Update and 3rd Presentation Information

Quick Update:

Your grades on the midterm have been posted to Blackboard.

We will NOT have presentations Tuesday. I'm going to give you guys an example, and we'll post instructions for you, too.

For the Third Presentation

"You’ll highlight a retail channel, a consumer product, and a service, and select one especially interesting and rich one of these in a particular national or regional setting for depth exploration in your fourth report."

To prep, read Keegan Chapter 12.  Especially pp. 335-343.

Note the chart on page 336.  You will notice it includes "catalogue sales." The book does not mention Internet sales.  Why is this?  You need to include it.

I'd like each group to report on the presence and nature of each of these. Try to find an example of each, if they are present.

Retail Channels
1. door to door (direct sales)
2. Internet sales, including both desktop and mobile as a sales / purchase interface
3. Retail store types:
    Big-box retailers
    Regional/national chain stores (e.g. Casino, Mahima, and Onashi in Cameroon).
4. Franchising
4. Mom and pop retail (non-franchise)
5. Market stalls

Consumer Product
Here, you select a consumer product widely used and sold in your area.
Try to identify the itinerary of the product.

1. Where is it designed/manufactured?
2. How does it move to the marketplace? (Identify the steps on the value chain).
3. Where is it sold?
4. Who is buying it?  
5. How is it used?

I guess you need a couple slides for this one.  It could be tricky.  This is where you may need to interview a local person.  How to do such an interview will be part of the topic of the Tuesday class discussion.

Services
Here, I would include restaurant along with the range of services you usually find in any market economy: transportation, automotive, communication (Internet providers, mobile service providers), medicine, legal, accounting, education, hair/beauty/salon, environmental/engineering/architectural, funeral/religious services.
1.  What services are not on this list that should be on this list for your city?
2.  What services predominate? What services are growing? Shrinking?
3.  Pick an example service.   Who uses it?  What does it cost? How is the service delivered?  What other products/services are related to or involved in the service delivery? Are there international aspects, international players in the business?

Again, a local person can help you, but websites may be interesting here: how many architectural firms are there in Cameroon?  Can you call one?  You get the idea.

Last, you'd pick a product (or service or retail environment) in which you want to play, and which you want to market in your country/city.