市场营销案例分析Case 4.doc

Principles of MarketingCompany CaseI Want My VOIP!#1. What are the advantages and disadvantages to Rita of accepting the Time Warner offer? Think carefully through the process that Rita would have to go through to switch telephone services. What would you do in her place?The first thing for Rita to decide is whether she should change her cell phone to digital telephone or not.Compared with regular telephone, digital telephone has those advantages:a) Digital telephone applies a much less expensive technology than the traditional circuit switching used in the past to send cable telephone calls. It is also much less expensive to maintain.(less cost to companies)b) All the regular services offered by telephone companies can be offered with digital telephone. However, because VOIP converts phone calls into data, the integration of telephone, TV, and data is extensive. Digital telephone users can enjoy other services such as accessing complete call lists on their PCs, send pictures from cell phones directly to set-top boxes, and easily manage computer based telephone address books.(multifunctional)c) Digital telephone has no long distance charges. Furthermore, the physical location of equipment doesnt matter as long as its connected to a broadband modem.(less cost to consumers)d) Because VOIP systems allow for each user to have multiple phone numbers, calls between these numbers are free.(less cost to consumers/ convenience)e) There will be more features in the future such as videophones, video e-mail, and integrating phone messages etc. which are out of the reach of the local telephone company to develop.(multifunctional)f) Digital telephone companies offer a basic package with standard features for one price, which is 30 percent below the telephone companys price.(less cost to consumers)However, digital telephone has those disadvantages:a) The voice quality of digital telephone is not as good as regular telephone service. (relatively poor quality)b) Loss of power means loss of telephone service to digital telephone, while regular telephone systems still operate when electricity is out. (limitation)Next, Rita should decide which company to choose.Compared with other companies, Time Warner has such advantage:a) Time Warner offers better service than those companies at the same pricing level.However, Time Warner has disadvantage:a) Because Time Warner focuses on services, its price may be higher than other companies.What Rita wants is lower cost, convenience and value. If I were her, I will absolutely choose digital telephone but I will choose other companys service because Time Warner is more expensive.#2. Write the first part of a marketing strategy statement for the Time Warner digital telephone offer. Include the target market and planned product positioning. The first part describes the target market; the planned product positioning; and the sales, market share, and profit goals for the first few years. Thus:Target market: People who want to cut down their phone bill; business men who usually make long distance calls; families with members who do not always stay near by their homes; moderate-to-high-income individuals who are not so sensitive to prices but want better services.Planned product positioning: Higher-quality and humanized service; convenient, multifunctional and money-saving product.Sales: about 18 million households.#3. In what stage of the product life cycle is Internet telephony? Does the answer to this question vary across companies such as Vontage, Comcast, Time Warner, and Cox? Internet telephony is in the introduction stage.Reason: Although many companies have entered this market, most of them still provide basic products. They are taking great effort to advertise the product and to attract the customers. The answer varies across different companies.Cox Communications and Time Warner is entering growth stage. Their cost per customer is cutting down and profit is rising. Comcast and Vontage have just entered introduction stage because they started slower and now moving much more slowly than the other companies.#4. Why does bundling of services work so well for the cable companies? What are the advantages to both the consumer and the company? Consumers prefer package and bundling service because it is 30 percent cheaper than the telephone companys price, and they want one company one bill which means convenience to them. Companies also provide package of different bundles of services so the consumers have more choices and the services become personalized.These are the reasons why the bundled customers are more satisfied and churn less.Advantages to consumers: lower cost which means the same price they can experience more services; package of different bundles of services give them more choices; one company one bill which provides great convenience and better consumption experiences.Advantages to the company: Bundling service makes it easier to meet the different needs of consumers and provide better service so the cost can be cut down. The companies also gain consumer satisfaction and loyalty by adopting bundling service.Thus the advantage to both the consumer and the company is lower cost of money and time.#5. In your opinion, is Comcasts strategy a big risk or a wise move? Is the aggressiveness of other companies appropriate?In my opinion, Comcasts strategy is quite a risk. Comcast is during the introduction stage of digital telephony. As we know, the development of technology communications industry is very quick. Although Comcast can wait until it can offer more sophisticated services, it may happen that its competitors have already own the sophisticated services when they are going to enter the market. So Comcast may have to face the fierce competition between those companies. On the other hand, consumers like Rita are not looking