Content Prep- Designing and Pricing a Product Portfolio

Please use these questions to guide your preparation.   You do not need to turn in your answers

[UConn] = requires a UConn NetID to access.  [MM] = readings from Iacobucci 2018 Marketing Management. [VPD] = readings from Osterwalder et al 2014 Value Proposition Design

Required Content

[MM] Chapter 6 “Products” (sections 6-2, 6-3)

  • Section 6-2 “How Are Goods Different from Services”
    • Explain the four fundamental differences between products delivered as goods vs products delivered as services.  Where are some key areas in taking products to market where these differences may be particularly important?
  • Section 6-3 “What Is the Firm’s Core Market Offering”
    • Why is it useful to think about core and value-added offering elements of our product?  How does this idea relate to  our prior discussions of customer decision-making and customer satisfaction?
    • What does it mean to be myopic about your core market offering?  What problems result?
    • Explain product line breadth and product line depth.  How are product line breadth and depth decisions related to our prior discussions about sizing and selecting target segments?

[MM] Chapter 7 “Brands” (section 7-4)

  • Section 7-4 “What Are Branding Strategies?”
    • Explain the pros and cons of the “umbrella branding” and “house of brands” approaches to branding strategy.
    • Explain brand extensions and how these are related to product lines.

[MM] Chapter 9 “Pricing” (section 7-4)

  • Section 9-2 “Background-Supply and Demand”
    • Explain the three basic pricing strategies, and how they are related to the 5Cs of an organization’s market environment.
    • What are some risks in thinking only about short-term profits when setting prices?
    • Explain what it means for demand to be more “elastic”.

Samson (2004) “An Introduction to Behavioral Economics”

  • Define the key assumptions of “rational choice” theory.  
  • What is the key insight from Kahneman and Tversky’s (Nobel-Prize-winning) prospect theory research?
  • Are boundedly rational decisions rational? What is the difference between assumptions about how people make choices under rational choice theory and the “ecologically rational” behavior assumed in theories of bounded rationality.
  • Explain Thaler’s concepts of “transaction utility” and “non-fungible mental accounts”.
  • Why might people avoid opportunities to get more information?
  • How has the study of behavioral decision-making altered economists core model of how people make decisions– and the best ways in which to influence behavior change?