Questions:
1. Discuss why you should study marketing?
2. Using practical examples, discuss the key challenges facing companies in the twenty-first century. What actions might marketers take to ensure they continue to survive and thrive in the new connected world of marketing?
3. Are the marketing skills that drove huge growth of low cost airlines the same as those needed to address the environmental challenge they currently face?
4. Visit a shopping centre. Choose a category of shop. List the competing shops in each category, walk past them and quickly observe their merchandise and style. Note how the shops are decorated and how well they are located. Note what other shops are close to them and how close they are to their competitors.
(a) Are the competing shops unique, or could one pretty much substitute for another? What does this say about the overall goals that the shopping centre if fulfilling?
(b) Consider the attitudes of the shoppers you saw. Did some apparently find shopping a pleasure, while others found it a bother?
A major goal for marketing is to maximise consumer satisfaction. Discuss the extent to which the shopping centre serves this goal.
5. A very common question small business people have about the pricing strategy section of the marketing plan is: How do you know what price to charge? What would your advice be to them?
(1) Studying the idea of marketing undoubtedly helps in knowing the way by which a particular firm promotes itself and its products and services in the business scenario. Marketing indeed includes both, the effective understanding of the theoretical underpinnings and the conceptual models, and the practical application of it in the current business circumstances. In fact, it is with the help of marketing that an organisation is able to build its brand identity and develop a brand image and name. Indeed, PESTLE analysis helps in getting an idea of the entire external business environment or industry in which the similar organisations tend to operate, where as marketing tools like SWOT analysis contributes in making an internal analysis of a particular organisation, based on the strengths and weaknesses and the extent to which they build up chances or provide obstacles for development (Te’eni-Harari et al. 2009). Positioning Map and perceptual mapping also helps the learners to identify the position of a company in the market in comparison to other similar existing firms.
Moving on, one needs to study marketing since it helps in judging the competitive environment of a business with the help of Porter’s 5 Forces. Marketing also includes making of an extensive market research if required by conducting mixed research methods, i.e. primary and secondary methods, thereby making a proper sampling and either distributing set of questionnaire or interviewing the concerned sample sizes. It is to be noted that marketing also helps in making the learners realize that the business needs to be customer-oriented, thereby making sure that an appropriate customer-brand relationship is maintained by concentrating on consumer buying behaviour and their interests, demands, preferences and requirements (White, 2010). Marketing tools like the 7Ps of marketing mix helps the learners to obtain knowledge regarding the different aspects that an organisation needs to concentrate on while promoting a product or service such as the presentation of the product, price, promotions, places of display, people involved with the organisation, processes engaged and the physical environment of the stores. in context
In addition, it is to be noted that marketing helps an organisation to endorse its products, thereby excelling in the national markets as well as providing an opportunity to develop penetrate into the new foreign markets. Marketing techniques and tools such as BCG Matrix and Ansoff’s Matrix contribute in better understanding the products lines on which a company needs to invest and the strategy by which it can enter into a new overseas market, respectively.
Furthermore, marketing helps in understanding the recent developments that takes place, especially the introduction of internet marketing in order to bag in more customers. Importance of advertising with the help of Hierarchy of Effects Model, AIDA Model and DAGMAR Model is understood. Moreover, as Pride and Ferrell (2008) points out, marketing certainly contributes not only in understanding the market in which an organisation endeavours to conduct its business but also helps in formulating business objectives, which are SMART in nature so that it is able to compete with the rival companies and attain a competitive advantage in the present business scenario.
In the present era of globalisation, a number of issues come up, which pose a threat to different organisations. One of the most significant challenges that most of the organisations tend to face nowadays is competition from the other existing companies in the same industry, be it at the local, global or international level. It is due to the free trade regulation; companies do acquire the permission to operate not only in their own countries but also abroad (Mattas and Baourakis, 2009). For instance, Tesco in UK undoubtedly faces challenges not only from other UK supermarkets like Morrisons and Sainsbury but also from ASDA, which is actually a part of an American retail organisation, Waitrose. Nonetheless, such competition is also faced by the UK fast food and beverage industry where organisations like Miss Millie’s Fried Chicken and Chicken Cottage do face threats from American based fast food firms like Mc Donalds and KFC. This is because of the fact certain firms are able to apply the appropriate market penetration strategies, thereby understanding the preferences and demands of the foreign customers and reaching out to them with the unique products and services. Managing business across borders also stands out as a key problem because the management needs to take care of the business operations, which are conducted at different nations with the help of mergers and acquisitions. This needs to be resolved by making sure that there are sub-management teams in different organisations, thereby having employees from those particular nations.
Appropriate pricing also stands out as a key challenge that most of the organisations face in this era of globalisation (Hult, 2002). Since there are too many companies presently at the business scenario, therefore each one of them attempts to bag in more customers, with the help of suitable pricing. For instance, the giant retail stores, namely Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury and Morrisons do face threats from highly discount-offering firms like Aldi and Lidl. Moreover, airlines companies like British Airways and Thomas Airways faces threats from Easy Jet and Ryanair Airlines. Thus, the marketers need to take care of the fact the pricing of products is done by keeping in mind the different economic segments of the population
Staying connected with the customers has become a necessity nowadays, thereby keeping a track of the choices of the customers as well being in connection with them (Svensson, 2007). However, firms like Apple hardly use social media for promoting its products or connecting with its customers. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook needs to be used to stay in touch with the customers. Development of information technology and security issues is also required in the technology advanced century to compete with the other companies as well as handle the internet security issues. Hence, the markets need to be cautious of the new entrants in the markets as well as continuously upgrade its technology.
The low cost airlines in the UK certainly has gained huge amount of popularity in present business scenario, thereby offering flight services at reasonable rates. In fact, organisations like Ryanair Airlines undertake the no-frills strategy thereby to make sure that too many investments on extravagant services are not made. Moreover, low-cost airlines also do not make high investments on marketing the products. Nonetheless, it is to be noted that limited amount of financial investments that low cost airlines tend to make on marketing the services, ultimately lags behind the marketing skills in order to resolve the environmental challenges. Since the low cost airlines has narrow profit margins from the selling of their services, therefore they are hardly able to invest on mitigation of environmental issues that are caused due to the noise pollution and air pollution of the low cost airline services. Moreover, such airlines are also unable to promote themselves much in front of their customers on grounds of being eco-friendly. It is to be noted that similar marketing strategies that such low cost airline services tend to apply cannot be used for meeting the environmental challenges. In fact according to reports, low cost flight services such as Easy Jet, Monarch Airlines and Ryanair Airlines have been accused of its inappropriate handling of carbon emissions. The climate change minister alleges the low cost airlines to be the irresponsible and unacceptable faces of capitalism. However, as the management of most of the low cost airlines opine, they do undertake several fuel saving measures such as using the latest technology for less consumption of fuel and lesser carbon emissions. In fact they also attempt to handle the environmental challenges, thereby increasing more number of passengers in each flight so that it makes an economical usage of fuel (News.bbc.co.uk, 2015).
Low cost airlines undoubtedly have changed the thinking styles and perceptions about people regarding the flight travelling and investments made on flights. It is to be noted that the prevention on making investments on unnecessary domains and making full use of the existing assets certainly save money to promote the organisations. Nonetheless, low cost airlines make the utmost usage of internet marketing as well as booking of tickets because of the fact that hardly any financial investments are required in it (Wood, 2012). The customers can easily have access to the official websites of the organisations as well as trace the organisations via the social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked In. This in turn certainly assists to know about the eservices offered as well as the reactions and the perceptions of the existing customers, after having experienced the services. Thus, it is evident enough that customers themselves act as the promoters of the organisations, thereby saving the financial expenses.
Indeed, they also use internet marketing for promoting that they stand out as eco-friendly organisations. However, as Alrawi (2007) points out in his article, organisations need to involve themselves not into online promotions but also undertake offline endeavouring such as conducting promotional campaigns in order to promote the airlines organisations as eco-friendly firms. This in turn not only assures the customers that the organisations do care of their health and the environment but also helps to develop a psychological contract and brand-customer relationship.
On a visit to a shopping mall in London, the learner goes to the third floor, which mainly consists of the food and beverage stalls. The learner recognises that there are a number of competing shops belonging to this particular category of which KFC and McDonalds stands eminent along with Chicken Cottage and Miss Millie’s Fried Chicken. It is found that the local fast food restaurants have designed the stores by putting up their menu charts and certain catch up lines. On the contrary, the US originated but presently UK based fast food restaurants like McDonalds and KFC simply uses their logo, which serve sufficient enough.
a) It is to be noted that even though there are crowds in front of Miss Millie’s Fried Chicken and Chicken Cottage, however, there is no such uniqueness about the stores, which make them different in contrast to McDonalds or KFC. It is to be noted that brand name of KFC and McDonalds have certainly manipulated the customers largely in comparison to the local fast food companies. Brand reputation or name, as Constantinides (2006) indicates tends to provide a psychological support to the customers, thereby assuring them that the organisation maintains considerably ethical and appropriate business, thereby satisfying the needs and meeting the demands of the customers. Thus, it can also be stated that the shopping centre’s overall goal of not letting any of the customers leave the mall without purchasing any food is fulfilled. The shopping centre certainly offers the customers with a wide range of fast food restaurants with several food items at different price range. This in turn not only satisfies the different tastes of the customers but also takes care of their pockets (Gronroos, 2006).
b) The services that KFC and McDonalds offer are much faster in comparison to Chicken Cottage because of which some of the customers at Chicken Cottage are found to be disappointed enough. Moreover, it is also found that Chicken Cottage and Miss Millie’s Fried Chicken are unable to provide a wide range of products, thereby offering only a few selected chicken items, whereas KFC offers a huge range of chicken based products. Similarly McDonalds offers chicken oriented as well as food items for vegetarians. Hence, this tends to dissatisfy the customers with varied tastes. Product variety turns out as an important aspect of not only the marketing mix but also a significant strategy in entering into a new market (Dominici, 2009). While KFC and McDonalds take care of it, the local restaurants are unable to maintain extensive product range. Thus, it is evident enough that the shopping centre as a whole does satisfy the needs and preferences of the customers, thereby having stores of several fast food restaurants.
Nonetheless, it is important to note that the local restaurants in particular are not successful enough in contenting the customers because of the limited product variety and lengthy transaction procedures. It stands out as necessary to adhere to meet the expectations and needs of the customers in context to the changing lifestyles and preferences.
Certainly appropriate pricing stands out as a crucial aspect in promoting the product to the customers, thereby influencing them to purchase it. It is to be noted that every organisation requires fixing the prices of the products and services, thereby keeping in mind to be able to not only get back the financial resources invested but even gain wide profit margins. The prices of the products needs to be such that it helps the organisations to earn back the investments, pay off the employees and the suppliers, keep profits for themselves and ultimately help to receive a good brand name.
The small businesses can be advised to undertake the penetration pricing strategy while formulating the marketing plan by keeping in mind the present business scenario. As Akroush (2012) points out, penetration pricing strategies seem to be suitable enough in case of small businesses because it tends to attract customers from a wide population, thereby belonging to different economic backgrounds. Economy pricing on the contrary, concentrates on offering low quality products and services at cheaper rates.
Since the small businesses tend to invest limited financial resources in the business, hence they cannot bear the risk of pricing the rates of the products and services too high. Too high the price can emerge the risk of pulling in limited number of customers. Researches done by Mohan and Rasad (2012) reveal that premium pricing involves high prices of products while price skimming strategies; indeed contribute in pricing the products at high rates at the initial stage and then gradually lowering it with the passage of time. This particular strategy certainly helps in building an image in the minds of the consumers that the organisation does take care of the customers because of which it reduces the price of the products as per their convenience. Nonetheless, premium pricing builds the image that the organisation offers high quality products or services because of which they tend to fix high price rates.
However, it is to be noted that price skimming can prove risky in case of small businesses as such a strategy does not provide assurance of bagging in a wide range of customers. In fact, one of the prominent limitations of this strategy is the failure of obtaining a huge customer base (Johansson et al. 2012). Moreover, premium pricing strategy cannot be advised due to the high price involvement. In fact, economy pricing is also not advisable because since it involves low quality products along with lower price ranges, therefore it is going to lead to a risky situation of developing negative brand image fir the organisation. Thus, it is advisable to apply the penetration pricing strategy. This helps the learners in knowing that penetration pricing undoubtedly not only develops a positive image among the potential customers regarding its product or service quality but also takes care of the customers’ pockets.
References
Book
Pride, W., and Ferrell, O. (2008). Marketing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Journals
Akroush, M. (2012). “An empirical model of marketing strategy and shareholder value”. Competitiveness Review, 22(1), 48-89. doi:10.1108/10595421211200179
Alrawi, K. (2007). “The internet and international marketing”. Competitiveness Review, 17(4), 222-233. doi:10.1108/10595420710844316
Constantinides, E. (2006). “The Marketing Mix Revisited: Towards the 21st Century Marketing”. Journal Of Marketing Management, 22(3-4), 407-438. doi:10.1362/026725706776861190
Dominici, G. (2009). “From Marketing Mix to e-Marketing Mix: a literature overview and classification”. IJBM, 4(9). doi:10.5539/ijbm.v4n9p17
Gronroos, C. (2006). “On defining marketing: finding a new roadmap for marketing”. Marketing Theory, 6(4), 395-417. doi:10.1177/1470593106069930
Hult, G. (2002). “Cultural Competitiveness in Global Sourcing”. Industrial Marketing Management, 31(1), 25-34. doi:10.1016/s0019-8501(00)00101-2
Johansson, M., Hallberg, N., Hinterhuber, A., Zbaracki, M., and Liozu, S. (2012). “Pricing strategies and pricing capabilities”. Journal Of Revenue And Pricing Management, 11(1), 4-11. doi:10.1057/rpm.2011.42
Mattas, K., and Baourakis, G. (2009). “Competitiveness in International Markets”. Journal Of International Food and Agribusiness Marketing, 21(2-3), 83-83. doi:10.1080/08974430802587554
Mohan, M., and Rasad, C. (2012). “Pricing Strategies In Retail Sector”. IJSR, 1(7), 127-128. doi:10.15373/22778179/dec2012/45
Svensson, P. (2007). “Producing marketing: towards a social-phenomenology of marketing work”. Marketing Theory, 7(3), 271-290. doi:10.1177/1470593107080346
Te’eni-Harari, T., Lehman-Wilzig, S., and Lampert, S. (2009). “The importance of product involvement for predicting advertising effectiveness among young people”. International Journal Of Advertising, 28(2), 203. doi:10.2501/s0265048709200540
White, P. (2010). “Grabbing attention: the importance of modal density in advertising”. Visual Communication, 9(4), 371-397. doi:10.1177/1470357210382194
Wood, M. (2012). “Marketing social marketing”. Journal Of Social Marketing, 2(2), 94-102. doi:10.1108/20426761211243937
Website
News.bbc.co.uk,. (2015). BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Ryanair hits back in ‘green’ row. Retrieved 22 January 2015, from https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_politics/6233019.stm
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