Introduction
Businesses strive every day to compete with their competitors through various strategies such as marketing. Marketing involves making the right product available at the right place and time. Using a marketing mix is an efficient way of successfully implementing a marketing strategy. The marketing mix consists of the 4 Ps of marketing which includes price, product, promotion, and place. Brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, and brand trust are some of the goals of marketing (Pourdehghan, 2015). Having reviewed the case study, it is critical to analyze how to use the marketing mix elements to achieve a competitive advantage.
Product
A product refers to a service or good that a firm intends to offer to its customers. In an ideal situation, a new product must fulfill existing consumer needs. A product can be compelling to consumers to make them believe they need it, creating a new demand for the good. To be successful, businesses should understand a product’s life cycle. The type of product that a business introduces to the market determines how much a business can charge for it, where to distribute it and how to promote the product. The product aspect can enable marketers to evaluate what customers need from a company’s services or products and if the offered services and goods meet their needs (Thabit & Raewf, 2018). Unique company products lead to high consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
Additionally, the product element allows sellers to determine what differentiates the offered service or good from the competition. As a result, such vendors can understand the product features that a company is selling, how it meets consumer needs, and if customers will be satisfied by the product or service. The product element helps to identify the unique selling proposition of any product. For instance, Apple introduced the iPhone as the first touchscreen phone that could browse the internet, make calls, and play music (Pourdehghan, 2015). Apple was successful because it created a unique product that had differentiating features.
Price
Price is the total final cost that customers pay for a particular product or service. Businesses have to link the price to a product’s perceived and real value while considering competitor’s prices, supply costs, and seasonal discounts. The price element of the marketing mix enables firms to determine how customers perceive the value of a product. If the consumers positively value the product, the price can be set higher than the real monetary value. Conversely, if customers do not value a product much, underpricing may be the best option. Companies can use the price element to establish if and when to offer discounts to customers. While discounts may attract more customers, they can make a product appear less exclusive to consumers. A higher price can negatively affect brand loyalty if products are perceived to be of lower quality (Pourdehghan, 2015). The marketing mix enables firms to determine reasonable prices that make customers happy.
Place
The place element enables businesses to evaluate where to sell their products and how to deliver the goods to the market. The place element assists companies to decide how to get products to customers where they are likely to purchase products. Distribution is a key aspect of placement and it enables corporations to understand the best distribution channel to use to deliver products to the market. The place element will enable a company to increase distribution intensities to reduce the time consumers take to find a brand’s product (Sriyani, 2019). As a result, businesses can increase their sales since consumers are more likely to buy due to the ease of availability.
Additionally, distribution can help brands promote products by creating an exceptional store image that will increase customer satisfaction. The use of good-image stores in product promotion shows that a product is of high quality. For instance, Apple uses its high-quality stores and other reputable distribution channels which shows the brand’s unique products. In placement, businesses can evaluate where target consumers shop for products, which devices customers use while shopping, whether they buy products online or offline, and how frequently they use social media (Ferrell & Hartline, 2017). As a result, such firms can comprehend how to target a wide consumer base and ensure customers can access products easily.
Promotion
The promotion element in the marketing mix primarily involves communicating the marketing function. Promotions may include public relations, sales promotion, advertising, and special offers. Companies can use advertisement to establish relationships with consumers to inform them about the company’s products and encourage buyers to purchase (Ferrell & Hartline, 2017). The ultimate goal of product promotion is revealing to customers why they need a good and why they should pay a particular price for the good.
The promotional recommendation is analyzed using Samsung’s hypothetical operations. The company is a market leader in the smartphone industry and is seeking to develop a marketing strategy for its new smartphone, Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. The smartphone runs on an android 12, can produce 8K videos using the selfie and main camera, has an internal storage of 512 GB, runs on 5G with a price of $1490, and manufactured for $800. The smartphone launch should be highly advertised to ensure consumers know about the new product. Therefore, it is crucial to develop an effective marketing campaign.
The promotional strategy will focus on digital marketing and TV advertising to show targeted social media adverts. Samsung can buy video and photo adverts on Google to reach a wide range of potential customers. Google advertisements are effective at targeting people who are interested in new smartphone technologies, which will enable the new smartphone to reach potential customers (Ferrell & Hartline, 2017). Furthermore, traditional TV advertising, such as BT Sport, is effective for targeting people who love sports. For example, Samsung can focus its advertisements on soccer fans during football matches or news channels such as NBC and CNN. For digital and TV marketing, the company will spend a total of $250 million to advertise the new product alone and show its features to customers.
The company has millions of customers, but approximately 25 million people are expected to buy the new gadget in six months. The total revenue will be $372.5 billion and the production costs will be $20 billion. The return on investment is calculated by subtracting the marketing investment from the gross profit, then dividing the answer with the marketing investment. The gross profit is calculated by subtracting the production cost from revenue. The return on investment will be achieved in the following calculation.
- Gross profit= ($372.5 billion-$20 billion)
- Gross profit= $352.5 billion
- Return on investment (ROI)= {Gross profit- Marketing investment}/Marketing investment
- ROI= {{$352.5 billion-$250 million}/$250 million} *100%
- ROI = 140900%
Conclusion
Following the case study review, it is essential to evaluate how to use the elements of the marketing mix to attain a competitive advantage. The marketing mix elements are price, place, promotion, and product. The place explains where and how consumers buy company goods or services. Price is the final total cost of a company’s good or service, while product refers to what the company offers to its customers and solves their needs. The final factor in the marketing mix is extremely important because it helps a company to reach its target market through sales promotions or digital marketing. The marketing mix must be considered to conduct a successful promotion campaign.
References
Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. (2017). Marketing strategy (7th ed.). South-Western Cengage Learning.
Pourdehghan, A. (2015). The impact of marketing mix elements on brand loyalty: A case study of mobile phone industry. Marketing and Branding Research, 2(1), 44-63. Web.
Sriyani, N. (2019). Effect of brand equity and marketing mix on customer satisfaction and impact on customer loyalty. Economics and Accounting Journal, 2(3), 206-214. Web.
Thabit, T., & Raewf, M. (2018). The evaluation of marketing mix elements: A case study. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 4(4). Web.