Marketing Mix - Principles and Scope of Marketing.

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MK209 Marketing Mix                Mr J Turner                Principles and Scope of Marketing

Coursework                 Miss Ashley Kennedy                0205036                April 2003

“I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I know) their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who” Rudyard Kipling

The above quote is an early form of Market Research, one could say!  But what is the point in asking questions if you do not react to the answers.  

In this Coursework, I wish to explain, using examples of Companies and Firms, factors that SHOULD be taken into account when making Product Decisions.  This will include the 4 (7) P’s, and how each is inter-dependant and inter-related.  Included is analysis of Marketing Planning, and the benefits and disadvantages of certain models.  

The Marketing Mix can be defined as the combination of detailed strategies, tactics, techniques, and activities.  The role of the Marketing Mix is to move marketing objectives and plans into reality, and ultimately achieves Company/Firms goals.  The key to a successful Marketing Mix, lies with the Management, and the decision maker is crucial to any Marketing Department. Why? Because getting the right Product available, at the right Price, in the right Place with an appropriate Promotional Campaign behind it all - takes planning, strategy and tactics.  This does not just happen through instinct alone. The skill of the Marketing Manager lies in understanding how the four P’s of the Marketing Mix interact, and using them in the most cost-effective way possible. (Morden,P420)

The Marketing Planning process itself is essential for other reasons, namely to set objectives and strategies but also encourage internal support and commitment (Lecture One Notes), and to get a Firm or Company to jointly be focused on achieving the same end result, maximising the benefit of working together  “one for all and all for one” (Dogtanian Cartoon, CITV, 1988).

The Marketing Plan is essentially a checklist for all knowledgeable marketers to simply re-asses,  but gives a varied amount of data, and supportive evidence, to help keep the decision process as simple and knowledge-based as possible, allowing each decision to be made on fact rather than fiction, or instinct (Lecture One Notes). An interesting report from the Boston Consulting Group said, “Many brands are dying.  Not the natural death of absence, but the slow painful death of sales and margin erosion.  The managers of these brands are not complacent - in fact they are constantly tweaking the advertising, pricing and costs of their brand.  At the heart of the problem is a more fundamental issue: can the original promise of the brand be recreated and a new spark lit with today’s consumers? We believe it can.  Most brands can be reinvented through brand renaissance”.

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Product factors on decision would begin with designing a good product that customers want to buy. This is challenging, and we know that customers do not simply buy the product; they seek benefits and are often willing to pay more for a brand that seems to solve all their (cleaning, cosmetic) problems. Marketers can satisfy these needs by adding value to the product, with ingenious branding ideas, and packaging and other promotional tools.   A prime example is L’Oreal; the French based Cosmetics and Personal Hair Care Company.  L’Oreal knows that when it sells Shampoo and Conditioners, it sells ...

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