Marketing mix refers to that framework of marketing decision making. It is a marketing tool which comprises of four Ps of marketing that are product, price, place, promotion which over the period of time has expanded to seven Ps which are people, process and physical evidence. It is used to achieve the goals of marketing of the target market. Marketing mix is that tactic which is used to promote the product or service in the market. It is important to make a marketing mix as all the mixes influences one another as it is a part of business plan of the company (Baines, Fill & Page, 2013).
The current discussion will discuss marketing mix of two different products A and B. Product A is the Baby shampoo which can be used by adults also. Product B is shampoo for women suffering from hair loss. The report will discuss the marketing mix of both the products including all the 7Ps.
Marketing mix will discuss the 7Ps that are product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence of product that is baby shampoo which can be used by adults.
Product mix refers to which satisfies the needs and wants of the consumer. Product can be tangible or intangible. It includes the design, attributes, quality, packaging, guarantees and after sales of the product. It is very important to study the needs of the consumer in order to serve them what they have desired for. The study of the product mix is important in reference to attract the customers (Richter, 2012).
The product should be innovative as it is a multi-user product i.e. babies and adults. The attributes of the product should involve less of chemicals so that it does not cause irritation in eyes. In the present scenario, where the environmental sustainability is kept on priority as this will attract customers to buy product which is rich in its ingredients so that it can persuade customers with its USP of green shampoo (Pearson, 2013).
Price is that amount which is paid by the consumers to buy a particular product. It refers the sacrifices that are made by the consumers in terms of money, effort and time to purchase that product. It includes the pricing strategy and tactics which the company will follow to charge its customers. The company will follow penetration pricing policy in order to flood into the market and gain competitive market share in the industry. This pricing strategy will benefit the company as consumers will be able to afford the prices and also enjoy the benefits of green shampoo (O’Reilly, Larsen, Kubacki & Larsen, 2013).
Place refers to that location where the consumers will easily be able to access the product. The place mix also includes the distribution channel which shall be used to reach out to markets. The product being a shampoo shall be made available to all the retail and supermarket stores in order to increase the availability of the product to the consumers. The distribution channel shall start from the manufacturer to retailer and finally the consumer (Baker & Hart, 2008).
Promotion refers to the ways through which the product shall be marketed to the consumers. It includes marketing and communications of the product. It has various elements like advertising, promotion, direct marketing etc. The promotion of the shampoo for babies and adults they can use advertising through short video ads on online platforms as it is economical, the ad can have an emotional instinct of relationship between child and adult because it will persuade consumers to buy the product. In the promotional strategy the benefit of the shampoo being multi-user shall be focused on because it will attract the customers as it can be used by all the members of the family (Blythe, 2009).
People will include the customers and employees. Employees are important with respect to developing the product according to the needs of the consumers and with the constant changing scenario. Customers are those who are the right target market for the product that are the babies and the adults who can enjoy using one product for all the people living together (Christopher, M., Payne, A. and Ballantyne, 2013).
Process refers to those activities which are included in delivering the benefits and value of the product. It also involves the processes through which the product is made in accordance to the needs of the consumers. Physical evidence refers to the tangible products. In the case, the physical evidence is the product itself. It is important because this will only be presented to fulfil the customer expectations. It also includes the packaging of the product as especially for babies, it has to be attractive so that it influences the decisions of the buyer user because in this case, babies are not the decision makers of buying the product. Therefore; it will develop an intention of buying the product as this can be used by the ones themselves who might be purchasing for their babies (Wenderoth, 2009).
The following discussion will talk about the 7Ps of that are the product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence of the shampoo for women suffering from hair loss.
The product mix of the shampoo for women will be the attribute of the shampoo that is designed especially for women to get them rid of their hair loss problem. The product packaging is also important when in order to grab the attention of the customers. The product must also be good with its quality as women buyers are very much considered about the quality of the products especially those which are related to their skin and hair (Huda, Zubayer & Faruq, 2011).
The price mix of the product should include the mount which shall be charged by the consumers. The pricing strategy for the women shampoo can be a little higher than the penetration kind of pricing. The reason behind charging a premium pricing from its customers as the product is specialised for the category of people suffering from the problem of hair loss. This will also help in attracting consumers as high prices will be rightly perceived by the potential consumers of good quality (Goi, 2009).
The place mix of the shampoo shall include the distribution channel as well as the locations where the product will be made easily available to its customers. The distribution channel of the product will start from the manufacturer to the retailers and end consumer. This will ensure the availability of the product to the consumers. The product shall also be distributed to the owners of the beauty parlours also along with the retail shops and the supermarket outlets across places. This will ensure the availability of the product and therefore; reaching out to the target audiences (Pearson, 2013).
The promotion mix deals with the marketing and communication of the product. The marketing efforts include advertising, branding, direct marketing, pubic relation and sales promotion. As far as the advertising and promotion of the product is concerned it should be promoted in magazines for women, online promotion through which they can also win free samples. One of the most effective measures to promote the product is the positive word of mouth as current women customers will bring more and more customers who can remain loyal customers for a longer period time (Baker & Hart, 2008).
The people mix will include the involved people in the mechanism and marketing of the product. The customers are also important with respect to grabbing the most of the market share of the target audience. The target audience for the product is already defined as it targets women suffering from hair fall. The people involved in the making of the product should also be taken into account as it is important follow the right procedure in order to bring out the best quality for the consumers. The concerned people in the marketing the product has to be good enough in responding to the needs of the consumers in relation to its competitors being a very competitive market (Huda, Zubayer & Faruq, 2011).
The process mix includes the delivery of the right quality of the product to the right audience. This will include the process by which the product is made according the expectations of the consumers. In this case, the consumers will be expecting to get an effective shampoo which solves the problem of hair fall among women. The physical evidence is the product itself as consumers are concerned with the tangible aspect of the commodity. It is important in relation to give experience to the consumers. The very first experience will the packaging as this will grab the attention of women and then the attributes and benefits of the product will convert the attention into intention and finally action of buying the product (Armstrong, Adam, Denize & Kotler, 2014).
Conclusion
From the discussion of the Part A of the assignment it can be concluded that the both the products are in the similar industry and the base of both the products but the target market is different. It can easily be said that the marketing mix will prove to be an effective tool in targeting the right market segment. The reason behind this is because it includes the different Ps which will cover all the aspects of the product and will help in achieving the objectives of marketing. The Ps will answer the questions of 5 Ws and 1 H as it is all covered in the Ps of marketing mix.
Marketing proposal referred as the very first step of introducing any product in the market. It includes the definition of the product, market research, segmenting, targeting, positioning and the overall strategies which includes pricing, promotion etc (Jain & Haley, 2009). Introducing a new product is as critical as that of bringing a new life into this world. In this case, a new designed android smart phone is required to be launched in the local market of Hong Kong, China along with its new features. In the current report, marketing proposal has to be carried which will be presented to the business head including all the aspects of it.
The report will discuss the analysis of external and internal factors through PESTLE and SWOT. In addition to this, the segmentation, targeting and positioning of the product. Lastly, the marketing mix which will cover all the 7Ps of marketing and the marketing mix if the product is offered in international market.
Marketing Oriented Approach
Market oriented approach refers to when the company reacts according to the needs and wants of the consumers. In this case, the approach can be mix of product and institutional approach. The product approach is studying the product in detail as this covers any type of product and it is a continuing process. It explains all the attributes, features and benefits of the product to the users. The institutional approach is related to the study of the middlemen who are included in the marketing process. In this case, it will include retailers and dealers who will sell their product to the end consumers. The reason behind the study of institutional approach is because these people are included in the marketing (Thornton, Ocasio & Lounsbury, 2012).
The PESTLE analysis is required in for the strategic implementation of the business project. The political factors of the market are in good sense for the product because the country has changed into market driven economy which will maintain the demand for the new product. The economic factors are concerned with the economic growth of a country over the period of time. It is seen that China has evolved as a strong economy with the increase in the income of people. This can be depicted from the increase in the GDP which was $11007.72 billion in 2015 from $10480.37 billion in 2014 (Trading Economics, 2017).
The social factors of the most populous country is to have a control on their population as the government has imposed strict regulations on family planning policies as this increases unemployment which reduces the standard of living of people. For this, the government has increased the minimum wages. The technological factors of the country are very strong as it possesses greatest opportunities in the field of technology. Updated products with new technology will cover a market for their product (Azim & Hassan, 2013).
The legal factors of the country include the tax regimes and laws that are made to encourage the foreign investors. Tax incentives are given in order to attract the local manufacturers to promote investment. Also various laws are made like Chinese-Foreign Joint ventures, Interim provisions for investment etc. The environmental factors are also to be taken into account as pollution is increasing in the country day by day. Mobile phones extract carbon content affect the environment sustainability as it was the reason for the downfall of leading company Nokia (Cadle, Paul & Turner, 2010).
It refers to the evaluation of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It includes both internal and external factors of the marketing environment. The product is an android smartphone named xin zeng gong neng which means something new in Chinese which has many new and updated features. The feature introduced is a small device which will be coming along with it in order to save the phone from getting discharged when the battery goes off. As battery is the major problem of any android phone as the device will get connected to the phone via Bluetooth and it will enable the incoming and outgoing calls coming on the number.
The strengths of the product are its new features and the phone is very well designed as it is easy to handle and simple to understand. The major strength is its battery saver device as it has a battery backup of four to five days. The updated contents will help the user to not miss the calls and messages. The weakness of the product is that it is new to the market; it will require massive advertising in creating awareness among people. Another can be the only calling facility is available on the device if the android set goes off. Apart from this, one more weakness can be lack of extensive marketing as it is required to increase the sales and market share (Bensoussan & Fleisher, 2012).
The opportunities for the product are huge as more innovation can be brought into the product by making the device in built in the phone itself which can restrict the phone to calling and messaging facility only once the battery goes off. The product also possesses great opportunity in the offering after sales services to its customers. Extensive channel of distribution which never returns any potential customer go back empty handed because of unavailability of the product. The threats to the product are the other competitors operating in the same industry. As technology is very dynamic, which changes every day therefore; there is a threat of new entrant as well as existing players. There also exists a big threat of price wars as there are many players with cheap prices (Peng, 2013).
Segmentation is the process of dividing the market on the basis of their similar characteristics known as segments. The product can be segmented to the segments on the basis of demographic and behavioural variables. Demographic variables are education, age, gender, income and occupation. Behavioural variables are usage, benefits, price sensitiveness, loyalty etc. These variables are considered because the product will be segmented to people who share any of the similar characteristics. The reason behind choosing such characteristics as it will help in knowing the needs of the buyers (Ehrlich & Fanelli, 2012).
Demographic variable will affect the buying behaviour in ways like people who are working will require such handsets as they are suffered by the battery problems the most. People of all age groups can use this as nobody want to miss their important calls because of problem of battery discharge. People in the category of middle class can afford the product and also people from high class income can also use it as optional handset for their other expensive phones which gets discharged easily. Behavioural variables will affect the ones expecting benefit in return of their investment. Price sensitive customers will also give a thought to the product because of its end use and benefit. The unique feature will help in segmenting the brand loyal customers to turn towards their product (Gunter & Furnham, 2014).
The targeting strategy of the product will be differentiated strategy as it is a product is for everyone but will be according to their needs as people in the older age spending most of their times at homes have no requirement of the calling device therefore; they can only go for the android handset. Targeting different segments increases the sales volume, market share and therefore; will give the company economies of scale. The product is segmented to two market segments therefore; marketers are required to segment them differently by looking into the requirement of people it is essential giving them solutions according to the needs (Schiffman, O’Cass, Paladino & Carlson, 2013).
The positioning of the smart phone can be done in such a way that it is perceived as the value product against their money. It has to efficient so that it can persuade customers. The product’s benefits will also help in positioning a positive image of the product in the minds of the consumers. Altogether, the positioning will only help in bringing more and more customers (Morgan, Pritchard & Pride, 2007).
The Marketing mix will discuss the 7Ps of marketing starting from product, price, place, promotion, people, and process to physical evidence.
The product mix includes the features of the phone which is the additional easy to handle small device which will be used as the battery backup or saver for the android handset. It will be easy to connect via Bluetooth to the original phone and will enable the user to get the phone calls and messages only on it. This will help the people to never miss their official r social calls. The most important feature is that the additional device has a battery backup of four to five days (Baines, Fill & Page, 2013).
The price mix of the product states the pricing strategy of the product is price skimming. It refers to that pricing whose motive is to exploit the whole market and gain the maximum advantage before any competitor start offering similar product. The product is coming with new benefits and features, it will charge an amount which can be affordable by upper and upper middle class as it is required to cover the cost of additional feature. The price will also be affordable by the middle class as they give an option of purchasing the product on instalment basis (Wenderoth, 2009).
The place mix for the product should have an extensive distribution channel in order to make it available at the right place, at the right time and to the ones demanding it. The distribution channel including local retailers and dealers offering products should be loyal to selling the product. The promotion mix of the product should be such as it can attract and cover the whole target market audiences in order to enjoy high revenues. The promotion can be done b especially targeting business, service class by putting up kiosks and canopies outside corporate buildings and offices. Online medium will also cover large number of people (Blythe, 2009).
The people mix will deal with the people coming in the distribution channel as it is important to explain them about the features, benefits and usage of the product so that they can deliver the best information and guidance to the target audience. The process mix will include the whole operation of the product. Manufacture and assemble the product as it will as after delivery the product should not disappoint the end customer like problems faced by people in other phone like Samsung S7 otherwise there will be consequences for the company. The physical evidence refers to the location where the product will be made available to the audience. It should be easily accessible so that no one goes back empty because of the unavailability of the product (Baines, Fill & Page, 2013).
The marketing mix for international market will almost be the same as it has covered all the aspects of the Ps of marketing. The changes will be in reference to the promotional strategies which have to be studied to promote the product in ways which will effective at respective places. The people mix will also require modification as people at different places are handled differently. It involves different training and development processes. Apart from this, in order to enter a different country massive market research has to be conducted in order to study the demand for the product. In order to know this, marketing mix has to be carried out which will evaluate the whole internal and external analysis of marketing factors of the product (Christopher, M., Payne, A. and Ballantyne, 2013).
Conclusion
On the basis of the above report, it can be concluded that the product has potential of becoming a successful product. The additional innovative feature introduced in the product will ensure the success of the product. The external and internal analysis has helped in analysing the factors prevailing in the local market as well as within the company itself. The local market of Hong Kong, China being very competitive the product has to introduce something that is similar to its name which is xin zeng gong neng. It will relate to the people of the country and also the benefits it is providing to the target audience.
References
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