Application of Market Mix to the Marketing of Fashion Products - Essay Example

? FASHION MARKETING 3750 No Lecturer) & Marketing, for a long time, has been taken to mean promotion, advertisement or public relations. Well, it is not in dispute that all these are used to carry out the important process of marketing. While each of the aspects can stand alone, they are all required to carry out effective marketing. Marketing requires dedicated efforts which target the clients of a given organization. It is aimed at getting the clients not only to know of the existence of a given product but also why they need the said product. Introduction There are many theories and concepts that have been developed and applied to the field of marketing over time. This paper mainly focuses on the marketing mix although, at some point, it gives a reflection on other aspects of marketing. The main focus is with put on fashion marketing. People like fashion. Every human being wants to feel part of the present dispensation in terms of fashion. It is when the appropriate marketing strategies with the good mix is put in place that people get to understand what is new and fashionable thereby pushing them to go for the products. In the UK, clothing is the second largest retail sector. This is the sector that can be said to be the stronghold of fashion. It is where fashion begins. One can even say that this is where fashion ends. Therefore, when discussing fashion, clothing comes into mind. As such, these products have to be marketed adequately in order to inform the customers about them, how they can get them, where they can obtain them and at what price they are able to obtain them. The Marketing Concept Marketing is the analysis, planning, implementing and control of carefully devised programs designed to create voluntary exchanges of value with objective markets for the intent of achieving organizational goals. It is a managerial process which aims at achieving the objectives of any organization which wants to relate to its client in the most effective manner (Allen, McQuarrie, & Barr, 1998). This may be achieved by creating a high level of satisfaction in customers through improved budgets, buying better equipment, improving or renovating the building and by charging lower prices on products and services. Therefore, marketing in the field of fashion should be seen to be a deliberate attempt to bring about the said exchanges of value with clients in the field of fashion. Marketing is above advertising what services are offered. However, it is also a progression by which research is assembled to inform institutional objectives and the tactical actions required to attain those objectives. At one point, marketing was a concept that was completely unknown to the public sector, possibly because the term was directly related with thoughts of selling. New changes in the communal sector have sited a great deal of prominence on arms-length associations and trading or quasi-trading associations. The modifications have also permitted managers more freedom to choose where they should get the services they need, or if they should be service providers themselves. Hence marketing has developed into a more important issue (MacDaniel, 1998). It has become vital for bosses in the public sector to expand marketing skills so as to vend services and thoughts to their stakeholders, consumers, executives and staff. Managers have had to reason critically about how best to inform potential clients about the services that they can offer and how to make sure these services meet customer requirements. In the fashion sector, this has destined increased importance on service to the public, on ascertaining the needs and ensuring that those desires are met. These are all issues close to the hearts of marketing professionals. A lot of managers are finding themselves occupied with facets of marketing. Whereas, some will find it as a new experience that will be pleasant, depending on one’s personality and earlier experience. Marketing relies a lot on planning the organization’s offerings in terms of the target market requirements and by effective pricing, communication and allocation to notify, inspire and service the market. Marketing is, therefore, not just about selling; it aims instead to ensure that the users of a service receive that which meets their needs. This implies planning fashion services that the clients need, competing effectively for the patronage of the clients, designing services for optimal effectiveness and promoting the services (Kotler & Scheff, 1997). In commercial organizations, there is the exchange of tangible goods and services for money where the organization sells products and makes profits. The consumer has needs for the product whereas the producer is prepared to offer it at a cost to make a profit (Pride & Ferrell, 2006). The marketing concept is a consumer needs course backed by combined marketing purposed at generating client’s fulfillment as key to achieving organizational goals. In marketing fashion products such as clothing, the products must reflect the needs of users, that is, it should be a product of needs assessment community analysis. The information must be in an appropriate format and in case of electronic information; the relevant equipment for using it must be available. It requires integrated marketing where the various departments in the organization must realize that the actions they take have a significant effect on the organization’s ability to create, retain and satisfy customers. Marketing is not selling, promotion, publicity or public relations though all these are overall concepts of marketing (Kotler & Lee, 2009). It involves assessment, product development and pricing. It plays a big role in that it matches the capabilities of the organization with the needs of the clients. The importance of marketing to the success of an information service can, therefore, not be overemphasized. Key theory and concepts being debated upon On the key theories and concepts of fashion marketing being debated on in the contemporary society, this paper discusses the marketing mix. The concept of the marketing mix and the role of the marketing theory in the promotion of fashion services are of great importance and can never be underestimated. The marketing mix is the planned package of factors which will assist the organization in attaining its target markets and specified objectives. In this case, the targeted clients are members of the public who require the fashion products (Jain, 2002). The mix has a number of facets or controlled variables tuned to the specific fashion market. The progress in marketing fashion products and services has advanced alongside the evolution of theories about the marketing mix. The ideas about marketing mix, the basics that compose it, its concentration and how it is done in the real world have changed so much over the past. The concept was first coined by Borden (1960) in his article “The Concept of the Marketing Mix”. Borden lists the elements of the marketing mix and the market forces that bear on the mix. These elements are product planning, pricing, branding, the channels of distribution, personal selling, advertising, promotion, packaging, display servicing, physical handling and fact finding and analysis. The forces that govern the mixing according to him are consumers’ buying behavior, the trader’s behavior, competitions position and behavior and governmental behavior (OaShaughnessy, 2000). In marketing the fashion products, therefore, the behaviors of all these people must be taken into account. The forces are all very important and play almost equally significant roles and, therefore, impact on the marketing. Jerome McCathy (1999) refined Borden’s marketing mix to create 4ps. These are the four basic variables that make up the mix. These are Product, Place, Promotion and Price. Product is either good or service or a combination of the two that is developed to satisfy the consumer’s needs. Place is when, where and by whom the goods and services are to be sold (i.e. how the target market is reached). Promotion is the method of communicating to the target market about the right product at the right time, right place and right price. A marketing theorist named Buell further developed the concept of the marketing mix. He wrote that the concept of the marketing mix suggests that the company resources devoted to the product, price, distribution and promotion should be mixed in varying promotions depending upon the industry category of the firm, its position in the market and the competitive situation (Perreault, Perreault, McCarthy, & Cannon, 2006). His definition is quite similar to that proposed by McCathy. The difference is that Buell concentrates on the situation of the company in relation to other corporations and the overall situation of the market economy. The elements stay the same, but the way they are measured in proportion to one another, changes. Kotler (2005) replaces the 4ps with 4Cs. The 4Cs are known as the seller’s paradigm because they focus more sharply on the consumer than the earlier conceptions. The 4Cs are the consumer value, Cost to the consumer, Convenience to the Consumer and Communication with the consumer. Application of Market Mix to the marketing of Fashion Products In the marketing of fashion services and products, the product is the tangible good. It could be in the form of clothing or any other fashionable product. There could be many services involved in this type of marketing. Such services range from discounts to the clients and after sale services to the provision of adequate, accurate and relevant information to customers on the use of the fashion products (Easey, 2009). The products must reflect the needs of the clients. It must be a product of needs assessment. The services given in the form of information must also be in an appropriate format and in case of electronic information; the relevant equipment for using it must be available. The information must also be packaged to suit the various categories of fashion customers making up the target market for the fashion marketer. Understanding the value and potential and the effective provision of fashion products and services are the responsibility of the fashion sellers. The need to know their user base and provide whatever the user requires for his/her owns effective performance is very critical. They should get the right information to the right persons at the right time in the right format and offer the fashion products at the right price, and the value will not only be evident but will also grow. The fashion products and services have to be provided where and when required i.e. at a convenient place and time (Sahaf, 2003). The physical location of the products can deter some users and, so it has to be located in a place that is accessible having users with disability also in mind. Promotional strategies are then put in place to market these services. How marketing managers can use these concepts The marketing concepts are very important to the marketing managers, and they can use them to generate the fashion client’s satisfaction and meet their needs promptly. Much of reluctance to practice to marketing in fashion services setting is due to a misunderstanding of marketing and its relationship to fashion services programming. Once fashion designers and sellers understand that marketing and service programs are really quite similar the hesitancy will diminish. Marketing concepts can help the marketing managers to upgrade their reputation, both within their organization and as a profession within society. Many institutions are under threat of contraction or closure and staffs need to justify existence to their employers and colleagues (Schmitt, 1999). Marketing managers must, therefore, be able to counteract the criticism that they are a financial burden to their organization. They need to campaign to gain financial support to promote themselves and for the fashion products and services they offer. This will absolutely come to nothing if appropriate marketing concepts and strategies are not put in place. Marketing managers must seek to know who their customers are. In answering this question, they need to find out who the real and potential customers are. They have also to seek to know what these clients want. This is the first step to satisfying the needs of the clients (Rudd & Mills, 2008). The needs are quite diverse, and if not well understood, the wrong products may be offered. Where the clients are should also be a hard question that the managers must answer. It is only then that they can move to the clients to offer the fashion products to them. Marketing managers ought to know that fashion marketing is marketing of fashion-based products and services. As such, it needs to focus on marketing context and organization in which fashion products and services are a significant product category. Typically most of the fashion products are in the form of clothing. The services can be provided through enhancing access to databases, electronic current awareness services, business consultancy services, subject gate ways, organizational websites, and web-based services to attract a wide global fashion market (Menon & Varadarajan, 1992). In order to meet users’ needs and communicate effectively with them, market research needs to collect data upon which planned decisions and improvement of services ought to be established. It is the duty of marketing managers to ensure that this is achieved. Using the concept of marketing, marketing managers have brought over some management tools from the commercial world, which has been quite advantageous for the global fashion product providers and forced them to look at the institution as the enterprise they are. The fashion managers ought to recognize that their existence is both creation and a servant of fashion seekers, which operates on routinely with a known set of customer and also operates on trust. Marketing concept is increasingly being adapted within the fashion product-service environment. Marketing managers are learning that by employing marketing values and techniques that they can understand their users needs better, rationalize funding, communicate more efficiently with a range of external audiences and achieve greater efficiently and best outcomes in delivering products and services that meet the identified requirements of their customers. Marketing concepts assist the managers in defining an organization’s customers- in the context of a public sector organisation, the word customer is used more broadly to encompass anyone who needs or uses the output of a business process. Also, customers, whether in a private or public sector context, possibly exterior to the organisation (Bhat & Reddy, 1998). Those business procedures that precisely achieve the organisation’s duty, known as the principal business procedures tend to have outside clients. Those processes that back the principal business procedures, like budgeting, paying employees and managing records and information, tend to have internal customers. They also assist the managers in the definition of the organisation’s suppliers. Once more, the word ‘suppliers’ is mostly used here more often than in its conventional business meaning. All business system needs efforts that it can renovate to fabricate its outputs. Who provides the inputs to the company? Like clients, suppliers may be outside or inside to the organisation (Finn, McFadyen, & Hoskins, 1994). For instance, a computer seller may be an external supplier, whereas a stores department may be seen as an inside supplier. Marketing helps the managers to know their competitors. They can, therefore, define those that offer similar services as it does. It is essential to hoist a note of vigilance about identifying competitors. In business, normally the purpose is to break the competition. Reflection on the Various Topics covered This course has seen a reflection on various topics with regards to the fashion marketing. The following are some of the topics and areas that have been very beneficial to the course. Market segmentation Market segmentation is division of the fashion products and services market into smaller, more manageable groups which have distinct characteristics. Market segmentation should be done in a purposeful and meaningful way so as to help understand the needs of the market, in order to tailor the services and information materials towards the needs of all the different market units. This leads to improved usage of resources since those resources can be targeted with maximum effectiveness (Bruce, Moore, & Birtwistle, london). Marketing segmentation for marketing of fashion products and services depends on the objectives and mission of the organization, size of the market or the organization itself. There are many ways of dividing the market into segments; however a combination of methods is often the one that brings success. The market can be divided into; Geographical segmentation: this is based on geographical aspects such as region, town, and distance which when used alone can give a relatively simple target. This segmentation is very relevant to the fashion designers since people have different dressing codes and styles in different regions. Moreover, what is considered fashionable in one geographical region may not necessarily be fashionable in another region (Croft, 1998). They, therefore, must seek to understand what fashion implies to different individuals in different locations. Geo-demographic systems: this is where users are segmented according to where they live on the basis that people living in a particular type of dwelling, in specific vicinity, are likely to exhibit economic social and life style similarities (McDonald, 2012). This is also critical to the fashion designer and marketer since it takes into account the purchasing power of the customer. Demographic segmentation: It involves segmenting the market into variables such as age, gender, population, density, occupation and educational level once a particular segment has been chosen the fashion product and services will be developed towards meeting the exclusive needs of that segment or market (Smith, 1996). Market Research Market research is also known as market analysis. It involves the collection of information on the actual and potential customers and dividing the market into meaningful segment and defining the needs, wants and the characteristics of the current market. In fashion marketing, marketing involves carrying out analysis of consumer needs in order to gain an insight of their needs and psychology. Market research has the following advantages: First and foremost, it makes more users receptive to the fashion services or products. If they are based on careful analysis of needs and wants of users, many users are attracted to the services. The analysis is also likely to lead to production of new products, which are likely to be more satisfying to the clients needs. It is proper to begin examine the need of the customer and determine how well they can be satisfied rather than start up evaluation existing products. The emphasis should be kept on the customer rather the product. Moreover, new products/ services that are required for customer needs satisfaction are identified through market research. Marketing Strategy Marketing strategy is a process that can permit an organization to converge its limited resources on the greatest chances to boost sales and attain a sustainable competitive advantage. A tactical plan provides an arrangement for examining the current and future prospects and trials that an organization faces. However it forces the organization to articulate its vision clearly for what its services will be in the future. Marketing strategy is all about indicating the specific target market and types of competitive advantages that are developed and exploited. Strategic marketing is beneficial in a number of ways. It creates awareness of the role of the organization in the society. In the case of the fashion marketing, the organization is the one that comes up with the fashion. When it is adequately marketed, its absolutely fundamental role in providing fashionable products to people in the society is well understood. Strategic marketing also increases visibility and funding for the organization especially where it has external sources of funding. The development of an adequate marketing strategy also enables the fashion marketing managers to be knowledgeable and have more confidence in leading discussions and carrying out awareness on fashion products and services. Strategic marketing plan enables better understanding of available services and how to use best and achieve the goals set by the fashion designers and organizations dealing in fashion. Components of a Marketing strategy The marketing strategy includes customer and market research that generates data on customers’ needs and perspectives on the services being offered. The marketing plan ought to include the context of the current and future opportunities as well as challenges facing the organization that allows it to elucidate its vision, mission and prioritized services (Wind & Robertson, 1993). The plan should state the long term goals to be achieved by the organization. The fashion designers have to know clearly what goals they want to achieve in the long run and move forward to put all the necessary tools to the achievement of the goals. The plans should also have a description of the desired element of the organization’s image as perceived by others. The most important key message to deliver frequently and consistently to others through the most appropriate communication methods should form a very fundamental component of the plan. Furthermore, the strategy has to prioritize key audience, such as fashion clients, government officials, as well as how and when to communicate with them. The implementation of strategies for delivering key messages and services as appropriate to key audience must also form a significant basis upon which a marketing strategy is based. The evaluation of measuring outcomes achievements that represents progress towards goals and suggest how to improve communication and services delivery should also be seen as a significant element of the strategy in order to market fashion products (Rust & K Lemon, 2004). Incorporating assessment information into market research to adjust and improve the planning and service implementation processes also becomes very fundamental aspect here. There are several ways of ensuring that customers are aware of the available fashion products and services. They include the use of intranets. Fashion designers ought to ensure that the procedures and tools are on their public office's Intranet and that people know they are there. Another way is through networking. They have to ensure proper networking to create awareness on these services. The use of newsletters and leaflets is yet another method of marketing the fashion products and services. Regular pieces for internal newsletters or communication channels should be written.  People should be kept informed of what is being done, e.g. good news stories, etc.  This assists with change management for new projects and strengthening ideas.  Stories should be provided for an outside newsletter if they were significant to a wider audience. Leaflets advertising what fashion team performs should be produced, setting out legal requirements, or advertising particular services. Depending on resources this could be glossy and eye-catching. The use of publicity stunts is yet another important method here. The processes should be geared to being part of local, national and international awareness raising campaigns, for instance Fashions Week. Customer Care Customer care is any contact between customer and an employee that is positive and productive for all parties involved. Some organizations employ specialized customer service representatives, regularly taking orders by telephone, answering enquiries or handling complaints. However any person who is in contact with the customer even for a minute is part of the customer care. Caring for the customer is important because that is what business is all about. In any organization, a customer is the reason for the organizations’ activities, not an interruption, and he/she is someone needed by the organization, not someone who needs the organization This philosophy argues that if the customers’ requirements are met or exceeded, the organization will thrive. Thus, the customers’ requirements will determine what it is the organization should be doing. Identifying their needs entails consultation with clients to identify what products and services they want and the manner in which they would be delivered. There are methods used in gathering information about client need like consumer surveys, consumer focus groups, asking clients to be partakers in a brainstorming session and laboring with clients or doing their job for a period. The option or technique should be fitted to the exact societal and organizational cultural framework in which the information meeting is happening. References Allen, C. T., McQuarrie, E. F., & Barr, T. F., 1998. 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