MARKETING MIX

MARKETING MIX

Marketing is the term used to describe the activities intended to make and attract a profitable demand for a product. There are 4 important factors involved in marketing: the product, the price, the promotion and the place.

The combination of these 4 Ps is known as the marketing mix.

In the past, when markets were more local, businesses were product-oriented: they developed the product before and then they tried to determine the potential customer. Today, markets are international and highly competitive so most companies are market-oriented: they study the market before and then they make the product.

MARKET SEGMENTS

Marketing is based on the theory that similar people will buy similar product and so markets can be segmented according to the characteristics of buyers. For examples: by age because young people buy different products from adults; by gender because women spend more on clothes and jewellery then men; by income groups because rich people buy different products then poor people; by area because in different countries people buy different products; by lifestyle because a single person buys different products then a married person with two children.

MARKET RESEARCH

Business use market research to try and determine the possible target consumer, the right price to offer, the best area where to sell the product, the most effective type of promotion and to analyse the products of the competition.

Market research is used to collect data about: quantitative information (for examples the number of scooter sold in Britain last year) and qualitative information (for examples what customers like about a product)

Market research uses two kinds of data: primary data which are original material and information directly drawn from potential or existing customers with surveys, by personal interview, by telephone, by post and secondary data which are information that has already been published (for examples, financial accounts, sales records, internet, reports and statistics)

SWOT ANALYSIS

A SWOT analysis is used by firms to analyse their position in the market in order to future business strategies. SWOT stand for -strengths- (good reputation for quality and service) -weaknesses- (bad reputation) -opportunities- (new markets, new methods) and -threats- (new laws, competition, new taxes). The first two factors are factors over which the firm has some control and the last two are factors over which the firm has no control.

PRODUCT

The product is the most important element in the marketing mix. Image, name, packaging and branding are the most important factors.

The image of a product is determined by its quality, design and reliability because a product should be of the right quality and at a price that customers are willing to pay.

The name should be short, easy to pronounce and to remember. The name of a product should also say something positive about the product.

The packaging has to give protection to the product and should be suitable for transporting the product from the factory to the shops. Also its colours and shape are very important

A brand name is a registered name for a product which can be used only by the manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer. These products are of an higher quality of unbranded products, they are more expensive and are heavily advertised

PRICE

When deciding what price to offer, a business has to take into consideration different factors:

Whether the price will cover production costs, the prices charged by the competition and how prices can be used to increase sales.

In a free market economy prices are generally determined by the economic law of supply and demand: where there are few buyers, prices will be low while where there are many buyers prices will increase.

There are a lot of pricing strategies that a company can adopt: penetration pricing (new products are usually sold at lower prices during the first week of sale), price skimming (when new products are sold at higher prices because of novelty factor), competitive pricing (prices are set by looking at the prices charged by the competition), promotional pricing (when products are sold at a lower price for a set amount of time thank to special offer such as "buy one and get one free" and disconts)

PROMOTION

Promotion is the most direct form of communication in the marketing mix. It gives customers information about the product, its prices and the place where can be bought.

When ning an advertising campaign it is important to choose the right cannel of communication or media and this choice is influences by different factors such as: the target audience that the advertiser wants to reach, the area where the product should be sold (international, local, regional), the message that the advertiser wants to put across, the special qualities of the different media and the cost that the advertiser is prepared to pay.

There are a lot of media that can be used in order to promote a product: the press (can be use colour, easy targeting, can provide a lot of information about the product but readers can ignore adverts and is not as effective as TV), the TV (reaches million of people, has moving images, sound and colour but is very expensive and viewers may change channel during adverts), the radio (can use sound and music, is cheap and easy targeting but is non-visual and has a small audience), internet (is interactive and can use sound, music and images, can display a lot of information but net surfers often ignore adverts) posters (are cheap an can be place near the point of sale but provide limited information and are subjected to vandalism and bad weather), cinemas (are cheap, can be localised, use sound, colour and images but has a small audience and can only be seen once), direct mail (are personalised, are easy targeting but people usually ignore them)

OTHER TYPES OF ADVERTISING

There are also other types of advertising that can be used to promote a product. For examples, neon signs showing the name of the product can be found in big cities, delivery vehicles that have the company name or product an their side, the bags that shops give out whit the name of the shop written on them. Business can also sponsor sports or music events: a lot a football teams have t-shirts whit the name of their sponsors .

PERSONAL SELLING

Some products are also sold door-to-door. The advantage is that customers can see the product and obtain information about that but sometimes customers don't like to feel under pressure to buy a product.

PUBLIC RELATION

Public relations are concerned with promoting a good image for a company and its products. The public relation department of a company should organise sponsored activities, sponsor an event or donate some products to charity when there is a natural disaster.

SALES PROMOTION

Sales promotion is the term used to describe various methods to persuade customers to buy a product. Customers loyalty cards (when customers collect points and then get some special gifts), special offers (buy one, get one free, buy now, pay later), money off coupons, free gifs contained in some products, discounts and price reduction