Marketing Management Report: Louis Vuitton, Sodastream & Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing management principles, focusing on the strategies of Louis Vuitton and Sodastream. The report begins by examining Louis Vuitton's brand positioning, target segments, and the impact of counterfeiting on its brand value. It then delves into Sodastream's competitive strategies, identifying its use of differentiation and cost leadership. The report further addresses broader marketing objectives, emphasizing the importance of customer relationship management and identifying new market opportunities. It also explores the significance of branding in consumer goods markets, contrasting the roles of established brands and private labels. The report also discusses pricing strategies for new products and the first-mover advantage, offering a detailed examination of marketing communication plans during economic downturns. The analysis incorporates relevant marketing frameworks and academic references to support its findings.

Running head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Marketing management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Question: 1 (Louis Vuitton)
a) In order to stay fresh in the market, it is important for Louis Vuitton to operate always in
the niche and premium target segments. The more will be the upper level of pyramid as
their target customers, the more will be the exclusivity of the brand in the market. It is
also recommended that Louis Vuitton can target the entire range of luxury products
ranging from fashion line to lifestyle products (Ghosh and Varshney 2013). This will
help them to expand their product portfolio and can cater to larger customer segments.
On the other hand, in order to stay fresh in the market, they should have the mechanism
of periodical up gradation of their existing products by introducing facelifts after every
time period.
b) Counterfeiting is majorly having negative impacts on the original brands due to the
reason that it dilutes the brand value enjoyed by the original products. However, on the
other hand, counterfeiting can also have a few advantages for the original products such
as Louis Vuitton. This is due to the reason that counterfeiting is helping them to
penetrate in the market and extend their brand identity and recall in the market where
they cannot be able to enter by own (Bian, Haque and Smith 2015). With the help of the
counterfeited products, the brand of Louis Vuitton can be accessed by larger customers
segments and thus the brand awareness for them will be more in the market. In the long
term, this will help Louis Vuitton to enter in a new market where they have already
having favorable brand awareness due to the counterfeited products.

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Question: 2
Sodastream is a new brand in the market offering carbonated water in different flavors
but with having differences with other soft drink manufacturers. From the information available
in the official website of Sodastream, it is identified that they are using differentiation strategy
and cost leadership as their competitive strategy (Ray Gehani 2013). Their core product offering
is portable machinery for sparkling water for domestic use. This product can be termed as
disruptive innovation and one of the kinds in the market due to the fact that there are no close
competitors in the market for Sodastream.
It is reported that Sodastream is using product differentiation strategy due to the reason
that their products are different from that of their competitors. Majority of the competitors for
Sodastream are the soft drink manufacturers, which sells packaged carbonated water. However,
on the other hand, Sodastream is offering the machinery for the household usage of sparkling
water that can be made by the individuals. In their official website, it is stated that there are
different packs available to the customers from whom the customers can choose from. Different
flavors are also available to the customers to choose from. This is the prime example of product
differentiation due to the reason that same carbonated drinks are being offered by Sodastream in
different approach (Teeratansirikool et al. 2013). In terms of the close competition also, they are
initiating differentiated approach such as more number of flavors and variants for different set of
customers.
It is also identified that Sodastream is also leveraging on their sustainability aspects in
positioning their products. This is due to the reason that it is stated in the official website of them
that one bottle of Sodastream can help in reducing more than 3700 bottles and plastic cans. This

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is also helping them in creating an ethical image among the target customers. It is also identified
that Sodastream is also using cost leadership strategy in attracting customers as products of them
are being offered in competitive prices (Banker, Mashruwala and Tripathy 2014). In their official
website the price of the products is listed along with offers and discounts, which is making the
price of the products more competitive.
Thus it can be concluded that Sodastream is initiating mainly cost leadership and product
differentiation strategy in positioning their products in the market. Initiation of both the
competitive strategies is helping them in targeting the customers in different ways. In addition,
initiation of different sets of competitive strategies is also helping them to create larger brand
recall and awareness in the market that cannot get matched by their competitors.
SECTION: 2
Question: 2
The objective of marketing is wide and vast due to the reason that in the current business
scenario, marketing is being considered as a myriad of different activities ranging from
maintaining the effective relationship with the existing customers to garnering newer
opportunities from the market (Weinstein and Pohlman 2015). Maintenance of relationship with
the existing customers is considered as a prime objective of marketing due to the reason that
marketing helps in continuous determination of the requirement of the existing customers in
order to determine the change in the market trend and preference pattern. Hence, if the change in
the requirement and expectation pattern of the existing customers can be effectively determined,
then their criteria can also be properly met in the long term (Coombes and Nicholson 2013). This

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will ensure the higher level of satisfaction among the customers and effective relationship with
them.
However, this is not only the objective of marketing but also to search for new
potentiality and opportunities in the market and from the new customers. As discussed in the
above section, marketing helps in determining the changes in the market trend and requirements.
This will help in identifying the requirements from the new customers and products and services
can be offered accordingly. This should also be noted that marketing also covers the promotional
activities of the products (Aghazadeh 2015). These promotional activities are being done for
attracting new customers and seeking new opportunities. Thus, it can be concluded that the value
of marketing is in both maintaining the relationship with the existing customers as well as
seeking for new business opportunities from new customers.
Question: 3
In the recent time, private label brands are gaining huge popularity in the consumer goods
market mainly due to the reason of higher market penetration of the departmental stores and
lower price points. Majority of the private level brands are being introduced by the departmental
stores and they push own brands over other manufacturer’s (Cuneo et al. 2015). However, even
though the market share for private label brands is growing, still the importance of brand is no
less. This is due to the reason that private label products are gaining customers only due to the
lower price points but they are also having a few limitations. One of the major importances for
brand is the advantage of getting marketed and promoted in larger customer segments
(Baumeister, Scherer and Wangenheim 2015). Private label products are being sold as generic
products and thus they are not known to the customers beyond the range of the particular store.

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While on the other hand, branding is helping the consumer goods manufacturers in having larger
customer recall and awareness. Hence, in order to attract customers, branding is the only way to
further penetrate in the market.
In the consumer goods market, trust is an important factor as it determines the loyalty
level of the customers. In this case also, brand plays an important role due to the reason that it
serve as the trust seal of quality for the consumers. Private label brands are not having this
advantage and customers will not have this seal of trust with them (John and Park 2016).
Therefore, in the consumer goods market, branding is important to attain the trust of the
customers and enhance the loyalty level of the customers. Brands also hold accountable and
responsible for the manufacturers towards their customers. This is due to the reason that brand
represents the name and goodwill of the manufactures and thus they are responsible to provide
the quality products to the customers (Vidic and Vadnjal 2013). However, on the other hand,
private label brands are not having any accountability to the customers. Therefore, it can be
concluded that even though the popularity of the private label brands is growing, importance of
brands is inevitable for both the customers and the marketers.
Question: 6
It is recommended that the company should initiate the first mover strategy in entering in
the market. This is due to the reason that super-flat smart speaker is an innovative product that
should be pushed in the market to avail the first mover advantages. This strategy will help the
company in having the option of entirely untapped market. Thus, the market potentiality for the
product will be more (Markides and Sosa 2013). In addition, initiation of the first mover strategy
will also help in attaining the favorable brand value before other competitors enter in the market.

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Due to being the first mover, this company will be considered as benchmark and will carry added
advantages over their competitors as customers will better recall the generic product with that of
the brand name. On the other hand, if the competitors are given the chance of entering in the
market in first move, then the market potentiality for this company will get reduced (Vecchiato
2015). However, it is also recommended that the product should be commercialized in phased
manner in order to gain the customer feedback before entering in full pledged operations.

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Reference
Aghazadeh, H., 2015. Strategic marketing management: Achieving superior business
performance through intelligent marketing strategy. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,
207, pp.125-134.
Baumeister, C., Scherer, A. and Wangenheim, F.V., 2015. Branding access offers: the
importance of product brands, ownership status, and spillover effects to parent brands. Journal of
the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(5), pp.574-588.
Bian, X., Haque, S. and Smith, A., 2015. Social power, product conspicuousness, and the
demand for luxury brand counterfeit products. British Journal of Social Psychology, 54(1),
pp.37-54.
Coombes, P.H. and Nicholson, J.D., 2013. Business models and their relationship with
marketing: A systematic literature review. Industrial Marketing Management, 42(5), pp.656-664.
Cuneo, A., Milberg, S.J., Benavente, J.M. and Palacios-Fenech, J., 2015. The growth of private
label brands: a worldwide phenomenon?. Journal of International Marketing, 23(1), pp.72-90.
D. Banker, R., Mashruwala, R. and Tripathy, A., 2014. Does a differentiation strategy lead to
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Ghosh, A. and Varshney, S., 2013. Luxury goods consumption: A conceptual framework based
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market. China-USA Business Review, 12(1), pp.79-88.
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