Marketing
Marketing: identifying, anticipating and meeting customer needs and wants in a mutually beneficial process. It must be beneficial for both sides; it involves meeting the organization’s objectives as well as the customers’.
Marketing mix: the tools of marketing.
The best known elements of the marketing mix are the four P’s:
Price: What does it cost the consumer? Are there easy payment terms? Are there discounts? Product: What does it do? What does it look like?
Promotion: How does the consumer find out about it? What are they told?
Place (Distribution): How does it get to the consumer? Direct from the manufacturer or via
intermediaries?
However, it is possible to include others:
People: What are the staff like? Are they well trained? Cooperative?
Process: Is the buying process easy, e.g. can customers pay by credit card? How many forms are
there to fill in? Can the goods be bought by phone?
Price Place Product Promotion
Marketing Planning
Marketing planning sets objectives; undertakes an audit of the firm’s present position; and develops and implements plans to achieve its objectives, i.e. it considers: Where is the firm now? Where does it want to be? How can it get there? And then, Has it got there?
When undertaking the marketing process a firm will: Set corporate objectives: e.g. profitability, growth Gather information: using market research
Assess existing situation: This is known as undertaking a MARKETING AUDIT. Using, e.g.
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product portfolio, analysis, product life cycle, and market segmentation firms produce a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) Set marketing objectives: (e.g. market share, revenue) Select strategy: e.g. using Ansoff matrix Implement: Using marketing mix Review: using marketing research
The value of marketing planning: z It ensures continual evaluation of objectives and strategies. z It should ensure efficient use of resources.
z It helps establish criteria for success; this can motivate and make it easier to monitor progress. z It improves decision making.
z It involves people in discussion and should increase their commitment.
z It involves a process of analysis; this should ensure the organization is better prepared for
change.
Marketing Research
Marketing research is gathering, recording, analyzing and presenting information relevant to the marketing process. Part of marketing planning
Define Gather Undertake Set corporate informationmarketing marketing objectives auditobjectives Decide Review Implementmarketing strategy When undertaking research a firm will: z Identify a problem.
z Decide a method of gathering data,
e.g. field or desk research; postal survey or face to face. z Gather the data. z Analyze the data. z Present its findings.
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Some details about four Ps
Price
The price of a good or service may depend on: Cost – organizations will generally want to cover their costs to make a profit for investment
and to reward their owners
Demand and elasticity – i.e. What is the level of demand and how sensitive is demand to
price?
Competition – i.e. How similar are their products? What price are they charging?
Government – e.g. the Government places indirect taxes (such as VAT) on most goods, which
increases costs.
Objectives – e.g. short term or long term profits.
Stage of the life cycle, e.g. the price is more likely to increase in the growth phase and fall in
decline.
Rest of the mix, e.g. Is it positioned as a more exclusive item than competitors, products?
The price is likely to be higher when: z The good is heavily branded
z The good is distributed to exclusive outlets z It is a speciality good
z The good is at the growth stage of the life cycle z The firm is following a skimming strategy
Product
A product can be examined on three levels:
Core: The benefits of the product, e.g. microwave = convenience, after shave = attraction
Tangible: The actual features of the product, e.g. what it looks like, what it weighs, what it does,
how it is packaged.
Augmented: other services or benefits that are obtained, e.g. delivery, guarantees, servicing
Core Tangible Augmented
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The quality of a product depends on its:
z Performance – e.g. the speed of a car, the power of a microwave z Features – the extras, e.g. air conditioning or sunroof on a car z Ease of servicing – How easy is it to fix?
z Reliability – How likely is it to go wrong in, say, the first year z Durability – How long will it last? z Aesthetics – What does it look like?
z Economics – What does it cost to produce? Can it be sold at a profit? z Brand name
z Ease of manufacture
Place (Distribution)
Levels of distribution 0 level: manufacturer Consumer e.g. services, mail order
1 level: Manufacturer Retailer Consumer e.g. many shopping goods
2 level: Manufacturer Wholesaler Retailer Consumer e.g. many convenience goods
Promotion
Methods of promoting: Sale promotion: short term incentives to increase sales, e.g. coupons, competitions. Effect if
often to destroy loyalty to other brands and encourage brand switching; when promotion ends consumers often switch to another brand’s offer. Sales promotion is called below the line promotional activity.
Advertising: paid communication. It is called an above the line’s promotional activity.
Public relations: involves managing relations with different publics, e.g. the media,
consumers, pressure groups, investors, May involve getting media coverage of event or product launch or generally creating a favorable impression and generating word of mouth interest. The difficulty is that it is not easy to control what others writhe or say. Personal selling: use of sales representatives.
Direct mailing: information is sent through the post. Exhibitions and trade fairs
Merchandising: an attempt to influence consumers at point of sale, e.g. display material Packaging: e.g. design, shape, information displayed on it.
Branding: name or design which identifies the products or services of a manufacturer and
distinguishes them from competitors.
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