Ranjan Saheed CHARTERED MARKETER B.A. (Hons) (SJ), Dip. M. (SL), PGDM (UK), CIM (UK), MCIM, SLIM (Senior Management Consultant and Lecturer) |
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When you begin to explore a new field of study, the concepts and activities associated with that field are often unfamiliar. Most of us, for example are exposed daily to numerous advertisements through many types of media. We have had salespersons at our doorsteps and have often dealt with them in stores. Some of us have been questioned by market researchers about products that we purchase or television programs that we watch. Yet though some marketing activities are familiar, many are not. In addition, familiarity with some marketing activities is no substitute for a thorough knowledge and understanding of these activities.
Marketing involves ascertaining the generic needs, developing and offering a product or service to fulfill those needs and devising strategies to support the product or service being offered.
However we need to view marketing to be broader in scope. Marketing is an individual and organizational activity aimed at facilitating and expediting exchanges within a set of dynamic environmental forces. To gain a more complete understanding of marketing, let's analyze each component in more detail.
Marketing mix - The four P's
The marketing mix consists of four major components: product, price, placement and promotion. These components are called marketing variables because a marketing manager can vary the type and amounts of these components. One primary goal of a marketing manager is to create and maintain a marketing mix that satisfies consumer needs for that type of product. Marketing mix variables are often viewed as controllable variables because they can be changed. But even though they can be altered, there are limits to how much can be done. For example, a manager may not be free to adjust prices from one day to the next because of economic conditions or government regulations. Changes in size, colors, shapes and design of the most tangible goods are expensive and therefore cannot be altered very often. In addition, promotional campaigns and the methods used to distribute products ordinarily cannot be changed overnight. Let's take a look at each variable:
Products Variable
A product can be good, a service, or an idea. The actual physical production is not a marketing activity. But researching consumers products wants, planning the product with development and production personal to give the product the desired characteristic, developing the package and creating a brand name are a few activities and decisions areas upon which marketers focus in order to facilitate changes. Product decisions and related activities are important because they are directly related to the satisfaction of the need of the customer.
Price variable
Consumers are interested in the price of products because they are concerned about the value obtained in the exchange. Dealing with the price variable is concerned with establishing pricing policies and determining product prices. It is often used to gain competitive advantage. A lot of times this leads to price wars. Price also is used to help establish a products image because consumers associate a products quality and price with its image.
Placement Variable
To safety consumers, products must be available at the right in the convenient and accessible location. This variable attempts to make products available, in the quantity desired and to as many customers as possible and to hold the total inventory, transportation and storage costs as low as possible. To serve its customers adequately, organizations have had to shift one from the distribution to one or several other types.recantly, Pepsi has set up direct home distribution systems, wherein earlier the used to operate in the traditional grocery / retail type of outlet in India.
Promotion Variable
The promotion variable is used to facilitate exchanges by informing one or more grouped of people about an organization and its products. Promotion is used for a variety of reasons- to boots the image of the organization, to make consumers aware of a new product, to educate consumers about product benefits, or even to urge people to adopt a particular position on a topical or social issue. This includes personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, and publicity and packaging. Packaging can be part of the promotion variables as well as part of the products variable. The marketing environment variables include political forces, legal and regulatory forces, societal forces, consumer movement forces and economic and technological forces.
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