Book price
With an increasing number of people purchasing books from online stores, there a number of factors that consumers consider before placing their order for their book of choice (Ferell, 2010).. In my considered opinion, price is not the most significant factor to consider when buying a text book from a bookstore. I regard other factors such as the quality of the book and the reputation of the book store itself as equally important. PriceFarmer, found at (http://www.pricefarmer.com), is a popular guide to best book prices for the leading booksellers in the world. One of the book I would be interested in buying whose pricing is offered at this site is “Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential” by Joel Osteen. For this book, PriceFarmer offers price comparison for two book merchatnts – Booksamiillio.com and Amazon.com. The former merchant offers the book at $14.29 and at a discount of 35%. The availability of the copy is given as between 2-3 days. On the other hand, Amazon.com offers the same copy at a slightly higher price of $14.37 though with the same 35% discount rate. The book is available for 24 hours. Between the two online book retailers offering this book, I would choose Amazon.com. Notwithstanding the fact that their price is more than Booksamiillions.com’s by some nine cents, Amazon.com would appeal to me more because of its established reputation to stock quality books. Further, Amazon.com is a industry leader in retail of reading resources in this case text books. Amazon.com would a better choice because of its known rapaid and consistent innovation that go a long wau to increase the value received by it customers like myself. In additon, there is the guarantee of getting the original copy from Amazon.com as compared to Booksamiillion.com.
Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network (HSN) is a round-the-clock home shoppung television network with its offical website found at http://www.hsn.com/. It deals in an array of product categories including: jewelry, fashion, beauty, health & fitnes, infomercials, for home decoration products, kitchen & dining, electronics, crafts & sewing, toys, NFL items, collectibles, personalized gifts, and outdoor products. I have had the pleasure of purchasing products from House Shopping Network through their online outtlet hosted at HSN.com. My first product was a HP Photosmart Wireless Photo Printer, Copier and Scanner Bundle at $129.95.Not long ago, I got myself an LG Android Smartphone at $149.95. My decision to shop with HSN was informed by the appealing advertisements of their products on their television channel. Furthermore, it is an open secret that HSN itself is a top interactive multichannel retailer that offers exclusive products as well as top brands to its customers. My interest in electronics was also inspired by the fact that HSN is currently the only retailer that offers online live streaming video in High Definition on three platforms: TV, online and mobile. I was pleased with what I saw on TV and online and went for what I needed. In general, the pricing of HSN compliments the quality of the products they offer meaning that I as the consumer gets real value of my money. This is especially true as evidence by the lucrative award Top 10 in satisfaction among online retailers that HSN worn in 2011, something I can fully attest to.
Cents Off
Cents Off website offers business people the opporunity to advertise their products to consumers using discounted coupons. There are a host of benefits of the Cents Off service for both advertisers and consumers. First, the coupon guarantees the bearer a discount on the specific time at the particularr time of purchase. The advertisers are able to define their own discount rates so as to attract more customers. In other words, the coupons offered at Cents Off serve to entice customers to try the new products, increase customers’ frequency of purchase, increase quantities of purchase at any one time, or convince them to purchase a different brand than they usually buy. On the other hand, the consumer is able to get high quality products at reduced prices because of the discounts offered and has a wide variety of products to choose from at the Cents Off website. Furthermore, some of the coupons offered are redemable eithre for the purchase of a companion good or a repurchae of the same good. A manufacturer would favor using the services of Cents Off website in issuing coupons as opposed to traditional Sunday newspaper insert because of the unlimited coverage of the former. The online advertising is a wide reach compared to printed newspaper which has comparatively limited audience (Ferell, 2010).
Unwritten, informal controls
Controls at Work Controls at Home Controls at School
Self-Control
(personal norms and
expectations for behavior) Professionalism, keeping time in everything, working to be successful in my profession, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, personal effort, commitment to marketing plan (Ferell, 2010). Respect for parents and other famiy members,
helping in house chores, contribting to provision and protection of family, Work hard to achieve better grades, seek assistance and help others in our academic matters, no involvement in activities against school rules and regulations,
Social Control
(norms and expectations in
small groups) Shared organizational values, social & behavioral norms at the work place (Ferell, 2010), Respect for superiors, proper attire as stated by the employment handbook, using non offensive (acceptable) language, avoiding suggestive conduct (sexual harrassment), reporting to work to fulfil supervisor’s expectations according to my job description,
Being in good terms with all family members, No romantic relationships with family members or relatives (incest) Acceptable behaviour towards teachers/lecturers, adhering to the school’s dress code, non-offensive behavior, non-aggressive conduct, timely completion of assignments, maintain cleanliness and refrain from making noise in classroom, represent school well in inter-schools competitions
Cultural Control
(norms and expectations in
the entire organization ) Adherance to organizatiobnal culture, value and respecet for organizational stories, legends, openness to cultural change (Ferell, 2010). Abiding to cultural/traditional family values, respecting elders, providing moral and material essentials for the family, instilling discipline in children, respect for the marriage institution, seek for elderly advice on major decisions Unconditional respect for the staff, No absentism without known genuine reason, Be good examples to juniors members of the school,
J.D. Power and Associates
J.D. Power and Associates is a global research company that deals with the measurement of product quality together with customer satisfaction. It has ratings on a number of industries such as automotive, consumer packaged goods, electronics, energy, financial services, government, healthcare, home improvement,insurance, real estate, telecommunications, travel & leisure etc.
Going forth, the significance of such third-party firms as J.D. Power is bound to grow in relevance owing to the fact that customers are becoming more trustworthy of such unbiased metrics on customer satisfaction as opposed to the internal customer satisfaction metrics that companies are increasingly adopting. The internal metrics are perceived as not very dependable by a number of customers because
Companies can easily give themselves a clean bill of health in contrast with the true picture pertaining to customer satisfaction. It is expected the increasing technology and the growing competitions among companies would push them to devise ways of maintaining and attracting more customers so as to remain relevant in their respective industries, insincere internal customer ratings being one of them. In this respect, third-party ratings of product quality and customer satisfaction will continue be trusted because of their perceived objectivity and transparency.
Reference:
Ferell, C.O., Hartline, Michael. (2010). Marketing Strategy. Connecticut, Cengage Learning
