The Marketing Mix: Promotion and Price
Introduction
Over the recent past, marketing has grown both in popularity and importance and has become a very important functional area of a business organization. Businesses have been forced to come up with means and ways of ensuring that their products appeal to the consumers (Svend, 2010) which leads to customer loyalty on the product. This is done through marketing.
Marketing consists of four main elements which are referred to as the 4ps of marketing. These are product, price, place, and promotional strategy (Christ, 2011). Pricing methods and promotional strategies are the most important constituents of the 4ps of marketing. This paper discusses the appropriate promotional strategy for non lethal personal security products that could be employed to black women aged eighteen to thirty years and gay men and women. It also discusses the pricing method that can be employed for exercise products to handgun owners and vacations for black women aged 18-30 years.
Promotion strategies
Promotion is a marketing tool that is used to drive the company’s product to the consumers. There are various promotional methods. The most commonly used promotional strategies are the push-pull strategy and message & media strategy. Ensuing is the discussion on the promotional strategies that can be used for various products towards different target consumer groups.
The push-pull strategy deals with the manufacturer creating demand and/or supply for the product that is aimed at reaching the target market. Push strategy deals with the manufacturer promoting the products to the retailers so as to ensure that they stock the products in their businesses (Richard, 2009). This aims at ensuring constant supply and thus availability of the product to the consumers. The pull strategy involves marketing the products directly to the consumers such that the demand for the product will increase forcing the retailers to stock it. This promotional strategy is appropriate to black women aged 18-30 years who are looking for non-lethal personal security products. This is because this market segment consists of individual who are at their early adulthood and physical security may not be their most important need.
Employing push strategy would ensure that these consumers have access to these products at their disposal. Employing the pull strategy to these consumers enlightens them on the specific attributes of the products thus creating a demand for the product. This would entail the use of advertisings that are specific to this age group which would make them well conversant with the products. This strategy would also be an appropriate since the consumers’ demand will always determine what the retailers sell.
The message & media promotional strategy has to do with how the organization plans to deliver the product promotional message. Effectiveness of this strategy comes when there is a clearly set out message that is appropriate to the target consumers. This would create the impression that the product and the customer needs are complementing each other. This strategy would be appropriate for black women aged 18 – 30 years and gay men and women. This is because these two types of target markets consist of individual who are information oriented and would prefer purchasing products they are well conversant with.
The similarities in these two promotional strategies are that they involve the use of an outside party to drive the products to the consumers. The use of push-pull strategy involves the retailer while the use of message media strategy involves the media which are both external parties to the organization. The difference in these two strategies come in that the push-pull strategy uses the supply chain process while the message media strategy breaks the supply chain to communicate directly to the consumer.
Pricing methods
Pricing is a very vital part of marketing. This is because prices form a major competition field for most suppliers. Price wars often lead to businesses crashing out of the market more so where there are no government regulations (Svend, 2010). There are various pricing methods available on fitness products to hand-gun owners and vacations for black women aged 18-30 years.
Most handgun owners often prefer products that are specific to their unique needs. This aspect of unique needs tends to separate them from the other consumers. An organization supplying fitness product to these consumers can successfully employ the psychological pricing or the Cost-Plus method in setting the prices for these consumers.
An organization could successfully use the cost-plus pricing method. This pricing technique is the most widely used and is aimed at achieving a certain profit margin. Suppliers set prices based on the cost of production (Michael & Saren, 2010). This is usually regarded as fair pricing method since it is non-exploitative. Most handgun owners would be keen on price just as all other consumers. Price has and will always be a limiting factor when it comes to consumer purchasing power (Marian, 2010).
Psychological pricing methods can also be effectively used on vacations for black women aged 18-30 years. This is because at this age most women are keen on quality and are usually conscious of the products they consume. A psychological pricing method would be appropriate here since it would put into consideration the consumers’ perception of fair prices (Michael & Saren, 2010). Pricing vacations in terms of the consumer psychology always put together the price and the need thus ensuring that the consumers are easily wooed into consuming the particular product. By using this type of pricing method, the suppliers can charge a premium for the products due to the Consumers’ sensitivity to class and quality.
The similarities in these two pricing methods are that they are based on a targeted profit margin. The use of cost-plus method ensures that a firm earns a given profit above its cost of production, while the use of psychological pricing method gives the supplier the option of achieving a target premium on a product price (Christ, 2011). The differences in these two methods come about in the fact that one is cost based while the other one is consumer based.
Conclusion
Marketing will continue to be an important functional area of any business organization. It should be viewed as an investment since it always results in increased sales and therefore desired revenues. As such, promotion and pricing strategies play a major role in ensuring that the products are presented to the customers are in their best from utility possible.
Organizations therefore ought to thoroughly understand the consumers so as to devise pricing and promotional strategies that are unique to. In so doing, the businesses are able to successfully cushion themselves from the adverse competitions such as price wars and any other factor that pose a threat to the company’s profitability.
References
Christ, P. (2011). Principles of Marketing. retrieved from: KnowThis.com.
Marian, B. W. (2010). Essential Guide to Marketing Planning. New York: Pearson Publishers.
Michael, J. B., & Saren, M. (2010). marketing Theory. London: Sage Publishers.
Richard, H. (2009). Brilliant Marketing: What the Best Marketers Know, Do and Say (3rd ed.). New York: Pearson.
Svend, H. (2010). Global Marketing: A Decision Oriented Approach (5th ed.). New York: Pearson Publishers.