Le groupe CEMEX

1- List 9 variables that should be investigated by the marketing team in order to deepen the understanding of the poor customer behaviour as regards cement consumption. Your choices should be argued.

According to me, the 9 variables that should be investigated are:

• The price of the cement, to know if a price differentiation between CEMEX and its two main competitors is needed to sell more cement,
• Quality of the product, to find out if the poor quality of the product is a barrier to the purchase, or if the good quality of the product is a competitive advantage,
• Ease of use, in order to understand if it is easily explained how to use cement,
• Type of housing, to see if it is possible to build an extra room or if there is not enough space or need for it,
• Number of people with a salary per household, to figure out if there would be enough buying capability in a specific household,
• Knowledge on building, to know whether people are inclined to build by themselves or whether they know nothing about it,
• Yearly part of the income that goes in house building, to understand how much of an income goes in the building expenditures of a household and thus adapt the prices,
• Brand power, to see if customer loyalty can be easily built or if a brand has an ounce of power in the act of purchase,
• Percentage of people having building tools, to find out whether there is a relationship between the number of people with tools required for construction and the rate of houses or additional rooms built with cement.

2- While considering the variables listed in question 1, what would be the best cement offer to attract the poor do-it-yourself customers. Identify each of the element of marketing-mix

Price: the price of the cement would be obviously the aspect which has the more impact for the poor customers. The price of the CEMEX cement should be lined up with the price of its competitors, without ever exceeding it because then it would not be picked, and without under-pricing it as it would not be profitable.

        Promotion: as price is the most important aspect for this SCP, some price-drived promotion should be realised. One idea could be the distribution of flyers announcing a discount on the second bag of cement at -50%, as B2C campaigns are generally concerned with the transaction. They are shorter in duration and need to capture the customer’s interest immediately. Also, Mexican are known to spend a lot of time in front of TV, so advertising at times when the male population is targeted could be an advantage in making people choose CEMEX over other brands.

Product: R&D department should work on the cement to have the best quality/price ratio cement: the product must deliver a minimum level of performance; otherwise even if the other elements of the marketing mix are well thought, the bad quality of the product could gives a bad image of the brand. The marketing team should also try to identify what differentiates it from competing products or services with the cement data they have.        

        Place: CEMEX cement should be available in the majority of construction stores so clerk could inform them of the existence of DIY CEMEX cement and the internet offer should exist but not to be focused on as delivery services are not available everywhere in the country and costs too much.

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