Concept & Process of Marketing - Cornflower Blue Company - Case Study Example

Business Marketing Name Course Institution Date Introduction Cornflower Blue Company operates a small number of outlets. The nature of the products that are traded are basically consumables. From the information provided, the company has a lot of potential to expand and be fully established. To achieve this, there is need to put in place the appropriate marketing strategies. This will enable the company to capitalize on the gaps that could be in the market in order to trade profitably. This document analyzes the various strategies that can be used by the company in order to achieve its strategic plans. Task One: Concept & Process of Marketing The marketing concept is simply a unique approach adopted by a business entity to sell their products. It involves identifying and satisfying customers’ needs in a unique way. This approach lays emphasis on customer needs. Cornflower Blue must first of all investigate what the customer needs before designing the specific product to meet that need. After understanding the needs of the consumer, Cornflower Blue ought to direct its objectives towards the needs of the customers (Kotler 2001, p. 138). In essence, this implies that the needs of consumers turn out to be the focus of the Cornflower Blue. This is based on the information regarding the value addition aspect brought about by customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers are an asset to the business and this makes it the major focus for the business. The gain of customer satisfaction is the profit aspect of the marketing process. Cornflower Blue has greatly benefited from customer satisfaction as most of the products of the company are marketed by word of mouth by customers. Cornflower Blue therefore ought to satisfy the needs of consumers optimally at a profit. A marketing-oriented business is focused on the process of identifying and meeting the needs of consumers. In doing that, there are so many activities that are involved in the process. Considering the various products being marketed by Cornflower Blue, the company is likely to use diverse approaches. One of the activities is research and development (Day 2011, p. 189). This activity is used as a tool of gathering information about consumers in the market. Cornflower Blue will use such information to assess the needs and forge on the best product to be designed. Another activity is advertising. This is responsible for stimulating the demand for the product. Therefore, advertising is an activity that facilitates the process of selling the product. Benefits of a Marketing Approach The marketing-oriented firms have a lot of activities to undertake. While the profitability of the Cornflower Blue can be attained, it may cost the company a lot. A marketing approach is in a position to effectively respond to the needs of the consumers. Based on understanding of the needs of consumers, Cornflower Blue is in position to have a continuous market for its supplies. Another benefit to marketing is creation of customer value (Kotler 1999, p. 220). The fact that Cornflower Blue focuses on the needs of consumers, it is in a position to increase the level of consumer loyalty. The approach enables the marketer to put into place activities that will encourage repeat purchase from consumers. In so doing, Cornflower Blue will establish long term relationship with customers. In terms of costs, it is quite expensive to put in place processes that support marketing-oriented approach. Literally, it is very costly to seek information that fully describes the consumer profiles. For instance, activities like research and development are very expensive (Zeitham, Bitner & Gremler 2011, p. 119). It will cost this company a great fortune to have the required information regarding a certain market segment. In addition, advertising and many other promotional activities are very expensive in nature. The company must set aside adequate financial resources to undertake a successful advertising campaign. In addition, being determined to meet all consumer demands can be too expensive for the business. Activities like warranties and discounts can cost the business a lot to a point where profit margin is extremely consumed. Task Two: Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning A Marketing, just like any other activity, is affected by the environment. This includes both the micro and macro factors. Micro environmental factors affect the business in diverse ways, but the distinctive feature is that they have a direct impact on the business. Such factors include the customers, employees, suppliers, competitors, etc. On the other hand, the macro environmental factors do not affect the marketing strategy of the business directly. These factors include demographic, economic performance, political, technological, natural, cultural factors, etc. B Canflower Blue has a number of outlets that are used to market its products to its consumers. Based on the information about the consumer profiles, market segments can be designed in order to effectively appeal to the needs of consumers. In so doing, various segmentation bases can be used to achieve this particular objective. In the case of Canflower Blue, one of the bases that can be used to segment the company’s products is demographic (Kotler 2001, p. 156). In this case, there are a number of features to be used. For instance, sex can be used to segment the market for the beauty products. Another base that can be used to segment Canflower Blue products is psychographic. For instance, social class can be used to segment the products like honey and tea. C When marketing a product like tea, the first step will be choosing the most appealing market segment. The nature of the product makes it possible to be marketed to a large market. Based on the nature of this product, it will be more productive to adopt the mass marketing strategy. This is also referred to as undifferentiated strategy. Tea as product is used to meet a specific need across various consumers. All consumers interested in buying tea aim at meeting that specific need. Therefore, the product can be designed with a focus of targeting as many people as possible without singling out specific consumers. With that approach in mind, Canflower Blue is in position to produce on large scale taking advantage of low cost of production as a result of enjoying economies of scale. D Effective marketing activities must always begin with understanding consumer behavior. The consumer behavior acts as a roadmap towards designing of products to be offered in the market. The understanding of consumer behavior ensures that the products that are designed meet the available demand. Therefore, there are many ways through which marketing activities are affected by information about consumer behavior. For instance, in the situation where the marketer learns that the target consumer does not like reading magazines, then it is proper to avoid using magazines as a medium of communication (Baines, Fill & Page 2010, p. 131). Another example is in relation to research and development. For instance, if a marketer realizes that the target customers are peasant farmers who cannot easily access the internet, then he should avoid using internet/online questionnaires. E There are a number of reasons that can cause a company to reposition its products.The re-launch stimulates the desire to test the product.Repositioning may involve making changes to the four marketing mix elements; which includes price, place, promotion and product. Repositioning may be caused by the failure of the product to attain the targeted levels of performance. In this case, the company may opt for a heavy re-launch in order to stimulate the purchase of products like tea. The main reason is to enhance the profitability of a product through employing new marketing activities. Task Three: Extended Marketing Mix A In discussing the product element of the marketing mix, a focus will be directed at two aspects: the nature of the product and the nature of the market. The market in which Canflower Blue belongs is quite competitive. The high competition denotes the fact that some players in the market are in a position to access information that is crucial to the products being marketed. In order for Canflower Blue to remain competitive, the issue of product differentiation cannot be ignored. Innovation and creativity ought to the pillar of this company in order to continuously generate new ideas required for differentiating existing products. B The effectiveness of a distribution policy is evaluated on the basis of the ease of accessing the products by the consumers. The products ought to be transported to the nearest retail outlets where the potential customers can easily access their desired products. For Canflower Blue, this is very critical because it has very few outlets. The company ought to design policies, based on the market segments to distribute the products to the customers wherever they are. Such policies can be designed to allow easy direction and access by the customers. C Marketing segmentation is one of the considerations that must be used to set prices for commodities. In real sense, every market segment has defining features that probably sets it apart from other market segments. Such features include the income levels of the consumers and many others. Based on that, one is able to determine the elasticity of demand as it relates to the level of income. From such features, it is appropriate to set prices that are suitable to each segment. Therefore, in setting price, the company ought to be considerate of the nature of the products as well as the profile of the consumers in the various segments. D There are so many promotional activities that can be adopted by Canflower Blue. These activities work together to ensure that the business objectives are attained. There are many illustrations that can be cited in relation to this company in the process of showing how the various promotional activities can be used to achieve the overall goals of the company. In this case, the promotional activities that are suitable include advertisements, sales promotions, loyalty programs, etc. (Baines, Fill & Page 2010, p. 141). These activities stimulate demand for various products of the company. The increase in demand will lead to increase in the level of profitability of the company. This will definitely meet the overall objectives of the company which include increase in market share, increase in sales revenue, etc. E For this company to sustainably make it in the future, it is important to lay down marketing activities that focus on the future prospects. One of the important activities is the issue of social responsibility. The company needs to identify platforms that can be used to offer social responsibility to the customers and the community at large. Such activities will strengthen the brand name of the organization that is ideally considered an asset to the organization. Task Four: Presentation A The marketing mix that is adopted in a certain segment may not be applicable in another segment. Every segment exhibits unique features upon which the company must capitalize. This implies that the marketing mix is expected to be chosen based on the specifications of the segment. This indicates that the choice of the marketing mix ought to be based on the information gathered through research. B When marketing a product or service, the size of the market is very important. The purchase quantity has an impact on the marketing approach to be adopted. For instance, when a product is being sold to corporate consumers is quite different when it is being sold to individual consumers. When selling to organization, the issue of bulk purchase will be very critical. Therefore, marketing strategies will have to be designed to facilitate bulk selling. In that respect, the issue of distribution will have to be specifically considered. While individual consumers can buy their products from any retail outlet for Canflower Blue, organizations ought to have direct purchases from the company. In addition, the issue of cash and related discounts must be considered. C Canflower Blue, just like any other company can launch into the international marketing. The international market environment may be completely different from the domestic market. The international market is likely to present new challenges to Canflower Blue Company because the environment is different. The company must understand the various aspects of the market in order to design an effective marketing strategy for the preferred products (Baines, Fill & Page 2010, p. 154). Such factors include technology, political, cultural, economic, etc. These factors work together to influence the success of marketing strategies in the international market. Based on this information, the company must re-evaluate the success of the various marketing strategies and their application to the international market. The marketing activities that must be employed by Canflower Blue Company in the international market must be in alignment with the nature of the market. The promotional activities ought to be in line with culture and value systems of the consumers. This is very critical because the consumption trend of consumers is affected by the value systems as well as beliefs. Therefore, the company ought to design marketing activities that specifically fits into the value system of the target consumers in the international market. This is one of the adjustments that must be undertaken upon the current marketing strategy. Conclusion The approach that has been used in setting the various marketing strategies is information. The market information has been used as the basis of determining the most suitable marketing approach. Market segmentation, targeting and positioning is one of the elements of marketing that shows that market research indeed is very essential. Every market has its own challenges and therefore Cornflower Blue must understand these features before setting in the appropriate strategies. References Baines, P., Fill, C. & Page, K 2010, Marketing, OUP Oxford, Oxford, pp. 127-187. Kotler, P 1999, Kotler on Marketing: How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets, Free Press, London, pp. 137-187. Kotler, P 2001, Kotler on Marketing, Free Press, London, pp. 121-180 Zeithaml, VA, Bitner, MJ & Gremler, DD 2011, Services marketing, McGraw-Hill Irwin, p. 95-126. Day, GS 2011, 'Closing the Marketing Capabilities Gap', Journal of Marketing, vol. 75, no. 4, pp. 183–195. Fletcher, R & Crawford, H 2011, International marketing: an Asia-Pacific perspective, 5th edn, Pearson education Australia, French Forest, NSW, pp. 56-79. Read More