This study recognises that both metrics and innovation lead to superior performance. It explores the marketing activities and processes followed by innovative companies, in particular those involving customers, and proposes the key metrics aligned to these; thereby formalising marketing’s role in the innovation process. Qualitative expert-interviews were done using the Critical Incident Technique; 11 professionals from a South African company, recognised for its innovation, were asked to share their personal experiences of a recent company innovation. The findings highlight the value of a strong corporate culture of collaboration and inclusion, as well as an unwavering focus on creating value for the client, and conclude by proposing a finite marketing dashboard of 12 metrics that align people and processes as key indicators of success to guide the marketer during the innovation process. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lmgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

D.Comm. (Business Management) / Market orientation is increasingly becoming recognized as the basis and the starting point of effective business management. It has received extensive publicity in recent years, indeed so much so that the notion that businesses need to respond to markets and satisfy their customers' needs seems to be so widely accepted now that it scarcely needs saying. As the marketplace evolves under the converging pressures of changing demographics, economics, technology, and social mores, so do organisations change, along with the nature of cooperation and competition among them. As organisations change, so must their management philosophies. To survive in the future, everybusiness will have to be customer focused and market-driven and flexible in its ability to deliver superior value to changing customers in the competitive marketplace. On the grounds of poor service rendered by South African enterprises in general and manufacturing enterprises in particular, the research problem chosen for this study was the cloud of suspicion hanging over the market orientation and quality of service characterising South African manufacturing enterprises. The main emphasis was on market orientation and more particularly on determining whether manufacturers of consumer and industrial products and the different branches of the manufacturing industry differed to a statistically significant extent in their market orientation. A questionnaire was sent to respondents by mail to collect the necessary information. Sections A, Band C of the questionnaire were subjected to factor analyses and coefficient alpha in order to determine the validity and dependability of the questionnaire. The statistical analyses revealed that the questionnaire has a high degree of internal validity and dependability. Besides determining normal descriptive statistics, such as frequencies, averages and standard deviations, routine statistical tests, such as t-tests, Chi-squared tests and variance analyses were performec' where necessary. A significance level of 0,05 was used throughout. In the case of significant variance analyses post-hoc Tukey tests were performed to determine which groups differ in their average scores for the dimensions of market orientation. It is concluded that South African manufacturing enterprises are not fully market oriented yet. A difference in market orientation between manufacturers of consumer and industrial products was found, namely that market orientation is more pronounced among manufacturers of industrial than of consumer products, albeit not to a statistically significant extent. It was also found that the branches of the manufacturing industry do not differ to an statistically significant extent regarding their market orientation. On balance it is clear that South African manufacturing enterprises will have to pay closer attention to the handling of complaints, to personnel focus and to internal as well as external communication if they are to become more market oriented.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Any successful new product development team must have some differences in perspectives and orientations. However, conflict and disharmony between R&D and marketing can severely hinder the successful development and launching of new products. It is therefore of the utmost importance to avoid any disharmonies and to work towards a better integration and meaningful co-ordination between these two departments. The avoidance of any disharmonies that may occur through various management methods is generally less costly and more effective that attempting to overcome long-standing disharmonies.

The human environment is under serious threat as natural resources such as air, water and forests are being overused. Worldwide, people have become more aware of the threatening situation and consequently many more individuals are showing concern for the environment. Often this concern is not displayed in consumers’ purchasing behaviour, as consumers who claim to be concerned about the environment are not necessarily consuming or showing a preference for environmentally–friendly products. This study examined two sets of variables, namely, person related and marketing related factors, and determined the extent to which these factors influence consumers’ behaviour when buying environmentallyfriendly products. The empirical data was collected by means of a survey, using self-administered questionnaires distributed to adult employed consumers residing in Port Elizabeth. Two hundred usable questionnaires were received. Three person related factors, namely, norms, environmental concern and environmental knowledge, and four marketing related factors, namely, price, product, place and promotion - were found to influence respondents’ behaviour when purchasing environmentally-friendly products. Environmental concern explained the largest portion of variation in purchase behaviour, while promotion explained the smallest portion of variation. Significant differences in the influence of age were found for norms, nvironmental concern, environmental knowledge and price. It is recommended that suppliers of environmentally-friendly products should ensure that these products are located at outlets which are convenient to consumers; more should be done by the relevant stakeholders to increase environmental knowledge and educate South Africans about the benefits of leading a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle; marketers find more innovative methods to convince consumers to act on their environmental concern; further attempts be made to minimise the price difference between environmentally-friendly products and traditional products; marketers should pay more attention to advertisements promoting environmentally-friendly products to ensure that these appeal to their target markets; and the performance of environmentally-friendly products should be on a par with the performance of traditional products.

The main object of this paper work is to analyze liquers market in Czech republic by primary and also secondary data and to group the consumers into few segments. In consequence according to predetermined priorities to choose the most attractive segment and to create the marketing strategy designated for chosen segment.

The thesis analyses a demand on dancing schools, meaning the rate of intentions for dancing classes and particular customers' wishes about the form and content of a dancing class. It further compares wishes in question with the contemporary supply of dancing schools and, regarding to this information, formulates problems and ways of solving by changing components of the marketing mix. Thesis further summaries theoretical principles of marketing research and applies them on particular research. The practical part presents the results of evaluation and forms recommendations.

The thesis deals with the segmentation of the life insurance market in the Central Region and Prague Region. Master's thesis consists of theoretical and practical parts. In the theoretical part I try to sketech the process of the market segmentation. The aim of the practical part is to find, uncover and then characterize by segments of the market life insurance in the districts of Central Bohemia and Prague.

In the theoretical part the thesis focus on consumer behavior and marketing research. Describes three models of buyer behaviour, main factors influencing the behaviour and the purchase decision-making proces. The second part of the thesis presents results of the primary marketing research.

The objective of the paper is to describe, characterize and analyze the importance of the marketing research in the process of launching a new product. And to apply subject field knowledge on practical case of panel research with the aim of describing market shifts caused by new product launch and to evaluate the launch success.

This thesis analyses consumer behaviour connected with chocolate bars. It describes metodology of marketing research. The form of the research is questionnaire. Respondents are students of VŠE. The research discovers popularity of some brands and selling places in the campus. Results are used for the formulation of recommendation for the strategy of sale.