Marketing

Marketing Order Description The coursework is about Zappos, "Happiness in a box" . Please read attached file which contains 3 different files. Emphasis on the Assignment Guidelines IMLO's and Tasks, Underlined and coloured very important. Please use refrences mentioned in presentations , i.e Kottler, Fodness etc You are required to write an academic essay Based on Zappos – Happiness in a box Assessment is against specific criteria from the module learning outcomes IMLO 1 Critically discuss the relevance of theories of consumer and buyer behaviour to different marketing situations Task 1 Critically discuss the relevance of theories of consumer and buyer behaviour at your chosen organisation. Compare consumer theories of buyer behaviour with business buying behaviour theories (20 marks) IMLO 2 Demonstrate an understanding of the contribution of marketing to different types of business organisations Task 2 Explain how marketing contributes to your organisation. Give examples of a marketing contribution at two additional and different types of business organisation (20 marks) CASE:M-333 Sara Gaviser Leslie and Professor Jennifer Aaker prepared this case as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright © 2010 by the Board of Trustees of the Lel and Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, e - mail the Case Writing Office at: cwo@gsb.stanford.edu or write: Case Writing Office, Stanford G raduate School of Business, 518 Memorial Way, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 - 5015. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means –– electronic, mecha nical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise –– without the permission of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Every effort has been made to respect copyright and to contact copyright holders as appropriate. If you are a copyright holder and have con cerns about any material appearing in this case study, please contact the Case Writing Office at cwo@gsb.stanford.edu . Z APPOS : H APPINESS IN A B OX I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ?0D\D$QJHORX American author Zappos is about delivering happiness to the world. ?7RQ\+VLHK&KLHI([HFXWLYH2IILFHU=DSSRV i T HE B EGINNING ii Nick Swinmurn, a Bay Area entrepreneur, founded Zappos in 1999 after unsuccessfully trying to find a specific pair of shoes in several stores. He believed the internet could address the selection problems traditional shoe sellers faced by removing the physical constraints of shoes stores. He launched Zappos (whose name was an adaptation of the Spanish word for shoes, “zapatos”), despite having no experience in retail or the shoe industry, to provide access to a wide variety of shoe styles, colors and sizes. Meanwhile, just three years after graduating from Harvard, Tony Hsieh (pronounced “Shay”) and Alfred Lin sold their inte rnet ad - banner business, LinkExchange, to Microsoft for $265 million. In 1999, Hsieh and Lin founded a venture capital fund called Venture Frogs. Hsieh originally served as an investor and advisor to Zappos and then joined the company in 2000, serving as the co - CEO with Swinmurn. (Lin later joined as COO/CFO.) Swinmurn was intent on building the next internet retailing powerhouse and satisfying customers’ needs faster and more simply than ever before. Hsieh, on the other hand, was not focused solely on profits. He wanted to create a new universe, a company that was different from any other company he had known. His focus was on culture and employee happiness. Recalling his outlook on the new position, Hsieh explained, “It was about: What kind of compa ny can we create where we all want to be there, including me? How can we create such a great environment, where employees get so much out of it that they would do it for free?” iii What Hsieh did not know at the time was that he Zappos: Delivering Happiness M - 333 p. 2 would move beyond a focus on creating enjoyment and fulfillment for employees towards delivering happiness to both customers and the greater public. F INDING THE V ISION Zappos survived the burst of the internet bubble and its own struggles to create a reliable supply chain and distribu tion system, but, in 2000, was on the edge of running out of cash. Hsieh knew the company was doing something right and went to enormous lengths — propping up the company with personal funds and even selling real estate — to ensure its survival. The dire cir cumstances forced the team to focus even more on customer service to enable the company to continue. iv Even as a retailing newcomer, Zappos was already collecting customer accolades. In 2003 Hsieh commented to Fred Mossler, then d irector of p roduct de vel opment, about a customer who had been shocked by the level of service Zappos provided. The customer had ordered a pair of shoes and Zappos surprised him by upgrading his shipping from one week to two days: “He loved the customer service and would tell his friends and family about us. He even said we should one day start a Zappos Airlines.” Recently, Hsieh had finished reading Jim Collins’ Good to Great and latched on to Collins’ idea that great companies focus on more than just making money or becoming ma rket leaders. With these two events top of mind, Hsieh and Mossler realized they needed to focus on both short - term goals — making money — and becoming a great company. Hsieh recalled, “We realized that the biggest vision would b e to build the Zap pos brand t o be about the very best customer service.” v C REATING THE C ULTURE The start - up culture, where everyone pitched in and felt integral to the success of the company, invigorated Hsieh and his colleagues: Even though we were going through some tough times, w e were going through everything together, and we were all fiercely passionate about what we were doing. We had made sacrifices in our own way because we all believed in the potential and future of the company.” vi The need for employees to work as a unit o nly strengthened when the company moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Las Vegas in 2004. Most employees were new to the area — their lives at work and outside of work merged. Hsieh and his colleagues enjoyed feeling “part of a tribe,” and Zappos enco uraged this activity. The culture and Zappos’ performance were so intimately related that Hsieh believed, “If we got the culture right, then building our brand to be about the very best in customer service would happen naturally on its own.” vii Knowing it would be hard to maintain the start - up feel and culture, in August 2004, Zappos asked all of its employees to provide their thoughts on what the Zappos culture meant to them. It compiled this feedback into a culture book that it shared both internally and externally. (From that point on, the book was published annually with new employee comments.) Zappos wanted employees to understand that they were building the culture and ensure that employees had a shared experience in working at the company. Serious about creating an environment where