Business Marketing [Chapter 7]

In the business world, SAS definitely holds it own with it's business marketing. The way SAS holds itself amongst it's field which could be seen as limited but is bigger then a person would think is very impressive. Over the past four decades of the company's run, it's held itself as number one in it's field for statistical analytical software and service. The reputation it has held among it's customers has kept it alive and made it possible for them not to use many resources to advertise themselves. In a way SAS will always be considered more along the lines of a business product because it's product is offered mostly to help small, medium, or large-sized companies. SAS markets itself very limited for a company who is global and holds such a big reputation in the business world. From the quality of their product and service to it's outstanding work environment which is rated #1 by Forbes for places to work at, SAS keeps itself going as one of the top dogs in the business marketing world. It constantly updates it products to stay in touch with the technology world which is constantly evolving. And with this, SAS keeps itself on top of the game at all times.

Segmenting and Targeting Markets [Chapter 8]

SAS being the type of business it is uses different ways to using the segmentation strategy. It has a different way to use the surveying process such as each customer and busienss they help goes through they system, they can check what they have done that has shown to be the most effective helping their current customers and also helping future customers. basically, the company learns to progress as it goes along and has helped it developed over the past 30+ years. When reading about the different segmentations in the book and also through readings online, I could see how it really applied to the structure of SAS.

Income segmentation is definitely a big part of SAS because the financial progression within the company is evry important for it to stay effective. They have many of their company buildings scattered across the world and all of them require a lot of money to be kept at an effective environment and also a great environment for their employees which has helped it gain the #1 business to work in according to Forbes. From the salary the employees receive to the money that goes toward the company, the financial state of SAS is in a really good place as of this moment.

It also plays a big part toward price segmentation for the fact that it needs to make sure that it offers a cost to the customer and business that is affordable but at the same time make sure it applies to the income needs. SAS does try hard to work witht he customer to come up with an affordable price to help manage the company and also offer it's software. SAS definitely has offered great prices to customers as it still manages to stay on top as the top statistical analytical software and service in the world.

Holiday Season Plans for SAS

Sadly since SAS is just a computer-based service and software, the holiday season does not really apply to it like it would for clothing products, toy products, etc. What I can say about the holiday season is since SAS specializes in helping organizing and managing businesses which would also involve organizing customer databases and transactions, since the holiday season is such a busy time for many companies in stores and also for internet stores, this would be a busy time for SAS management. This would certainly cause a boom in the size of customer databases and transactions that would have to be organized and put through the system and software. There will also definitely be consulting offered to help companies get through the holiday season without any major breakdowns.

Developing and Managing Product [Chapter 11]

Since the formation of SAS in the mid-70s, it has managed and developed a product and service which has adjusted to the era it has been placed in. For a company like SAS which is mostly computer-based, it has to stay up-to-date with the software, operating system, and internt changes placed in front of them over the years. With new capabilities constantly being introduced into the technology world, SAS has to make sure it can properly make sure the companies they manage while at the same time mantain organization also have to make sure their respective companies stay in good shape when it comes to being able to work within new computer technology.

A lot of this also has to involve it's work within internet companies in which SAS offers software and service toward. SAS strives to make sure it's reputation stays intact so it makes sure that the companies being managed also work under a system which is constantly being updated based on the environment it is working on. In developing their product, they have mde it so that the softwre they offer can help companies small to big, internet to airline services. The software they provide works from a range of operating systems from UNIX based systems such as many Linux distros and Mac OSX to Windows XP/Vista/7. The software SAS programmed is made to be used from the average-user to a more computer-savy person.

Integrated Marketing Communications [Chapter 16]

Within many companies including the companies SAS manages itself, it's a fairly common practice to go within certain concepts, techniques, and/or guidelines to successfully market the product/service given. SAS has a common approach but also with a twist in how it markets its product and service. One is based pure off reputation that it's built over decades which shows in it's mission statement which is linked too many times in internet advertisements I have seen around especially within Google.

Since SAS is a unique type of company and the top business in it's field of managing businesses, you do not see many marketing techniques used such as commercials, magazine ads (unless it's a heavy business-orientated magazine), and such. As I said the reputation in combination with some scattered internet advertisement is all it really does to market itself. SAS being the number 1 environment to work in according to Forbes builds its reputation furthermore. Also SAS is advertised through the businesses it's managed as I've mentioned in other posts. Fr example in many websites, SAS is shown to help and show who's currently helping to manage their business.

SAS holds a good document on how it helps other companies be marketed through interaction and such as seen here: http://www.sas.com/images/email/industry/cce_interactive2Q08.pdf

Product Concept [Chapter 10]

When you look at the idea of product concept, you can see from the viewpoint of SAS, the concept is about software and also about offering a service. The concept has to do with helping a business successfully become well-rounded and also become more efficient by balancing out all the tasks/services within the company, SAS is offering it's software, and service too. When you look closely at the product of SAS, you see that it's mostly based within computers and is meant to help businesses succeed via computer organization and management. If you think about it, the concept of SAS is pretty diverse and complex as it could be as a family product in the sense of it could help a family business or a corporation product as it helps big corporations that run things such as Airlines.

SAS is a product concept that could be put into many different directions. The statistical analytical part of the name SAS shows that it's able to help any business that has to do with those two words.

Sales Promotion and Personal Selling [Chapter 18]

SAS, being the type of company it is does not do much sales promotion rather then the ads it has scattered amongst some major business websites such as Google. SAS's reputation has made it able to gather customers the way it does since it's in the top of it's field. For personal selling however, we could put this into play largely for this company because when someone is interested in inquiring for this service, they talk to a customer representative who then shows them what they are going to be offered, the type of help they will receive on a certain basis, and what they'll receive as a whole in their package.

SAS has been rated number 1 in customer working environment so they have also been shown to have a good reputation for the helpful representatives it has at many of it's bases. Unlike other companies, SAS has call centers from many of their stations in the US rather then other companies who choose to outsource to other call centers around the globe. SAS by doing this makes sure that it's customer database stays large and efficient.