About Expert


Key Topics
Question: Marketing mix.
In this present paper, we will discuss the interrelated activities of segmentation, targeting, and positioning which helps to achieve a successful marketing mix. We will also discuss the companies who are using these concepts and the companies who are not using these concepts.
Marketing mix is defined as the business tool which is used to market the products and services to the customers. The components of marketing mix include product, price place and promotion. The segmentation is used to divide the large target market into subsets which helps to identify the target audience and the positioning is used to position the image of product in the eyes of consumers so they are interrelated to each other.
The marketing mix is a marketing strategy to control the marketing tools. The components of marketing mix are explained below:
Product: The objective of the product is to satisfy the need of consumers. It includes the variety of products and services provided by the organization. It includes both tangible and intangible products. The products are diversified on the basis of product concept which includes actual, core and augmented products which helps to analyze the products to increase its efficiency by extracting the benefits of a product. The core includes essential benefits of the product. The actual include level of quality, branding, packaging and others. The augments products include intangible benefits such as after sales service, guarantee, warranty, on time delivery and others. The product life cycle helps to analyze the different challenge faced by the company at every stage.
Price: The objective of price policy is to cover large number of audience and increase in shareholders wealth. The price mix is used to decide the price of the product by considering the important factors such as profit margin, competitors pricing, pricing afford by the target audience, demand and supply of the product, perceived user value, number of suppliers and others. The pricing strategy includes price skimming, market penetration pricing and normal pricing (Helm et al., 2014).
Place: The objective of place mix is to provide the product and services to the large number of consumers with effective distribution channel. The channel strategy includes channel selection, distribution intensity and channel integration. The various channels are used to provide the product to the end users such as distributors, digital plazas, multi-brand retailors and dealers. The offline and online medium is to deliver the products. The selection of distribution channel considers various factors such as cost optimization, inventory management, risk, which helps to provide efficient and effective flow of distribution channel.
Promotion: The objective of promotion mix is to communicate the products and its benefits to the end users. The communication of product helps to create awareness and interest to but the product which helps to increase the sales volume. The communication helps to create a brand image in the eyes of consumers which impacts on the perceived user value. The increase in perceived user value helps in building the brand image which helps in sakes increment. The various methods are used to promote the product such as advertisement, discount and promotions, personal selling, public relations, promotional events, sponsorship and direct marketing (Koo et al., 2016).
The marketing mix is used as a marketing tool by various companies to enhance the desired sales volume by ensuring the smooth running in business activities (Kotler et al., 2015). Following are the example of the companies that are successfully using STP and Marketing Mix:
Apple Inc. used the marketing mix elements to ensure the smooth running of day-to-day activities. The product mix helps the company to analyze the expansion of product line by considering the factors such as exploitation of branding, positioning of the product, allocation of resources, configuration of product mix and others. The product development strategy is used by apple and the prices are generally high so the premium pricing strategy is used because the company has high perceived user value so it does not needs high investments on promotional activities. The distribution channel is also specific according to the target market audience. Apple is segmented market on the demographic factors and target the upper-middle class and position the product through product differentiation strategy.
Samsung used marketing mix for the decision taking of launching new mobile phone. The product decision includes the branding, styling of product, packaging, level of quality. The Samsung used product development strategy to enter with new product in the existing market. The decoy pricing strategy is used to increase the sales. The company used push strategy by various promotional activities such as advertisement, personal selling, discount, coupons, and percent-off deals to attract large number of consumers. The distribution channel is also very effective by using various channels such as digital plazas, distributors, retailers, multi-brand retailors who are supplied by clearing and forwarding agents. Samsung has segmented the market on the basis of demographic factors and selected target middle-class audience then position the product through cost leadership strategy.
Following is the example of company who is not using marketing mix:
The Nestle is a global leader in food manufacturing industry. Despite of getting higher profits the brand is underperforming because the company is not focusing on the branding and promotional activities so the company needs rebranding to increase the performance of brand. The company is unable to inter-relate STP due to which it is not successful in the implementation of marketing mix.
Marketing mix acts as a marketing tool which helps the company to select right product, at right price, at right place with the suitable promotional activities. It helps to take the decision for introducing the new product in the existing product line. The product development strategy is used develop the new product in the existing market. The pricing strategy includes skimming, penetration, and others. The place mix is used to select the suitable distribution channel from various channels such as digital plazas, distributors and others. The promotional mix is used to select the promotional activities from various methods such as advertising, discounts, sponsorship and others
Helm, R. and Gritsch, S., 2014. Examining the influence of uncertainty on marketing mix strategy elements in emerging business to business export-markets. International Business Review, 23(2), pp.418-428.
Koo, K.R., Kim, S.J. and Kim, K.H., 2016. The effects of internal marketing capability on export marketing strategy, B2B marketing mix and export performance. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 26(1), pp.51-65.
Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L. and Armstrong, G., 2015. Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.