“FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR”

Who was Taylor?

            Taylor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 20, 1856, into a wealthy Quaker family (Kanigel, 1997). His father was a Princeton-educated lawyer who had earned a great deal of money selling mortgages. His mother was an abolitionist with a strong personality based on deep-seated personal convictions (Kanigel, 1997). Taylor attended Philips Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and was accepted at Harvard, but he was unable to attend because of failing eyesight (Kanigel, 1996). In 1878, Taylor found a job at Midvale Steel Company as a machine shop laborer. Over the next 6 years, he was promoted repeatedly. While working at Midvale, Taylor introduced the concept of piece work to the production process (Papesh, n.d.). In 1883, Taylor received a degree in mechanical engineering through an unusual correspondence program at Stevens Institute of Technology while holding a full-time job. In 1890, Taylor became general manager of Manufacturing Investment Company. Then, in 1893, at the age of 37, Taylor became an independent consulting engineer. He focused on helping management find ways to cut costs while improving productivity (Papesh, n.d.).      

            Taylor eventually became a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. In 1906, he became the president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 1911, he published his most famous monograph, The Principles of Scientific Management (Kanigel, 1996). Taylor contracted influenza while on a Midwest speaking tour in 1915.He died on March 21, 1915, one day after his 59th birthday (Papesh, n.d.).

Taylor’s principles of scientific management

            Taylor is commonly referred to as the “father of scientific management”, because of his development of principles of scientific management. Taylor meant that each element of each man’s work must be thoroughly examined and tested to find the “one best method” and to replace the old ‘rule of thumb’  method” (Taylor, 1911,p. 46). Next, he proposed that the employer spend time and money selecting and training each employee, rather than letting each man figure the job out for himself, which would potentially lead to inefficient choices. The third underlying principle called for the worker’s scientific education and development. By this, Taylor meant that the company should ensure that the employee continues to do the job in accordance with the principles that were established for him. Finally, Taylor called for cooperation between workers and management, his intention here is for a clear division of labor between the groups, with all of the planning and cognitive functions done by management.

            Taylor believed it was possible, through scientific study and analysis, to determine the best way to do each job to ensure maximize efficiency. Using a stopwatch he measured the time for each step of the production and then chose the quickest one, and then collect all the quickest and best movements, and implement them into one series (Taylor). However, in  industry at that time he found a very low level of supervisors that made him separate planning from execution, then staffed planning departments with engineers, and charged them with four tasks: First, develop scientific methods for doing work. Second, establish goals for worker productivity. Third, establish systems of rewards for workers when the goals are met. Finally, teach or train the personnel how to use the methods and thereby meet production goals (Taylor). For Taylor it was important that the work was planned in advance, not by the workman alone but by the engineers in order to specify not only what is to be done but how it is to be done and the exact time allowed for doing it.

            He was very criticized because the perception is that the worker has no chance to think or excel, in fact Taylor’s concept of human motivation was extremely limited (Blake, Anne and Moseley, 2010). He believed that the only way to motivate employees to work more efficiently was through monetary incentives, and sometimes he did expose an attitude that was often biased against workers. For example, he wrote “in the majority of cases . . . man deliberately plans to do as little as he safely can to turn out far less work than he is well able to do” (p. 6). However using the economic argument of increased demand due to decreased pricing he emphasized the idea of sharing gains with workers, addressing his concern by emphasizing justice for both parties. In essence, he believed that it is unethical to attempt to apply his techniques without also adopting the philosophy behind them to make the system fair for each part.

            Taylor`s scientific management settled in as a “stimulus to thinking about the function of organizations and a series of techniques for improving short-run economic performance” (Nelson, 1992, p. 27).  The influence of Taylor’s work extends far beyond business and industry. He was the original organizational theorist. During his lifetime, most small businesses were attached to homes and larger businesses comprised open workspaces, which facilitated communication and the flow of ideas. The entire field of organizational behavior developed around the study of Taylor’s theories and methods. The elements of scientific management that were most influential to the study of organizational behavior include: “the clear delineation of authority, responsibility, separation of planning from operations, incentive schemes for workers, management by exception and task specialization” (Accel-Team, 2007, para. 13).

            Taylor’s influence can be seen  all over the word in the way the industries focused on outcomes, using benchmark for measuring and improving typical performance levels. Also focus on producing competent performance in employees. Finally, managers start to believe that management is ultimately responsible for deficiencies in employees’ performance.

References

Accel-Team, Inc. (2007). Historical perspective on productivity improvement. Retrieved             July, 2010, from http://www.accel-team.com/scientific/scientific_02.html.

Blake, Anne M.; Moseley, James L.(2010).One hundred years after The Principles of Scientific    Management: Frederick Taylor's life and impact on the field of human performance        technology. Performance Improvement, Apr2010, Vol. 49 Issue 4, p27-34, 8p, 1 Chart; DOI:            10.1002/pfi.20141

Kanigel, R. (1996). Frederick Taylor’s apprenticeship. The Wilson Quarterly, 20(3), 44–51

Kanigel, R. (1997). The one best way: Frederick Winslow Taylorand the enigma of efficiency.     New York: Viking Penguin. International Society for Performance Improvement.       (2009). Retrieved July, 2010 from http://www.ispi.org/content.aspx?id=54.

Nelson, D. (1980). Frederick W. Taylor and the rise of scientific management. Madison:             University of Wisconsin Press.

Nelson, D. (1992). A mental revolution: Scientific management since Taylor. Columbus: Ohio    State University Press.

Papesh, M.E. (n.d.). Frederick Winslow Taylor. Retrieved July, 2010 from             http://stfrancis.edu/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/bbios/biograph/fwtaylor.htm.

Taylor, F.W. (1911). The principles of scientific management. New York: Harper & Row.          

Marketing Project "Concierge Brazil": PRICING STRATEGY AND CHANNEL DISTRIBUTION

Price is an important factor in determining the profitability and long-term survival of every company, Lovelock (1996) has suggested that pricing is the only element of the marketing mix that produces revenues for the firm, while all the others are related to expenses. However, in the ever-changing electronic environment of the twenty-first century, price is one of the key strategic elements that is often overlooked by firms (Law, 2007). With the our new service “Concierge Brazil” , we have the opportunity to utilize price to build competitive advantage,  enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty by meeting the demands of these specific segments which have the potential to improve the business profit position.

The cost to provide an exclusive service as a “concierge” will be higher, therefore it is necessary to use a pricing strategy that maintains good margins to get our objective to survive, not worrying about volume at this point. Therefore the skimming price strategy looks more suited for our objective instead of penetration price strategy which would provide lower prices, and lower unit profits to attract volume (Lacobucci, 2010). Actually, our product does not have competitors in the specific services which we will provide as we have previously stated, so again makes more sense to choose a skimming pricing approach to introduce our service to the marketplace.  Penetration pricing may be wise if the firm expects strong competition very soon after introduction. A low penetration price may discourage competitors from entering the market, once the product has secured a desired market share, its producers can then review business conditions and decide whether to gradually increase the price (McCarthy, 1990).

 “Concierge Brazil” is going to engage in skimming price strategy.The initial price for the product will be set quite high to support all the costs and reinvest in the business but only for a relatively short time and after introduction once the product's appeal broadens, the price can be reduced to appeal to a greater range of consumers. With the skimming strategy, even though sales will likely be modest, the profit margin will be larger. This pricing approach is most often used for high-prestige or otherwise unique products with significant cache. This is the type of demand that we are looking to cultivate for the services which we will offer. Penetration pricing can result in greater initial sales volume but we have chosen the skimming approach because of the type of service that we will provide will be exclusive and high quality therefore it is possible the  might have much slower acceptance, but we will probably have higher unit profits (Hilton, 1991).

For our service we could use a product line as a pricing tactic which offers a premium price for the high-price line travel or service and a medium-priced line for a lower tier service, with a lower-price for the lower service line. But we have chosen to work with value pricing as a tactic that offers our product at a fair and reasonable price which makes sense to the purchasing customer. As the name itself suggests, the price of the product/ service is set according to value perceived by the customer (Answer.com). We know that value is subjective but promoting a high level service for each one of the customers will provide a prestige associated with the image of such unique and exclusive service and that will add value for our target market.  This does not mean that we will offer differentiated pricing – where producers offer different prices to different customers on the basis of a number of criteria as cited in the Avlonitis and Indounas (2006), because a value price does not have criteria for the price, the price is just fair according to the costs and value of the product or service.

Our service would trade between two countries USA and Brazil. In international markets government regulations can affect prices indirectly through import duties and other import barriers that increase costs. In Brazil we have to be aware of legal constraints. The Brazilian government has installed tax regulations and monetary transfer policies, the objective of which is to defend consumers and/or preserve the local competition (BFTA).This will be very important to consider before formulating the final pricing structure.  In an international setting additional constraints have been formulated to limit tax evasion or keep cash, employment and economic activity within country boundaries. The international monetary policy of Brazil adds a significant challenge due to the fact that most of our customers will be in the USA and a large majority of our suppliers will be in Brazil, because of this there are significant payment issues. These issues can be overcome legally but there needs to be added infrastructure to navigate these issues and this adds cost to the business.

One of the issues within Brazil, especially in the north, is unethical employment practices in order to lower costs. “Concierge Brazil” will rigorously vet all suppliers to ensure that they fall in line with the United Nations Global Compact's ten principles with regards to human rights and labor practices. By doing this we will ensure that our prices are derived from an ethical price base.(UN Global Compact, 2011).

Marketing distribution channel analysis

We are going to use the e-commerce to access our customers and also to contact our suppliers, as you can see at figure1. In the supply chain management process, “Concierge Brazil” will contract the suppliers directly for hotels and restaurants, we are also the marketing provider and sell directly to the customer via either telesales and field sales and/or online via the Internet from our web site. The traditional workers also will be contracted directly by our company and they will provide the main services directly for the customers. In the direct distribution channel strategy, “Concierge Brazil” will be responsible for the transactional functions that involve contact with buyers, marketing communications, matching products to consumer’s needs, negotiating pricing, processing transactions and facilitating functions such as market research. 

Yelkur and Herbig describe the advances of technology and the growth of the internet as an electronic medium and this has led to the emergence of online travel distribution channels. Online distribution channels have gradually become a common way to make travel arrangements because of the lower costs and greater efficiency.  Concierge Brazil promotes exclusive, luxury and pleasure for people that can afford to pay and want an exuberant experience but they want the service with a practical and efficient delivery method.  Therefore the channel we have chosen to reach the consumer is via the internet and e-commerce. This will make it easier and faster for the client and for the company. Of course, we will keep the service available in more traditional mediums with some field sales and telesales in order to satisfy clients who prefer personal contact, but e-commerce will be the principal channel in part because we are new to the market and we have to avoid the expensive channels, therefore e-commerce seems to be the most reasonable and effective channel to reach our target market.

            Since we are new in the market, our main objective is survival  and keeping the value pricing structure in order to give enough profit to pay all costs and reinvest in the business. As a result we are going to build a process transaction with the supply channel also by e-commerce.

REFERENCES

Avlonitis, G.J., & Indounas,K.A. (2005). Pricing objectives and pricing methods in the  services sector. Journal of Services Marketing, 47–57.

Answer.com- wiki answer, http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_Value_Pricing, May2011

BFTA “Brazilian Foreign Trade Association” – Legislação de Interesse.   http://www.aeb.org.br/LegisInter.htm

Gundlach, Gregory “Predatory Practices in Competitive Interaction: Legal Limits and   Antitrust Considerations” T.. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 1990, Vol. 9 Issue          1, p129-153, 25p, 3 Charts

Lacobucci, Dawn., “Marketing Management” 2010.

Law,R., Chan,I., & Goh,C. (2007). Where to find the lowest hotel room rates on the internet?   The case of Hong Kong. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality   Management, 19(6), 495-506.

Lovelock, C.H. (1996). Managing services, marketing, operations and human resources. New   Jersey  : Prentice-Hall International.

McCarthy, E. Jerome, and William D. Perreault, Jr. Basic Marketing: A Managerial        approach. Irwin, 1990.

UNGC, 2011. United Nations Global Compact. “The UN Global Compact's ten principles”                Access: May 2011 www.unglobalcompact.org, and       http://www.unglobalcompact.org/AboutTheGC/TheTenPrinciples/index.html

Yelkur, R. & Herbig, P. (1997). Differential pricing for services. Journal of Marketing    Intelligence & Planning, 190–194

Marketing Project "Concierge Brazil" : The Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) and Customer Satisfaction Strategy

As the company is a service provider, the advertising strategy for  Concierge Brazil will probably face unique challenges in developing effective advertising strategies because of their generally intangible nature of the product. Concierge Brazil proposes a new kind of service in Brazil for the American market with a specific target market where the people are very wealthy and judicious. Therefore, the advertising strategy is going to play a important role in facilitating customer awareness and providing information about the brand to our target customers, because of this is important to use Integrated Marketing Communications to maintain message's holistic nature across all media choices (Lacobucci, 2010). According to Lacobucci (2010) advertising has rich communication potential, but in order to decide on the best medium it is first is important to know the company’s marketing and advertising goals.

            Initially our goal is for advertising to increase awareness and knowledge of our service in the target market by the AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) and then when the brand grows, we will enhance attitudes to encourage the costumers to buy and after that when we are have reached the maturity stage we are going to remind the customer and maintain a steady presence. Finally, at the stage of decline we will reduce the advertising (Lacobucci, 2010). Of course, we don’t want the business go into decline, therefore we will always have something new to advertize and will strive to keep the service fresh and innovative with the goal of persuading the costumer to make new purchases.

            Advertising strategically in the luxury target market, communication will be extremely closed, oriented specifically to the higher economic classes. Seeking to maintain brand awareness, placing it permanently among the most prestigious and elegant brands while reminding people of a more traditional culture by reviving the traditional concierge using an emotional message with an image appeal .

 (Lacobucci, 2010). Using the image of a traditional concierge with the Brazilian flag’s color we will advertise on very few and selective media online based on a variety of online behaviors such as recent online purchases, searches, and browsing history, as well as the contextual targeting related content a user is currently reading or browsing online. Based on the variety of online advertising available on the Webadvantage.net we will choose some of the options listed below to direct the potential consumer to our own web site where they can purchase or learn more about the service and increase awareness and knowledge of our service in the target market:

·         Display Ads, Graphical advertisements featured on specific websites that our target market uses;

·         Flash / DHTML Ads sophisticated ads that function similarly to pop-up ads but with much deeper integration into the overall design of the site.

·         Email Ads, Ads will be distributed through email blasts to the target market audiences;

·         Advertorials Advertisements in editorial form that appear to contain objectively-written opinions we will typically featured on specific websites and promote our services related to the website’s content;

·         Video advertising;

·         E-magazine

·         Mobile Ads;

·         Online Social Network.

How the effectiveness of the advertising will be measured.  

            Since the strategic goal of our ad campaign is cognitive, Lacobucci (2010) suggest that for cognitive test the primary consideration is memory to measured memory we might contract an agency with researchers that will call random samples of households using the DAR Research technique which is measuring the amount of audience recall one day after exposure to an advertisement or commercial. Results are usually gathered by telephone with respondents being given the name of a product or brand and then asked what they can remember. (Answers, 2011). The day-after recall test is one of the original forms of advertising research but few people still use it because the data and analysis is limited (Young, 2005). The research agency can also use tests of recognition, where they might ask if the costumers have seen the ad of our company last night or in the last month. The results can be applied to assess impact of banner ads and emails. Since our target market is a small group of very wealthy people we need to have a high percentage of successful brand recognition to create an effective awareness.

            Nowadays, conversions per click is a popular way to measure ads, however with integrated campaigns we cannot solely base our measurement on conversions per click because as Jeremy Stanley, Vice President of Analytics Collective has said “many of these clicks were unintentional” and also they do not accurately portray all that is happening (Figaro Digital, 2011). Therefore we are going to use a new measurement with an integrated platform developed by Nielsen Co. that will show audience reach multiple types of media online as the video ads, online social network, web sites even mobile commerce sites. The result will provide a single report that will allow a better understanding of our return on investment because it will show the percentage of  the targeted audience reached by gender and age groups and how often the target audience viewed each advertising (Internetretailer.com). Since our strategy is focused on the internet, one of the great advantages is that it allows us to measure the effectiveness in real time and if something is not working it is possible shift direction or tactic.

The promotional strategies

            As a new company with budget restrictions we have limited funds to spend in promotional campaigns, therefore, we will use direct marketing online with a variety of online advertising and some publicity to show our differentials but with no cost to the company. We want to start our strategy as soon as possible because we are looking forward the big opportunity for our business with the next World Cup in 2014 (FIFA) and the Olympics in 2016 (NY Times). This is when we believe our service it will achieve the growth. At this time, we intend to promote our product with event sponsorship to influence our target market to purchase our service for the both events. After these events it is our intention to remind the clients of our product and we are going to use a product placement strategy and also introduce some new and innovative products to influence continued purchase. Then we will schedule the promotion budget expenditure according to life cycle of our service. As you can see below:

FIGURE 1.:

The customer expectations 

            Identifying and measuring multiple dimensions of consumer satisfaction would provide our company personnel with a comprehensive and accurate view of consumer perceptions of the services they receive. The dynamic interaction between our customers and our company in the electronic Media offers opportunities for observing and understanding novel aspects of customer behavior. Using the objective measurements we will form the basis for our customer service, this can be addressed by prior qualitative research to help ensure that a service quality study captures relevant aspects of the service received (Hunt 1993).

            Ideally our market research should explicitly measure the effectiveness of the organizations’ selling channels on the internet and also customers’ evaluations of the service received in ordering, gaining and using the service. For example, our customer service quality study would incorporate measures for the purchasing the service, pre-flight service (check-in, baggage handling, lounge), the actual service itself (receiving on time, food service, special requests, restaurants, general presentation and hospitality of crew), post service (baggage, drivers etc) and any follow-up contact (eg. complaint handling). This information can then be modeled against data on customer behavior that is also collected. Behaviors such as repeat-buying, recommending, complaining, or the value price (Sharp & Page and Dawes, 2000). According to Sharp & Page and Dawes, 2000 this approach has been tremendously successful in providing managers with reliable information about variation in the quality of service provision, and showing what aspects of the service are associated with desirable buyer behavior. It provides actionable information by going to the heart of the issue – linking actual service provision to buyer behaviors which really matter.

            It is financially impossible and impractically to focus marketing efforts on all possible customer service elements. Discovering the elements that relate to subsequent buying behaviors gives managers a better handle on what they should manage in order to reduce customer defection (Sharp & Page and Dawes, 2000). After measuring the needs we will improve our understanding of how organizational decision making in the customer-service using the Customer Lifetime Value approach (CLV) in this manner our company utilize  complete customer data in the given context (e.g., the travel space), drawn from our customers’ data warehouse, rather than a partial view of the customer preferences and behavioral data that we might collect when transacting directly with the customer. By using complete customer data we can be more precise in our evaluation of the customer’s needs. In the CLV model we are going to fit a strategic initiative to better serve certain segments of customers and in their expectations and in identifying those segments it will make easy to address the efforts including special marketing programs target to the gaps in the customer expectations. (Brohman; Piccoli; Martin; Zulkernine; Parasuraman; Watson, 2009).

REFERENCES

Answers.com (2011) Day after recall. Source may, 2011: http://www.answers.com/topic/day-after-recall#ixzz1NCnLavtu

George, William R., and Leonard L. Berry (1981), "Guidelines for the Advertising of Services," Business Horizons. 24 (July/ August), 52-56.

Gregory, Gary D., and James M. Munch (1997), "Cultural Values in International Advertising: An Examination of Familial Norms and Roles in Mexico," Psychology and Marketing,14 (March), 99-H 9-

Hunt, Shelby D. (1993), "Objectivity in Marketing Theory and Research," Journal of Marketing, 57 (April), 76-91.

Lacobucci, Dawn., “Marketing Management” 2010.

Pan, S. and Lee, J. (2003). Using CRM for a unified view of the customer, Communications of the ACM, 46 (4), pp. 95-99.

Stafford, David C. (1982), "Banking on Advertising," y^raa/ of Advertising/lntemationaljoumal of Advertising, Pg: 1 (4), 297.

Romano, N. C., & Fjermestad, J. (2002). Electronic Commerce Customer Relationship Management: an assessment of research. International Journal of Electronic commerce 6(2), 61-113.

Shoniregun, C. A., Omoegun, A., Brown-West, D., & Logvynovskiy, O. (2004). Can eCRM and Trust improve eC customer base? Paper presented at the Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on E-Commerce Technology.

Web Advantage.net. Types of Online Advertising. Source may, 2011: http://www.webadvantage.net/internet-marketing-services/online-media-buying-planning/types-of-online-advertising

FIFA.com . 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™. Source may, 2011: www.fifa.com/worldcup/index.html

NYTimes.com.  Rio de Janeiro Is Awarded 2016 Olympics. Source may, 2011: www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/.../03olympics.html -

Young, Charles E. (2005). The Advertising Research Handbook. Ideas in Flight, Seattle, WA, April 2005 Source may, 2011: www.rohan.sdsu.edu/~renglish/370/notes/chapt18/index.htm

Figaro Digital (2011)  The Click: Brand Marketing's Most Misleading Measure. Source may, 2011: http://www.figarodigital.co.uk/editorial-article/the-click.aspx

Internetretailer Paul Demery,Managing Editor Nielsen introduces a new way to measure ad audiences across TV and online medi. Source may, 2011: http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/09/29/measuring-ad-audiences-across-tv-and-online-media

Sharp, Byron & Page, Narelle and Dawes, John , 2000. A New Approach to Customer Satisfaction, Service Quality and Relationship Quality Research. Marketing Science Centre University of South Australia. ANZMAC 2000 Visionary Marketing for the 21st Century: Facing the Challenge

Brohman, M. Kathryn; Piccoli, Gabriele; Martin, Patrick; Zulkernine, Farhana; Parasuraman, A.; Watson, Richard (2009). A Design Theory Approach to Building Strategic Network-Based Customer Service Systems. T.. Decision Sciences, Aug2009, Vol. 40 Issue 3, p403-430, 28p, 1 Diagram, 2 Charts; DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5915.2009.00242.x

Assessing Your Personality Using the Big Five

The following questionnaire gives you a chance to gain insights into your Big Five personality

dimensions. Please answer the following 25 statements using the following scale:

5 = Strongly agree

4 = Agree

3 = Moderate

2 = Disagree

1 = Strongly disagree

STATEMENTS

_____ 1. I am the life of the party.

_____ 2. I sympathize with others’ feelings.

_____ 3. I get chores done right away.

_____ 4. I have frequent mood swings.

_____ 5. I have a vivid imagination.

_____ 6. I don’t talk a lot. (R)

_____ 7. I am not interested in other people’s problems. (R)

_____ 8. I often forget to put things back in their proper place. (R)

_____ 9. I am relaxed most of the time. (R)

_____ 10. I am not interested in abstract ideas. (R)

_____ 11. I talk to a lot of different people at parties.

_____ 12. I feel others’ emotions.

_____ 13. I like order.

_____ 14. I get upset easily.

_____ 15. I have difficulty understanding abstract ideas. (R)

_____ 16. I keep in the background. (R)

_____ 17. I am not really interested in others. (R)

_____ 18. I make a mess of things. (R)

_____ 19. I seldom feel blue. (R)

_____ 20. I do not have a good imagination. (R)

_____ 21. I don’t mind being the center of attention.

_____ 22. I make people feel at ease.

_____ 23. I pay attention to details.

_____ 24. I am easily disturbed. (R)

_____ 25. I am full of ideas.

SCORING

NOTE: If a statement has an “(R)” at the end of it, the scoring for that statement is reversed. That

is, strongly agree is worth 1 point, agree is worth 2 points, etc.

1. Add your score for statements 1, 6,11,16, and 21: _________. This is your score for extraversion.

The higher the score, the more likely you are to be energetic, outgoing, and gregarious.

2. Add your score for statements 2, 7,12,17, and 22: _________. This is your score for agreeableness.

The higher the score, the more warm, tactful, and considerate you are toward others.

3. Add your score for statements 3,8,13,18, and 23: _________. This is your score for conscientiousness.

The higher the score, the more careful, neat, and dependable you are likely to be.

4. Add your score for statements 4,9,14,19, and 24: _________. This is your score for emotional

stability. The higher the score, the more stable, confident, and effective you are likely to be.

5. Add your score for statements 5,10,15,20, and 25: _________. This is your score for openness.

The higher the score, the more imaginative, curious, and original you are likely to be.

Marketing Project : "Concierge Brazil"

#1 The marketing segment:

For a market plan the product choose to work on, it is a service that provides in the America market a luxury entertainment in Brazil, “Travel Luxury Brazil”, the propose is to provide a luxury service and entertainment during a travel to Brazil with exclusive service for America’s high society consumers who increasingly want a personalized experience. The segment would be to focus on the wealthy individuals from USA, which are prepared to spend a lot of money to have a great experience in Brazil. Why Brazil¿ the next World Cup will be hosted by Brazil, and also the Olympics in 2016, The World Cup is the world's most widely viewed sporting event, and then the Olympics, those events are of high relevance that will attract all the attentions to Brazil in the next’s years.

Identify the marketing segment for this service is very important, “A marketing segment is a group of customer the shares similar inclinations toward your brand”, Lacobucci (2010). Segment has different bases present on consumers: Demographic, Geographic, Psychological, and Behavior. And How to evaluate the Segmentation¿ For identify a good marketing segmentation, it is necessary to use some databases to show the facts, and correlations systematically gathered, to represent a refined selection. For example, to identify the demographic and geographic segment for this product we based on the information about HNWI population by countries, that determines in terms of the number of wealthy individuals, USA holds first place in the world ranking of, with 2,460 thousands (Source: Capgemini Lorenz curve analysis ‘World Wealth Report 2009’).

To determine the psychological segment it is important to understand that the notion of luxury is subject to a constant process of change, luxury became an extremely heterogeneous and individual phenomenon in the second half of the 20th century and that the sector will be dominated by a variety of market segments, all very different in character. (Focus Magazine, 2009).

Analysis of consumer orientations toward certain product, categories and brands has moved ever more into the realm of psychographics and life style analysis. SRI International's VALS framework, where six sub segments (Thinkers, Achievers, Experiencers, Believers, Strivers, Makers) are sandwiched between high-resource Innovators and low-resource Survivors (VALS, 2010). In the VALS framework, Innovators have the resources, success, sophistication, place importance on image as an expression of taste, thus fit with the notion of the affluent luxury goods consumer.

Behaviors, as other segmentation, find out more about the costumers’ needs orther than just customers potential, it helps to make predictions regarding future purchasing, it is not possible to observe attitudes, but it is possible to use behaviors to infer attitudes and psychological states. (Lacobucci, 2010). For our product it will be necessary to study what is the behavior of the Innovators (VALS) wealthy individuals from the USA, then find out who is purchasing luxury trips around the world and by using a co purchasing patterns it will be possible to generate sales to our product to Brazil, making a suggestion for then.

The position in a high price, high quality, exclusive availability, it will be necessary exclusive channels and light promotions. In this scenario our positioning statement it will be: for America’s high society consumers who increasingly want a personalized experience, our brand is the best to provide a luxury service and entertainment for their travels to Brazil with exclusive experiences that no one can do it.

Why?

After the market has been separated into its segments, it is time to select a segment or series of segments and 'target' it/them. Resources and effort will be targeted at the segment.” The idea of targeting is merely one of selection” Lacobucci (2010).  The basic target for achieving consumer satisfaction it will be differentiated marketing, that promote a numerous services with differing marketing mixes designed to satisfy smaller segments, despite higher marketing costs, the travel industry now recognizes the need to target smaller groups of travelers with specialized interests. (Kurtz & Mackenzie & Snow, 2009).

The survey tracks and analyzes three distinct segments in the luxury consumer market representing the top 20 percent of U.S. households by income -- that represents about 23 million households at the top of the income range.  Throughout 2010 the average consumer surveyed had a household income of about $300,000, Pare Danziger, president of Unity Marketing, which conducted the survey, says the rise in experiential luxury is directly proportional to the wealth of the baby-boomer generation, which will be profoundly influential on the economy through 2010. (Betts, 2010). Also is important to consider the internet access, there are 250 million people in North America and 1.5 billion people worldwide surfing the web, where Indeed, travel was the top category in online purchases and transactions among US adult online buyers, 44% of luxury consumers turn to the Internet above all other media sources, 31% of luxury shoppers are influenced by newspaper ads, 24% are influenced by magazine ads. (Source: Luxury Lifestyle.com).

Exclusiveness is a decisive keyword in the luxury market, an alternative to targeting the market for the Travel Luxury Brazil, would be to focus more in a small group on the baby boomer generation that purchase on the internet and has income of about $300,000,. It is a smaller than other segments, and targeting then might lead to drop the sales, but will also strengthen the value of the travels. In addition to targeting this segment in marketing travels, would be necessary to invest in a new model of travel to attract and retain the interest of this segment. Although few competitors exist at the moment if the market grows big enough, more competitors will be attract to do it, even if this happened our exclusive services should be able to handle then because we know how to serve this segment well.

The company’s competitors:

Concierge Brazil proposes a new kind of service somewhat  similar to what is available in the market but with the refinement and exclusiveness that some customers are looking crave. At this moment we do not face any competition in this market for the same service, but there are some  service providers who offer similar services such as a Zicasso (http://www.zicasso.com)  who customize trips for discerning travelers on the internet but they are not focused only on the luxury class. There are also agencies like Southern Travel International (http://www.stitravelinc.com), and Brazil Express (http://www.brazilianexpress.com), who only provide the tickets and reservations. In the figure 1.1 we can see the strengths and weaknesses of each.

	Strengths	Weaknesses
Zicasso	- Flexible and customizable for private departures; - Customized luxury trips to the destinations available; - Easy to contract the service on the web site; - Provide a personally sales person for questions. - They provide a personal guide if necessary;	- Only three packages are available; - The package has only three different destinations; - Price covers the described services and does not include air fares, extra costs and personal expenses, lunch, dinner, beverages and optional tours; - It is not exclusive.
Southtern Travel International	- Includes air fares; - The lowest package price; - The web site provides the information in details.	- Only packages are available; - They don’t customize luxury trips; - They provide only 3 packages; - They don’t provide service for Lunch or/and dinner;
Brazil Express	- The leading Brazil travel site on the net; - The lowest flight tickets; - They have packages by life style;	- The web site is very confusing; - They don’t customize any trips; - They don’t provide service for Lunch or/and dinner; - No luxury packages.

The Plan to differentiate:

Exclusive is a decisive keyword to differentiate our company from the competitors, while the competitors offer some packages with very straight plans for many costumers, we are going to offer a variety of plans and destinations for a small group of consumers. Zicasso is our closest competitor, to differentiate from them instead of only some few destinations in the package we are going to work with at least one destination per state that means at least 26 destinations, and no package. On the web site the customer will be able to customize their trip that includes exploring the size, relief, climate, and natural resources that make Brazil geographically diverse. Including its Atlantic islands, hills, mountains, plains, highlands, and scrublands. Also with dense and complex system of rivers in Brazil we will offer from rides on the rivers to explore the different ecosystems, such as the Amazon Rainforest, recognized as having the greatest biological diversity in the world. Using all this diversity our company will be the only one in the market that can provide a customized and flexible service where our client will be able to choose wherever he or she wants to go in the best style.

Things like unpack the luggage, serves the lunch on the beach and a concierge at each destination to show guests around the place comes standards in our service however the client also can contract a personal vacation advisor, baby sitter, reservations in the bests restaurants. The visitor for our market is looking for, experience-wise where the Concierge Brazil even been a small company are going to use the creativity to reach this niche of the market.

            The facilities of our web site online will give us that advances in technology that are so prolific, however our  challenge it will use the potential impact these facilities but providing a personal interactions with the service organization to impact positive on consumers’ future intentions. According to Ganesh, Arnold and Reynolds 2000, personal interactions between consumers and front-line employees are important for consumer satisfaction and consumer commitment. The concern is the impact this potential loss of personal interaction may have on these evaluations, as consumer satisfaction and consumer commitment are important for organizational survival (Anderson, Fornell and Lehmann1994). Our fundamental aspects for differentiation will be customer satisfaction and consumer commitment in our service, by providing a service with important attributes for the costumers as: prompt service, approachable service, trustworthy service, courteous service and professional service (Hecker and Francis 2002). In order to warranty staff promptness, informativeness, approachableness, trustworthiness and professionalism we will create a quality standard and make sure that each one of the suppliers are within the pre-established standards.

The corporate identity with regard to the company’s philosophy toward the market place will be strategic followership, as Howell & Mendez (2008) mentioned the extent to which a follower envisions, maintains flexibility, and thinks strategically in interacting with a leader in order to initiate changes that will create a viable future for significant constituents. The interaction between leaders and followers depends on the competence of each other where leaders and followers mutually influence each other with the strategic followership the Concierge Brazil will take an advantage to this particularly relevant in ineffectual leadership situations such as incompetent or rigid, etc.

            On the travels market we will not be innovative there are many players and some leaders that have largest market share, or have become first in the market, our intention is not to compete directly with them. Even with creative idea to develop a new model of trip to Brazil our tendency it will be to explore a niche of the market that the leaders are not, in this case we will be more conservative to protect our market share and sales.

            Our opportunity as a follower is to analyze the leader’s attitudes and learned with their mistakes to make it better for our customers discovering the value of the new offering. Furthermore, this decision is not arbitrary, based on our service’s life time cycles we will venture into a large scale offensive action to might be a leader in the time of the events in Brazil - Worl Cup in 2014 (FIFA) and the Olympics in 2016 (NY Times) - to ensure a rapid growth.

            The Concierge Brazil is going to focus in the American market, in this case is very import to consider the context of the economic environment of U.S that historically, has maintained a stable overall GDP growth rate, a low unemployment rate, and high levels of research and capital investment funded by both national and by foreign investors. It has been the world's largest national economy since the 1870s Maddison, Angus (2006).  However since the crash of the U.S. economy has begun in 2007 (Cook, 2009) U.S. has been face high unemployment rate that according to Bureau of Labor statistics, official rate reached 9.8%, also the US consumer confidence survey measures the level of optimism that consumers have about the current performance of the economy, these passed 3 years, 2008-2010, consumer confidence index fall enormously (Cook, 2009). Despite this facts according to "World Wealth Report 2010." about 31% of the entire world's millionaire population reside in the United, furthermore, 34% of the world's billionaires are American. Since North America remains the single largest home to HNWIs with 3.1 million of the global HNWI population even with the Global crisis U.S. still looks a good market for a service as a Concierge Brazil that focus on these potential global HNWI population. We have to take advantage the fact that according to "World Wealth Report 2010." by the end of 2009, HNWIs had more invested outside their home regions than a year earlier, so I believe that they will probably travel more to places like Brazil that as an emergent country offer a lot of opportunities.

            Conduct business across borders, we must deal in foreign currencies that will be one of the biggest challenge we will face for our service to develop the business between U.S. and Brazil; according to Kurtz (2010) recently the U.S. dollar hit a historic low against such currencies at the euro, Canadian dollar and the Real (Brazilian currency). A weaker dollar drive the price of foreign services or products upward, because of these American consumers might not be able to afford to buy vacations abroad and business as a Concierge Brazil will attract fewer U.S. vacationers; people that might plan to travel to Brazil will be more apt to stay closer to home.

                The legal and regulatory context that we have to concern is about the visa, until now the American need a visa to go to Brazil, this might change in the next years as in last visit of  the U.S. president, Barack Obama, in Brazil in April 2011 he said in the govern studies the extension of visas for both countries. If something like that happened will crash the barrier and facilitate the transit of Americans to Brazil. (usimmigrationsupport.org)

            Finally the technological and information advances of the internet provide some tools that will give for our business a better features and efficiency to ensure more convenience and speed in our transactions with the costumer.

The most significant trend to impact this business

The high U.S. budget deficit and the risk of current North America slowdown turn in another recession (Reuters, 2011), affect directly the stability of the dollar value especially the exchange rate for dollar to real (Brazilian currency) that in recent months has been falling, hitting the lowest level ever in the past seven years, where R$1 real is now US$1,58 (CNN).  Regarding those facts the instability of dollar rate exchange became one of the most significant trend to impact our business because has a big impact on the cost of the service that affects directly the price for the final consumer.

            To minimize this problem and make this an opportunity to get an important price advantage we are going to work in two point first is negotiate the price of the biggest costs with the suppliers and second is to do the activity called balance sheet hedge. So then in order to negotiate with the suppliers for example we know that Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo will be the most common destination so then we are going to negotiate the rooms with the hotels in advantage the estimated rooms that we will contract for the whole year; creating an economy scale in order to reduce the price, as well as negotiate the domestic flights with the suppliers and leave the date open for the year. This might be a risk that we might not sell all the services that we already negotiated but we are going to do a very carefully estimative to be very close to the reality.

            So, then the second activity is a very simplest, and most widely used, balance sheet hedge (Kurtz, 2010). Using the accounting rules by both the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and by the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) essentially, a balance-sheet hedge involves the selection of the currency in which exposed assets and liabilities are denominated so that an exchange-rate change would make exposed assets equal to exposed liabilities, Kurtz (2010). To do this, our company must maintain the same amount of exposed assets and exposed liabilities in a dollar currency. Done correctly this hedge can reduce the risk associated with changes in the value of the dollar relative to real. This will improve the financial performance of the firm; which can have a positive impact on our price.

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