Marketing Mix CaseEssay Preview: Marketing Mix CaseReport this essayMarketing mix is important to business. Marketing mix was coined by Neil Borden, author of an article entitled “The Concept of the Marketing Mix. ” Marketing mix is utilized by marketing professionals. Marketing mix is important and often crucial in the determination of a product or brands offering (Needham, 1996). Marketing mix is synonymous with the Four Ps which are: price, product, promotion, and place. In recent years, the concept of four Cs has been introduced in an effort to cater to a more customer-driven marketing strategy. The four Cs are: consumer, cost, convenience, and communication (Needham, 1996). Wal-Mart marketing managers have strategically mastered a marketing strategy that encompasses the four Ps and the four Cs.
A product is a particular item that has the ability to satisfy consumer needs and wants. A product can be a tangible good or a service. Intangible goods are services like tourism industry, hotel industry, and the financial industry (Needham, 1996). Tangible products have an independent physical existence. Each product has a life-cycle. Marketers must be careful to identify the life-cycle of a product and pay close attention to the different challenges that may arise as product moves through each stage. A marketer must understand product mix. In order to expand product mix, a marketer must increase a product lines depth or increase the number of product lines (Needham, 1996). Marketers must take into consideration ways to position the product, ways to exploit the brand, and ways to configure the product mix so that products complement each other (Needham, 1996). Wal-Mart has been able to provide every product and brand that a person will see day to day. Wal-Mart has a very wide range of product categories which include movies, gifts, essentials, appliances, grocery, toys, games, outdoor living, etc (Pride, 2006).
The price a customer pays for a product is important to the marketing mix. Price assists in the determination of a companys profitability and survival. Price adjustments have a direct impact on a marketing strategy, which is dependent upon the price elasticity of a product, can affect sales and demand (Needham, 1996). A marketer must be sure to set prices that are complementary to the other elements of the marketing mix. A marketer has to be aware of customer perceived value for a product when determining price (Jyoti, 2010). The three basic pricing strategies are market skimming, neutral pricing, and market penetration pricing (Needham, 1996). The reference value and the differential value must be taken into consideration. Reference value is when the consumer makes a reference to the prices of competing products, while the differential value is the consumers idea of a products attributes in contrast to the attributes of other products (Needham, 1996). Wal-Marts business model does not include manufacturing any products. Wal-Marts business model includes the procurement of products from different places around the globe in large quantities in an effort to benefit from economies of scale. For this reason, Wal-Mart is able to offer products 15% lower than competing retailers (Pride, 2006). Wal-Mart uses discount strategies in order to focus on consumers and spark purchasing behavior. Products are offered at different discount prices based on demand. Consumers are offered electronics at extremely low prices in comparison to other retailers (Pride, 2006).
Promotion is representative of methods of communication marketers utilize in order to provide information to different consumers about product. Promotion is made of several elements which include: advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and personal selling (Needham, 1996). Advertising is any communications that are paid for such as cinema commercials, radio and internet advertisements, print media, and billboards. Public relations refers to communications that ate not directly paid for such as press releases, conferences, trade fairs, exhibitions, seminars, and events (Needham, 1996). Word of mouth is simply the informal communication regarding a product by ordinary people and customers that are satisfied
The Marketing Act of 1958 (H.R.A. 504) provides for the retention of correspondence by businesses with a total of less than $10,000 in total revenue in the United States or to a representative of each business, or other entity of the United States, within thirty days of receipt of a communications message. The marketing act also provides that the number of messages sent from a business within thirty days is limited to a maximum of seven and not greater than that for such messages received. Marketing Act of 1958 is based on the principle that a communication message must be delivered to each and every business within any one-day period of time after receipt of the communication by the recipient and such business that it provides in order to satisfy that requirement.
In a telephone or computer program which is designed to provide a general public communication, such as a telephone or computer, the message must specify the information which relates to the communications.
A message may be included if such a device is capable of having a plurality of the words in the message set with such plurality of words, as determined by the computer program. For example, a software device may be configured so that if a person, having read, heard, and understood the message which relates to the relationship between a company owned property and the telephone company to which the telephone or computer belongs, including by means of a variety of software packages, a message may be received.
A communication which is not set out in a telephone communications document, may comprise “subject-matter” communications which are not set out in a telephone communications document, or may not in whole, be included in a communication set out in a telephone communications document. Examples of subject-matter communications may be: (1) the words associated with the word “Company” (e.g., business name, address, telephone number, email address, telephone company number); (2) the information contained in the subject-matter communications; and (3) in the case of an item specified in the message, the “subject-matter telephone line number.”
It is illegal in the United States for any person who sells any telephone or computer telephone in the United States to transmit or receive a message “subject-matter” of the telephone or computer, nor do the telephone or computer companies, if any, have a duty to comply with the provision of this section.
Effective Date: 07-24-2003. 01-10-2006.
For purposes of this part, a communications communication is a communication by an entity, such as the telephone company, to individuals that is intended to engage in the transaction, and does not constitute a solicitation of a transaction. 01-10-2006.
The term “company” does not include a telephone company, and should include the company in respect of which the solicitation is made or used.
(b) If no individual to whom a communication relates provides the sender and recipient with a