Marketing_Simulation_Summary

Using Perceptual Maps in Marketing Simulation Summary Perceptual maps permit companies to change their view on marketing to keep them within their target markets. These maps enable companies to interact with various changes as they wish to differentiate and position their products in the market place so they can be assured their goods are within the variances of their competitors. Also, perceptual maps will aid in repositioning a product in a market so it will maintain its similarity with its competitors. Thorr Motorcycles was in a situation where their large motorcycle, Cruiser Thorr, sales are very low due to the average riders of this motorcycle getting older and not wanting to ride and the younger crowd wants a smaller bike that is less expensive and more “cool” to ride. The decision was made to build the new motorcycle, RRoth, for the younger crowd because the company believed that the demand would be greater than that of the Cruiser Thorr and be less money too. The recommendations for the Cruiser Thorr was to maintain its life image and price but offer service offerings and quality engineering instead of product uniqueness, design, and styling. The reasons behind these recommendations are that the company needs to make a change and offer something a little different than they have been making available to riders that had already purchase the Cruiser Thorr. Also, the decision was made to build the new RRoth motorcycle for the younger crowd and sell this for the prices between $17,000 and $19,000 with promoting offers of free test rides, giveaway merchandise, and organize parties for Cruiser Thorr owners to introduce them to the new bike that hit the market and help sell based on word of mouth. The places where this will be held is at the dealers and at the manufacturer’s web site while offering services of training dealers, financial services, customization options, and services to owner groups which will also keep previous owners coming back in to view the new RRoth motorcycle as well as for giveaways; however, management believed that the RRoth was priced too high for the younger consumers and that this may reduce the numbers purchased. The results of the simulation actually turned out great because even though the price on the RRoth was high it still brought in new customers and sold well over 40 million units which helped pay for the extra offerings and the additional engineering. On the other hand, cool should have been chosen for the RRoth bike and should not have affected the sales of the bike because of the additional quality engineering put into the motorcycle. The relationships between Thorr Motorcycles and their competitors is that the Cruiser Thorr was priced below their competitors while lifestyle image was higher in value. However, the quality of engineering and services offered to the motorcycles owners remained equal across the board among competitors. The options chosen for the RRoth made it easy to purchase even though the price was higher than its competitors it still remained a close fight among the motorcycles available in this range for the price and quality. The relationship between differentiation and positioning of products show us how much a company must concentrate on being equal or better than their competitors while making sure that they are capable of placing similar products in the market place to be able to offer other products and/or services better and cheaper than their competition. The repositioning of a product is not as simple as I had expected because of the decisions that can lead to millions of dollars lost or gained and fortunately the path that was chosen allowed the company to sell millions of units thus making large profits after the selling price was increased above what management expected. The effect of the product life cycle on marketing is that it allowed the company to place each step accordingly to adjust their marketing strategies in order to offer products available to their current customers as well as to new customers that are purchasing a new cycle and gear. The effect that the life cycle had on the product in the simulation is that determined the decline in the Cruiser Thorr and saw an introduction of a new motorcycle, RRoth, that gave the company a new beginning at a younger targeted market group. This new target market enables the company to move forward towards a renewed future that would definitely give the company another 20 to 30 years growth. Conclusion Perceptual maps allowed Thorr Motorcycles to determine their new target market as well as a new future moving forward. These maps enable companies to interact with the various changes they wish to make as the company differentiates and positions their products in the market place to guarantee that their products and services are ahead of their competitors. Product life cycles and perceptual maps together are great tools that enable a company to perform its duties by placing goods and services in the correct location and within the right price. References Perreault, W. D., Cannon, J. P., & McCarthy, E. J. Jr. (2009). Basic marketing: A marketing strategy planning approach (17th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.