Macy's Marketing Strategy

Lesson 2.3 #1

To start off with, in a sense, wholesalers provide a major service to retailers and are crucial to the success of those retailers. One reason that the wholesalers are so important to retailers is that without the wholesalers, retailers would not have an accessible way to get their products. For example, if Macy’s was not connected with a wholesaler, they would not be able to gain products, therefore making it difficult to make a profit. Another reason that the wholesalers are very important is that they give the retailer a reason to mark up the product allowing them to make a profit. For instance, if a retailer purchases a product for $50, they can then mark the product up to $75 to make a $15 profit off of that item. Overall,

wholesalers are a key piece of all retail businesses as they provide the majority of their profit.

Lesson 2.3 #2
In the first place, there are several functions that marketing serves to a company. One of these functions is that marketing is solely responsible for gaining exposure and awareness of a company and its products to promote sales. For example, a company’s marketing division is the area that is credited for commercials, magazines, websites, and billboard ads. Another example of this is when a grocery store places the most expensive items at eye level, so as to encourage you to buy them over less expensive items, which are placed on the lower shelf. With this activity benefitting the company, they will have a greater sales profit because more of their product is seen, so more of it will be bought. Additionally, another function that marketing serves is the “Information Management,” which in my opinion, is its most important function because this is where all of the information is gathered about who the market is. This information helps the company by letting them know the target so they know where to advertise and what type of advertising they should do. For instance, a new toy should be advertised on a children’s channel, this is something that a marketer would look at and report to the company. In summary, marketing is a key to the success of a business as this is the gateway for a company to expand and franchise, which ultimately leads to the success of a business.

Lesson 2.3 #3
To begin with, in my opinion, it is very important for all businesses to know and understand the importance of marketing and what it involves because this will help them, overall, improve their business.

I feel that if a business does not fully understand all that they need to do in the marketing field, they will become behind all of the other businesses in that same market because they will not have enough exposure to keep up with the competition. Additionally, if a company does not understand all of the necessary marketing techniques, they will not be able to gain enough profit to continue their business, which would ultimately lead to the failure of the business. Additionally, marketing is very important because without marketing, many of the successful franchises and large corporations we know today would not have been so successful because they would not have become so popular with not only people nationally, but internationally due to the exposure provided by their marketing agents. In closing, marketing can be the fine line between the success or failure of a business, and whether or not the company franchises or stays

local.

Lesson 2.3 #4
To start off with, middle businesses, even without a direct connection, benefit customers. One way that these businesses are able to do this is they are the reason that consumers are able to buy a product in the amount that they want. An example of how the intermediaries do this is that if a producer wants to sell 10,000 of their product, but no consumer wants this much, the producer goes to a wholesaler as their first intermediary. From there, the wholesaler then splits the product in 1,000 items per unit to sell to a retailer. After this, the retailer can then sell the product to the consumer in a more desirable amount at a time, for example, a dozen. In conclusion, customers benefit by the services that middle businesses provide as they are the key to receiving some of the products that otherwise would not be available to many people unless purchased in mass quantities.

Lesson 2.3 #5
To start out with, of the three goals of pricing, I feel that the customer is most benefitted when companies consider what a customer will view as a good value when they determine their price.

One reason that I feel that this goal is customer oriented is that by using this goal, the company is taking the consumer’s needs into consideration and thinking about what the customer will feel the best value, showing that they care about the consumer’s opinion. For instance, a company using this goal would look at the quantity being sold, and the price they are selling it for, and then consider how the customer will view this ratio. A convenient way to find this information about a new product is to do a promotion where a customer gets a sample and then is told the price, if they want to continue to purchase the item, they can pay the fee or if not, can cancel the product and give a reason for this decision. By doing this the company is given the opportunity to find if the customer feels they are getting a good value out of the product. Overall, I feel that the customer should be very appreciative of a company utilizing the pricing system because this allows them to get the best value of product for their

money.

Lesson 2.3 #6
In the first place, I believe that there should be some regulations and standards regarding the percentage that a company can mark up a product’s price. One reason that I feel this way is that without regulations, there are no limits to the amount that a company can mark up a product, selling it for an outrageous price, and making an unreasonably high amount of profit. For example, without limits, a company could purchase a product for only $50 and sell it for $300 making a $250 profit off of each item. This being said, this is not taking into account the effects of supply and demand. Another reason that I feel this way is that if a company does not have specific limits, and they mark up their products too much, they could begin to lose business because people will find another source to get the product for a more reasonable price. On the same note, by having limits on markups, there is also a sort of control over fair competition. In summary, regulations and standards on markups can be beneficial to both the customer because they save money, and the company because they this attracts customers.

Learning Goals:
Yes 3) Yes 5) Yes 7) Yes I can use what I know
Yes 4) Yes 6) Yes 8) Yes 9) Yes