Elements of a Marketing Process - Coursework Example

Introduction

In the past two decades, the level of competition in the local and international market has increased tremendously. This mainly results from the entry of multinational companies that have been able to diversify their operations to different markets across the world. This has enabled them to accumulate huge amounts of money that they use to create a barrier of entry for other interested investors. Therefore, in order for the local businesses to retain their competitive advantage in the market, they must develop a detailed marketing process to enable them segment the market, attract the loyalty of the products, and position their products strategically in the market.

Elements of a Marketing Process

Research

One of the main elements of a marketing process is research. In order for a company or a product to penetrate the market, an in-depth market research should be conducted. This is important in understanding the tastes and preferences of the target market. Furthermore, market research plays a critical role in enabling a business to understand the interests of the customers. As a result, the organization is able to develop products that are customized according to the needs of the customers. This is important in preventing the customers from being attracted to the competitors’ products. However, the traditional research methods have become very expensive. With organizations expanding their operations to different markets across the world, it is hard for the researchers to cover the whole market while conducting the research (Lal, Quelch, & Rangan, 2005). Nevertheless, the entry of social media has made it easier for the businesses to conduct their research while using little resources. Young people form the largest market segment. As a result, social media forms an ideal platform to understand the consumer behavior of this segment. Furthermore, the current purchasing trends are being influenced by bloggers. Therefore, social media can play a critical role in understanding the recent trends in the market and make the necessary changes within the organization in order to prevent the clients from being attracted by the substitutes in the market. This is important especially during this time when the market has become dynamic with new challenges arising each day. This is making it necessary for the business to keep on reviewing the new changes in the market in order to develop strategies that are meant to sustain the operations of the business in the market.

Market research has become a critical element towards the success of the business in new markets. The culture of local population has become an important aspect to consider when developing a marketing campaign. Therefore, research is important in identifying the values and beliefs of the local people which can affect their perceptions towards a product or service in the market. Furthermore, while expanding into new markets, the company must determine whether to import subordinates from its headquarters or to employ the local employees. The reason is that in some markets, customers want to be associated with a company that employs the local employees or participates in corporate social responsibility (Ranchhod, Gauzente, & Tinson, 2004). Therefore, conducting a research is important in determining the best market entry strategy for a business.

Market Research Definition

Marketing is an action within a business that aims at promoting and selling the products and services to the customers. The main aims of marketing are to inform the customers about the existence of a product or a service in the market, remind the existence clients about a product or service, or attract new customers. Marketing involves advertising and market research (Moderandi Inc, 2013).

According to Philip Kotler, marketing is a science and art that entails exploring, creating, and delivering value in order to meet the needs of the customers at a profit (Moderandi Inc, 2013). This is through identifying the unfulfilled needs and desires of the customers. Therefore, marketing defines, quantifies the size of the target market and pinpoints the specific segment that can be served more effectively by the company.

Developing a Marketing Strategy

Different markets require various marketing strategies. Therefore, a strategy must be specific to a certain segment. For instance, when targeting the young people, the strategy must ensure that the varying interests of this market are taken into consideration. Furthermore, the marketing campaign must target areas that are frequented by this generation. On the other hand, the strategy can use the media channels that are used by the young people. For instance, in the past one decade, the traditional media houses have increased the fees charged on advertising on their platforms in order to maximize their returns from the increasing demand for their services (Blythe & Zimmerman, 2005. This has resulted from the entry of multinational companies which have a strong financial base and can afford to advertise on these platforms. However, the social media has become an important platform especially for products that target the young people.

While developing a strategy, it’s important to consider the external factors that affect the competitiveness of the product or service in the market. For instance, it’s critical to analyze the political, social, legal, and technological factors that might affect the business in the market. Changes in the political environment might have drastic effects on the existence of the business in the market. On the other hand, changes in the technological sector can create an opportunity for new entrants in the market (Blythe & Zimmerman, 2005. Therefore, strategies must take into consideration this important aspect in order for the business to retain its position in the market.

Planning

Planning is significant in establishing the best marketing strategies to implement in order to market the products and services effectively. In some cases, companies have failed to establish themselves in the market due to poor planning. Planning should involve identifying the existing threats that might affect the competitive advantage of the business. Furthermore, the managers should come up with mechanisms of dealing with the challenges that the business is likely to face in the market. Furthermore, planning should entail the amounts to be spent in marketing the product in the market. This is important to ensure that the marketing budget does not affect the quality of products and services being delivered to the existing market (Blythe & Zimmerman, 2005. The reason is that losing loyal customers might have a major impact on the stability of the business.

Planning should involve sale forecasting, developing communication strategies, and the evaluation strategies. Marketing involves a specific timeline and clear goals. Therefore, during the planning process, the goals should be specified and strategies to achieve them well outlined. Furthermore, the channel to be used to communicate with various stakeholders should be outlined. This is important in avoiding any conflicts which might affect the overall process (Blythe & Zimmerman, 2005. Setting a timeline at this stage is also important in enabling the managers to delegate roles and responsibilities to the rest of the employees with the aim of enabling them to deal with major issues that might affect the whole marketing process.

Tactics

Development of tactics is an important element that determines the success of the marketing process. Various markets require varying tactics. For instance, when marketing a fashion products, its important to develop tactics that are flexible. The reason is that the industry keeps on changing. Furthermore, the employees involved in the marketing process must be enlightened on the need to look out for new trends which might affect the success of the process. Furthermore, the top-level managers must implement an open office policy (Singh & Diamond, 2012). This is to enable the stakeholders to report any grievances that might affect their working relationship.

The tactics should enable the business to attract the customers, beat competitors, increase the overall sales, and provide value for the customers. They should involve the specific products that the company is going to produce, the pricing strategies, delivery process, and promotion strategies. Furthermore, the tactics must clearly outline the roles of each department and employees to be involved. This is important in preventing any form of misunderstanding that might affect the whole process.

Stages of a Marketing Process

Mission

The first stage in a market process is to articulate the main reason why the business exist and ways in which it can benefit the target market over a long period of time. Developing a mission statement is important in ensuring that the organization remains focused towards the set goals and objectives. This is important in offering the management with an ideal parameter to measure whether the organization is heading to the intended direction (Singh & Diamond, 2012). As a result, it would be easy to introduce the necessary changes in order to prevent the firm from diverting from the main path.

Situation Analysis

The situation analysis is conducted in order for the managers to understand the resources they can build on and the challenges they are likely to face after implementing the marketing strategy.

Strengths

These are internal strengths that the company can build on in order to improve its position in the market. The managers should outline all strengths that are significant while developing the marketing process. Some of the major strengths include an experienced workforce and a strong financial base. In outlining these strengths, the company is able to identify the best strategies of maximizing the results through the use of these strengths. Therefore, in analyzing the strengths, it’s important to identify the advantages that business has over its competitors. Furthermore, the analysis should identify the organization’s unique selling proposition and the main areas that the organization can do better than anyone else (Singh & Diamond, 2012).

Weaknesses

These are areas that organization needs to improve. Identifying these areas is important in enabling the organization to work on the best strategies to improve its position in the market. Furthermore, it offers the manager with an opportunity to identify areas to avoid and factors to consider in order to avoid losing the sales.

Opportunities

These are gaps in the market that the company can take advantage of in order to improve its advantage in the market. For instance, Apple Inc has identified the opportunities for new markets in Asia. In order to improve its performance in the global market, the company has outlined the best entry strategy in order to segment the market and attract the loyalty of the customers towards its products and services. This explains the reason why the business has been able to retain its position in the market despite the increasing levels of competition emanating from other major players such as Google Inc, Samsung, and Microsoft.

Threats

These are main obstacles that are likely to affect the business strategies. For instance, competition is one of the main threats that is facing many companies in the market. Furthermore, the changing technologies are also major threats that might affect the existence of the business in the market. Therefore, analyzing the threats enables a business to develop more effective strategies to deal with these challenges.

Market Audit

Marketing audit is an important stage in identifying the purchasing pattern of the customers and factors that affect the consumption behavior of the target market. This is important in enabling the organization to make the necessary changes on its products or service delivery. Furthermore, a market audit can help in differentiating the company’s products and services with those of the competitors. Competitors keep on introducing new changes in order to get a competitive edge in the market. A detailed audit offers the managers with an opportunity to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the main competitors in the market. Therefore, the organization is able to capitalize on the weaknesses in order to minimize their strengths (Moderandi Inc, 2013). This aspect plays a significant role in improving the competitive strength of the business in the market.

Marketing audit entails analyzing the organizational strategies and offering the business with the necessary recommendations on the best ways to retain or improve its competitive strategy in the market. The audit covers the external environment of the business

Political Analysis

The analysis tries to understand how the administration intervenes in an economy. Some of the factors that are considered in this analysis include the taxation policies, labor and environmental laws, trade restrictions, and tariffs (Zarrella, 2010). Furthermore, it conducts an in-depth analysis on the political stability of the country. This is important in understanding the risks and uncertainties involved while investing in a particular country.

Economic Analysis

This analysis tries to understand the economic factors such as economic growth, exchange and inflation rates that might affect the interests of the business in the market. The reason is that such factors can affect the business’s cost of capital, thereby affecting its growth and expansion program.

Social Factors

These are social factors that affect the consumption behavior of the target market. Some of these aspects include the culture of the local population, population growth rate, family size, age of the market segment, health consciousness, etc. Failure to consider these aspects can affect the ability of the business to sustain its operations in the market.

Technological analysis

The analysis tries to identify the technological changes that can affect the business. For instance, the introduction of the new technologies can affect the production system. Therefore, this analysis tries to identify whether investing in these technologies can reduce the cost of production.

Legal Analysis

The analysis tries to understand different legal issues that can affect the existence of the business in the market. Some of the important laws that are considered in this analysis include the employment law, consumer law, health and safety law, etc. This is important in ensuring that the business comply with these laws to avoid any form of conflict with the government (Singh & Diamond, 2012).

Environmental Analysis

The analysis considers the ecological and environmental aspects that can affect the relationship between the business and the society. With the current awareness regarding global warming, many customers want to be associated with businesses that take the environmental issue more seriously. Therefore, the analysis enables the business to participate in corporate social responsibility, a move that is likely to improve its brand reputation in the market (Imber, Toffler, & B. 2000).

Segmentation Criteria

Segmenting the market is critical towards offering the customers with customized products or services. Segmentation can be done based on age, family income and size, gender, and geographical location. The criteria should be based on the interests of the customers.

Benefits and Costs of Marketing Activities

One of the main benefits of marketing activities is increased sales. Marketing activities attracts new customers towards the product or services (Blythe & Zimmerman, 2005). This plays a significant role in increasing the overall sales of the company.

Marketing activities increases the customer loyalty towards the products or services. This is because the company is able to understand the tastes and preferences of the target market thereby putting up the necessary measures to meet them.

Marketing activities increases the brand value. Through the promotion activities, the customers are able to become aware of the existence of the brand. This makes it easy for the business to penetrate into new markets. The reason is that the customers are aware of the quality of the products and services being offered by the business (Singh & Diamond, 2012).

Marketing activities increases customer relationship with the business. This is through the interaction between the two parties. Through the feedback given by the customers, the company is able to produce products that meet the needs of the customers (Doole, & Lowe, 2008).

Marketing activities are expensive. Therefore, they might affect the financial position of the business in the market. In addition, they might derail the expansion program by the business.

PART 2

The magazine will cover hot topics that attract the interests of young women in the society. . This will be critical in attracting the interests of all businesses that are targeting young women. Young women are very sensitive to topics regarding fashion and their health. Therefore, these will be the main topics to be covered in this magazine.

Marketing Mix

Promotion

The magazine will be promoted in both the traditional and modern media. For instance, it will be promoted in the audio, visual, print, and social media. However, more emphasis will be on the social media. The reason is that it is cheap and the strategy can reach a large number of young women in different parts of the world (Moore, & Pareek, 2006).

Place

The distribution of the magazine will be conducted by the internal and external distributors. The internal distributors will ensure that the magazine reaches the local market on time. However, the external distributors will ensure that the magazine reaches the target customers located overseas. The distributors will be companies that have specialized in logistics (Donnelly, Harrison, & Megicks, 2009). Nevertheless, a contract will be signed to ensure that they are not manipulated by the competitors in order to create an artificial delay.

Price

In order for the magazines to be affordable, the break-even pricing strategy will be used. A small profit margin will be added on top of the break-even price. The reason is that profits will mainly be accrued from advertisers.

Product

Initially, the magazine will specialize on young women. However, with time, new products will be developed. This will be important in reducing the risks and uncertainties associated with focusing on few products.

Marketing the Magazine

One of the main differences in marketing magazine products for businesses rather than consumers is that it involves direct selling such as the use of sales personnel. This is unlike while marketing to consumers whereby the business must use the traditional and modern marketing channels. Furthermore, marketing to consumers requires the understanding of the tastes and preferences of the market. However, while marketing to a business, the only important aspect is to understand the marketing goals and objectives of the firm.

International marketing requires the understanding of the unique cultural elements of the people. However, when marketing the products or services domestically, this aspect is not mainly important because local markets have a uniform culture. Furthermore, marketing in the international market requires the use of different strategies in order to reach the target market (Blythe & Zimmerman, 2005). For instance, many multinational companies are using social media together with other local channels in order to reach the customers. This enables these firms to manage the expectations of the customers more effectively.