Unit 3- Decision-making to improve marketing performance (3.4-7ps) Flashcards
What is the marketing mix?
The elements of a firm’s approach to marketing that enable it to satisfy and delight its customers.
What is the marketing mix also commonly described as?
The 7Ps
What are the 7Ps manipulated by the firm to do?
Maximise sales and profit
Create a brand
Develop customer loyalty
Create a USP (unique selling point/proposition)
What is a USP?
A key feature of a product that differentiates it from its rivals.
List the 7Ps.
- Product
- Promotion
- Place
- People
- Process
- Physical environment
- Price
List the first 4 factors which could influence the design of a firm’s marketing mix.
- Financial situation of the firm
- Target market and the firm’s knowledge of the market through market research
- Stage in life cycle
- Market forces
List the last 4 factors which could influence the design of a firm’s marketing mix.
- Consumer tastes and fashions
- The price elasticity of demand
- Existing reputation and brand image of the firm
- The impact of technology
How does the financial situation of the firm influence the design of a firm’s marketing mix?
Things like cash flow and levels of profit will influence budget firms are able to set for promotion and the type of promotion they use.
May impact prices they set, the level of training they offer staff and its impact on customer service.
How does target market and the firm’s knowledge of the market through market research influence the marketing mix?
What market segment does the business aim at?
What level of income do they have?
What are their interests, tastes and fashions?
How price sensitive are they?
What do they look for in a product?
How does the stage in life cycle influence marketing mix?
Is it a start-up firm or one which has been operating for a long time?
How do market forces influence marketing mix?
How much competition does the firm face?
Does the firm operate in a mass or niche market?
Does it sell to consumers or other businesses?
Who holds the power, buyers or suppliers? (Porter’s Five Forces)
How does the impact of technology influence the marketing mix?
E-commerce and social media usage-does it sell its good/services online?
Does it use social media?
Does its target market prefer these methods?
What is the rate of technological change in the market in marketing methods, production methods, components and types of products sold?
What will the marketing mix be most strongly influenced by?
The type of market the firm operates in.
Between what 2 things will firms decide is their target market?
Consumers
Other businesses
Firms may decide to make their target market other business. What is this market called?
Industrial (business to business) markets.
Firms may choose to make their target market consumers. What is this market called?
Consumer market
What are the key issues which firms must deal with when they operate in industrial markets which differ from selling directly to consumers?
(List the first 4.)
- Promotion
- Larger quantities
- Specialist purchasing staff
- Greater emphasis on quality (and other factors)
What are the key issues which firms must deal with when they operate in industrial markets which differ from selling directly to consumers?
(List the last 5)
- Price and mark-up (profit margin)
- Credit
- Building relationships and customer service
- Time
- delivery conditions
Why is promotion important when it comes to operating in industrial markets?
Focuses on facts and being informative rather than being persuasive.
Why are large quantities important in industrial marketing?
More needs to be purchased
Why are specialist purchasing staff key in industrial marketing?
They are much more knowledgeable.
Harder to negotiate with and influence by marketing methods
Apart from quality, name one other factor a firm needs to give greater emphasis on in a industrial market?
After-sales service and maintenance, particularly if selling machinery, vehicles, etc.
Why is credit a key issue which a firm operating in an industrial market needs to deal with?
It is often expected which can impact cash flow and liquidity.
Why is building relationships and customer serviced vital in an industrial market?
Vital for repeat sales and long-lasting loyalty.
Why is time an important issue in industrial markets?
Often negotiation plays and important part and can take time.
Why are delivery conditions important for a firm operating in an industrial market?
Firms often expect more specialist delivery unlike consumers who may seek out the retailers.
Why are consumer products purchased?
To satisfy a range of different consumer needs and wants.
When firms compete in consumer markets, based on what will they compete in different markets?
What type of consumer product they sell.
What are the 3 main categories of consumer products?
- Convenience products
- Shopping products
- Specialty products
What are convenience products?
Low-priced products which are frequently purchased by most market segments with minimum thought or planning, often out of impulse or habit.
What are shopping products?
Products which consumers value and give some thought and planning to so do not buy as often as convenience goods.
The value of the brand name is often important so there is high added-value and therefore higher prices charged.
What are specialty products?
Products with high price tags which consumers are very selective about and will generally research in some detail.
Give some examples of convenience products.
Food
Cleaning products
Give examples of shopping products.
Clothing
Electrical goods
Give some examples of specialty products.
Luxury cars
Cruises
Expensive wines and champagne
Jewellery
What are the 2 other categories of consumer products?
- Emergency products
- Unsought products
What are emergency products?
Products brought due to sudden events to solve a problem e.g., fuel.
What are unsought products?
Unplanned impulse purchase because of a firm’s marketing efforts and a customer’s exposure to them, e.g., persuasive sales staff or product discounts.
Define product.
The good/service provided by a business.
What should a product possess?
Key features that ensure it appeals to the needs of its target market.
List the first 5 key features a product should possess which ensure it appeals to the needs of its target market.
- Functionality
- Reliability
- Durability
- Appearance and aesthetic qualities
- Value in relation to price charged
List the last 4 key features a product should possess which ensure it appeals to the needs of its target market.
- Safe and abiding by legislation.
- Convenient to use and ergonomic (safe to use)
- Suitable packaging
- Fashionable and in keeping with social trends
Name some types of legislation a product might need to abide by.
Health and safety legislation
Emissions control
Trade descriptions
Environmental laws etc
List some extra factors (apart from the 9) which influence developing products.
- Market research
- Own personal experience
- Solving your own personal needs and problem solving
- Innovation and new ideas
- Environmental awareness
- Ideas from other countries
How does market research influence developing products?
Spotting new trends in the market, potential gaps or better understanding of consumers’ tastes to identify potential new products.
Firms that launch new products purely based on consumers’ tastes found from research are known as ‘market-led’.
Give an example of how own personal experience influence developing products.
James Dyson’s struggles with his bagged vacuum cleaner.
How does environmental awareness influence developing products?
New products can be developed to help solve environmental problems.
How does environmental awareness influence developing products?
New products can be developed to help solve environmental problems.
What are the 6 stages of the product life cycle?
- Development
- Introduction
- Growth
- Maturity
- Saturation
- Decline
What happens at the research and development stage in the product life cycle?
Market research is carried out, the idea for the product is developed and prototypes produced.
What is the major disadvantage for the business at the research and development stage of the product life cycle?
It is an expensive period for the company as no sales are made because the product is not yet available.
What happens at the introduction (launch) stage of the product life cycle?
Sales begin and start slowly as consumers are getting to know the product
What will the introduction stage of the product life cycle involve a lot of?
Expenditure on promotion and publicity.
Firm will need to convince their distributors to stock the new product.
Give an example of an product in the introduction stage of the product life cycle which needed to convince distributors to stock their product.
PlayStation 4 in 2013
What happens at the growth stage of the product life cycle?
At this stage sales are accelerating (if it is well advertised).
People are beginning to buy more of it, and it is becoming successful.
What does a firm need to do for a product at the growth stage of the product life cycle?
Find more outlets for the product.
Start to break even on costs.
Begin making a profit
e.g., NFL in the UK
What happens at the maturity stage of the product life cycle?
At this stage, the sales rate begins to slow down.
Why might sales rates begin to slow at the maturity stage in the product life cycle?
Perhaps a competitor has launched something similar that is impacting sales.
Customers may want something new.
At the maturity stage of the product life cycle, what should a firm consider?
Introducing some different versions of the product to keep sales up.
Give some example of firms introducing different versions of their products at the maturity stage of the product life cycle.
Cadbury Dairy Milk introducing ice-cream
Heinz Ketchup
What happens at the decline stage of the product life cycle?
Sales begin to fall as the product becomes less popular.
What does a firm need to decide at the decline stage of the product life cycle? (2 questions)
Should sales be boosted again by spending more on marketing?
OR
Should their product be withdrawn from the market?
Give an example of a product at the decline stage.
CD sales.
Give the 3 options a firm has at the decline stage of the product life cycle.
- Withdraw the product
- Let it decline in sales until it no longer generates profit or contributes towards paying fixed costs and breaking even.
- Improve the product sales using an extension strategy.
What is an extension strategy?
Strategies taken to extend the life cycle of the product.
List the first 5 examples of extension strategies.
- Reposition the brand into a niche market
- Targeting new market segments with the same product (market development)
- Updated design of the product and/or packaging
- Modifying ingredients
- Change of sizes of products
Give an example of a business who targeted new market segments with the same product (market development).
Johnson’s Baby Shampoo targeting adult users.
List the last 5 examples of extension strategies.
- Increase usage of the product.
- New advertising campaigns
- Move into foreign markets (market development)
- Create a new brand image
- Improve customers service or after-sales service.
Give an example of a business who increased usage of a product.
Kellogg’s ‘twice a day’ cereal diet.
Give an example of a business moving into foreign markets (market development).
Xbox have been able to do this with opening up of the Chinese market.
Numerous car brands have also been able to do this in emerging markets such as India.
What are the 4 sections of The Boston Matrix?
Star
Cash cow
Dog
Question mark/Problem child
What is market share?
How much of the market you consist of
Which axis of the Boston Matrix diagram is market share on?
X-axis
Which axis of the Boston Matrix diagram is market growth on?
Y-axis
What are the 2 labelled axis of the Boston Matrix graph?
Market growth
Market share
Does the market share on the Boston Matrix go from high to low or low to high(from left to high)?
High to low
High=left Low=Right
Does the market growth on the Boston Matrix go from low to high or high to low (from bottom to top)?
Low to high
Low = bottom High=top
Which part of the Boston Matrix is low market growth and high market share?
Cash cow
Which part of the Boston Matrix has high market growth and high market share?
Star
Which part of the Boston Matrix has high market growth and low market share?
Question mark/problem child
What part of the Boston Matrix has low market growth and low market share?
Dog
Based on what, can you analyse the products in a firm’s product portfolio?
Look at:
Market share and market growth in the market they operate in.
What is a product portfolio?
The range of products a business may sell.
Give an example of a product portfolio.
Proctor & Gamble own brand, such as:
Ariel
Duracell
Wash & Go
Fairy
Gillette
Pampers
What does the Boston Matrix allow firms to do?
Analyse where their products are in relation to their market.
Make decisions about what needs to be done.
What can each stage of the Boston Matrix be related to?
A stage in the product life cycle.
What does the dog stage in the Boston Matrix link to in the product life cycle?
Decline
What does the cash cow stage in the Boston Matrix link to in the product life cycle?
Maturity
What part of the product life cycle does the star in the Boston Matrix relate to?
Growth
What part of the product life cycle does the question mark/problem child in the Boston Matrix relate to?
Introduction (market entry)
What can income from cash cows be used to promote?
Star and question mark products in the portfolio.
Whilst also being used to pay for research and development for the next new product.
What market share does a question mark/problem child have in what type of market?
Small market share in a fast-growing market
Will products be a success or failure at the question mark/problem child stage?
May be successful
May fail
What type of income will question mark/problem child products generate?
Little
What type of future does a question mark/problem child product have?
Uncertain
In order to create awareness for a question mark/problem child product what does there need to be?
Large investment in marketing
What type of products are question mark/problem child?
Mostly new into the market.
Give an example of a question mark/problem child product.
Microsoft Xbox when it was launched in 2001
In a fast-growing market, how much share do star products have?
Large
What kind of income will highly successful star products generate?
High income
What is the difficulty with marketing and promoting star products?
Usually expensive
Why does money need to be spent on a star product?
Ensure it retains its position in the market
To stay ahead of competition
What is the main aim with star products?
To develop them into a cash cow
Give an example of a star product.
Apple iPad
What type of market share to cash cows have, in what type of market?
High market share in a slow growing market
What type of products are cash cows?
Often mature products with well established producers.
How much income do cash cows generate for a business?
More than is invested
How much room in the market is there for growth for a cash cow?
Little
How is promotion for cash cows?
Much of its already done.
How is product awareness like in the market for cash cows?
Good
If cash cows are not managed well, what may they become?
Dogs
What is money generated from cash cows used to do?
Fund a company’s other star and problem child products to help them succeed (milking).
What is milking in business?
A short-term revenue generating strategy.
This is a marketing tactic, which is deployed to snatch the largest possible revenue and profit from a particular product or service in the quickest period of time, regardless of the item’s future possibilities for generating revenue.
Give examples of cash cow products.
Heinz Baked Beans
Nescafe Original