Marketing: Concepts and Strategies - Essay Example

? Marketing Introduction Marketing entails a process of communicating the value that a product or a service can offer to the customer. This is normally done through advertisement, sales promotion, personal selling to mention just but a few (Pride & Ferrell, 2006). Marketing further involves four tools for marketing mix that are commonly known as 4 P’s. The 4p’s stands for place, price, product and promotion. Whereby, Place entails how the customers will have access the company product or service. Price entails the cost that customers incur from buying company product. Some customers are price sensitive whereby, an increase in price may cause the customers to buy from competitors. On the contrary product/service involves taking into consideration the needs and wants of a customer. Finally, promotion entails creating awareness about the product or service being offered by the company. This may involve taking into consideration the methods that the company will use to promote their product as well as determining the methods used by their competitors (Hoffmann, 2008). Therefore, this study aims to provide an insight of how the company achieves advantage of delivering value to the consumers and to what extent. 1. “A company achieves advantage by delivering superior value to its consumers in the marketplace”. To what extent do you agree with this statement and why? A company achieves advantage by delivering superior value to its consumers through utilization of value chain approach/model as proposed by Porters. Different companies tend to have numerous activities that are being involved in the conversion of raw materials to finished goods so as to deliver superior value to their customers. Those activities may be broadly classified into two categories namely; primary activities and secondary activities /support activities within the value chain model. Primary activities comprises of five major activities/ operations namely; inbound logistics, outbound logistics, operations, marketing and sales, and services. On the contrary, support activities include; procurement, human resource management, technological development and infrastructure (Saha, 2011). The value chain creation model may be presented in the diagram below. Primary Activities The value Chain Support/secondary activities Source: The five primary activities involve all operations that are aimed at delivering superior value to the customers. Under this section there are activities such as; inbound logistics. Those are operation that is attributed to handling of goods and services within the company. Additionally, inbound logistics involves activities such as material inputs and acquisition, warehousing activities as well as inventory control. Material input and acquisition are those operations that are carried out to ensure that there is proper flow of all the necessary materials and equipments that might be required in order to come up with a finished product that can deliver superior value to the customers. Material input and acquisition further involves determining the most appropriate vendors to supply the company with the necessary raw material in a cost efficient manner. Therefore, procurement managers, operation managers and finance managers should carry out a prior assessment of the most appropriate vendor who can supply raw materials at a minimal cost. This may help to minimize the cost of material acquisition while at the same time ensures that materials obtain deliver superior value to the customers and further enables the company to make profits. Both procurement manager and finance manager should collaborate to ensure that materials available in the warehouse are in proper condition. Moreover, they should carry out inventory valuation to determine when to order new material (re-order point) and when to dispose the available stock. This may help to ensure there is efficiency in the flow of raw materials and finished goods within and outside the company (Quick MBA, 2013). On the other hand, operation activities entail those activities that are aimed at creating value. At this stage the company converts raw obtained during inbound logistics into finishes products. The conversion of raw materials into finished goods creates value to the customers and to the company as well. Under this stage the company utilizes materials, chemicals, machines and other resources to convert raw materials into more meaningful products. For example, if a company is manufacturing sugar, various machine and chemicals may be applied in this stage to convert sugarcane into a sugar. After the conversion process has been accomplished, the product obtained are packed in various packages depending on the needs and consumers consumption patterns whereby, customers may utilized the finished products into more meaningful applications. Additionallt, the company can be able to break even and earn profits by selling manufactured goods. This further helps to enhance efficiency and consistency in company’s operations (Saha, 2011). On the contrary, outbound logistics involves operation activities that may be employed to deliver finished goods to the customers. It may involve activities such as warehousing, inspection, transpiration fulfillments of customers order among other activities attributed to products delivery. Outbound logistics further entails selecting the most appropriate means of transport that can deliver finished goods (superior value) to the customers at point where customers can easily obtain them. Under this section, logistic managers should take into consideration various factors when deciding the means of transport to use. Among those factors include: the cost of transport, the distance, nature of the products and the speed. For example, if the company is transporting perishable goods the company should utilize the fastest means of transport to ensure that the products are delivered to the customers before they expire. In addition, proper methods of handling goods when still on board should be utilized in order to ensure that goods delivered to the consumers are in proper condition (Saha, 2011). Another primary activity involves marketing and sales. This activity focuses at ensuring that customers are aware that a particular product and service exist in the market. In addition, marketing and sales activities aims at communicating to the customers the superior value that can be obtained if they purchase a particular product. Therefore, the company may utilize different marketing strategies/techniques to induce the customers and influencing their purchase decision. Among the activities that may be employed under this section include; advertisement, sales promotion activities, selection of marketing channels and product pricing strategies that might be adopted to promote and increase sales. Some of the pricing strategies that might be used in the initial stage include: market penetration pricing. This strategy focuses at charging customers lower prices during initial introduction of the product into the market, after customers have adopted the product the company may increase prices later. The company may also deliver superior value to the consumers using the last primary activity known as services whereby, after the product has been sold to the customers, the company should provide after sale services in order to ensure that the product sold to the customer is working more effectively and efficiently (Krista, Kosuke & Sheri, 2006). The above five value chain activities above should be complemented with the support activities/secondary activities in order to have a competitive advantage and deliver superior value to the customers. Among the support activities include; human resource activities, procurement, technological development activities and financing activities. Human resource activities entail employee’s selection, recruitment, training and development as well as employee motivation. This means that for a company to deliver superior value it must have highly skilled and knowledgeable team of employees. Therefore, human resource manager plays a significant role towards ensuring that employees are highly motivated to deliver superior value to the customers and at the same time meets the specific objectives of the company. Human resource manager may motivate employees by showing them that they are value, providing them with remuneration packages, providing them with growth opportunities to mention just but a few. This may help them to work tirelessly towards delivering superior value to the customers. On the other hand, procurement activities entails functions such as purchasing of raw materials used in value creating activities while technological development activities entails activities that aims at increasing effectiveness and production efficiency. Finally, financing activities involves source of funding this may include equity financing or debt financing (Mind Tools, 2013). The company may deliver superior value to its consumers in the market place through utilization of the three strategic discipline of value delivery: namely product leadership, customer’s intimacy and operation excellence. Product leadership entails introducing numerous products rapidly that are of high quality standards whereby, making other competitors unable to keep up with the company pace. On the contrary, customer’s intimacy entails a strategy that may be employed by a company to meet the specific needs of the consumers in a particular market. Finally, operation excellence involves being a price leader in the entire industry. Under this strategy, the company focuses at increasing efficiency and delivering products that are higher value and quality at a reduced priced (Chernev, 2006). Michal Porters asserted that a firm may obtain two types of competitive advantage. Among the two types of competitive advantage include: differential advantage and cost advantage. Differential advantage entails the ability to provide the same but unique products from those offered by the competitors. Whereby, the products offered are able to meet and exceed customer anticipation and at the same time provide value not only to the company but also to the customers. Further to this, the company may achieve a competitive cost advantage by being a low cost producer whereby, the company may sell its products at a low price as compared to its competitors. Therefore, a company may be said to have obtain a competitive advantage over its competitors if it can be able to obtain higher returns than the industrial average market returns. In addition, the company may be able to have a competitive advantage if it can deliver the same product/service to the customers at a lower price than its competitors and obtain higher returns (Holbrook, n.d). Conclusion Marketing entails a process of communicating the value that a product or a service can offer to the customer. This is normally done through advertisement, sales promotion, personal selling among other methods. Additionally, the company may achieve advantage of delivering superior value to its consumers through utilization of value chain approach as discussed. The value chain model comprises of five major activities/ operations namely; inbound logistics, outbound logistics, operations, marketing and sales, and services. In addition, the company may deliver superior value through application of the various support activities discussed above. Further to this, the company may deliver superior value to its through utilization of the three strategic disciplines of value delivery namely; product leadership, customers intimacy and operation excellence. References Chernev, A. (2006). Strategic marketing analysis. United States? Brightstar Media Inc. Hoffmann, S. (2008). Are the 4 P's of international marketing of equal importance to all firms? What factors might cause some to more or less important than others?: A short article. Mu?nchen: GRIN Verlag GmbH. Holbrook.J. (n.d).An Introduction to Environmental Audit. Research and Advisory Services Directorate. Edinburgh eh6 5np.Retrieved :< http://www.snh.org.uk/publications/on-line/advisorynotes/45/45.htm> 4th December 2013. Krista.M.D. Kosuke.I. & Sheri.D.S. (2006).Customers Value Chain Analysis.Retrieved:17th December 2013. Mind Tools. (2013).Porters Value Chain. Understanding How Value is created Within an Organisation.17th December 2013. Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2006). Marketing: Concepts and strategies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. Quick MBA. (2013). Strategic Management Competitive advantage: Competitive Advantage.Retrieved :< http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/competitive-advantage/>4th December 2013. Saha.A. (2011).Mapping of Porters Value Chain Activities into Business Function Units.Retrieved:17th December 2013. Read More