Individual Assignment 4: Product, Services & Branding

1. The first takeaway is how risky and fragile a brand will be if it penetrated a market with
aggressive pricing, with the article giving an example of Samsung which initially started as a
brand selling low-end technological products. The current Samsung has rebranded itself to a
mid-high end brand. However, this is not for the case for all brands. There are low-end brands
which stuck through with its price range and still managed to establish brand leadership. A
prominent example will be a skincare brand named “The Ordinary”. What they did differently is
how they coupled the low price with marketing, thus capturing their target audience. Although
priced low and affordable, the brand never did mention cheap in any of its marketing materials.
Instead, they focused on transparency and being an honest brand with products at honorable
prices (Syme, 2018). Therefore, it is essential to send the right brand image to your consumers
through customized marketing techniques together with aggressive pricing market penetration,
or in fact, any strategy.

The second point to take away is for brands to be adaptable, find out which of their
products are the ones with true competitive advantage, and develop them with innovation. As
given as an example in the article, Samsung only started to specialize, in televisions and phones
after knowing they dominated the market shares in those respective product categories.
Following up, they continuously innovate in those specific product lines to attain brand
leadership.

The final takeaway is the business organization of a company has an indirect influence
on branding. Even though Samsung was through a face of aggressive innovation to stay relevant
with times, Sony did not manage to innovate due to siloed divisions. The different departments
were focused on their own function and did not see the bigger picture. They did not innovate as
one so innovation turned out to be slow and costly.

While the articles made some important points, there were additional points that could
be added. Firstly, even though branding and marketing are important to attain brand
leadership, it is equally important for a brand to enter the market at the right time. Let us look
at the smartphone industry for example. Although Sony’s Xperia released in 2018 had
specifications that were better than most of the phones already onboard, it failed to capture the
attention of the consumers, because it entered the market late when the giants like Apple and
Samsung were already onboard (Triggs, 2018). Even though Sony’s smartphone line was
adaptable and innovative, they came into the game too late.

The second add-on and last point to make is branding is actually connecting consumers
through accurately targeting their existing pain points. Example being the Zippo lighter, a
windproof metal lighter. This brand realized that consumers had a pain point when using
lighters; the fire blew out easily with the wind, and so they designed a product to solve that
problem. During world war II, the lighter became popular equipment among the US militants.
They eventually stopped consumer sales and dedicated production to US Army during that
period rising to become a pop culture icon (Grove, 2018). Thus, by identifying and solving the
right consumers’ pain point, a brand can increase awareness.

2) Visited UTown Starbucks on the 15 March 2019, at 1 pm, for 30 minutes. Observing the
products Starbucks have in this store, it was noted that it has a long product line length but
relatively short product mix width. Although they already have a long product line length,
Starbucks continues to extend it downwards. Not long ago, it introduced Starbuck Reserve in
Novena, a s premium version of your usual Starbucks store selling coffee made of boutique
coffee beans. They are aiming for an upward stretch in their product lines which can help attract
high-end consumers and earn a higher margin.

Commented [1]: Just realised an easier way of doing

via ppt, but still might need to delete HAHA due to page
limit
 ● End use: In terms of end-use, products are quite consistent except for the
division of merchandise. The majority of the revenue is generated by products
that are meant for consumption.
● Production requirement: It is inconsistent in so far as production requirements
are concerned owing to the difference in production of tea and coffee and also
their sources. Coffee beans are mainly from Latin America, Africa, and Asia-
Pacific, whereas tea is mainly sourced ethically from the closest geographical
location. (Shape, 2018) And the production requirements of the merchandise is
very distinct compared to the other rest.
● Distribution channel: Consistent, products from Starbucks are sold mainly in
their retail stores. Products such as bottled Frappuccino and coffee powder are
also distributed via other channels such as supermarkets and vending machines.

Starbucks can improve its business by:

- It can add new retail lines and thus introduce more product mix. Since it has already
established its reputation among its consumers, it can leverage that to build on their new
line. For example, coffee liqueur and flavored alcohol. Since Starbucks already profiled
themselves as a gathering place for friends and family and coffees and tea are day drinks,
why not add in a drink that accommodates to the night gatherings.

3) Intangibility refers to how services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before
used/purchased. Museums need to make service tangible through evidence management. The
main target audience for a university museum is students and academics. Providing honest and
organized evidence of the service provided in relation to this segment of people is necessary. The
main focus should be on the district nature of the exhibits and also what can one take away from
visiting the museum in terms of experience and knowledge. For NUS museums, the main
channels of providing this kind of evidence and making the service more tangible are through its
online website and through promotional posters and e-mails. When checking through the NUS
museum website it is noticed that they have very few pictures of each exhibit, though they have a
word description. But pictures are the first thing that grabs people’s attention and they speak
louder than words. So the use of more pictures would make the service more tangible. Also, a VR
sneak peek would be an innovative way to garner interest among people.
Inseparability means how services cannot be separated from their providers, whether the
providers are people or machines. Services have to create meaningful interactions between the
provider and the customers to ensure that the consumers have a good experience and therefore
image. Since NUS Museum targets mainly the student population, guides are not always there to
lead students around the museum and educate them on the exhibits. The nature of museum
itself is already empty and cold, it is, therefore, essential to have guides and curators at the site
to liven up the atmosphere, add a personal touch and to keep its audience engaged. However,
with human guides and curators comes variability.

Variability is the perceived quality of a service depends on who provides it. It’s natural that some
employee provides better service than others. One curator can possibly ruin the entire museum
experience owing to his bad mood. All this adds on to the overall service value. Making more use
of technology like headphone audio guided narration through the galleries as well as may be in
the future, investing in AI answering machines that have extended information about galleries
that can be accessed through questioning, reduces this variability.

Perishability means that services cannot be stored for later sale or use, so it is necessary to adapt
the supply to the demand. Judging by previous experience, there is generally no crowd in the
NUS Museum, and since it is a museum mainly for teaching and research, students only come in
when they are required to (i.e. field trips) or when they need the resources. A way to increase
demand while retaining its function is to extend outreach to not only students in NUS, but also
students outside, for example, secondary schools. It can also look at providing services outside
of its initial function (teaching and research). NUS Museum can target the non-student group by
having unique exhibits. For example, the Yaoyai Kusama exhibit held at the National Art Gallery
which attracts a huge crowd. It will help draw in crowds and generally increase awareness of the
museum.
References

Grove, D. (2018). Here’s why Zippos are the unofficial lighter of the military - We Are The
Mighty. Retrieved March 15, 2019, from https://www.wearethemighty.com/military-
culture/zippo-unofficial-iconic-military-lighters

Syme, R. (2018). The Ordinary: The Cult Skin-Care Brand Whose Secret Ingredient Is Being Dirt
Cheap | The New Yorker. Retrieved March 15, 2019, from
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/the-ordinary-cult-skin-care-
secret-ingredient-is-being-dirt-cheap

Triggs, R. (2018). Sony in 2018: time for a change - Android Authority. Retrieved March 15,
2019, from https://www.androidauthority.com/sony-in-2018-time-for-a-change-825308/

Heidi Pashman, https://www.shape.com/blogs/fit-foodies/do-you-know-where-your-coffee-

beans-come