4 P's Class Exercise

For Tuesday, February 13, your team should discuss and develop an idea for a new business.  Sounds intimidating, right?  here's how to do it.  Consider the Four Ps of marketing

• Product: Physical item or service that the company is selling
• Price: Amount a customer pays for the product
• Promotion: Any means of spreading the word about the product
• Place: Need to have products or services available in different locations

Now, pick a business model for a local business (e.g., the local QuickLube oil change facility), and consider how changing one of the characteristics of that business along the 4-P dimensions would affect that business. 

With QuickLube, for example, if one changed the product slightly you might end up with a new business model where you use one of the oil changing bays for customers to change their own oil.  Sound crazy? maybe, but maybe not.  There are a lot of people who like to change their oil and who might pay a premium to do so using a fully functional bay.  What's really going on here?  This idea would allow QuickLube to generate revenue from their existing spare capacity. 

What to turn in (to WebCT by Tuesday): Please write a description of your business based on the following:

1. Business name
2. Current business model
3. Describe the current P
4. Describe how you will change any one of the Ps
5. Describe the expected ramifications of the change (e.g., who are the new customers the product, promotion, etc. will reach? How will the change affect competition, etc.).
6. Evaluate the viability of the idea

This will be allocated to classroom participation. Your team will be asked to present the idea to class on Tuesday.  The write-up does not need to be terribly long; 1 page or less should be sufficient.