Text 3 The Marketing Mix

The major elements of a marketing strategy are the five Ps of marketing: product, place, pricing, promotion, and people. These five elements are self-reinforcing, and when coordinated, increase the sellability of a product or service.

Business managers must attempt to integrate these elements to maximize the impact of their product or service on the consumer. For example, if a business sells its product in retail outlets that cater to lower-income families, it should not advertise in a magazine read primarily by the rich, nor should it attempt to sell the product at a price substantially above competitors’ prices. However, if a company directs its product at a very rich market, it normally will price the product higher than competitors’ products to take advantage of the snob appeal of owning an expensive product.

All of the marketing elements must reinforce the image of the product or service the company presents to the potential customer. The product itself is an essential element in marketing. A product is any item or service that satisfies the need of a consumer. Products can have form and shape, or they can be services with no physical form.

An important part of marketing is creating new products. In many industries, survival depends on a constant process of product innovation. One marketing expert predicts that new products – those less than five years old – will generate 40 percent of companies’ sales in the coming years. In the toy industry, for example, manufacturers are constantly challenged to create new toys for children. Even companies producing relatively stable products must innovate. For instance, food companies have introduced a variety of new products recently.

Text 4 Promotion

Promotion aims to inform and persuade consumers. Promotion involves both advertising and personal selling. Advertising communicates to potential customers through some mass medium the benefits of a good or service. Personal selling involves the art of persuasive sales on a one-to-one basis.

Although advertising cannot create demand for a product, it certainly can awaken the demand for a good. Its purposes are to create a brand image, to persuade customers to buy, and to develop brand loyalty. Federal Express developed a series of ads that performed these functions quite well. Customers noticed the ads and identified with the situations they portrayed. Advertising can take many forms and is put before the public through a variety of media.

Remember the most widespread promotions.

1. Advertising – The Media includes: TV commercials and infomercials; Radio commercials; Magazine advertisements; Newspaper and tabloid stories.

2. Direct Mail covers: Brochures; Introductory letters; Catalogs; Free samples by mail.

3. Shows and Showrooms include: Trade shows and fairs; Stores/showrooms; Outdoor signs; Point-of-sale displays in stores.

4. The Internet promotes through webzines, cyberstores and banner ads.

A webzine is a magazine on the World Wide Web while a cyberstore is a store in cyberspace, meaning accessible by computer over phone lines to the Internet. Banner ads are advertisements on the Internet.

You can also meet such terms as radio-spots, a flyer or ad campaign.