    (a) One of the strategies for being cost effective is the Location of the Plant. What factors would you consider  while locating an office which caters to the tourism business. Explain the priority you would assign for each factor. 
(b)  Explain how Customer’s preferences can be incorporated while designing the product.
(c )  Distinguish between Value Analysis  and Value Engineering. When do you think it is appropriate to carry out Value Engineering. 

3.    The desired daily output for an assembly line is 360 units. This assembly line will operate 450 minutes per day. The following table contains information on this product’s task times and precedence relationship.
Task    A    B    C    D    E    F    G    H
Task time ( sec)    30    35    30    35    15    65    40    25
Immediate Precedence    -    A    A    B    C    C    E,F    D,G
a)    Draw the precedence diagram                            (6)
b)    What is the workstation cycle time                            (7)
c)    Balance the line using the longest task time heuristic and determine the efficiency of the line.

4.      Explain the role of Control Charts in Quality Control. Explain the uses and the need for having the mean chart, range chart and proportion chart.                            




SECTION- B
A leading Indian Airline charges slightly higher for travel as compared to the competitors for travel between the same pair of cities. People still prefer to fly by this airline even when the flights are in nearly similar time slots. This means that customers are willing to give a premium for the service delivery process even though the same time is taken by the airline and in the same time slot. Similarly, the first AC compartments of the Indian Railways are not sought after with the same intensity by paying customers as the 3rd AC compartments. Here the people are willing to pay the extra premium for the service. It is important to think what could be the causes, as the service delivery seems to be as important as the product itself for competitive advantage.
Think of any service place you have experienced recently. It can be a restaurant, bank, a hospital etc. Also recall what you felt was good and bad about that service. Focus only on the service delivery process and not on the service product itself.

Part I :  Think like a customer of service and develop a list of the desired features or attributes of the service, which are important to you as a customer. Then list the attributes, which will make it really unique and create a differential advantage in the sense that you will always come back to the same place for receiving that service.

Part II :  Now you have to become the owner of that service provider. Now take the list in part 1 and try to group the items under major heads. Finally make a list of  “Service delivery Process Design Requirements” that will have to be met by your service. As you do this, think of the measurable standards; i.e. what you would measure so that you can evaluate the efficiency of the service.




OM 01
Operations Management

Assignment II

Assignment Code: 2012 OM01 B2                          Last Date of Submission: 15th Nov 2012
                                                Maximum Marks: 100

Attempt all the questions. All questions are compulsory and carry equal marks.

SECTION – A

1.    (a) Are the moving averages method and the exponential smoothing method of forecasting related ? How and Why ?
(b) Quality Control is a key element in Operations Management. Trace the methods that have been used for Quality Control from the 60’s to modern times and explain the need for such changes from time to time. 

2.    (a) Enumerate the key factors critical for success of JIT system in manufacturing.

(b) Daily demand for a product is normally distributed with mean at 60 units and a standard deviation of 6 units. The lead time is constant at 9 working days. The cost of placing an order is Rs. 20 and annual holding costs are 20% of the unit price of Rs. 10. A 95% service level is required for the customers who place orders during the re-order period. Determine the Economic Order Quantity and Re-order level assuming there  are 300 working days annually.


3.    You and your friends are about to prepare a dinner because you have heard that you will not be liking the food that is being served in your hostel mess. The tasks to be performed, their immediate predecessors and their estimated time durations are as follows.

Task    Task Description    Immediate Precedence    Duration ( in minutes)
A    Buy the Mozzarella Cheese    -    30
B    Slice the Mozzarella    A    5
C    Beat 2 eggs    -    2
D    Mix eggs and ricotta cheese    C    3
E    Cut up onions and mushrooms    -    7
F    Cook the tomato sauce    E    25
G    Boil Large quantity of water    -    15
H    Boil lasagna noodles    G    10
I    Drain the lasagna noodles    H    2
J    Assemble all the ingredients    I,F,D,B    10
K    Pre heat the oven    -    15
L    Bake the lasagna    J,k    30
a)    Construct a project network for the preparation of this dinner and find the critical path.    
b)    While you were cutting up onions and mushrooms, you got a phone call from your professor and you had to attend to it. This call was for 6 minutes duration . Would your dinner be delayed? Assume that you will eat the dinner as soon the cooking is over)                       
c)    If you had used a food processor which reduces the cutting time from 7 to 2 minutes, will your dinner still be delayed.                                    

4.    (i)  Write short notes on the following
a)    Various methods by which Capacity planning decisions are made.
b)    Uses for generating a Bill of Material for a product

(ii)   Seven jobs must be processed in two Operations A and B in that sequence. Determine the Optimal order in which the jobs should be sequenced through the process using these times.

Job    Time in ( minutes) in Process A    Time in ( minutes) in Process A
1    9    6
2    8    5
3    7    7
4    6    3
5    1    2
6    2    6
7    4    7

 

SECTION-B


Amrit Lal Enterprises requires to prepare a production plan for a four month period namely February through May. For February and March, the production should exactly as per demand forecasted. For April and May, the use of overtime and inventory is permitted with a stable workforce; stable workforce means that the number of workers needed for March will be held constant through May. However, government constraints put the maximum of 5000 hours of overtime labour per month in April and May. ( zero overtime in Feb and March ) If demand exceeds supply, then backorder occur. There are 100 workers on January 31st. The forecast for the months are as follows:
              February ---   80000 units , March -----   64000 units ,  April  ----    1,00,000 , May  ----    40000 units.
Productivity is 4 units per worker hour , eight hour per day in normal time, 20 days per month. Assume zero inventory on February 1st. Costs of hiring Rs. 100 per new worker.  ; lay off Rs. 130 per worker laid off; inventory holding cost Rs. 7 per unit per month. Normal time labour cost Rs. 12 per hour , overtime Rs. 18 per hour , backorder cost Rs. 20 per unit.
Find the total cost of production for this plan. ( Neglect the material costs etc. ) 




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