Coupons Inc. acquires GroceryIQ iPhone app

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:01:44 +0000

Coupons Inc., a digital couponing firm, has acquired the GroceryIQ application for Apple’s iPhone from its publisher Free State Labs. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The GroceryIQ application for the iPhone or iPod Touch comes preloaded with more than 130,000 products found in supermarkets across the US. The technology lets users organize their personal shopping lists by store, aisle and buying history. Coupons Inc. plans to expand the application to be available on other handheld sets including the Google Android phone.

“Over the course of the last year and a half, we have built a very robust mobile couponing service, but we did not have an iPhone application,” said Steven Boal, CEO. “The GroceryIQ application is very robust, and if we were to have designed it in-house, we would have done it the same way.”

As a part of the deal, Free State Labs, co-founder and the developer of the GroceryIQ application, has joined the Coupons Inc. firm.

Version 2 of the application with mobile coupons is in development and is slated for release at the end of the first quarter. All current users will get the upgrade for free. This will include the ability for users to download layouts of their local supermarkets based on aisle layout to help locate coupon opportunities faster.

Monster suffers data breach

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:00:54 +0000

Job-seeker Web site Monster Worldwide has detected a data breach that could potentially affect millions of its users.

The site, which has more than 75 million users worldwide, declined to give specific numbers, but said that users in North America and possibly Western Europe had been put at risk. Hackers accessed information that included names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, Monster user IDs, passwords, date of birth, gender and ethnicity. For some Monster users in the US, state of residence information was also put at risk. The company does not collect financial data or Social Security Numbers.

“Immediately upon learning of the breach, we chose to notify all customers and job-seekers and began investigation,” said Nikki Richardson, VP of corporate communications for Monster. “This kind of reaching out to stakeholders will help them better defend themselves against attacks.”

Site users were alerted of the breach late last week, in a message from Monster Worldwide SVP and global chief privacy officer Patrick Manzo. The message was posted only on the site, not e-mailed. Richardson explained that the company did not send e-mails for fear that they could be used as a template for phishing messages.

E-mails were a major part of Monster’s customer care strategy in its last major data breach in August 2007. The company predicted then that data from 1.3 million users had been endangered but sent warning e-mails to all clients as a precautionary measure. At the time, Monster also added executive level staff to its Web Site Security Task Force.

Monster is now asking its users to review its security page and to be extra vigilant about phishing e-mails and other types of fraud. It also will be requiring users to change their passwords this week. The company, which, per its Web site, is working with “the appropriate law enforcement officials” has been on the lookout for any misuse of the compromised data, but so far has not discovered any. In the last breach, there were reports of phishing e-mails sent to users.

Marketing Management Philosophies

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:18:37 +0000

Most people think of a marketing manager as someone who finds enough customers for the company’s current output. But this view is too limited. Every organization has a desired level of demand for its products. At any point in time, there may be no demand, adequate demand, irregular demand, or too much demand. Marketing managers can be concerned not only with finding and increasing demand but also with changing or even reducing it.
We define marketing management as the analysis, planning, implementation, and control of programs designed to create, build, and maintain beneficial exchanges with target buyers for the purpose of achieving organizational objectives.
What philosophy should guide marketing efforts? What weight should be given to the interests of the organization, customers, and society? Very often these interests conflict.
There are five alternative concepts under which organizations conduct their marketing activities: the production, product, selling, marketing, and societal marketing concepts.
The production concept holds that consumers will favor products that are available and highly affordable and that management should therefore focus on improving production and distribution efficiency. This production concept is one of the oldest philosophies guiding sellers.
The production concept is a useful philosophy in two types of situations. The first occurs when the demand for a product exceeds the supply. Here, management should look for ways to increase production. The second situation occurs when the product’s cost is too high and improved productivity is needed to bring it gown. For example, Henry Ford’s whole philosophy was to perfect the production of the Model T so that its cost could be reduced and more people could afford it. He joked about offering people a car of any color as long as it was black. Today, Texas Instruments (TI) follows this philosophy of increased production and lower costs in order to bring down prices. It won a major share of the American hand-calculator market with this philosophy. But when TI used the same strategy in the digital watch market, it failed. Although they were priced low, customers did not find TI’s watches very attractive. In its drive to bring down prices, TI lost sight of something else that its customers wanted – namely, attractive, affordable digital watches.
Another major concept guiding sellers, the product concept holds that consumers will favor products that offer the most quality, performance, and features, and that an organization should thus devote energy to making continuous product improvements. Some manufactures believe that if they can build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to their door. But they are often rudely shocked. Buyers may well be looking for a solution to a mouse problem, but not necessarily for a better mousetrap. The solution might be a chemical spray, an exterminating service, or something that works better than a mousetrap. Furthermore, a better mousetrap will not sell unless the manufacturer designs, packages, and prices it attractively, places it in convenient distribution channels, brings it to the attention of people who need it, and convinces them that it is a better product.
The product concept can also lead to “marketing myopia”. For instance, railroad management once thought that users wanted trains rather than transportation and overlooked the growing challenge of airlines, buses, trucks, and automobiles. Many colleges have assumed that high school graduates want a liberal arts education and have thus overlooked the increasing challange of vocational schools.
Many organizations follow the selling concept, which holds that consumers will not buy enough of the organization’s products unless it undertakes a large selling and promotion effort. The concept is typically practiced with unsought goods – those that buyers do not normally think of buying (say, encyclopedias and funeral plots). These industries must be good at tracking down prospects and selling them on product benefits.
The selling concept is also practiced in the nonprofit area. A political party, for example, will vigorously sell its candidate to voters as a fantastic person for a job. The candidate works in voting precincts from dawn to dusk, shaking hands, kissing babies, meeting donors, making speeches. Much money is spent on radio and television advertising, posters, and mailings. Candidate flaws are hidden from the public because the aim is to get the sale, not worry about consumer satisfaction afterward.
The marketing concept holds that achieving organization goals depends on determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors. Surprisingly, this concept is a relatively recent business philosophy. It emerged only during the 1950-s. the marketing concept has been stated in such colorful ways as “Find a need and fill it” (Kaiser Sand & Gravel); “We do it like you’d do it” (Burger King); and “We’re not satisfied until you are” (GE). J.C. Penney’s motto also summarizes the marketing concept: “To do all in our power to pack the customer’s dollar full of value, quality, and satisfaction”.
The marketing concept viewes the consumer as the focal point of all marketing activities. Organizations that practice the marketing concept study the consumer to determine consumer’s needs and wants and then organize and integrate all activities within the firm toward helping the consumer fulfill these needs and wants while simultaneously achieving organizational goals. There are three pillars to the marketing concept: (1) consumer orientation, (2) integrated or total company effort, and (3) achievement of organization goals.
The consumer orientation dimension of the marketing concept argues that a firm can be more successful if it determines what the consumer needs and wants before it decides what product to produce or/and sell.
To successfully practice the principle of consumer orientation firms need to regularly conduct marketing research. Marketing research is the systematic collection, recording, and analyzing of data that deal with the marketing of goods and services. The tools of marketing research allow the firm to assess consumers’ needs-wants.
Regardless of how much marketing research is conducted, no organization can be certain of consumers’ wants and needs. This is especially true with new product development or anticipatory manufacturing. For instance, Firestone Tire Company must produce snow tires in the summer for the coming fall and winter season. No matter how much research Firestone conducts it will still face some uncertainty about the weather and therefore may overproduce or underproduce snow fires for the coming season. Consequently, the role of good executive judgement in marketing decision-making cannot be ignored. Since marketing is not a precise science, good subjective judgement resulting from years of “hands on” experience is also a key to successfully implementing the marketing concept.
A second pillar of the marketing concept is the principle of integrated effort, in which departments within the organization work together toward the common goal of satisfying the customer. Integrated effort is a systems point of view, in which all departments recognize they are interdependent parts of an organization. Because they are interdependent, they must cooperate to enable the firm to achieve its objectives. Cooperation is often difficult because one department’s goals may conflict with those of another department and with the organization’s overall objectives.
Several types of conflicts can develop between departments within an organization. One type is the inherent conflict between low unit production costs and high consumer satisfaction. For instance, if Sony were to standardize all its television production in a single style than it could achieve significantly lower costs per television produced. However, this would hurt Sony’s marketing efforts because most consumers want variety and selection when purchasing a new television.
Organizational goals. The final pillar of the marketing concept state that the organization should engage in exchanges based on their potential for helping the organization achieve its goals. Organizations don’t participate without expecting something in return, and what they receive should help them achieve their objectives.
The societal marketing concept holds that the organization should determine the needs, wants, and interests pf target markets. It should then deliver satisfaction more effectively than competitors in a way that maintains or improves the consumer’s and the society’s well-being. The societal marketing concept is the newest of the five marketing management philosophies.
The societal marketing concept questions whether the pure marketing concept is adequate in an age of environmental problems, resource shortages, rapid population growth, worldwide inflation, and neglected social services. It asks if the firm that senses, serves, and satisfies individual wants is always doing what is best for consumers and society in the long run. According to the societal marketing concept, the pure marketing concept overlooks possible conflicts between short-run consumer wants and long-run consumer welfare.
The societal marketing concept calls upon marketers to balance three considerations in setting their marketing policies: company profits, consumer wants, and society’s interests. Originally, most companies based their marketing decisions largely on short-run company profit. Eventually, they began to recognize the long-run importance of satisfying consumer wants, and the marketing concept emerged. Now many companies are beginning to think of society’s interests when making their marketing decisions. Many of them have made large sales profit gains by practicing the societal marketing concept.

Knowing the secret, you can easily add value of your profit!

Coupons Inc. acquires GroceryIQ iPhone app

Monster suffers data breach

Marketing Management Philosophies