Overview of the 4 P’s in Marketing Mix
This report is an extended review of principle of marketing which was presented in the previous assignment. The organization Tiny Tapir located in Malaysia was theme of the discussion on principle of marketing. In the previous report, a complete overview of the organization such as its products, marketing approaches and target market segmentation have been discussed. Now in this report, the marketing mix approaches will be discussed and evaluated considering the target market and consumers suggested in the previous assignment. The purpose of the report is to derive a proper understanding of principle of marketing –such as how marketing mix approaches help to contribute to the business development of the organization. The report also presents the potential challenges with the marketing mix approaches and guide how they can be addressed.
Discussing and analyzing the target market
Product- The product can be tangible or intangible service that is supposed to meet customer demand (Satit et al. 2012). The proposed product for the target customers is Moon Cup, which is a menstrual cup, which is designed in a manner it collect menstruation fluid instead of absorbing. This cup is hygienic, healthier, reusable and leakage-free sanitary option. In addition, this menstrual cup is able to collect fluids for up to 12 hours and then the users can wash it with soap and boiling water. Thereby, it can be used for at least 10 to 15 years.
Figure 1: Marketing mix
(Source: Alipour et al. 2011)
Price-As this menstrual cup is a new substitute item of sanitary pads and tampon, the product does not cost much. To make all women experience the product, a reasonable price will be set, which the target customers can easily purchase. As the goal is to acquire the large market, Tiny Tapir should apply penetrative pricing strategy, which charges low price for the menstrual cup but provide a huge return to the organization. However, Zhang et al. (2014) commented that penetrative pricing strategy could create potential financial challenge for the organizations as the organization has to lower the price of the product bearing the risk delayed returns.
Place- This particular element helps to assess which channel could be the most suited to the product (Alipour et al. 2011). The proposed product –menstrual cup will be placed in Malaysia and in some other neighboring nations. To place the product properly, Tiny Tapir will use both offline and online selling channels. In offline channels, the organization will approach the distributors and agents who supply the medication to the medial stores of the large cities of Malaysia. On the other side, through online selling, the product will be placed in the marketers by approaching the ecommerce vendors who delivers products across the globe.
Product – Moon Cup
Promotion-This is one of the significant elements of marketing mix, which requires the initiatives of creating solid market awareness. The marketing communication as well as techniques all fall under the promotion heading and this could include advertising, sales promotion, public relations and special offers (Tapp, Alan, and Fiona Spotswood 2013). Therefore, in the case of Tiny Tapir, the organization should use digital advertising approach to promote the product. Tiny Tapir should use the social media tools such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter because these tools have millions of daily users including women (Stelzner and Michael 2014). Now, the organization needs to create a strong advertising content, where the company should demonstrate the challenges and irritation of conventional sanitary pads and the advantages of menstruation cups. These contents will be shown in the form of a 2-minute video on the chosen social media tools.
Even though pricing approach shown above is critical to be effective, strong social media presence as promotion and effective position of product through offline and online channels would create effective customer responses. These four elements together will address the uncertainty, which may cause by penetrative pricing strategy. The concern is about creating the market exposure by approaching customers, so that the risk of uncertainty can be avoided. More specifically, if the promotional initiatives and positioning strategies are implement properly, audiences in the wide or remote areas can be approached, which helps to keep the effectiveness of penetrative pricing because market response would be high due to awareness created by promotional and positioning strategy.
The above mentioned discussion on 4ps of marketing indicates that the element price may not be effective as setting a low price or penetrative price may create financial risk as according to the principles of consumer behavior, the if the price of the product is low, consumers may doubt the quality of the products. Thereby, the organization may not observe a desired response. So, to overcome this challenge, the organization could apply pilot strategy. This means Tiny Tapir initially may produce a limited number of menstrual cups and place them to the market with penetrative pricing. Now the organization needs to observe the sales and market response towards the newly launched products. If the goal of selling selected number of items are achieved and there is a significant demand, the organization should further produce more items. This strategy will create a better appeal to the target market because if product are embraced by the consumers and they ask for the product, the long-term goal of accessing large market will be achieved. On the other side, organization must have to continue with its promotional strategies and modify the content on a frequent basis.
Price – Penetrative Pricing Strategy
The element of the place in the marketing mix require more attention because offline selling process should be enhanced in a manner that provides an equal amount of return as online selling. In order to enhance offline selling, Tiny Tapir can use Omni Channel marketing strategy in which both offline and online selling can be covered. It is true that online selling for example, can cover almost 80% if the total market share but to cover the rest 20% of the market, offline selling has to be implemented. To implement this, Tiny needs to come under the contract with regional dealers and agents of each market. The terms of the contract is, each agent has to complete a certain target of selling the products to the medical store or to the end users. On the accomplishment of target, the agents will receive a certain amount of profit or commission. The organization needs to make sure that one agent for each regional area of the target market deployed.
On the other side, to generate a desired amount of sales from the online selling channels, the organization needs to contract with the large and popular e-commerce vendors such as Amazon, ebay to reach the audience in the global market and increase sales. Tiny Tapir has been suggested with this Omni channel marketing because it is predicted that penetrative pricing may appear to be a financial risk unless the sales are not generated properly. If the market is covered entirely, then the proposed low pricing strategy may prove to be effective. The intensity of risk goes down when the product reaches the customers.
References
Alipour, Mehrdad, Abbas Ghanbari, and S. Moniri. “The impact of marketing mix (4Ps) on marketing audit and performance in Iranian SMEs.” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 1, no. 2 (2011): 112-117.
Satit, Rezky Purna, Huam Hon Tat, Amran Rasli, Thoo Ai Chin, and Inda Sukati. “The relationship between marketing mix and customer decision-making over travel agents: An empirical study.” International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 2, no. 6 (2012): 522.
Stelzner, Michael. “2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.” Social media examiner (2014): 1-52.
Tapp, Alan, and Fiona Spotswood. “From the 4Ps to COM-SM: reconfiguring the social marketing mix.” Journal of Social Marketing 3, no. 3 (2013): 206-222.
Zhang, Jie, Wei–yu Kevin Chiang, and Liang Liang. “Strategic pricing with reference effects in a competitive supply chain.” Omega 44 (2014): 126-135.
Bibliography
Al Muala, Ayed, and Majed Al Qurneh. “Assessing the relationship between marketing mix and loyalty through tourists satisfaction in Jordan curative tourism.” American Academic & Scholarly Research Journal 4, no. 2 (2012): 1.
Alipour, Mehrdad, Abbas Ghanbari, and S. Moniri. “The impact of marketing mix (4Ps) on marketing audit and performance in Iranian SMEs.” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 1, no. 2 (2011): 112-117.
Jain, Manoj Kumar. “An analysis of marketing mix: 7Ps or more.” Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies 1, no. 4 (2013).
Londhe, B. R. “Marketing mix for next generation marketing.” Procedia Economics and Finance 11 (2014): 335-340.
Yasanallah, Purashraf, and Vahid Bidram. “Studying the Status of Marketing Mix (7Ps) in Consumer Cooperatives at Ilam Province from Members’ Perspectives.” American Journal of Industrial and Business Management 2, no. 4 (2012): 194.
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