Choose one manufacturer of a mobile phone manufacturer and evaluate how added value and other factors make it successful.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Choose one manufacturer of a mobile phone manufacturer and evaluate how added value and other factors make it successful.

A company’s success can be determined by if the company manages to reach its goals i.e. If the company wanted to increase market share and managed to do so it would be regarded as successful, however if a company did not meet its demands then it would be classified as business failure. ‘An event that accomplishes its intended purpose’ (a definition of success taken from ).

An example of a successful business is Microsoft and the fact that it owns a huge share of the market as it uses key techniques such as the marketing mix, added value, Brandnames, product differentiation etc. it also has a huge competitive advantage to undercut competitors as it is a well established company with a great reputation which is also a franchise.

The term added value can be defined by as the percentage added to the product after all costs have been paid for. A definition of added value ‘Added Value is the difference between the cost of inputs into a product and the value placed on that product by the market’ Nuffield – BP page 21. An example of added value is using Brandnames; a well established company which uses this technique is Nike. Nike uses a successful Brandname to attract more consumers which are willing to pay more, even though companies such as HI-TECH are producing the same product, the fact that they aren’t a well established company means that they are not able to add the same percentage of added value. This is because consumers are influenced that because Nike offers a better Brandname, reputation and it well-established means that they offer a better quality product, even if both products are produced to the same quality. By adding more added value and attracting more consumers it allows the business to be successful by making more sales and therefore helps the company meet its goals i.e. increasing profit margin.

Added value is very important for a business as it attracts more consumers which are willing to pay more, this therefore increases the businesses sales and profit maximisations leading to a company’s growth/expansion and overall increasing its market share. Added value also increases the company’s reputation, giving it a competitive advantage in the market. Some ways in which a business adds value to their products is a Brandname and logo, which are reputations that companies go by, the better the reputation, the higher the added value. They also spend money and resources on R&D which allows companies to get features on their product which no other company has to undercut competitors. Companies also use advertising to attract consumers to buy their products. The objective of my report is to choose a mobile phone manufacturer – Nokia, to see how various manufacturers use added value and other factors to make it successful.

Methodology

I am going research my manufacturer in both primary research and secondary research to vary my data. Market Research can be separated into two sections, primary and secondary research. Primary research is when data is collected firsthand in order to retrieve information about the market, a definition of primary research is ‘Original research conducted to collect new data to answer a research problem or solve a marketing information need’ – Google Definitions.

The term secondary research means using research data which is retrieved from another source, a definition of secondary research is ‘this is when you use information that has already been conducted for your marketing research’ – Google Definitions.

In my research, I will use primary data from my questionnaire and interview as well as secondary data from sources such as the internet, magazines and books. The advantages of having primary data Is that I’m sure that all my data is reliable, whereas secondary data may tend to be bias, and therefore false. Another advantage of primary research is that new information can be gathered which will provide me with specific data in which I am looking for. A disadvantage for using primary research is that in questionnaires most questions tend to be quantative closed questions which give me basic yes or no answers, so I retrieve little data whereas if I were to uses secondary sources such as the internet, books and magazines, I would be likely to get open qualative answers. Another disadvantage of primary research is that it is quite time consuming and uses a big time frame. The disadvantage of primary research is that most of its market research is by surveys or interviews, a definition of primary research ‘Information collected by interview or questionnaire designed for a specific need.’ – Google Definitions, even though it may be time consuming, they are no other alternatives.

The reason why I decided to use both primary and secondary research to make my research varied. I am also going to use my primary research which is reliable and unbiased which I could use to back up my qualitative secondary research to make sure it is unbiased and reliable also. By carrying out this research such as questionnaires, interviews and secondary research through the internet, books and magazines I will find out how manufacturers add added value and other factors, therefore finding out how it uses these factors in order to make itself successful. In my primary research I ...