COSMOS is a man/machine sales area control system as well as for products within the lines of produce distribution chains. In compliance with the modern concept of a management system, man and the computer form a whole and complete each other. The computer is used to manage the process large volumes of data regarding sales and profits covering each product in each store . It digests such data and prepares, by means of an appropriate programming, recommendations which will be proposed to the managers of the chain - store managers, buyers, merchandisers. To this day, the system has shown two main qualities: realism, profitability.
Comments on the paper "Choosing among alternative promotions" by P. Delepine and A. Kling.
To improve the situation of a brand on the market, at least two types of promotion may be contemplated: delivering a coupon at home, and delivering a sample at home . The cost of each promotion can easily be estimated. Unfortunately, the profit of each of them is eventually susceptible to yield is more difficult to predict. It is almost needless to say that the main profit one can expect from this type of promotion is that resulting from their power to make more people buy the brand for the first time. In other words, this type of promotion is mainly intended to increase the brand's penetration's of the market. What happens afterwards, and namely the fact that the consumers do repeat buying the brand, is not the responsibility of the promotion itself. In the case study to follow, a micro panel helped the Company to approach this problem and select the most profitable promotion.
The potential usefulness of marketing research techniques in the area of pharmaceutical company and new product planning is outlined and a three-phase study of one market to isolate areas for potential profitable development is described. The impact on financial, research, development, organisational and marketing policies is mentioned and some of the problems in developing action guide-lines resulting from such studies are discussed.
With the constant evolution of techniques available for gathering and interpreting objective information on consumer's behaviour, it is of increasing interest to consider the possibility of using more scientific methods on which to base the policy and planning of distribution enterprises. Among these methods are those of Marketing Research which have now been tested for some years in the field of retailing, and the time seems therefore ripe to consider how valuable an aid to profitability these methods have proved on the two important aspects of: 1. Research with a view to opening new points of sale 2. Research to establish the main lines of the commercial policy of a distribution enterprise. For each of these problems the methods of research will be outlined and their practical advantages as well as the advisability of adapting them according to each particular type of retail a enterprise (Department Stores, Chain Stores and independent retailers) will be considered. It is perhaps useful to add that although in the present report only retail outlets are considered, many of the methods mentioned are adaptable to similar problems facing other enterprises providing services to the public such as Cinemas, Restaurants, Banks, Travel Agencies, etc.
Group 1 spent sometime discussing the LP Model of Profit in the paper by Randall and Farmer, and eventually decided it was precisely what it said it was.
This paper was presented and seen as two parts: a broad and intriguing first part followed by a highly specific sub-model. The group was not concerned to make spontaneous suggestions as to the treatment of the open ended topics in the first part but devoted its attention to the 'Linear Programming Model of Profit'.
The rapid rate of technical development and the continual widening of choice necessitate methods of product development which can be constantly geared to changing market trends. In the previous mechanism of the Hungarian economy, the products of various manufacturing branches reached the consumers through centralised distribution. After the abolition of centralised quotas, however, many manufacturers and consumers failed to recognise in time the practical interconnections between market research and planning. Thus it came about that a product was not manufactured because demand for it was lacking, and demand was lacking because the product could not be obtained. Market research will help to supply reliable data for measuring the profitability of product development.
In 1967, 18% of housewives use MOUSPA, a household product launched in 1962. The commercial strategy of the Firm manufacturing MOUSPA is based on an expansion of the market for this product, while at the same time consolidating the positions it has already acquired, and we were asked by the Marketing Department to supply them with the information necessary for an optimum elaboration of this policy which includes both defensive action and attack. In other words, the problem was to evaluate, determine and describe the strata of the population constituting the immediate potential client or clients for the product, with a view to increasing the profitability of publicity and promotional investments at a time when the general policy of the firm rather tended to restrict them.
In 1967, 18% of housewives use MOUSPA, a household product launched in 1962. The commercial strategy of the Firm manufacturing MOUSPA is based on an expansion of the market for this product, while at the same time consolidating the positions it has already acquired, and we were asked by the Marketing Department to supply them with the information necessary for an optimum elaboration of this policy which includes both defensive action and attack. In other words, the problem was to evaluate, determine and describe the strata of the population constituting the immediate potential client or clients for the product, with a view to increasing the profitability of publicity and promotional investments at a time when the general policy of the firm rather tended to restrict them.