At this time, you are fairly experienced with college education. What could you suggest could be done in order to reduce intangibility, inseparability, perishability, and heterogeneity of this service?
BMW automobiles call themselves "the ultimate driving machine." The advertising tagline attempts to capture the total product package—what driving a BMW means to its owners. Review other advertising and come up with a list of five other products that do the same thing. What do their products mean to their consumers?
With a group of friends, brainstorm a list of ideas for a service you could provide for your college professors. Design an idea checklist to evaluate this list.
Select a service you know. Brainstorm a list of potential incremental changes—whether technologically feasible or not—that might extend the product life cycle for it over the next several years.
Set up several selling scenarios for the same product displaying different cues about the value of a product (e.g., where it's sold, whether it's on sale), the motivation of the seller, prices of competitive products (external reference price), and other possibilities appropriate for your product. Ask several people what they would pay under the circumstance you've set up.
For one week collect all the coupons you find in newspapers, magazine, mail, and so on. What percentage are for products or services or brands that you would really buy? Typically, how many coupons do you actually use in a week? Pull all the coupons for one product category and visit a store. Are there other brands of that same product that do not have coupons? Is the store engaging in any other methods to attract customers—rebates, sales, contests, multipacks, and so on?
