Understanding customer needs - marketing principles - report on pepsi
How we met the Marketing Principles
As outlined previously in this report on Pepsi, the definition of marketing is as follows,
Marketing is all about understanding the customer and ensuring that products and services match existing and potential customer needs. Marketing is essential to a business and without it a business cannot give its customers what they want.
There are five main points to marketing and they are,
* Understanding customer needs
* Understanding and staying ahead of competition
* Communicate with customers to satisfy expectations
* Co-ordinate its market functions to achieve its' marketing aims
* Be aware of marketing constraints.
These points seem very obvious and basic, and yet they are all very in-depth, and very important to a business that is involved in marketing. If a company has its marketing strategy wrong, then it could result in financial hardship for the company.
Understanding customer needs
In order to anticipate change, Pepsi need to have an antenna that is highly sensitive to changes taking place in the buying population, for example what is happening to,
* The age and structure of a population
* Tastes and preferences
* Income
Market research is the antenna of an organisation and is far more complicated that asking people if they like a particular product.
I started to understand my customers needs by doing my primary research into what people actually want. I have tried to adapt Pepsi to offer exactly what people within my target band want from Pepsi. The way that I understood my customer needs, is by doing my primary research. I asked people in a random sample survey to complete my questionnaire I recorded the responses that I received. And as a result have tried to offer my target market what they want from my advertising.
Understanding and keeping ahead of competition
One of the key factors in any market is the existence and strength of competition. In a competitive environment organisations are forced to be on their toes. They cannot allow rivals to gain advantages and bigger market shares by offering lower priced goods or services. This is the same for Pepsi In order to be successful, Pepsi will have to gear their activities to being better than all of their competitors. To keep ahead of the competition constant research, and opinion asking needs to be done, both using primary and secondary ...
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Understanding and keeping ahead of competition
One of the key factors in any market is the existence and strength of competition. In a competitive environment organisations are forced to be on their toes. They cannot allow rivals to gain advantages and bigger market shares by offering lower priced goods or services. This is the same for Pepsi In order to be successful, Pepsi will have to gear their activities to being better than all of their competitors. To keep ahead of the competition constant research, and opinion asking needs to be done, both using primary and secondary sources of information. I had to understand how my competitors operated and try to stay ahead and more functional than them in areas such as price, and promotions.
Communicate effectively with customers to meet expectations.
An effective network of communications is essential for any form of promotional activity. It will enable Pepsi not only to communicate with its customers, but to also satisfy their expectations. There are many ways to do this including,
* Adverts
* Direct mail
* Public relations
* Sales promotions
* Sponsorships
* Product presentations
* Direct selling
Good communications played a large part in my advertising campaign, by advertising on television at times when my target market said they would most likely be watching therefore communicating directly to a large majority of my target market base. The main form of communication with my customers, was through doing my primary research. I asked people the most likely times at which they watch the television, and what types of programmes they watch. From knowing this I can structure the best times to advertise on television. In knowing this I can aim particular adverts at particular people. I can aim celebrity idol adverts at younger customers, and more sophisticated adverts at older people in my target market. In doing this I can effectively communicate in the correct way appealing to all the people in my target market.
Co-ordinating marketing functions to achieve marketing aims.
Business strategy is concerned with the big decisions organisations make. This may have substantial implications for the whole organisation, and could influence the future of a business for along time to come. Because modern organisations focus so much attention on the consumer, marketing today has come to be seen as a strategic discipline. Marketing strategies are the means by which an organisation attempt to find out exactly what their existing and potential customers want, and then to influence customers in a way that is favourable to the organisations.
The marketing strategy brings together all of the research that has been done by Pepsi. It combines both the primary questionnaire responses, and the secondary data that has been collected off various websites. In bringing all of this information together it has helped Pepsi find the best way in which to advertise as outlined in the marketing strategy report.
Constraints on marketing activities
Every organisation involved in marketing activities is faced with a number of constraints that limit their activity. They then need to work within these constraints to become successful. There are two main types of constraints, these being internal and external.
External constraints may include,
Consumers- if it is not focused enough, then a business will find customers will
Not be interested in the company or any of its products.
Competitors- it is hard to market a product if the competition have an advantage,
Or already have that product released on the market.
The economy- it may be difficult to market luxury products, especially at times of
The year, such as Christmas people will cut back on spending on
Luxury items, in order to save money for Christmas.
The constraints on Pepsi were those listed in the externalities section, such as the ethics of customers, the actions of the government at those mentioned in the PEST and SWOT analysis that I carried out, looking at externalities.
There are a few less internal constraints, but they are the most important ones. The most common one is that organisations cannot afford to have a big advertising campaign, and so the product goes on sale without being promoted to many people, and so the product may not do as well in the shops as was hoped. Pepsi have had this problem, they have many various types and variations of Pepsi available but they do not sell well, due to people not knowing about them, and so shops refuse to stock it, as it does not sell well.
All of the previously mentioned principles of marketing, go together to make a product successful. The principles of marketing also work in conjunction with the 'Marketing Mix'
It is important that the principles of marketing are understood and taken into consideration, as without looking at marketing factors, correct marketing cannot take place, and Pepsi will find themselves eventually loosing sales.
Dale Hamill Year 12 Advanced Business
