Brand Management and Research Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Brand Management and Research - Coursework Example However, brand image becomes important both in the context of the marketer and the consumer (Holt, 2002) In the case of the laptop brands like Apple, HP and Acer, the brands are influential and potentially capable of shaping up the market trends. An evaluative approach would analyse the laptop brands not only on the basis of product quality but also on the basis of the very brand image. Apple is perhaps a very strong brand in the world of laptop market. It is an innovative and capable market leader. The brand image of Apple is based on a lot of anticipation from the customers. The Apple brand actually raises expectations. Apple has been such a strong brand that the corporation ventured to make the year 2003 the year of laptops. This was stated by Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in his speech at the Macworld conference, San Francisco. Aptly, the brand image of Apple inspires â€Å"technolust† and creates a stir in the market with every new release in the array of its quality pr oducts (Albritton, 2003). From the perspective of critical reflection, evaluating the laptop brand from the customer’s point of view is worthy. Apple laptops would smoothly connect on the go. The Apple laptop is compact and elegantly designed. Using it in a meeting or conference is likely to create a good impression. It has a large Multi-Touch glass trackpad on its aluminium body. The built-in iSight video camera is a technological beauty (Reinhold, 2009). Moreover, customer experience tells that it has a large display and respectable battery life (Allbritton, 2003). Overall, the brand image of Apple is innovative and adventurous. HP, on the other hand, is a brand that has an influential image as an organisation. It has a worldwide presence and a strong customer relationship management system. HP offers great after-sales support as a strong and powerful organisation. The brand has top level support and formidable investment of resources. As a laptop brand, it is backed with a mechanism of design and redesign which is apt to adjust in the rapidly changing laptop markets. The group dynamics at HP are productive and help it to survive as an organisation in fierce competition (Zell, 1997). The brand image of HP is rather dependable and the company is always ready to assist its customers. It can be rightly called an international giant in the world of information technology. With a wide range of other electronic products, HP has a reliable brand image in the laptop markets too. The company has shown phenomenal growth throughout its history. It is relatively an older international brand that started its operations in the year 1938. The brand image of HP offers a blend of strong organisation, considerable business experience and competent customer support (Pham-Gia, 2009). Companies like BenQ and Acer are known for designing and making several ICT products for other companies. The brand image of Acer is thus not as impressive as that of Apple and HP. Still, Ac er is a known name in the laptop markets. It has established a respectable brand image and it is one of the largest brands of monitors and laptops in Europe (Martin, 2006). Acer, however, depends on low cost manufacturing bases to maintain the economy of its production lines. The company has outsourced many of its manufacturing processes to Eastern Asia. As a brand, it has to depend largely on the cost-effectiveness of its products (Yu, 2007). By means of relevant

Technostructural Intervention of TRW Systems Essay

Technostructural Intervention of TRW Systems - Essay Example (Thompson, Seher, and Kotter, 1976) Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation experienced quick growth due to its ties to the â€Å"accelerating ICBM program that the air force was sponsoring. Following the win on the contract bid for the job of providing technical supervision of the ICBM program it is reported that RW gradually expanded its capability to include advance planning for future ballistic weapons systems and space technology and by providing technical advice to the Air Force.† (Thompson, Seher, and Kotter, 1976) RW was held by many to be a ‘quasi-government’ agency with some of the aerospace industry competitors resenting the opportunities presenting in the audit and examination RW conducted on their operations. RW was due to this relationship with the Air Force prohibited from competition for mainframe and assembly work for the Air Force. TRW made the decision, following the merger of 1959 with Thompson that the hardware ban was too great a liability and moved to f ree the Systems Group from its limiting relationship with the Air Force. (Thompson, Seher, and Kotter, 1976, paraphrased) Because of the value of the services provided by RW to the Air Force a solution was created calling for a non-profit organization to be created by the Air Force and specifically the Aerospace Corporation. This Corporation is reported to have assumed the â€Å"advance planning and broad technical assistance† formerly provided by the Systems Group. ... he process pricing and billing was ‘cost-plus-fixed-fee-basis† and that changed to what is known as an incentive-based process in which rewards came from excellent performance, delivery dates that were specific and failures resulting in payment of penalties. It is reported that System â€Å"thrived in the new competitive arena, winning a number of important contracts.† (Thompson, Seher, and Kotter, 1976) II. Background In 1963 TRW is described being different systems in a matrix organization with functional divisions and the offices for program management (using project interchangeably with program). (paraphrased) TRW Systems Group was headed by the Director, and Sub-headed by the Florida, Houston, San Bernadino, and Washington Operations all of which comprised one subhead of the organization joined by the other subhead being that of the Administration. Team building is a process that was used in the earlier days of TRW. The first team-building meeting was held â⠂¬Å"offsite† and involved a team development session, which reported that the group â€Å"improved its working relationships with manufacturing. The success of this experiment became well known throughout the company.† (Davies-Williams, nd) The matrix of TRW is such that â€Å"any one man is a member of many systems simultaneously. He has interfaces with many different groups. In addition, he is continuously moving from one team to another, so they need team development to get the teams off to a fast start.† (Davies-Williams, nd) The process used at TRW Systems is one that can be easily disseminated in the interchange of company representatives after a planning session in which they all express views that differentiate the concerns and consideration of the organization when it enters into a project or process