Chapter 9

Review and Applications
2.1 – Classify each of the following products into the category (convenience, shopping, specialty, unsought) that you think fits best from your perspective as a consumer: Coca-cola, car stereo, winter coat, pair of shoes, life insurance, blue jeans, fast-food hamburgers, shampoo, canned vegetables, curtains.
Coca-cola – convenience
Car stereo – unsought
Winter coat – shopping
Pair of shoes – shopping
Life insurance – specialty
Blue jeans – shopping
Fast-food hamburgers – convenience
Shampoo – convenience
Canned vegetables – convenience
Curtains – unsought

4.2 – How does Hormel use its Web site http://www.hormel.com to promote its store brands? Is the site designed more to promote the company or its brands? Check out the Spam Web site at http://www.spam.com. How do you think Hormel is able to successfully sustain this brand that is often the punch line to a joke?
Hormel has establishes a product identification distinguishing itself from other products. Hormel has high brand equity because its products have high awareness and have a perceived quality. A lot of consumers have a brand loyalty to Hormel because of the quality and different products they offer. They have a very creative and eye catching Web site. The Web site has an interactive kitchen where you can click on a certain area of the kitchen and it shows the products available in that area. They have a very impressive Web site. I think the Web site promotes both the company and the products. Hormel can sustain the Spam brand because of its brand equity and brand loyalty. There really is no other product like Spam so they have a small amount of competition.

5.1 – Find a product at home that has a distinctive package. Write a paragraph evaluating that package based on the four functions of packaging discussed in the chapter.
I picked the Seventh Generation Natural Dish Liquid.
- Containing and Protecting Products – the dish liquid is in a solid, white plastic bottle. The firm plastic package protects the liquid from leaking out.
- Promoting Products – since this product is a natural dish liquid it has a green label with lavender flowers on it. There is also a bright pink sticker on the front of the bottle that states you have the right to know the ingredients in this product. On the back of the bottle there is a tear off sticker that shows the other products made by the Seventh Generation Company. This was helpful because I didn’t know what else they made.
- Facilitating storage, use and convenience – the package is easy to handle and the shape of the bottle with ridges helps out when you have slippery hands. There is an easy top that snaps when closed.
- Facilitating recycling and reducing environmental damage – the bottle was made of 25% recycled plastic and it also has the recycle symbol on the bottle. There was a paragraph on the back label that said if every household in the U.S. replaced one bottle of 25 oz petroleum-based dishwashing liquid with their plant derived liquid we could save 86,000 barrels of oil. Also the motto for the company was ‘In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations’.

6.1 – List the countries to which Levi Strauss & Co. markets through the Web site http://www.levi.com. How do the product offerings differ between the U.S. and European selections?
The countries that Levi markets to are: U.S., Canada, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Deutschland, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Osterreich, Poccna, Polaska, Portugal, Schweiz, Sweden, UK, Argentina, Brazil, Centro America, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan. I thought the products were different between the U.S. and Europe in that the Europe products were more trendy and stylish.

Websites
VALS Survey
The VALS survey is useful for research because it tells about each type of consumer and their dominant approach to life. For instance, I was an innovator and one of the characteristics was that image was important to innovators. This would help marketers know what I would be looking for. I was also an achiever, which said I was active in the marketplace. If a company was looking to market a new or current product they could target the achiever type.