Marketing mix

The marketing mix is the set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that a company uses to produce a desired response from its target market. It consists of everything that a company can do to influence demand for its product. It is also a tool to help marketing planning and execution.

The four Ps of marketing

The marketing mix can be divided into four groups of variables commonly known as the four Ps: product,price, place (or distribution), and promotion.

Product: The goods and/or services offered by a company to its customers.
Price: The amount of money paid by customers to purchase the product.
Place: The activities that make the product available to consumers.
Promotion: The activities that communicate the product’s features and benefits and persuade customers to purchase the product.

Marketing tools

Each of the four Ps has its own tools to contribute to the marketing mix:

Product: variety, quality, design, features, brand name, packaging, services
Price: list price, discounts, allowance, payment period, credit terms
Place: channels, coverage, assortments, locations, inventory, transportation, logistics
Promotion: advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations

Marketing strategy

An effective marketing strategy combines the 4 Ps of the marketing mix. It is designed to meet the company’s marketing objectives by providing its customers with value. The 4 Ps of the marketing mix are related, and combine to establish the product’s position within its target markets.

Weaknesses

The four Ps of the marketing mix have a number of weaknesses in that they omit or underemphasize some important marketing activities. For example, services are not explicitly mentioned, although they can be categorized as products (i.e., service products). As well, other important marketing activities (such as packaging) are not specifically addressed but are placed within one of the four P groups.

Another key problem is that the four Ps focus on the seller’s view of the market. The buyer’s view should be marketing’s main concern.

The four Cs

The four Ps of the marketing mix can be reinterpreted as the four Cs. They put the customer’s interests (the buyer) ahead of the marketer’s interests (the seller).

Customer solutions, not products: Customers want to buy value or a solution to their problems.
Customer cost, not price: Customers want to know the total cost of acquiring, using, and disposing of a product.
Convenience, not place: Customers want products and services to be as convenient to purchase as possible.
Communication, not promotion: Customers want two-way communication with the companies that make the product.

References

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Cunningham, P.H. (2005).Principles of Marketing.Toronto: Pearson Education Canada.

Pricing

Once your startup is ready to commercialize its product, you must determine how much to charge customers to purchase the product. In other words, it is time to establish the pricing structure.

Pricing is one of the four main elements of the marketing mix. Pricing is the only revenue-generating element in the marketing mix (the other three elements are cost centres—i.e, they add to a company’s cost). Pricing is strongly linked to the business model. The business model is a conceptual representation of the company’s revenue streams. Any significant changes in the price will affect the viability of a particular business model.

A well-chosen price should accomplish three goals:

• achieve the company’s financial goals (i.e., profitability)
• fit within the realities of the marketplace (i.e., customers are willing and able to pay the set price)
• support a product’s positioning and be consistent with the other variables in the marketing mix (i.e., product quality, distribution issues, promotion challenges)

Pricing models

There are different methods of determining the price for high-tech products.

Cost + profit margin: Add a profit margin percentage to the costs associated with producing and distributing the product.
Rate of return and break-even point: Calculate the unit price: price = unit cost + [(rate of return× investment)÷ quantity sold]. Then determine the break-even point: the level at which sales figures cover related fixed and variable costs.
Market price: Set the price according to the main competitor’s price.
Bidding price: Set the price according to available information about competitor bids and the customers’ opinion of the product’s advantages.
Comparison with substitute products: Set the price relative to products for which it will substitute.
Value-based pricing: Set the price based on how the customer values the product. (See below for further details.)

Value-based pricing

Value-based pricing attempts to establish the return generated by the product’s use from the customer’s point of view. How a customer perceives product value, and the actual value the customer receives, can be estimated by identifying:

• the target customer (i.e., their budget, ability to purchase)—specifically, the value can be estimated by developing an application scenario
• buyer motivation (i.e., willingness to buy, the risk involved)
• the product and its complexity (i.e., its ability to meet customer’s objectives)
• distribution (i.e., delivery, support)

Value-based pricing and the technology adoption lifecycle (TALC)

Setting a price in the Early Market involves some guesswork as the product’s value is unproven at this stage. To guide your pricing decisions, determine the:

• customer’s expected return on investment from buying the product
• amount your customer may be willing to pay
• referential price for the new product (this is the price compared to the cost of the total project)

To cross the Chasm and enter the Bowling Alley, pricing must be based on value. To guide your pricing decisions, determine the:

• amount of money your customer is currently losing (see application scenario)
• expected return on investment with the new product strategy, and when the returns will be realized
• return on investment derived from using the product to solve the problem

Finally, keep your pricing model simple to communicate and ensure it makes sense to the customer. If it does not, your sales staff will struggle in the face of other competition.

References

Wiefels, P. (2002).The Chasm Companion.New York: Harper Business.
Viardot, E. (2004).Successful Marketing Strategy for High-Tech Firms.Boston: Artech House.

Product management as your product and market matures

Product management provides an essential but often underrated function in technology organizations. The role of product management in an organization is to bridge the gap between product development and the market. Often these responsibilities are contained in specific job functions within a dedicated product management organization; however, marketing and product development are other possible”homes” for product managers.

A product manager is essentially the CEO of a product and manages the processes that determine everything around the product and how it marketed. In general, product managers must master a wide range of management disciplines, including:

• market research
• market analysis
• project management
• marketing communications
• channel management
• sales management and forecasting
• budgeting

Adding to the complexity of product management in technology organizations is the fact that it is often third parties who deliver significant parts of the customer value. It is the product manager’s job to take care of these external relationships while also liaising with all other departments within your organization.

The interpersonal, political, strategic and functional demands of product managers make it a role that draws on all sorts of talents, and the broad scope of the product manager’s work makes their success closely aligned with that of the company.

Product management in the Early Market

Your biggest risk in the Early Market can unfold on the customer side; i.e., the risk that your technology is implemented incorrectly in the customer organization—or worse, that it causes significant disruption to their operations and significantly harms the customer’s business and their experience with your product. Product managers in the Early Market must focus on reducing this risk when establishing a value chain (one that can be scaled and fine-tuned as the market develops).

In the IT sector, this often involves finding technology partners and system integrators with particular expertise that complement your product and knowledge of the customers’ systems. No matter which industry you are in, your startup should aim to build relationships with technology partners who already have established customer relationships within your target market.

Realistically, the start-up at this stage does not offer a complete whole product at this stage. In its place you must be able to present an attractive product roadmap in order to secure the buy-in of partners and customers.

Product management in the Chasm and Bowling Alley

Successfully crossing the Chasm means translating the roadmap developed in the Early Market into a whole product. Managing a whole product means that on a daily basis, product managers must look for ways to augment the value chain in line with the company’s strategy. As the company moves from having a core product to building a whole product, this process will grow increasingly complex with the involvement of more and more value chain partners.

Crossing the chasm also means that product management moves to incorporate market sensing. In order to make it across the chasm, the company must switch its customer focus from visionaries in the Early Market to specific market niches in the Bowling Alley. The product manager’s objective is to ensure that the company develops an excellent product that solves the target niche customer’s problem. To do so, the guiding light for product managers is the customer pain at the other side of the chasm (i.e, the business problems that you can solve that will propel your company to cross the chasm) and the development of a product that will give those potential niche customers a compelling reason to buy. Changing the focus to the needs of new target niches means ignoring the functionality requests from the visionaries, and this can seem counterintuitive for product managers.

Also, at this stage, much of product management’s efforts have to centre on the orchestration of the value chain, to allow for well-timed product launches in order to integrate the product with marketing and sales efforts.

Beyond the Bowling Alley

To grow beyond the Bowling Alley, consider the following questions:

• Can the value chain develop into a Tornado (mass market)?
• What conditions currently hold the value chain back?
• Are these constraints likely to be removed?
• If so, when will the last remaining constraint be removed and by whom?

References

Wiefels, P. (2002).The Chasm Companion.New York: Harper Business.

Target customer

Many startup companies have technologies that are of interest to many different market segments. Given a startup’s limited resources, the company needs to prioritize which customers to target with their technology and marketing efforts. Defining a target customer is the first step in the market segmentation process.

Types of target customers

In business-to-business (B2B) markets, target customers are categorized according to their roles within their organizations:

• Economic buyers purchase the product (e.g., CFOs/COOs, function or line of business [LoB] executives)
• Technical buyers make the product accessible to end-users (e.g., technology directors, technology evaluators)
• End-users use the product (e.g., departmental managers, lead end-users)

Startups must investigate individual companies to identify the different target customers. In large organizations, these roles can be performed by groups of different people or committees. In smaller companies, one person may be responsible for all three roles.

Determining the target customer

The process of determining the target customer for an innovative product differs from the process used in a more established marketplace because the latter process is based on already existing product categories. It is assumed that a start-up’s product is innovative and potentially disruptive to the marketplace thereby requiring a more qualitative approach to determine the target customer.

The purpose of the process is to ensure that the startup’s technology capabilities are directed toward the most valuable customers for future growth.

The day-in-the-life summary, or application scenario

One way start-ups can start the process of identifying the target customer is through a qualitative process called a”day-in-the-life summary” for a potential customer. A day-in-the-life summary describes conditions before and after a target customer purchases your product.”Before” describes the key issues/problems/pain faced by a possible end-user of your product.”After” focuses on the change in effectiveness of the end-user after purchasing and using your product. This change must affect the economic buyer’s main concern, which is normally associated with achieving one or more of the buyer’s strategic objectives.

This summary is also known as an application scenario . The outcome of an application scenario is a number of possible applications for specific niche market segments. The scenario process encompasses the following steps:

1. Develop market segment candidates for your product.

• Consider applications for industries, functions or organizations that have the greatest potential need.
• Focus on departments or individuals affected by the need.
• Select a specific geographical starting point.

2. Select positive opportunities and convert them into scenarios.

• Identify the end-user function.
• Identify the economic buyer responsible for the end-user.
• Describe a day in the life of the end-user with an emphasis on consequences and rewards for the economic buyer.

Having developed the application scenarios, the next step is to rate and rank the scenarios according to step 2 of the market segmentation process. This will allow you to achieve the objective of focusing on the most desirable niche segments.

Target customers and theTechnology Adoption lifecycle (TALC)

Early Markets develop when an economic buyer (primary sponsor), supported by a technical buyer (secondary sponsor), searches for an innovative product that can provide a significant competitive advantage. The economic buyer has the funding and power to purchase the product. She has the power to sponsor a potentially risky innovation and tends to be less price sensitive. She acts as a bellwether and a highly visible reference across industries. The technical buyer is a technology evaluator. She is interested in: a) what works in practice; b) what others in the industry are saying; c) what groups are forming to support or resist this innovation; and d) the likelihood that the innovation will provide the necessary advantage.

Target customers will likely change in the Chasm and Bowling Alley markets. Both markets have a primary sponsor (the senior-level manager who represents the end-users) and a secondary sponsor (the executive to whom the end-user reports). Both groups are pragmatists and because of that they will not abandon current methods until forced by necessity to do so. The application scenario is the tool that will help you identify the niche segments that can help you cross the Chasm and enter the Bowling Alley.

References

Wiefels, P. (2002).The Chasm Companion.New York: Harper Business.
Christensen, C.M,& Raynor, M.E. (2003).The Innovator’s Solution.Boston: HBS Press.
Viardot, E. (2004).Successful Marketing Strategy for High-tech Firms.Boston: Artech House.

Technology adoption lifecycle (TALC)

The technology adoption lifecycle (TALC) describes how a market develops for a new product category.Understanding TALC helps business managers focus product management, develop future marketing strategies and allocate resources for radically innovative products (also known as discontinuous innovations).

While the bell curve (see below) has long served as an illustration of the market development process for a new product category, Geoffrey Moore introduced the notion of a“chasm” in the market development process for radically innovative products in his 1991 book,Crossing the Chasm. Given MaRS’ focus on assisting technology entrepreneurs, we will use Moore’s version of the TALC.

Stages of the Technology Adoption Lifecycle

1.    The Early Market (consists of visionaries and technology enthusiasts): The market at this stage consists of visionaries and technology enthusiasts. The technology enthusiasts (often referred to as”innovators”) fundamentally believe that new technology is better than existing technology and will therefore always be amongst the very first to adopt new products. Visionaries on the other hand believe in technology as a path to competitive advantage and thus aggressively adopt any new technology to further their business.
2.    The Chasm:  In the chasm the product category encounters a pause in market development. The length of the pause depends on how radical the disruptive innovation is. The pause occurs often as a result of weak or incomplete value chains and because pragmatists (mainstream market) do not trust visionaries as a reference. The success of the product category depends on the pragmatists’ view of the outcomes of the pilot projects initiated by the Early Market. In this phase, entrepreneurs need to analyze current pilot projects and developments to understand how an improved offering can serve niche markets in order to gain momentum in the next phase of market development.
3.     Bowling Alley/Pragmatists:  In this phase of the lifecycle, the innovation appeals to customers within narrowly defined market niches, who are conservative but open to new ideas, and who are influential and active in the community. The product category now appeals to specific niche markets. The sales to these niche markets are predictable and provide high margins. However, outside of the niche markets, sales are opportunistic and may require mass product customization to meet individual client needs. At this point, industry analysts and media may begin to follow the development of the product category.
4.    The Tornado/Pragmatists: The Tornado represents the stage where the market development expands outside the niche markets of the previous phase and develops into a mass market. Here we see a period of rapid growth that generates mass appeal amongst the pragmatists and early adopters, as the product has penetrated a variety of market segments. Vendors are eager to supply this product category and this creates a war for market share which in turn brings down prices. A market leader will eventually emerge at this stage and enjoy shorter sales process, better margins and more media coverage than the competition. The technical analysts now scrutinize the strengths and weakness of each industry player.
5.    Main Street/Conservatives: Here the market has entered the mature stage of its lifecycle, experiencing declining growth rates. The declining prices appeal to the conservative/late majority consumers. These customers tend to be more risk-averse than previous segments. The reason they purchase the product is to avoid a competitive disadvantage. At this point, to secure a viable future within niche markets, some competitors modify their offering while others compete solely on price. The focus of the media changes from discussing the product category and its players to the market itself.
6.    Total Assimilation/Skeptics: At this stage, near the end of the lifecycle, it is the laggards or skeptics who embrace the product. Some after-sale services offered by marketers will provide lingering revenues; however, a new technology category has begun elsewhere to capture the market. By this stage, the interests of the media and analysts have changed and evolved.

Application of TALC

An important aspect of technology management is deciding where your product category belongs on the technology adoption lifecycle. While you should make your placement decision using subjective reasoning and judgment, keep in mind that guidelines exist to steer you in the right direction. These include:

• analyse where a product enters the TALC when it is brought to market (i.e., shipped)
• placement of the product category is geographically sensitive – it will depend on where it is in the world
• a product’s rapid acceptance and adoption in the Early Market does not mean that it is in a Tornado. It may be due to the reaction of technology enthusiasts and visionaries to the newness of the product category. Wait until paragmatists adopt the product category (in definable segments) before moving out of the Early Market
• a Tornado is also possible in Bowling Alley markets when the product effectively resolves problems in a particular market segment. Wait for evidence that this local response carries over into other segments
• when transference does not occur, the product may enter Main Street without sustaining a Tornado. The product may only be effective in niche markets – a generalized solution and infrastructure will not apply
• your product may fail, even though others in the product category may succeed, as a result of (or despite) your company’s efforts. Each product and company must survive on its own. A product’s success does not guarantee the success of the product category

References

Wiefels, P. (2002).The Chasm Companion.New York: Harper Business.
Image adapted fromThe Chasm Companion.

Target customer

Customer segmentation is the process of dividing the market for your products according to similarities between the market’s subgroups. The purpose of segmentation is to help start-ups identify their most attractive market segments so they can focus their marketing resources on those customers.

Segmentation process

The segmentation process involves developing and ranking application scenarios to identify the most attractive customer segments in a given market. It can be illustrated using the following flow chart. A full explanation is provided below.

Step 1: Create a complete list of potential niche target segments by generating user-focused scenarios (You may wish to read our separate article on how to identify target customers and create scenarios). 

Step 2:Narrow the search to the most promising target segments. Rank the scenarios according to the following key Chasm-crossing and/or Bowling Alley criteria (for further details, refer to the technology adoption lifecycle [TALC]):

• Is your economic buyer accessible and well-funded?
• Does your economic buyer have a very compelling reason to buy (CRTB)?
• Do you offer a viable whole-product solution?
• Will you face a lack of established competition?
• Is there positive follow-on potential?

Note: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 until you identify a single target segment.

Step 3: Select the target candidate that offers the greatest potential. The candidate should be attractive on its own merits and provide the best follow-on market potential based on developing a product strategy and customer references. Each candidate represents a potential market segment. Use a market development strategy checklist to develop a plan to win the lead segment.
Step 4: Validate current thinking and assumptions using market research. You may choose to conduct research prior to market planning or at the same time your product goes to market. Testing your strategy enables you to test the assumptions you made before launching a new market development initiative.

References

Wiefels, P. (2002).The Chasm Companion. New York: Harper Business.
Image adapted fromThe Chasm Companion.

Marketing Plan

Many startup companies have technologies that are of interest to many different market segments. Given a startup’s limited resources, the company needs to prioritize which customers to target with their technology and marketing efforts. Defining a target customer is the first step in the market segmentation process.

Types of target customers

In business-to-business (B2B) markets, target customers are categorized according to their roles within their organizations:

• Economic buyers purchase the product (e.g., CFOs/COOs, function or line of business [LoB] executives)
• Technical buyers make the product accessible to end-users (e.g., technology directors, technology evaluators)
• End-users use the product (e.g., departmental managers, lead end-users)

Startups must investigate individual companies to identify the different target customers. In large organizations, these roles can be performed by groups of different people or committees. In smaller companies, one person may be responsible for all three roles.

Determining the target customer

The process of determining the target customer for an innovative product differs from the process used in a more established marketplace because the latter process is based on already existing product categories. It is assumed that a start-up’s product is innovative and potentially disruptive to the marketplace thereby requiring a more qualitative approach to determine the target customer.

The purpose of the process is to ensure that the startup’s technology capabilities are directed toward the most valuable customers for future growth.

The day-in-the-life summary, or application scenario

One way start-ups can start the process of identifying the target customer is through a qualitative process called a”day-in-the-life summary” for a potential customer. A day-in-the-life summary describes conditions before and after a target customer purchases your product.”Before” describes the key issues/problems/pain faced by a possible end-user of your product.”After” focuses on the change in effectiveness of the end-user after purchasing and using your product. This change must affect the economic buyer’s main concern, which is normally associated with achieving one or more of the buyer’s strategic objectives.

This summary is also known as an application scenario . The outcome of an application scenario is a number of possible applications for specific niche market segments. The scenario process encompasses the following steps:

1. Develop market segment candidates for your product.

• Consider applications for industries, functions or organizations that have the greatest potential need.
• Focus on departments or individuals affected by the need.
• Select a specific geographical starting point.

2. Select positive opportunities and convert them into scenarios.

• Identify the end-user function.
• Identify the economic buyer responsible for the end-user.
• Describe a day in the life of the end-user with an emphasis on consequences and rewards for the economic buyer.

Having developed the application scenarios, the next step is to rate and rank the scenarios according to step 2 of the market segmentation process. This will allow you to achieve the objective of focusing on the most desirable niche segments.

Target customers and the technology adoption lifecycle (TALC)

Early Markets develop when an economic buyer (primary sponsor), supported by a technical buyer (secondary sponsor), searches for an innovative product that can provide a significant competitive advantage. The economic buyer has the funding and power to purchase the product. She has the power to sponsor a potentially risky innovation and tends to be less price sensitive. She acts as a bellwether and a highly visible reference across industries. The technical buyer is a technology evaluator. She is interested in: a) what works in practice; b) what others in the industry are saying; c) what groups are forming to support or resist this innovation; and d) the likelihood that the innovation will provide the necessary advantage.

Target customers will likely change in the Chasm and Bowling Alley markets. Both markets have a primary sponsor (the senior-level manager who represents the end-users) and a secondary sponsor (the executive to whom the end-user reports). Both groups are pragmatists and because of that they will not abandon current methods until forced by necessity to do so. The application scenario is the tool that will help you identify the niche segments that can help you cross the Chasm and enter the Bowling Alley.

References

Wiefels, P. (2002).The Chasm Companion.New York: Harper Business.
Christensen, C.M,& Raynor, M.E. (2003).The Innovator’s Solution.Boston: HBS Press.
Viardot, E. (2004).Successful Marketing Strategy for High-tech Firms.Boston: Artech House.

Distribution

Once a startup is ready to commercialize its product, you must determine how the product will reach its target customer. You can choose to sell directly or build distribution channels.

What is distribution?

Distribution (or place) refers to an organization, or set of organizations, that is involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user. It is one of the four main elements of the marketing mix (the other three are product, pricing, and promotion).
Distribution is necessary for getting your company’s product into your customers’ hands. A smart distribution strategy is necessary for success and can be a source of competitive advantage. Dell and Amazon are examples of companies that benefited from a well-developed distribution strategy.
Distribution is about more than finding a channel to the customer. It is important to find a distribution channel that makes it convenient for the buyer to purchase and consume the product. Convenience is a customer-centric view of distribution and marketing.

Parts of the distribution channel

Product distribution relies on combining three different channels (which can be independent or joined):

• sales channel
• delivery channel
• service channel

For each channel, you can choose either a direct (in-house) channel or a third-party indirect (outside) channel, or a combination of both. Many high-tech companies have an inside sales force and employ other distribution channels to reach different customer groups.

Selecting a distribution channel

Selecting a distribution channel can directly impact a product’s success. There are five key factors to consider:

• size of the market—includes the variety of customer profiles
• cost of the distribution channel—absolute value cost, cost per customer, profitability of different channel options, fixed vs. variable costs
• type of product—standard (well-defined characteristics, sold in large quantities, ideal for external distributors) vs. non-standardized (involves customization, requires personal contact with users)
• degree of control over distribution channel—open sharing with distribution channels vs. closed relationship, possibility of competition from distributor
• flexibility of distribution channel—length of contract, time required to develop relationship

Solution vs. marketing complexity

When selecting a distribution channel, you want to ensure that you can develop and sustain relationships with customers (e.g., economic buyers, technical buyers, end users). You need to reach these customers so they can purchase your products. Two key criteria can help you to focus your selection:
Solution complexity: How difficult is the product to install, deploy, and use?
Marketing complexity: How difficult is the product to source, buy, and support?

When selecting a distribution channel, the complexity of product and marketing should be proportional. If the product is relatively easy to use, then it should be relatively easy to buy (e.g., selling books and DVDs online). Conversely, if the product is relatively complex to install, then it will be relatively difficult to support (e.g., selling supply chain management software solutions through direct sales).

Problems occur when the marketing and the solution are not balanced:
High marketing complexity + low solution complexity = high cost of distribution for low cost items (too expensive for customers or poor margins for vendor)
High solution complexity + low marketing complexity = not enough distribution support for complex products (distribution channel suffers)

Push vs. pull marketing

Before choosing a distribution channel, a company should determine how to balance push and pull marketing:
Push marketing: The distribution channel promotes and sells your product to consumers. This is common for products where brand loyalty is low—the consumer makes the choice to purchase the product in the store.
Pull marketing: The product is advertised and promoted directly to consumers, who then go to the distribution channel to purchase your product. This is common for products where brand loyalty is high—the consumer chooses to purchase the product before going to the store.

Choosing between push and pull marketing will affect other parts of your marketing strategy, including:

• communications—marketing directly to consumers vs. marketing through distribution channels
• pricing—costs associated with dealing with distribution channels vs. costs associated with sales channel
• product design—distribution channels may influence packaging
• commitment—requires long-term contracts with distribution channels

References:

Viardot, E. (2004).Successful Marketing Strategy for High Tech Firms.Boston: Artech House.
Wiefels, P. (2002).The Chasm Companion.New York: Harper Business.

Detroit Whole Foods Judged a Success

Marketers and business organizations in now-bankrupt Detroit are working to draw new businesses to the city by touting its burgeoning startup scene and increased real estate development. Detroit’s comeback efforts got a boost with the opening of a Whole Foods Market store in the city’s Midtown district on June 5 and last week, Austin, Tex.-based Whole Foods announced solid sales results for the Detroit store.

Sales at Whole Foods’ Detroit location, which has lower prices, fewer staffers, and more pre-packaged and frozen food to accommodate lower-income consumers, were “at least double what we expected it to do, and it’s off to a tremendous start [with] a super-diverse customer base,” David Lannon, executive vice president of operations at Whole Foods, told Supermarket News. The store opening was attended by Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, who said in a press release: “The opening of the first Whole Foods Market in Detroit is a game changer for our city. It … proves that Detroit is an attractive destination for national retailers.”

The city’s marketers still face many challenges. When Detroit filed for bankruptcy on July 18, the city had between $18 to $20 billion in debt, according to its state-appointed emergency manager, Kevyn Orr. In June, The New York Times reported that the city could be forced to sell off its classic car collection to pay off that debt.

Whole Foods ‘Thrilled’ With Detroit Store

AUSTIN, Texas — Whole Foods Market here said it is "thrilled" with the business it is doing at a store it opened in Detroit in June — a store featuring a new "value strategy" on perishables.

David Lannon, executive vice president, operations, said the Detroit store is doing "at least double what we expected it to do, and it's off to a tremendous start [with] a super-diverse customer base. And that gives us great confidence to go into markets we haven't been or [to serve] people we haven't thought of as traditional for Whole Foods Market in the past."

As previously reported, the company said it plans to take a similar pricing approach on perishables at a store it plans to open in New Orleans later this year, "and we think there are opportunities to duplicate elements of this value strategy for perishables in select markets across the country," Walter E. Robb, co-chief executive officer, told analysts during a conference call.

The Detroit store features lower pricing and a larger selection of private-label items and frozen and prepackaged foods designed to appeal to budget-conscious shoppers.

Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/whole-foods-market/whole-foods-thrilled-detroit-store#ixzz2ckp7EdGH

MBA in HR: Best B-Schools in India

MBA in HR deals with different aspects of human resources related work in an organization (do not misinterpret it as being merely related only with recruitment) and does require an extensive range of knowledge in diverse disciplines. Roles of HR have been described crisply by Jack Welch, Former CEO, General Electric in one of his addresses – “The best HR people are a kind of hybrid: one part pastor, who hears all sins and complaints without recrimination; and other part parent, who loves and nurtures, but gives it to you fast and straight when you are off track.”

What you learn doing MBA in HR?

During 2 years at B-School while pursuing MBA in HR, you will cover almost every aspect human resource management that has direct or indirect impact on the work force as well as strategic initiatives of an organization. Few of the major subjects in the curriculum of the specialization include Business Communiation, Human Resource Planning, Industrial Relations and Labour Laws, Total QualityManagemet, Employee Relations, Training and Development, Human Resource Management etc.

Selecting a B-School is not less than a strategic decision when it comes to career. While the list of colleges that offer MBA in HR might be endless just like Marketing and Finance, one should go for only those colleges which are known for specialized HR courses to get the right platform to launch the career.Difference in these colleges can also be realized by measuring against parameters like recognition of the course, the brand name of college, past placement record, visiting companies, faculty, course structure, teaching methodology etc. It is very critical to have right blend of information about the college and its performance when it comes to HR before accepting the final offer made by respective college.

Colleges known for MBA in HR

To facilitate the students to take correct decision, we bring to you a comprehensive list of top Management Institutes of the country which offer MBA in HR.

Here we go!!

Tier 1

• Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur
• Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai
• Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune

Tier 2

• Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon
• Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune
• Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow)

Tier 3

• International Management Institute (IMI), Delhi
• Xavier Institute of Management (XIMB), Bhubaneshwar

The Path Ahead

It is believed that if you wish to play a role that is integrated part of the organization and involves being extensively linked with other departments and functions, a career in HR is meant for you.

This is one of the career paths that has quite a few myths being popular about it as a career option. You might hear people saying that HR is just a cost centre and plays no role in the growth of the organization. However, it does not stand true in today’s corporate arena as there are plenty of resources to be managed and the initiatives taken by HR teams do have a strategic value as well and often helps in improving productivity of the organization.

Some of the most common profiles offered at B-Schools reputed for MBA in HR include HR Generalist, HR Specialist, HR Consulting, Employee Relations, Personnel Management, Industrial Relations, Recruitment, Training and Development, Account HR etc. (Read more: All you need to know about HR as a specialization )

With this, we come to the end of this article. Stay tuned for more articles on various Career Opportunities. Also, please feel free to put forth in the comments what you would want to know about HR as a career and we would come up with articles covering those aspects as well.

Cheers!

Disclaimer: List of colleges is not in any ranking order. Colleges have been just grouped among tiers and there is no ranking provided within a tier. Placement of a particular B-School in a specific tier is only valid for HR and might change for other specializations.

Related: 

1) MBA in Finance: Best B-Schools in India, 

2) MBA in Marketing: Best B-Schools in India,

3) MBA in SCM/Operations: Best B-Schools in India

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