Collaboration in a business environment

Sample Solution

Collaboration in a business environment Connecting with others is one of the most effective ways one can lead. People are at the center of all leadership efforts. Leaders cannot lead unless they understand the people they are leading. One way to look at leadership is that the function of a leader is to lead and guide people who will follow with the same values. An effective leader thus must be able to build relationships and create communities. When leadership is a relationship founded on trust and confidence, people take risks, makes changes, keep organizations and movements alive. Through that relationship, leaders turn their constituents into leaders themselves.

Afterwards, there is growing market acceptance in Growth phase. Hence marketing endeavor is towards efficient distribution and to guarantee that a workable version of the product is available in adequate volume (Cunnongham, 1974). Then there is Maturity stage where rate of sales growth slows down as the product has been widely distributed and sold. Eventually demand and sales fall off in Decline phase and marketing manager would either harvest the product or reposition it so as to rejuvenate the product.

2.2.8 Summary

Therefore it is evident that a product has different elements that must be monitored carefully so as to ensure that the product is successful over its life cycle.

2.3 Part 3-Pricing as a controllable element of Marketing Mix

2.3.1 Pricing

In accordance with Marsh (1988), pricing is a very important element of marketing mix for it is the only one which produces revenue while all other parts of marketing mix are cost driven. Tull and Kahle (1990) describes price as amount charged for the product including any warranties, guarantees, delivery, discounts, services or other firms or other items that are part of the conditions of sale and are paid for separately. From the perspective of Wilson and Gilligan (1997), price is potentially the most controllable elements in marketing mix. Moreover it is to be noted that price is generally viewed differently. Kurtz and Clow (1988) suggest that consumers often use price as one of the inputs into forming expectations when they are making purchase decisions while Urbany (2001) argues that pricing decisions determine the value for customers and plays vital role in building an image for the company. 2.3.2 Relationship between Price and Quality Research has attempted to verify whether buyers perceive positive relationship between price and quality. On first hand Zeithaml (1998) suggests that higher price signal higher quality and price denote the sacrifice consumers must make to obtain the product. However Jacoby et al., (1971) suggest that consumer expertise or familiarity may mediate the effect of price on perceptions of quality. To support this idea, Rao and Morroe (1998) suggest that novice or unfamiliar buyers tend to use price as an indicator of quality to greater extent than expert or familiar buyers. 2.3.3 Factors affecting Price of Confectionery Products Pricing decisions are influenced by internal and external pricing determinants (Shipley and Jobber, 2001). The internal factors are more easily controllable since it refers to the organization itself than the external ones which relate to the market in which the organization operates. The different elements that form part of internal and external factors are shown below: