Comparison Of Marketing Mix Elements For RSPCA And WWF Campaigns

Analysis: Product

Discuss about the Social Marketing for Globalization.

In this era of globalization, marketing is considered as an important organizational function. There was a time when marketing was considered as a secondary function or a support function. However, there has been a change in the approach of organizations towards the marketing function. Today, organizations and marketers have realized that marketing is the core organizational function. The success or the failure of any marketing plan or marketing campaign would depend a lot on the way organization has defined the marketing mix of the underlying product or service (Melanthiou, 2016). The four key elements of the marketing mix and product, price, place and promotion. The objective of this paper is to discuss, analyse and compare two marketing campaigns across different elements of marketing mix. The two campaigns can be highlighted as:

Campaign 1: RSPCA Adopt a pet campaign reviewed at https://www.rspca.org.au/adopt-pet

Campaign 2: WWF Adopt an animal reviewed at https://donate.wwf.org.au/campaigns/donate/

There was a time when marketing was considered as an overhead function and the marketing was mainly used by the business corporates. However, with the evolution of Internet and the expansion of social networks, marketing has emerged as a core function for social organizations also. There are organizations that fight for the social cause and would use the marketing function to reach out to consumers (Drumwright & Murphy, 2001). The comparison of the four elements of marketing mix for RSPCA and WWF can be discussed under following headings:

It would be correct to say that product is one of the most basic yet most important element of the marketing mix. The RSPCA is an independent, non-government community-based charity providing animal care and protection services. The company launched ‘adopt a pet’ campaign to help the people to adopt the right kind of pet. The company has a presence in different parts of Australia. The underlying product of RSPCA is the service that it provides to its target market that want to adopt a pet (Gopaldas, 2015). The underlying service enables consumers to find he suitable per (dog or cat) in their respective areas.

World Wildlife Fund or WWF is a unique partnership of scientists, business and government leaders, with the support and guidance of HRH Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. The organization also enables the consumers to adopt the pets. However, in addition to that, the marketing campaign of WWF also talks about the monetary donations that could be made towards WWF. The underlying product of WWF is the service that it has launched in the month of December. The organization has launched a special campaign where it has made a Christmas appeal to consumers. The consumers are asked to spread happiness among the animals at the time of Christmas by making donations or by adopting the animals.

Analysis: Price

Typically, every product has core, expected and augmented benefit. The comparison between the core, expected and augmented product for RSPCA and WWF can be discussed as:

Product	RSPCA	WWF
Core (The core product is the underlying benefit from the product)	The feel and the love or the satisfaction by having a pet	The feel and the love or the satisfaction by adopting a pet or by making donation
Actual (The actual product is the product in itself; it includes various tangible aspects of product)	The actual product would include the pet, the type of pet, the breed, colour, etc.	The actual product would include the pet, the type of pet, the breed, colour, etc.
Augmented (The augmented product would include services, warrantees, customer care, delivery, etc.)	The augmented product in this case is the after sales services and customer staff of RSPCA	The augmented product in this case is the after sales services and customer staff of WWF

Both the institutions (RSPCA and WWF) are non-profit organizations that are willing to accept the funds from different classes of donors. The adoption of Dog at RSPCA starts without any big investment. RSPCA also handles the insurance of pets and it encourages its consumers to buy pet insurance also. There is no minimum or maximum adoption cost for dogs or cats. The pricing of the insurance plans also depends on various factors like breed, age etc. The website of RSPCA does not provide any clear picture of its pricing options. However, it appears that the people would have two types of cost. The first one would be the initial cost to adopt a per and the second one would be the recurring cost in the form of pet insurance (Claiborne & Sirgy, 2015).

WWF has a single pricing agenda to get maximum donations from consumers. The company has not listed any pricing of the adoption. On the other hand, the organization asks people to donate so that they can save the lives of wild animals. The organization accepts the donation in any amount. People have the option to donate with $100 or higher and at the same time, people can also donate as less as $10. The organization also has a recurring pricing structure wherein the company wants to put its customers or donors across the monthly donation plan. At the time of registration, the organization would ask the customers if they would want to donate on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis.

In the marketing mix, the process of moving products from the producer to the intended user is called place. In other words, it is how your product is bought and where it is bought. This movement could be through a combination of intermediaries such as distributors, wholesalers and retailers. In addition, a newer method is the Internet which itself is a marketplace now. The place or the distribution channel for both the organizations includes a physical touch point. The consumers of RSPCA can create an online request to adopt a pet. However, it is expected that the requester would visit the site to collect the pet.

The website of WWF also has the option to make online request. The consumers can make an online request to adopt the pet or to make the donation. However, WWF also encourages the physical meeting with the consumers (Laczniak & Murphy, 2012). The company has various places that act as the store of WWF. The people can simply visit the WWF stores to get information about the various products and services available.

Analysis: Place/Distribution

The promotion is an important element of the marketing mix. There was a time when promotion was considered as an overhead. However, with time organizations realized the importance of promotional element of marketing mix. It would be correct to say that all the strategies of other three marketing elements can go bad if the organizations or marketers ignore the promotional element. Both the companies depend heavily on social media marketing. The management of these companies have realized that the social media networks are the most effective way to reach out to consumers.

The promotional elements of RSPCA depend a lot on digital channels. The company has a strong presence on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. It is expected that the investment on digital and social media channels like Facebook and Twitter would increase for RSPCA (Biswas & Roy, 2015).

WWF uses both offline and online promotional tools. The company also has a good presence on online social media channels like Facebook and Twitter (Shanbhag & Nayak, 2015). At the same time, the company conducts a number of offline events where people can come and understand the basic philosophy and vision of WWF.

The target market for both the organizations are the people that like animals and the people that care about animals. Bothe RSPCA and WWF target the people from different backgrounds. The main target market would include the male and female population in the age group of 18 to 50 years. Generally, the organizations would look to target the upper middle class and higher-class consumers so that they can get a good amount of donation. However, the organizations love to associate with as many people as they can. It helps the organizations to increase the awareness among the masses.

Conclusion

The above paper discusses the marketing outlook and marketing campaign of RSPCA an WWF. With the above discussion, it can be said that both the organizations have realized the importance of marketing function. It is expected that these organizations would continue to use marketing as a core business function. The above paper also discusses all the four elements of marketing mix for both the organizations. With the above discussion, it can be said that both the elements focus on all the elements of marketing mix. The promotional element is one such element where the companies should increase their focus. It is recommended that both the companies should focus more on social media marketing tools like FB events, Twitter promotions etc. The focus on social media channels would enable these companies to have a better and effective communication with consumers. It is important that the society should also understand the societal marketing approach that these companies have taken.

References

Biswas, A., & Roy, M. (2015). Green products: an exploratory study on the consumer behaviour in emerging economies of the East. Journal of Cleaner Production, 87, 463-468.

Claiborne, C. B., & Sirgy, M. J. (2015). Self-image congruence as a model of consumer attitude formation and behavior: A conceptual review and guide for future research. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 1-7). Springer International Publishing.

Drumwright, M. E., & Murphy, P. E. (2001). Corporate societal marketing. Handbook of marketing and society, 162-183.

Gopaldas, A. (2015). Creating firm, customer, and societal value: Toward a theory of positive marketing. Journal of Business Research, 68(12), 2446-2451.

Laczniak, G. R., & Murphy, P. E. (2012). Stakeholder theory and marketing: Moving from a firm-centric to a societal perspective. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 31(2), 284-292.

 Melanthiou, Y. (2016). Messages Not Getting Through: Societal Marketing to the Rescue. Journal of Promotion Management, 22(2), 195-196.

Shanbhag, P., & Nayak, S. (2015). Societal Marketing–The Shift: Indirect to a direct marketing approach. International Journal of Advanced Research, 3(9), 524-527.