Developing the Marketing mix

Once the company has decided on its positioning strategy, it is ready to begin planning the details of the marketing mix. The marketing mix is one of the major concepts in modern marketing. We define the marketing mix as the set of controllable marketing variables that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market. The marketing mix consists of everything the firm can do to influence the demand for its product. The many possibilities can be collected into four groups of variables known as "the four P's": product, price, place, and promotion.

Product stands for the "goods-and-service" combination the company offers to the target market. Thus, a Ford Taurus "product" consists of nuts and bolts, spark plugs, pistons, headlights, and thousands of other parts. Ford offers several Taurus styles and dozens of optional features. The car comes fully serviced and with a comprehensive warranty that is as much a part of the product as the tailpipe.

Price stands for the amount of money customers have to pay to obtain the product. Ford calculates suggested retail prices that its dealers might charge for each Taurus. But Ford dealers rarely charge the full sticker price. Instead, they negotiate the price with each customer, offering discounts, trade-in allowances, and credit terms to adjust for the current competitive situation and to bring the price into line with the buyer's perceptions of the car's value.

Place stands for company activities that make the product available to target consumers. A product reaches customers through a channel of distribution. A channel of distribution is any series of firms (or individuals) from producer to final user or consumer.

Sometimes a channel system is quite short. It may run directly from a producer to a final user or consumer. Often it's more complex, involving many different kinds of middlemen and specialists. And if a marketing manager has several different target markets, several channels of distribution might be needed.

Ford maintains a large body of independently owned dealerships that sell the company's many different models. Ford selects its dealers carefully and supports them strongly. The dealers keep an inventory of Ford automobiles, demonstrate them to potential buyers, negotiate prices, close sales, and service cars after the sale.

Promotion stands for activities that communicate the merits of the product and persuade target customers to buy it.

Promotion includes personal selling, mass selling, and sales promotion. It's the marketing manager's job to blend these methods.

Personal selling involves direct communication between sellers and potential customers. Personal selling is usually face-to-face, but sometimes communication is over the telephone. Personal selling lets the salesperson adapt the firm's mar­keting mix to each potential customer. But this individual attention comes at a price. Personal selling can be very expensive. Often this personal effort has to be blended with mass selling and sales promotion.

Mass selling is communicating with large numbers of customers at the same time. The main form of mass selling is advertising (any paid form of nonpersonal presentation of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor). Publicity (any unpaid form of nonpersonal presentation of ideas, goods, or services) is another important form of mass selling.

Sales promotion refers to those promotion activities—other than advertising, publicity, and personal selling—that stimulate interest, trial, or purchase by final customers or others in the channel. This can involve use of coupons, point-of-purchase materials, samples, signs, catalogs, novelties, and circulars. Sales pro­motion specialists try to help the personal selling and mass selling people.

Ford spends more than $600 million each year on advertising to tell consumers about the company and its products. Dealership salespeople assist potential buyers and persuade them that Ford is the best car for them. Ford and its dealers offer special promotions—sales, cash rebates, low-financing rates—as added purchase incentives.

An effective marketing program blends all of the marketing mix elements into a coordinated program designed to achieve the company's marketing objectives by delivering value to consumers. The marketing mix constitutes the com­pany's tactical tool kit for establishing strong positioning in target markets. How­ever, note that the four Ps represent the sellers' view of the marketing tools available for influencing buyers. From a consumer viewpoint, each marketing tool is designed to deliver a customer benefit. One marketing expert suggests that companies should view the four Ps in terms of the customer's four Cs:

Thus, winning companies will be those that can meet customer needs economi­cally and conveniently and with effective communication.

Four Ps	Four Cs
Product Price Place Promotion	Customer needs and wants Cost to the customer Convenience Communication

All four Ps are needed in a marketing mix. In fact, they should all be tied together. But is any one more important than the others? Generally speaking, the answer is no—all contribute to one whole. When a marketing mix is being devel­oped, all (final) decisions about the Ps should be made at the same time. That's why the four Ps are arranged around the customer (C) in a circle—to show that they all are equally important.

Let's sum up our discussion of marketing mix planning thus far. We develop a Product to satisfy the target customers. We find a way to reach our target custom­ers' Place. We use Promotion to tell the target customers (and middlemen) about the product that has been designed for them. And we set a Price after estimating expected customer reaction to the total offering and the costs of getting it to them.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16