The Concept of Marketing Mix: the Product Image and Availability - Research Paper Example

 BACKGROUND: Marketing mix is the set of tools designed to satisfy the consumers. The term was basically coined by Neil Borden in 1953 considering it as a recipe which has a mixture of ingredients to obtain the required dish. It is what companies and brands have to offer to their consumers. It consists of the variables like product details, the pricing and promotions details. Companies perform a thorough research before launching a product in market. (Berndt, 2008) It is essential to know the target audience of the product and its demand in market. How and which promotional tools are essential to attract the consumers. All this research and implementation comes under marketing mix. It is basically used to create an improved customer experience to bind them with specific brand or product. There are 4Ps of marketing mix that helps the marketers to run their businesses; Product, Positioning, Pricing and Promotions. Product is the tangible or intangible item that we have to offer to the consumers, for instance pizza. Positioning refers to how and where it would be distributed, in case of pizza it could be near malls in outlets. Pricing represents the cost of the product which could be $ 400 per regular pizza. And promotions are the strategy to create awareness about the product through advertisements or banners and internet. (Go, 1992)Through amalgamated market approach a creative and innovative campaign can be created along with profitable investments. Philip Kotler have gone beyond and provided four C’s which are also related to the marketing mix concept ( cost, convenience, customers and communication) for effective marketing (Gary Armstrong, 2009). It is important to combine the all the element and correlate them to produce better results. Successful marketing mix has been designed to satisfy the target audiences. The selection of product its packaging pricing and where to sell all are requirements of selling a product. By manipulating the elements of marketing mix one can turn the table around and have an edge over the competitors. For products like I phone there is a narrow market yet by product differentiation or by pricing strategies or merely by promotions the product is distinguished differently by the audiences and preferred with respected brands (Charles W. Lamb, 2008). However before carrying a market research it is important to have a thorough market research. It helps to eliminate the weak links in the market. If a product is to be launched the company or brand should be aware of the current market and the elements used for those products already so that the new product can come up with innovation to beat rest of all. (Gates, 1995) LITERATURE REVIEW: There is always a difference observed when a colorful and more expressive item catches more attention than a dull boring item does (Borden) . It is always important to analyze what one is offering and how?? Sometimes even a tasteless dish when presented properly invites the eater to eat and sometimes even a popular item loses its appeal in the dust of blurred presentation or selection. It is important to know what combinations of policies, procedures and strategies are to be used by the marketers to obtain a desired customer behavior. The concept of marketing mix gives a brief of the elements used by the marketers to attract or present their product and its detail to its target audiences. 1. PRODUCT Product is defined as any tangible or intangible item or service that is produced by the labor or technology use. William Dillard the founder of Dillard’s Department Store explains more briefly that one cannot sell from an empty store (Ronald L. Kerber, 2007). It’s true that any company to enter a market requires a product or service to offer to its customers. To maintain the leadership in market it is important for a company to have a strong and competitive product portfolio that could be achieved by its past records or the innovations in the new products and services it offers. Ted Toulis from the Motorola Company defines product as a process of interpreting a thing while utilizing the resources available to provide benefit for others (Hannah, 2004). When selecting a product it is important to know what we are offering is in demand and trend. Any product or services we intend to offer to our consumers should be updated and in demand for making the business work. For instance a typewriter cannot have a successful business with the service he is offering because of the advancement in technology today. People today work and type on laptops, iPods etc. Along with this it is important to know who the people- target audience to serve is. What are their demands and expectations out of the product, it is important to fetch the psychological and sociological analysis of consumer behavior towards a certain product? Product differentiation is another important attribute of a product. It demonstrated how a product is different from the product of similar nature with different brands. For further explanation product could be defined by brands for instance Ford and Audi are two basic products. Sometimes even small changes create a totally different product and sometimes identical products have totally different purposes. For instance in case of tablets; Panadol and Ponstan are two tablets from different companies’ used for different purpose however look same. (Gorchels, 2004) There are certain types of products that fulfils demands of totally different consumers; business products for example the services the business render to its consumers could be a product. Shopping product that are clothes and shoes, routine products are those which are bought on daily basis like eggs milk, the basic commodities. However in today’s time products should be updated and perfect enough to fulfill the demands of consumers. With the pace of advancement of technology the competition is increasing rapidly, companies have their creative’s grease their elbows hard to be innovative with its product. For illustration Apple introduced it’s I phone 4G the phone for the next generation in competition to the popular Nokia N8 which is well liked for its megapixels. Apple innovated the idea of providing the consumers with better resolution by feeding in retina display and maintaining a standard pixel size. Today the consumers seek for uniqueness and quality in balance, it is highly important to satisfy the consumers to keep the business running. The overall packaging designing and presenting is the process ahead however product is the main gist of all on which we work. (Antti Sääksvuori, 2008) However there is a whole product cycle with four stages through which every product goes through; Growth, Maturity and Decline. Any product when introduced in market grows than with increase in sales it matures and gets stable but after a long span of time the product eventually declines. PRICING: Pricing basically is the measure of value of the product in terms of money mostly. It could be of any type of product or service for instance rent, cost, and fare for the flights etc. pricing is often used as a competition strategy to win over the consumers. It is the most flexible element of marketing mix because it could be easily varied according to the changes in the market. (Michael V. Marn, 2010) Price gives the total cost and the profit to the manufacturer from its consumers. The consumer’s desired price for a product mostly depends on his income or factors such as personal taste or size of household etc. In some cases the sellers tends to sell product as the cost price where they gain no profit but earn buyers trust providing them product at reasonable yet cheapest priced products. This is how sellers collect loyal buyers and sell their product before it get old. For instance vegetables and fruits are products that cannot be kept as stock for long, people prefer fresh vegetables and fruits thus sellers have to sell their products as soon as possible. However in most of the cases sellers for a common product offer a range of prices which gives consumers a variety to choose from. (Mills, 2002)Today people often believe that if a similar product is sold below margin set in market there is some deficiency in its quality or features. Therefore in most of the cases marketers offer a variety of prices in a certain range set by the market. Stiglitz refers it as, ‘The Law of single price is repealed’ (Longhi, 1998). Sometimes to set image sellers set the highest price for their product to create a brand image; this is known as adaptive pricing. Especially in the case of technological products where prices are at their peak. Companies that offer high prices for its best product also offers similar to it in less price but with fewer features. This is a way they manipulate consumers minds, consumers would prefer the higher price one as by adding a couple of hundred dollars one can get a range of features in the desired product. For instance Texa’s Instrument Micro writer was priced at $729 however the one charged at $999 included bonus features (McGrath). Price is not only to earn revenue but to earn consumers trust because after quality this is the thing that traps consumers. Today with the advancement in technology cost effective methods are adopted by the companies to earn more profit in less expense of funds and resources. PLACING: Place and distribution strategies are making product or services available when and wherever the customers want to. Nobody flies to Italy to eat a pizza since Pizza Huts are now available in almost every part of the world. By just dialing a number we get a pizza at our place. This is the availability and placing of the product. The main focus is that the product arrives on time in usable condition at required places when needed. In the same case Pizza Hut delivers hot and crispy pizzas as ordered thus consumers enjoy its service as well as product. Channels of Distribution are the routes that products and services take to reach to the consumers after being manufactured or produced. Choosing the desired location which would boost in the service is the basic step towards it. Channels are either direct or indirect. (Michael V. Marn W. L., 1998) Direct channels moves products directly from manufacturer to the consumers. For instance in case of vegetables and fruits, after it is produced it is directly available for the consumers because fresher the grocery or fruits the better it is. However an indirect method uses intermediaries, this includes people (agent) or businesses that moves the product from the manufacturer to the consumer. This is the case for most of the product like clothes, after being manufactured it goes to a shop and then it is purchased by the consumer, here the shop is the intermediary. (Greene, 2009) There are four basic channel options: 1. Manufacturer to the consumer: this is the direct distribution. The products are sold to the consumer directly via internet or on call or through television. There are no intermediaries involved here. 2. Manufacturer to Retailer to Consumer: it is an expensive option to sell one product, where manufactured goods are first sold to retailers after being manufactured and then to the consumer. However it offers more sales as retailers are easily accessible in market. 3. Manufacturer to Wholesaler to retailer to consumer: this is used on large scale where many intermediaries are used. For instant supply of salt is first produced then sold to the wholesaler who then sells to the retailer and finally the consumer buys it from them. The price increases at every port it anchors be it wholesaler or retailer. 4. Manufacturer to Agent to Wholesaler to Retailer: this is adopted when marketing a product in international market. If a product is manufactured in other part of the world it then uses and agent which sells the product in bulk to the wholesaler of other country which is later purchased by the retailers to serve the consumers. (Julian Vieceli, 1998) Another kind is the physical distribution which is not only about transportation but also about handling packaging and storage of products. As a product is being transported it has to be stored at different places along the time when the paper work is done and other formalities. It is highly recommended for the storage facilities keep the product safe and sound. For instance the yacht transportation business transport yachts to different locations for its consumers to enjoy the fun sailing in sea at different locations or on vacations. They do it via vessels or trucks where they take special care of the yachts that it may not get damaged and is delivered on time because on time delivery is what the consumers demand. The entire process of distribution is not visible to the consumer though he might know or acknowledge it but what consumer is interested in is on time delivery or access to the desired product. PROMOTIONS: No wonder if the product is highly in demand with reasonable price, with best distribution channel world have no sales because no one is aware of the product the company offers. It is highly required to create brand awareness about one’s product or service (McDaniel, 2009). There are four elements of promotions: 1. Advertisements 2. Sales Promotion 3. Public relation 4. Personal Selling Advertisements: All types of businesses advertise through every possible media to reach its consumers. It helps the business convey its product or service to the consumers in a positive way, it makes the consumer realize that the product exist with so many other specific strategies discussed before enriching its appeal. Large companies use agents or hire other companies to advertise for them. Sometimes brands correlate to promote each other. For instance Nike have joined in with Msn messenger after investigating that their target audience is the youth which is easily available on messenger. According to MSN Internal Data 26% of MSN instant messenger users fall into the age group of 18-24. Thus Nike has seized this as an opportunity to communicate to its audiences. Apart that Nike owns it own website where it has a detail analysis of the company, the product and the locations of the shops. It offers online purchases of its products as well. To advertise it is important that the product have a specific tagline and an interesting concept to grab consumer’s attention. Some famous taglines of successful brands are: DEW: do the dew BMW: the ultimate driving machine McDonalds: I’m loving it L’Oreal: because you worth it Tagline gives the briefest message to the consumer about what the product is all about. There are several other factors to be considered when advertising for a product or service but the key concept is the main gist of the ad that should be able to not only define the product but also capture consumer’s attention and remain in their heads for a long time. For instance online ads on property auction are linked directly with the bid form so that immediately the customer is captured with its response. An amalgamated campaign such that of P&G’s Fusion shaving system uses different categories; TV to introduce, internet media for description and in stores for sales. (Li, n.n.) Since the media is changing every minute, the new technology is widening the range of new possibilities to reach the audiences. In the future this will be more diversified and campaign would be more global with a blend of old and new media. It will be more updated and ore vivid in reaching the audiences. Each media has its advantage and disadvantage, it’s the duty of the creative heads to analyze which to use and why? Magazines are a reliable media however it should be capable enough of grabbing consumer’s attention that is one of the reasons why magazines have witty colorful statements. TV has the power of delivering visual effects, that is the best possible way to cease consumers attention; the shine in hair for the shampoos or pimple free skin for the facial creams or be it the fastest speed shown for the bikes and cars all have special effects to them. For instance Nike targets the youth as it audience and therefore they believe MSN is the ideal media to communicate the youth of today. 26% of the MSN users fall into the age group of 18-24 years. (MSN internal data, 2004) Endorsers: It’s a popular activity today that company owns the celebrities to endorse their product to automatically increase the sales of their product due to the huge fan following. For instance Katrina Kaif is the new Lux girl and also for Pantene. Christiano Ronaldo is the representative of the Clear for men. Shahrukh Khan is for Pepsi. These people have a brand image of their own and when they endorse a product they incorporate their brand image with the product. Thus the fans follow up what their ideals endorse. Novelty: The advertisement idea should be novel unique. For instance ford had an advertisement where a horse was crashed into a ford car with the tag line “now with 171 horse power.” Humor & music: Both of these create a mood. It was noted that if a slow paced music is played in a grocery shop people have a tendency to shop quick but if its slow people slowly shop and spends more time at the shopping. Similar for the restaurants, when popular bands play at restaurants they get full of their fans. There are different Medias that could be used to promote a product or service. (Janoschka, 2004) Online advertisements are very much in trend which allows the businesses to have direct interactions with consumers. There are different types of online advertisements: Floating Ad: where the picture or advertisement floats on the screen. Banner Ad: A graphical image or picture that is at the corner of a page about the product. Pop Up Ad: a new window that opens up as an alert to gain consumer’s attention Wallpaper Ad: an ad which appears when the background is changed. All these online methods are today adopted by most of the marketers as online is a channel which easily connects them to their target audiences. Radio: Another type is through radio. It is effective for small businesses as it is a cheap strategy. One can easily ask the radio stations to give the demographic profile of a certain show to the marketers to see what audience is available and thus it could easily communicate its listeners. Television: Television is also one of the most used and effective technique to reach the audience. It is the media through which almost all types of target audiences can be reached. Marketers select time for their advertisements when they expect their target audiences would be watching TV. For instance, the shaving cream or razors ads or cars advertisement often pop or float during a soccer or cricket match because the target audience for these products are men who likes to watch games. Sales promotion: Sales promotion is the technique used to stimulate the market demands, increase consumer’s demands and improve the product availability. The US market academic estimates those 20 years before the ration of sales promotion to advertisement would have been 60: 20. Sales promotion offers as a tie breaker in market for the best product. It includes techniques like price deals, coupons, cents off deal etc. (Roddy Mullin, 1998) These are tactics to create product differentiation. If a product offers a free coupon along sales are observed to increase rapidly because consumers prefer that product instead of getting only the product. Public Relation: Public relation is to maintain a public image in consumers’ minds of a product or brand. It communicates the organization to the public. By giving away details about the business revenue or its innovations to the press to present it to public to educate them about the company and its brands and products. (Bernays, 2004) Personal Selling: Personal selling is the face to face selling between sales person and consumers. The role of the sales person is to convince the consumers to buy the product. It is an efficient way to convey the product to the consumers, deal with their queries directly and immediately with no distractions or delay. It binds the consumers to the product or service one offers because of the live demonstration of the product. (Marks, 2005) CONCLUSION: Altogether summing up all the elements the concept of marketing mix is to enhance the product image and availability and satisfy the consumers. The basic purpose was to see how much effort is absorbed in to convey a product to consumers. There are number of variables that affect the consumer’s mind which are already discovered the art lies in how to persuade the consumers with satisfaction to buy the product despite those factors (Belohlavek, 1998). It is important to satisfy the consumers in every possible way. Marketing mix concept thrives to do so and satisfy the consumer and provide them their desired product or service where they want whenever they want at reasonable terms. It’s a recipe to a successful product or business altogether. Consumers of today are aware of every extra effort the brands invest in the product. All these strategies are designed by them to satisfy them in every possible way. Bibliography Antti Sääksvuori, A. I. (2008). Product Lifecycle Management . Germany: Springer. Belohlavek, P. (1998). Unicist Marketing Mix . Blue Eagle Group. Bernays, E. L. (2004). Public Relations. Kessinger Pub Co. Berndt, A. B. (2008). Relationship Marketing and Customer Relationship Management. 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