Dish Network VS Direct TV

One of the biggest competitions is between Dish Network and Direct TV.  Both of these companies offer very similar services.  

Direct TV's advertising:

Dish Network's advertising:

With both of these companies offering virtually the same service, it can be hard to determine which provider is right for me, the consumer.  From looking at their advertisements, one can see that the biggest difference is the price.  the marketers at both companies have identified these as one of the main components that consumers look at when choosing a service.  

The marketers at Dish Network have decided this is a great way to promote their services to the consumer.  By doing this, they have entered into price competition.  Their TV advertisement is seen below: 

Although Dish Network has publicly shown their competition with Direct TV, as of yet Direct TV has yet to rebuttal directly towards Dish Network.  They have however directed most of their TV commercials to cable providers.  This is seen with their countless, worse case scenario commercials.  

So the question is "Which is better, Dish Network, or Direct TV?"  For many consumers it seems as though it is dependent on where you live, and what you are looking for in a TV service.  These commercials the marketing teams have created, help change the way the consumers view their TV provide.  By directly relating two companies' prices, marketers have participated in price competition.  

Apple's Price Skimming

Apple’s ability to produce desirable products leads their marketing personnel to establish the price.  The marketers’ choice to promote the newest technology with cutting edge Retina display, voice command, and the simplest interface for a phone, as an ever sought after product has proven that Apple is on the top in the technology industry. 

With all of this new technology hitting the market almost every three or four months leads people to wondering, “How does Apple not go under?”  This question can be answered in one simple line, price skimming.  Price skimming happens when a company charges the highest possible price that buyers, who desire the product the most, will pay. 

Although, here in Montana we do not get so lucky on seeing the newest and greatest technology the moment it hits the markets, we do however are able to see it come through later.  Over the past few years when Apple has released a new product, large newspaper journalists always interview the “die hard” individuals who stand in line for 48hours just to buy the latest Apple product. 

To me this seems stupid.  How can someone stand in line for a period of time, just so they can buy a product?  Not to mention, most of the time, the individuals in line are using the previous generation of Apple’s product.  This was seen when Apple introduced the iPad 3.  Time’s Techland Division released an article titled “8 Ways to Survive Apple’s new iPad Launch (If you’re Standing in Line).   This list outlined: 1. Get there early, 2. Don’t try to be first in line, 3. Bring something to do, 4. Hydrate, and the list goes on. 

Apple’s marketing team understands that people are willing to stand in line for a few days on end, just so they can get the new product.  With that, they have been able to set the price of their new product to whatever they would like.  My question is, how do they decide this?  Is it based on company surveys that go around to the customer’s asking them how much would you spend? Or do they just know from releasing countless new products to the consumer?

http://techland.time.com/2012/03/15/8-ways-to-survive-apples-new-ipad-launch-if-youre-standing-in-line/

  

Odd-Even Pricing

When I was younger, I could always remember watching cartoons on Saturday morning, when suddenly I saw a brand new product come on TV.  Most of the time, the commercial was lead by the great Billy Mays, enthusiastically explaining to me why I should buy this product.

I would get entranced into these commercials and wait for the punch line.  Most of the time it was, “And you can have this for not $40, not $30, not even $25, but for only $19.95.” 

Then as I became a little bit older I began see different commercials, or paid TV programs that would have the same enthusiastic promoter, with a co-host that couldn’t believe what the product could do.  After about a five to eight minute discussion and demonstration, the punch line would come.  “You can have all of this for just 5 easy payment of $19.99.” 

I never quite understood why companies and promoters changed their tactic, but know I understand.  These companies were participating in odd-even pricing.  For many consumers, it is easier to buy a product that is under a certain amount.  This is true even if the product is just $0.01 under, or $0.05 under.  Many people can relate to not spending $20 on something, but $19.99, oh that is not a problem. 

Kenyon Noble's Personal Selling Characteristics

One on the best companies in Bozeman is Kenyon Noble.  Not only do they provide material and services for the contractor, they also tailor their services to the weekend project person.

I have dealt with Kenyon Noble for the past 5 or so years.  In this time period I have helped to build four houses, in which Kenyon Noble was one of our provides of the material.  Throughout the building process, their salespeople followed the characteristics outline in our textbook.

A prime example of their personal selling characteristics was how often their salespeople would stop by our job site.  Most of the time they would just drop off a hand full of carpenter pencils with their logo on it, but their were a few times when their field salesperson was able to take an order.  It just so happened that we were running low on our gun nails.  The salesperson ended up seeing we were low and offered a box to us at a lower price than Simkins-Hallin.

Another example of this was how often their sales reps would stop by during the hot weeks over the summer.  Again they would stop by and try to sell their products to us, but on days that were extremely hot they had Gatorate and cold water.  By providing these drinks, they were making their approach to make their presentation about what they could offer to us.  Most of the time we didn't need anything right then, but I always would remember that Kenyon brought us cold drinks on hot days, persuading me to go through them for future material.

The best closing sale I saw, was when a delivery was dropped off to our construction site, and the driver handed me a Dickies work jacket with Kenyon Noble's logo on it.  I was very impressed with how far they will go to promote their personal selling.  It made me like their salespeople even more.  

Service Quality

Upon paying bills this month, I stumbled upon Progressive.com's customer survey.  This got me thinking about service quality.  I believe that this is one of the most effective ways to understand what your customers are thinking about.  A surveying provides the means and methods for the consumer to voice their opinion without having to speak directly to the company.

More and more companies are implementing this.  I have seen Cabela's, Northwestern Energy, Optimum and Progressive all provide a quick 20 second survey after calling their customer service hotline.  Most of the questions are asking about, "Was your problem handled in a timely matter?", "How long did you have to wait on hold?", "Would you recommend our services to someone else?"

The problem with these types of surveys is entirely voluntary response.  Which establishes a biased.  Most of the time the people that answer the questions are the extreme cases.  Either annoyed, frustrated, and upset, or extremely happen with the company.  This can provide false accusations about how the company is doing.

Below is a sample survey  from progressive.com.  This survey appears once someone logs out of their website.

Pricing of Services

Upon reading chapter 13, I came across the section talking about pricing services.  The book talked about how services are mostly intangible in nature.  By being intangible, customers focus mainly on the price to determine quality.  Most of us would distinguish between two services and products based on the price.  This is seen throughout our world.  Many products and services are identified by their price.  A higher price quite often means better quality. 

For this explanation of pricing services and goods, there are quite a few examples that come to mind.  Upon typing in “services in Bozeman” into Google, this map appeared of services in and around Bozeman.  Many of which provide a service that has competition.  This completion plays a key role into the price of their service. 

For many people, price is the ultimate decision in selecting a service.  Take for instants buy, tires for a vehicle.  For Bozeman there are over 15 listings in the phonebook.  Many of these locations not only provide installation of the new tires, but continual support for your tire, brakes, and oil changes. 

When shopping for tires recently, I encountered a vast difference between companies with essential the same tire.  I spent about a day driving around a asking various company the price, type, quality, etc of their brand of tire.  When it came down to it I took the price into consideration.  The brand name tires where more expensive than other brands, the quality (ply of the tire) changed the price, as well as where you bought the tire. 

At Costco, you needed to be a member, and if purchasing them on a credit card, it had to be American Express.  On the other hand, some companies were just located in and around Montana.  This proved to be difficult because when I travel if I have a problem I cannot take it to their location to have it serviced at a free or discounted rate.  All of these criteria factored into my decision for selecting the right company for me. 

I ended up going with Tire Rama

Modifications

When I think about modifications to a product, I immediately think of the automotive industry.  It seems like every couple of years car companies modify their existing products to fulfill the customers’ needs and wants. 

The modifications that I am referring to are: quality modifications, functional modifications, and aesthetic modifications.  Take for instance the Dodge Ram 2500 over the past few years.  The second generation had the following engines:

Years	Engine	Power	Torque
1994–2001	3.9 L (239 cu in) Magnum V6	175 hp (130 kW)[1]
1994–2001	5.2 L (318 cu in) Magnum V8	220 hp (160 kW)[1]	295 lb·ft (400 N·m)[1]
1995–1997	5.2 L (318 cu in) Natural Gas V8	200 hp (150 kW)[1]	430 lb·ft (580 N·m)[1]
1994–1997	5.9 L (360 cu in) Magnum V8	230 hp (170 kW)[1]	325 lb·ft (441 N·m)[1]
1998–2002	5.9 L (360 cu in) Magnum V8	245 hp (183 kW)[1]	335 lb·ft (454 N·m)[1]
1994–2002	8.0 L (488 cu in)[5] Magnum V10 engine	300 hp (220 kW) [1]	450 lb·ft (610 N·m)[1]
1994–1995	5,883 cc (5.883 L; 359.0 cu in)[6] Cummins 12-valve Diesel I6	175 hp (130 kW) (manual), 160 hp (120 kW) (auto)[1]	420 lb·ft (570 N·m) (manual), 400 lb·ft (540 N·m) (auto)[1]
1996–1998	5,883 cc (5.883 L; 359.0 cu in)[6] Cummins 12-valve Diesel I6	215 hp (160 kW) (manual), 180 hp (130 kW) (auto)[1]	440 lb·ft (600 N·m) (manual), 420 lb·ft (570 N·m) (auto) [1]
1998–2000	5,883 cc (5.883 L; 359.0 cu in)[6] Cummins ISB 24-valve Diesel I6	235 hp (175 kW) (manual), 215 hp (160 kW) (auto)[1]	460 lb·ft (620 N·m) (manual), 420 lb·ft (570 N·m) (auto)[1]
2001–2002	5,883 cc (5.883 L; 359.0 cu in)[6] Cummins ISB 24-valve Diesel I6	235 hp (175 kW) (5-speed manual or automatic)[1]	460 lb·ft (620 N·m) (5-speed manual or automatic),[1]
2001–2002	5,883 cc (5.883 L; 359.0 cu in)[6] Cummins ISB 24-valve Diesel I6	245 hp (183 kW) (High Output)[1]	505 lb·ft (685 N·m) (High Output)[1]

While the third generation ram had the following engines:

Model	Years	Engine	Power	Torque
2500/3500	2003–2008	5.7 L (345 cu in) Hemi V8	345 hp (257 kW)	375 lb·ft (508 N·m)
	2009	5.7 L (345 cu in) Hemi V8	388 hp (289 kW)[1]	404 lb·ft (548 N·m)
	2003–2004 SO	5.9 L (360 cu in)Cummins diesel I6	250 hp (190 kW)	460 lb·ft (620 N·m)
	2003–2004 SO California Emissions	5.9 L (360 cu in)Cummins diesel I6	235 hp (175 kW)	460 lb·ft (620 N·m)
	2003–2004 HO	5.9 L (360 cu in)Cummins diesel I6	305 hp (227 kW)	555 lb·ft (752 N·m)
	2004.5–2007	5.9 L (360 cu in)Cummins diesel I6	325 hp (242 kW)	610 lb·ft (830 N·m)
	2007.5–2009	6.7 L (408 cu in)Cummins diesel I6	350 hp (260 kW)	650 lb·ft (880 N·m)
	2003	8.0 L (488 cu in) Magnum V10	310 hp (230 kW)	450 lb·ft (610 N·m)

Now there is fourth generation which produces an average of 350hp and 650 lb-ft of torque.  These characteristics fall under the quality modifications.  The designers and technicians at Dodge have listened to the consumers and changed the engines to better suit their needs.  They have changed the ram’s dependability and durability. 

In addition they have changed the functional modification.  They have changed the ram’s versatility and effectiveness of towing a massive payload. 

The aesthetic modifications are quite easy to spot.  Here a few pictures of the various medications: 

Second Generation

Third Generation

Fourth Generation (Current Model)

As you can see the biggest difference over the years has been the styling of the front end.  The progression of a straight vertical grill to a slightly more aggressive style, and now to a fully slanted grill, is a prime example of the aesthetics Dodge has modified.

Dodge has also developed a larger cab to meet the needs of the customer.  Many of their largest 2500 come with what Dodge calls a Mega Cab.  This cab provides a more leg room over the standard crew cab.  

Sources:

http://www.cars-directory.net/history/dodge/ram_250/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Ram