Keep looking at this page for more - I will toss more ideas into the hat as they come to mind after class discussions.

1. Branding presentation:
   • Consumers and even salespeople perceive differences between Poulan and Craftsman branded chain saws.  Discuss these differences from the perspective of the total product offering.
   • What could Poulan do for its own brand to counter these perceptions?
   • Why might Poulan NOT want to counter these perceptions?

2. Customer Retention presentation:
   • A textbook table was mentioned with regard to the differences between transactional marketing and relationship marketing.  What does this have to do with customer retention?
   • From a cost and profit perspective, what are reasons to be concerned with maintaining high customer retention rates?
   • From a cost and profit perspective, what are arguments against attempting to push retention rates as high as possible?
   • The idea of "Lifetime Value of a Customer" was introduced.  Contrast this with the idea of the "cost of a lost customer" in logistics cost tradeoffs.
   • The presenter advised that businesses should exert "simple efforts" in customer retention, including "be knowledgeable and informative" and "be responsive to customer requests, concerns, or complaints."  One student, however, told of an experience with a cable company in which customer service people did not know how to solve a billing issue and did not appear to be responsive in trying to find out how to correct the problem.  The cable company has something of a monopoly, so what incentives would it have for heeding the advice of the presenter?

3. Promotion presentation:
   • TV advertising rates are set from observations of only a few thousand people during brief periods of time.
     • What are some issues of validity?  What are some criticisms that can be made against this system?  If this can be criticized, why is it still done this way?
     • Propose an alternative way of setting advertising rates.  Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your proposal.

4. International Barriers to Entry presentation
   • The presenter suggested that the Internet is a "barrier buster."  Under what conditions might this be true?  Under what conditions might it be untrue?
   • If Chengdu Machinery Works of Sechuan, China wanted to sell its own branded chain saws in the US, what would be some important barriers to entry?  Why might an American competitor be interested in partnering to provide distribution services for the Chinese-branded products?  Why might it not be interested in such a partnership?

5. International Logistics presentation
   • What are some logistics-related barriers to market entry?
   • What are the tradeoffs in considering different modes of transportation?