Nearly every business on the planet sets out with the main objective of earning money. This is usually done by producing some form of product, or offering a service, and then charging people money for it. First of all, it is a very rare case that a company can offer a product or service that [...]
Nearly every business on the planet sets out with the main objective of earning money. This is usually done by producing some form of product, or offering a service, and then charging people money for it.
First of all, it is a very rare case that a company can offer a product or service that is truly unique and cannot be provided by anybody else. This means that your business will be competing with other businesses that sell a similar product and you will both be trying to make money from the same customers, who only want to spend their money once.
Marketing is the main tool used by modern organisations to draw prospective customers to do business with them and not with their competitors. It is a very broad topic that is influenced by a great number of internal and external factors, but when done right it can be the one business practice that could make or break a company. Any time spent on marketing will reap rewards, although spending this time correctly can yield extraordinary results.
So where should you begin when creating a marketing strategy for your own company? Well, every situation is different, and each company will have its own set of advantages and weak points that must be taken into consideration, but there is a marketing principle that can be applied to almost any company to be used as a marketing platform. It is called the “Marketing Mix”.
The Marketing Mix
The marketing mix was a term that was first coined during the 1950′s and is a phrase that is used to express the fundamental building blocks of any marketing system. It demonstrates the fact that marketing is not a simple, blunt-edged business tool, but rather a subtle balance of different aspects of business functions. It got its name because it is similar to the ingredients list for a recipe.
The term was later built upon to include the idea of “four P’s” that described the critical elements of the marketing mix. The formalisation of these P’s made it very easy for business managers and marketers to quickly relate the elements of marketing to the strengths of their own companies, and by doing so could very rapidly form a tailored and effective marketing system.
Our company specialises in offering duvet bedding and although we believed our marketing strategy was adequate we have seen advancements since using marketing mix ideas.
Product
Whilst every aspect of the marketing mix is a requirement, the “product” element mentioned as one of the four P’s is perhaps the most crucial of all. It describes the physical product or intangible service that your business will be offering, and at the end of the day it is the reason that buyers are going to spend money with you. If this element is not adequately managed then your company will find it hard to make it through.
Several people do not think that marketing has any place to play when it comes to the physical product that your business is selling. In fact, the typical train of thought very often bears the exact opposite sentiment. Surely it should be the opposite way around – your production department creates a product for sale and then it is the task of the marketing department to discover ways to sell it, right? This is not necessarily the case.
Take the computer software market as an example. There are many well-known brands of both operating system and software application solutions in the marketplace already, and because the market is fairly well saturated it would be incredibly tough (and expensive) to “take on the big boys”. So how can the principles of the marketing mix assist in this situation?
Rather than developing an operating system and then trying to craft a marketing strategy to take on the likes of Microsoft or Apple, it would be far more effective to look at what types of product are desired in the current marketplace, and how feasible it would be to manufacture and sell them. By being aware of the marketing mix early on in your product development cycle you can prevent business dead-ends at a later time.
Once your goods have been fashioned and created it is still a vital skill to be able to objectively evaluate your own products to recognise the reasons why a customer would buy your product rather than a competitors’. The technique is called product differentiation and is one of the basic skills of the product part of the marketing mix cake.
A different form of this part of the marketing mix is known as product variation and is typically used to either extend the lifecycle of a product already in the market, or to make your new product attractive to as many consumers as possible. Again, this method can be applied at all stages of product development.
The car industry uses this technique very effectively by offering different engines, trim packages and interior options with the cars that they sell. They use the marketing mix to good effect to sell their own goods in an incredibly competitive marketplace.
An example of one of the newest forms of promotional marketing is our own company website which provides flexible and accessible means to reach potential consumers.
To maintain a standard corporate image a company ought to redesign their portal an example we found was childerens bean bags which echo colours, fonts and graphics associated with their own branding, you can see their website here.
With the rise of the Internet and e-commerce companies find that their sites such as www.horsegamesforgirls.net could be utilised as a direct sales channel and distribution system.
With the rise of the Internet and ecommerce organisations see their sites such as www.maytagrefrigerator.net may be used for a direct sales channel and distribution system.
Price
Another important factor in the marketing mix relates to the price of your products or services. This is not a simple case of performing market research to figure out the top price that your customers would pay (although that can be a useful tool to use), but rather making use of the price of your products as a strategic weapon designed to achieve any specific goals your business has. The potential benefits of an effective pricing strategy are surprisingly large!
Although it may seem obvious, it’s still worth pointing out that price has always been, and likely always will be, one of the crucial factors that customers take into account when they are making a purchase. It is also worth noting that customers don’t always consider the lowest price to be the best price. Actually a price that is too low can often turn buyers away.
There are many questions that you need to ask yourself when devising a good pricing strategy, key among which are the price sensitivity of your customers, what your rivals are doing and how can pricing maximise your own profits. From a strategy point of view however, pricing can be covered by two main principals; price skimming and also penetration pricing.
Price skimming
The principal idea behind price skimming is to make as much money as possible from the sector of the market which is price-insensitive and are going to be willing to spend a large amount of money to receive a product or service early on. Not only can this technique yield great financial benefits, but it can also promote an exclusive and high quality image of your item.
This pricing strategy is frequently used in the consumer electronics industry where customers will often eagerly await the release of a new mobile phone or computer games console. Makers could set almost any price they wanted to and there would still be a loyal base of customers that would pay it.
Penetration pricing
Penetration pricing is at the opposite end of the pricing spectrum, and is geared towards gaining a large market share at a short-term cost so that monetary rewards can be earned long into the future. It can be a risky strategy, but when used correctly it can create revenue streams for many years to come. When setting a price for penetration it is still important to not give a poor impression of your product by aiming for too low a number.
Yet another thing to keep in mind is that “price” is the one part of the marketing mix that will generate revenue for a business. The other members of the four P’s will all cost money to produce or undertake. So it is even more vital to get your pricing strategy right.
Our organisation has tweaked its corporate web site so DVDs for children occurs very frequently so more people can locate us via search engines.
Place
Place is the component of the marketing mix that’s often not addressed by companies, but it is still an important part of selling your product successfully. In short, it describes the way in which you provide your product to your customer, and subsequently how you receive money from them. It can be a fantastic marketing technique when used appropriately.
The most typical implications of place-based marketing are the physical venues in which your goods are sold. For the majority of consumer products, this includes the distribution infrastructure between your manufacturing centres and shops and other outlets around the country. Since distribution of a physical product costs money it is important to identify your own priorities and alter your distribution network appropriately. This is the main application of this element of the marketing mix.
With the growing use of the Internet by your potential customers, marketing techniques have had to consider how they use the Internet to help deliver their products. By using the Internet as a point of contact (or even as a whole distribution channel in download-based markets such as MP3s) companies are now able to reach out to a huge pool of potential customers.
Promotion
When you say the word “marketing”, most people immediately think of the promotional side of the marketing mix, although as we have seen, this is merely one branch of a more complete system. Promotion can be employed on a very individual basis or as a mass communication tool, and whilst it might be an expensive undertaking it is often an important one.
Advertising is one of the most common forms of promotion. Typically it would be done by posting on billboards, producing short clips for TV and radio or by physically handing out flyers or leaflets to potential buyers. With the coming of the information age we have witnessed a great increase in promotion via e-mail and the Internet, or simply as targeted advertising materials posted through your front door.
Another important part of promotion involves branding, which will not necessarily yield more sales directly, but goes back to one of the preliminary functions of marketing; getting customers to pick your product over those of your rivals. When all other pieces of the marketing mix are equal it can be branding that sways a customer’s choice.
Putting it into Practice
As previously mentioned each business is different and will have different marketing needs. By using a mixture of the four P’s discussed above you can take a good view of your own marketing plan.
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