商务英语Marketing Mix

GCSE Business Studies/What is Marketing?

Marketing objectives

Firms will use marketing in order to achieve objectives. Some common objectives are:

?Introducing a new product, or increasing sales of an existing one.

?Introduce an established product to a new market segment.

?Change the image of a brand.

?Make profits.

Orientation

There are two main marketing orientations that businesses use:

?Market orientation involves researching what people want or need, and then researching and developing it in order to provide it to them.

?Product orientation involves researching a product and then persuading people to buy it. This is commonly used with high-tech goods, for example. Customers may not feel they need the product until after it has already been developed.

The Marketing Plan

The Marketing Plan combines - for a given period (one year for example) and a given range of products and services - all aspects of an organizations' marketing efforts into one coherent plan. It tries to blend these efforts in a synergistic fashion for maximum results. Marketing plans will vary from organization to organization but all have the core components listed here.

The marketing mix

There are four main factors that make a customer decide to buy a product or service, these are:

?Product

?Price

?Promotion

?Place

We call these factors the four Ps or the marketing mix.

Marketing mix “4ps”

Product

The Product strategy is complex. It not only includes the development of the correct product attributes to meet the needs of the target market, but must focus on the benefits (perceived or real) the customer anticipates the

product will provide.

Promotion

Promotion is communication between the "seller" (producer, wholesaler, retailer, service provider, etc) and relevant stakeholders (usually referred to in terms of the Target Market/s). Promotion or Marketing Communication utilises tools such as Advertising, Sales Promotion, Direct Marketing, Personal Selling, Marketing Public Relations and Publicity.

Types of Promotion

There are two main types of promotion:

?Persuasive promotion attempts to persuade the consumer that he or she needs the product.

?Informative promotion attempts to give lots of details about the product. This is often used by the Government, for

example to inform people of new laws.

Advertising Media

The message (informative or persuasive), has to be communicated. The way it is communicated is known as the medium. The medium a firm chooses will depend on its advertising budget and it's target audience.

Printed Media

Printed media can be kept for future reference, and can often give more information. However, it has less impact because it cannot use sound and movement. Some examples of printed media are:

?National newspapers can target a group of people, but are often expensive to advertise in.

?Local newspapers get the message across to a large number of people in a given area, and are usually cheaper to

advertise in than national newspapers.

?Magazines often target a very specific group of people (e.g.

a fishing magazine will be read by people interesting in

fishing). This means that they are often used for products specific to a certain sport or hobby.

Broadcast Media

Broadcast media can make use of sound so it will often grab the consumer's attention more than other types of media. Some examples are:

?TV adverts can makes use of colour and sound. They can also be targeted quite well based on during which program

they are broadcast. However, it is a very expensive way of

advertising and the adverts are often missed or ignored.

?Radio adverts are fairly cheap to produce and broadcast.

However, there is a smaller audience and often do not attract

attention.

?Cinema adverts are shown to an attentive audience, in a specific geographical area. However, since it is only seen

once, it is easily forgotten.

edit Other Media

Some other media are:

?Posters/Billboards will be seen often by people in that geographical area. However, they cannot contain detailed

information and have to communicate their message quickly.

?The Internet is a fairly cheap advertising media and can give good amounts of information. However, not everyone

has Internet access and since there are lots of adverts they are

often simply ignored.

***Advertising media

Television Radio Newspapers Magazines Posters/billboards Cinemas Leaflets Internet Others (ad and disad)

Price

Pricing objectives directly affect an organizations pricing policy:

?Profit oriented objectives-attain a specific profit level, or as much profit as possible

?Sales oriented objectives-target a predetermined unit sales level or market share

?Status quo objectives-seek to maintain current price levels, peg them to an index, or match them to a competitor

***Pricing Strategies

COST-PLUS Pricing is the cost of manufacturing the product plus a profit mark-up.

Penetration Pricing is when the price is set lower than the competitors' prices in order to be able to enter a new market.

Pricing Skimming is where a high price is set for a new product on the market.

Competitive Pricing is when the product is priced in line with or just below competitors' prices to try to capture more of the market. Promotional Pricing is when a product is sold at a very low price for a short period of time.

Psychological Pricing is when particular attention is paid to the effect that the price of a product will have upon consumers' perception of the product.

Placement

Placement or place refers to the distribution channels that a company will use in order to take its product to the final customer (or consumer).

***The distribution channels

Producer-consumer

Producer-retailer-consumer

Producer-wholesaler-retailer-consumer

Producer-agent-wholesaler-retailer-consumer