Integrated Organizational Communication - Essay Example

? MARKETING MIX TABLE OF CONTENTS Marketing Mix Introduction When it comes to business, a lot of strategies have to be put into consideration in order for the business products to be successful. In terms of marketing mix, the main purpose of this business strategy is on marketing. This means that in the Dell laptops, the business mix will be very crucial in determining Dell as a brand offering. This report will mainly cover the principles of marketing by the usage of the main concepts and theories. In the Dell’s case we shall use the 7P’s of service marketing with the main emphasis being placed on the customer. This research will be divided into sections each explaining how the case product has been placed for marketing. Product segmentation, targeting and position The term segmentation basically implies that there is grouping of potential buyers and customers in different categories (Masterson & Pickton, 2010; 88). By segmentation it will enable the Dell Company to actually place the potential buyers into different groups and therefore each group will perceive maximum value of the laptop differently from the others. In my segmentation of the Dell Laptop we can have for example three categories that will be the target market of the Dell products. The first group will be under homogeneity meaning that the particular segment the group will be having the same common needs when it comes to the Dell laptop. Under this group the Dell laptop that the group needs will be the basic ones with medium capacity hard disk, wide screen, long lasting battery and user friendly navigation on the laptop and on top of all these features, the laptop will be relatively cheaper. The second group we can refer to them as the distinction group, under this group it can be made up of the higher end market of the consumers so that they are unique group of people as compared to the other members and potential buyers. Case in point will be the business fraternity and the upper class therefore for the Dell Company, the laptop in this range will be high end in terms of the needs for instance the business market would want a very fast laptop filled with more business features. With all these features the general outlook of the Dell laptop will have to be above par with the finishing being custom made in order to suit the potential consumer needs (Richter, 2012;44). The last group will be mainly be classified under the reaction group, this means that the target customers under this segment will consist of the buyers who have a similar response to a product in the market. The target will mostly consist of the youths who are mostly technologically savvy and would love to own the latest gadgets which include laptops and this is where the Dell laptop will come into focus as a gadget that the youths will fall in love with. Therefore the price will be worth the features that will be on the laptop (Mcdonald, 2007; 121). The main impact of all this will be to ensure that every potential buyer has been catered. Marketing mix and its relation to the target consumers can be summed up with the diagram below: Product Consideration With the Dell laptop, it is expected for the laptop to embrace all characteristics of service performance meant to create importance and value to the laptop itself and therefore enable it to sell to the potential buyers (Mcloughlin, & Aaker, 2010;67). It is expected by each design that the Dell laptop has will be a key factor to the key needs of the buyers. The technology in place of the Dell laptop will be expected to be of high end and furthermore very useful to the consumers who will be using the product (Dibb, & Simkin, 1999; 78). The design should be made with the mindset that the significance of the Dell laptop will come from the usefulness it has to the potential buyers. Furthermore the Dell laptop will come with value added services and this will include warranties to ensure that the laptop can last the given time period and with the warranty the potential customers will know that they have a genuine product that can be fixed within a given set of time period (Mcdonald, 2007; 55). As the Dell product is seen as an item that will satisfy what the customer needs, it will be therefore imperative for all the facets of service performance to be embraced in order to create worthiness of Dell laptop in the market (Arnold, 2009; 23). Since the product is bound to undergo a cycle of growing, maturing and declining, the Dell Company should have a market strategy of knowing how to position the Dell laptop to the target market and this will be accomplished through the designs on the different ranges of laptops, branding of the laptop, the accessories that support the laptop, the packaging of the laptop as compared to the competitors and also the convenience of the laptop with the features it has (Ferrell, & Hartline, 2011; 90). Price Consideration Piercy (2009; 22) says that the pricing of Dell laptop will be the utmost priority since it will be the determining factor whether the company will make gains in the industry in order to survive. Since the price will be the basic amount that the potential buyers pay for the laptop, adjusting the laptop price will have a major impact on the demand for the laptop and the sales resulting to a marketing strategy that has a great effect on the laptop (Groucutt, Forsyth, & Leadley, 2004;88). While marketing the laptop, the most important thing at that moment is to know that the buyers are the customers and therefore they have more significance to the company than the price they are going to pay for the laptop. When setting the prices of the laptops; the strategies the company will have to use will include skimming the market to check the competitor prices for the same features as the Dell laptop. The company will then decide to choose on the best approaches to have a penetration pricing where the price of the laptop will be on the basis that the main target for the company is to have as many customers as possible using the Dell laptops (Doyle, 2008;98). A neutral pricing will also be ok but this can further be improved if the values of the competing laptop companies are much higher than Dell’s and the customers view on the Dell’s laptop features as compared to the competitor values are favourable (Barker, & Angelopulo, 2006; 59). The Dell laptop pricing can also depend on the available discounts or even having an offer that would greatly depend on the sales margin especially where there are intermediaries for the sale of the laptops. Distribution Consideration Distribution refers to making accessible the laptops to the consumers where they can get them easily (Johnson, Scholes, & Whittington, 2008; 45). The delivery of the laptops will be crucial as the consumers will need to know where they can get the laptop with the location and furthermore the laptops might be in a particular location for a short period of time therefore it is important for the consumers to know when the laptops will be available and the mode in which they can get the laptops to their doorsteps. The Dell Company can use different strategies in order to distribute the laptops one of them being the retailing whereby the company itself will be selling the laptops directly to the consumers and potential buyers as this will cut down the intermediary’s profit. Therefore the customers will find it very cheap and convenient to buy the laptops directly (Buttle, 1996; 12). Another way will be for Dell to ship the laptops to different areas where the agents will have bought the laptops in bulk and therefore distribute them to the consumers. The partners will have to be the ones endorsed by the Dell Company in order to maintain professionalism on the market (Cheverton, 2004; 12). The most common way for buying goods and services nowadays is through the internet and it imperative for the laptops to be sold through this way and through mail order. The bottom line will be for the laptops to be sold and the consumer should get the value for his or her money. All these methods can be used by the Dell laptop marketers in order to harmonize the other features of the marketing mix. Promotion Consideration For the Dell laptops to penetrate through the market, they have to be known by the consumers (Cravens, 2011; 80). Therefore, the methods used to communicate about the product by the marketer will be promoting the product, in this case the Dell laptop. The purpose of promoting the Dell laptops will be to inform the public about the new range of laptops suiting every personality, educating the public about the features of the laptop, persuading the potential buyers into buying the laptops and also reminding the buyers about the laptops every single time (Capon & Hulbert, 2007;78). The content of the promotion will be basically messages that are informative and persuasive at the same time educating the customers about the Dell products. With the various medium of marketing communication elements, it will be appropriate for the laptops to be marketed through the various means of communication like the media elements which will be the first when it comes to marketing boosting areas like broadcast, outdoor advertising, the internet, print advertisement and many others. Customer service also acts as a way of marketing the Dell laptops and so does public relations and sales promotion. The informal way of word of mouth can be encouraged from the staff specifically employed to promote the Dell laptops. With the corporate world, the Dell laptops can be used for branding in any event either directly or indirectly. People Consideration The interaction between the customers and the staff or employees in any given company is very tantamount to the customer’s discernment of the quality of service offered by that company. The people in this marketing mix are the employees and the contact personnel of the Dell Company of which are first hand when it comes to the contact between the customers on behalf of the company. The Dell laptop personnel will have to be qualified when it comes to improving the customer’s experience as they are at the forefront of the company in terms of marketing by having the close contact with the customers. The employees have to be motivated and their job responsibilities set and undergo training once in a while to keep up with the current trends in the market in reference to the customers (Capon & Hulbert, 2007;72). The customers too will not be left behind as the right attitude they have towards the company is what will attract other people to the company and in return the Dell laptop sales will be high. The management of the staff will have to be top notch as the way the management handles its employees is reflected to the kind of customer service the buyers will get when interacting with the staff. The culture developed in the organization will enable the contact between the customers and organization personnel open and free. Process Consideration As Lovelock and Wirtz (2007;34) explain that when it comes to process consideration, how the firm does things will be as significant as what it does and this means that the systems in an organization will always be affected by the way its marketing process is done. More often than not the customers will also be involved in the process if they are part of the factors in an organization. Lovelock and Wirtz (16) further explains that the process always involves choices of method and sequence in service creation and delivery meaning that in all the processes the resultant products are intertwined together. As such both the personnel and the customers play a very important role in the process like in the case of Dell laptops both the customers and the personnel will play different but significant roles in the company whereby if the company is run smoothly in the sense from the moment the customer steps in the office to shop for the Dell laptop to the time the customer goes away, the important aspect of the mutual respect that is accorded to both the personnel and the clients will imply that the customer will most likely return back to get more service. When the company has poorly designed processes in the market, the result will be a complete waste of time and to the customers this will be a show of poor customer experience and the disappointed customers will most likely never return to the company again. Physical Evidence Consideration The components within the company and the company itself play a major role in the overall impact of the company’s relevance to the society. “Design services cape and provide tangible evidence of service performances” (Lovelock,C and Wirtz, J. 2007) this implies that when it comes to physical evidence, the company has to make their presence known and this will be factored by the physical appearance of the building that houses the Dell products and the surrounding landscape. Once a customer steps in the building the presentation will be the first thing that will attract the potential buyer to get one of the Dell laptops, the manner and level of the equipment used in the company will determine whether the customer’s confidence will be boosted for example in Dell laptop company if the clients step in, the expectation is that the electronics used should definitely be made from the Dell company. This will show that the company itself believes in the products it makes. The staff will be expected to be groomed well and smartly dressed. In some quarters it will be expected the staff to have uniform or if not they should have name tags for easy identification by the customers. At the end, the physical cues will be one important factor if the company will want to have a great impact on the customer opinion and impression of the company. Conclusion Just like an art where you have to blend each ingredient to come up with a different product, marketing also has to be blended with other factors in order for a new concept to come out. Sometimes the concepts will work but if they don’t then they will be discarded and a new one included which can change the results. When it comes to marketing mix, the marketer should always organize all the available marketing tricks in order for the short term and long term interests of the company to bring revenue. In this case the 7P’s of marketing are brought into limelight and each shows a co-relative dependence on each other. More market research can be done in order to choose the best and viable option for the marketing mix. References Arnold, C. (2009). Ethical marketing and the new consumer. Chichester, U.K., Wiley. Barker, R., & Angelopulo, G. (2006). Integrated organizational communication. Cape Town, Juta Academic. Buttle, F. (1996). Relationship marketing: theory and practice. London, Chapman. Capon, N., & Hulbert, J. M. (2007). Managing marketing in the 21st century: developing and implementing the market strategy. Bronxville, N.Y., Wessex Inc Cravens, D. W. (2011). The Oxford handbook of strategic sales and sales management. Oxford [u.a.], Oxford Univ. Press. Cheverton, P. (2004). Key Marketing Skills 2 Strategies, Tools and Techniques for Marketing Success. London, Kogan Page. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=227367 Dibb, S., & Simkin, L. (1999). The marketing casebook: cases and concepts. London, International Thomson Business Press. Doyle, P. (2008). Value-based marketing marketing strategies for corporate growth and shareholder value. Chichester, England, John Wiley & Sons. Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. D. (2011). Marketing strategy. Australia, South-Western Cengage Learning. Groucutt, J., Forsyth, P., & Leadley, P. (2004). Marketing: essential principles, new realities. London [u.a.], Kogan Page. Johnson, G., Scholes, K., & Whittington, R. (2008). Exploring corporate strategy: Text and cases. Harlow, Pearson Education Ltd. Lovelock, C. & Wirtz, J. (2007) Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy, 6th Edition, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall Masterson, R., & Pickton, D. (2010). Marketing: an introduction. London, SAGE. Mcdonald, M. (2007). Malcolm McDonald on marketing planning: understanding marketing plans and strategy. London, Kogan Page. Mcdonald, M. (2007). Marketing plans: how to prepare them, how to use them. Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann. Mcloughlin, D., & Aaker, D. A. (2010). Strategic market management: global perspectives. Hoboken, N.J., Wiley. Piercy, N. (2009). Market-led strategic change. Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann. Richter, T. (2012). International marketing mix management: theoretical framework, contingency factors and empirical findings from world-markets. Berlin, Logos. Read More