Service Product Analysis - Term Paper Example

 «Report: Service Product Analysis» Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 1.0 Introduction: 2 2.0 Company Background 2 2.1 Walt Disney and CRM: 3 2.2 Walt Disney and Competition 4 3.0 Analysis of Company 4 3.1 4P’s of Walt Disney: 4 3.2 3 Extended P’s of Walt Disney 6 5.0 Conclusions 9 1.0 Introduction: Many organizations today are interested to know how the Walt Disney Company is able to withstand the intense competition that is present in the market entertainment today. Walt Disney has been in the markets for a long time now and has been able to cater to a very wide range markets. This paper aims at analyzing the company and to study the marketing mix of the company. The paper will detail the 7 P’s of marketing of the company following which recommendations will be set of for the company based on the analysis. 2.0 Company Background Walt Disney is a well known company, named after its owner, Walt Disney. It was founded in 1923, as an animation studio. The company has established itself to be the world leader producers of family entertainment. Walt Disney deals with a number of different products and services (Selden, 1989). They are mainly into the animations, consumer products, and interactive studios, various stores which sell the Walt Disney products like soft toys and many other products and merchandise for children. The company has also expanded into the Parks and Resorts sector as well. The current Chairman of the company is John E. Pepper Jr. Walt Disney has been originally known as a network cartoon productions that used Mickey Mouse as the carrier trademark of the entire company and all the characters that the said entertainment network produced. Entertaining children with comical characters such as Mickey Mouse, Mini Mouse and Donald Duck were the primary approaches to children’s entertainment that the company introduced to the society (Disney, 2009). Later on though, founders Walt Disney and Roy Disney thought of furthering the entertainment that the Disney Company is providing the society. It could be seen that it is through this particular aim that the birth of Walt Disney Wonder Parks and Resorts has been introduced to the human society (Disney, 2009). The Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are amusement areas for the whole family where clients and visitors could actually enjoy their vacation in while having their children play along with their favourite Disney characters. So far, ever since the beginning of the Parks and Resorts of Disney, the growth of the said branch of the business began to grow every year. Several hectares of land around Europe, Asia and the American region have been bought by the Disney brothers that hosted a large area of children’s and parents’ paradise vacation (Disney, 2009). 2.1 Walt Disney and CRM: CRM or Customer Relations Management is an effective process of investigating how a particular market perceives the function of the products or the services that are presented by business organizations present in the market that they are consuming from (Gregory, 1986). Basically, the idea suggested by CRM approach used by many different business organizations today, creates a fine description as to how the technological resources of the organization is practically used to investigate the different options of consideration placed on the customer research procedures that aims to see the different issues that are considered by the consumers as they decide upon the products that they are to consider for buying or services that they are to consider for appreciating (Aksel, 2007). 2.2 Walt Disney and Competition Competition in the business industries that are engaged in the international trading approaches is basically an important aspect that could not be lived without. It could be observed that somehow, it is this particular aspect that imposes development on every entity that stands as an organization that is sustainably strong in handling the major issues of modern business operations. In the field of tourism and recreation industry, the competition simply heightens every year (Foley, Gordon, Spellmon, and Schoenbachler, 1997). Basically, the process of competing with each other is ever more heightened as people at present face the challenge of whether or not they should go vacationing or not. Due to this, an increased concern on better marketing is given way by organizations such as that of the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. 3.0 Analysis of Company 3.1 4P’s of Walt Disney: As known, the Walt Disney Company has first captured the attention of the children in the society [practically in America] to believe in things that are almost impossible through fairy tales. Through the idea of making the impossible happen, the Walt Disney Company has made a great approach in making the children believe that whatever they may dream of could come true as long as they put their faith in it. Besides that, the Company also tried to produce different cartoon creations that are aimed in presenting comical thoughts not only to the children but also to their parents (Kotler, Armstrong, Wong and Saunders, 2002). Walt Disney’s deals with a combination of products and services and the company has been able to with the strong history and high experience that the company has in the current markets, it is essential to note that Disney has been able to gain a strong market position and has also been recognised for some of the best products and services. The experience along with the products and their services gives them a stronger position in the markets. Also with the newer technologies and the new productions of the company, Disney has also been able to set up new product lines based on their characters and has been able to place them very strategically in various stores across the country. The company has been able to set new stores across various malls and super centres and this the company used to increase its visibility in the markets (Miller, 2001). Also the company’s theme park is also a well known area and is visited by a number of vacationing families each year (Jobber, 2004). In terms of the promotions and pricing, the company has been able to build a strong image and excellent promotions. The company has been able to develop a interlinked and intertwined form of promotion for all the products and services and these include, the movie production, books, consumer products and also the theme parks. The company has developed the promotional campaigns in a where were all the promotions are interlinked and ensure that all products are promoted at all times. It is also necessary to learn that the company is a family oriented company and hence the main focus is to ensure that all the needs and requirements of the families are met and that these set of customers are attracted to the company (Gregory, 1986). The pricing therefore needs to be based and very strategically planned to ensure that the customers are able to afford the products and services. It is also important to note that the true and best pricing strategy of the company is, “the quickest element to change” (Hair, Lamb & McDaniel, 2008, p. 49). The company has also been known for the excellent offers and the number of packages like ‘round trip airfare for cheap’, ‘hotel packages’, ‘Disney cruise line’, and many more. Having focused on the Four P’s of Marketing of the company, it is also essential to analyze the company based on the extended P’s and marketing mix. The next section will deal with the extended mix. 3.2 3 Extended P’s of Walt Disney The main focus here is on the people of the company. Disney has been able to develop a very different approach towards its people and the company has developed and started a university of its own for all employees working in the organization. Every employee of the company requires completing their ‘Disney graduation’ to be able to work for the company and the Disney theme parks (Gabler, 2007). This clearly brings out the company’s dedication and commitment to the customers and to the overall experience of the park as well. Also as explained by Jim Cunningham, a customer service representative in the company, “The front line is the bottom line,” and, “It’s 10 percent product and 90 percent service,” (Service, 1997).This he explains are the two key points that the university focuses upon and is drilled into every employee. This clearly shows the company’s dedication and focus on the customers and the customer experience. In terms of the processes it is also important to note that the company has come out to place a lot of focus on personalisation. There is hardly any doubt that services in the coming days shall be featured by the provision of personal preferences of the clients (Benady, 2003). Personalization enables the marketers to study the database and draw a linkage so as to deliver the right information, at the right time and to the right customer (Blavette, et al, 2004). As we are entering the age of ‘ubiquitous connectivity’, personalization is where customers perceive the value. Finally considering the physical evidence of the company, it is essential to note that the company has numerous stores and a number of theme parks across the world. All of these provide the physical evidence to the company and also provide a chance for better customer interaction and customer focus as well. 4.0 Recommendations Like other international business organizations at present, the Walt Disney amusement park and resort establishment administrators around the globe are pre-emptively creating a more workable environment of marketing that could increase the trust and loyalty of the clients towards the major administrators and operators of the business thus generating higher profit for the business and larger sense of benefit on the part of the major clients who willingly choose to appreciate the services and the products that the company itself is ready to offer to the public. In a world of numerous products offered by different manufacturing companies, advertising strategies used by the business establishments could be both appealing and blinding to the eyes of the consumers. Why is this so? This is due to the fact that marketing strategies and advertising approaches have different impacts among people in the society (Fifield, 1998). At times, these marketing strategies are designed to attract the weakest point of ‘avoidance’ of the audiences in the market to be able o lure them to buy the products being advertised. This is what is strongly made mention by Solomon Jack as he said: “We American’s dream of living above the crowd of attaining a social summit beyond the reach of ordinary citizens….and herein lies the paradox” (410). True, due to the human want of being above what is considered normal and acceptable in the society; people opt to appreciate advertisements that ought to set them in a higher level of being socially elevated from others. Everybody wants to feel special, and this is what advertisements in the marketing world cater to (Fifield, 1998). Also due to the individuality of each consumer in the market, it could not be denied that it is indeed important that the business organizations should have a proper understanding as to what procedures they are to take to mandate their business team towards the demands of their clients that they come to know of. True, the individuality of each consumer denotes that the market is indeed a compilation of a diverse population of consumers who have different demands that are equally important towards the process of considering the most significant issues that are considered directly affective on the development of the products and the services of a certain internationally known organization in the field of international trade (Koeing, D., 2007). Disney should recognize the need to manage the process of identifying consumer value in connection with the procedures of development that they are taking in connection with marketing and management approaches that they are using to entice more consumers who could be attracted to the services that they are providing their clients with. With this approach, the business organization is then also able to assure of the profit share that they are capable of getting from the international market that they are aiming to target (Kurtti, 1996). In terms of the people of the company, although there is a specialised training and university that they need to attend as explained above, it is also essential that the people are able to build a strong team. This will not only help in progress of the company but will also help in overall development of the brand image as well. A more focused and united team will ensure that the goals are met and that customer needs and requirement are more focused on as well. In order to ensure that the company is able to meet all the needs of the customers and provide the customers with excellent services, all employees need to be trained on the CRM systems and need to be trained to be able to identify the customer needs well (Marketing Management, 1996). Consideration given by business operators with regards this particular matter, it could be noticed how many organizations have already managed to handle the situations effectively giving the said business entities the strength and influence that they need to attract and retain customers through loyalty, satisfaction and modern consideration towards customer-care (Selden, 1997). 5.0 Conclusions A research conducted in the past has brought out that a number of aspects have a major impact on the customers specifically in terms of the tourism industry. First of these include, the adjustment of the operational price and the improved process of transportation towards the parks and resorts marketed in the media, online and printed advertisements released by the marketers of the business in the international industry (Dev & Schultz, 2005). Basically, it could be seen that the elemental factors of consumer decision making discovered herein have a great impact on the process by which marketing departments consider the influential elements they are to use as they handle the need to attract the clientele whom they are trying to interest. It is also important to note that the people of the company also have a major impact on the customers and the customer needs (Brown, 2000). Hence when the customers are given an excellent treatment and services, by all the staff across the company, then there is a higher chance for the organisation to be more successful as well. In conclusion, Disney has been able to develop a strong market for itself and the company has used all of its resources well to be able to cater to the needs of the customers across the world. The one area that the company improve on to a great extent is the inclusion of customer relationship management along with a strong set of employees with food knowledge of the CRM systems (Beasty, 2007). This will ensure complete customer satisfaction and will also allow better performance of the company. 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