Bonus chapter 2 examines how marketing interacts with other functional areas of the business. One of these areas is production and operations and another is information systems and computer technology. This article in Bloomberg Businessweek, “ These Cows Will Text You When They’re in Heat ,” (November 3, 2016) describes new technology used by dairy farmers. Read bonus chapter 2 and this article. Explain how the marketing for a dairy could benefit from this technology?
What’s Now? (Fall 16) Bonus chapter 2 – Behind the scenes at Ikea’s top-secret furniture lab
The chapter-opening case for Bonus Chapter 2 focuses on the cross-functional relationships at IKEA. The case demonstrates how the global retailer’s functional areas (finance, production/operations, accounting, information systems and human resources) interact with marketing to increase its effectiveness. Cross-functional coordination may be most important in IKEA’s new-product development. This Wired article “ Behind the scenes at Ikea’s top-secret furniture lab ” (September 24, 2015) provides a great look into innovation and new-product development at IKEA. From the article, explain three examples that show how different functional areas of IKEA work with marketing to develop new products.