1. Marketing Strategy and the Marketing Mix
ACO501

2. Introduction
The strategic plan defines the company’s overall mission and objectives. Figure 1.1 shows marketing role and activities and summarizes the major activities involved is managing a customer driven marketing strategy and marketing mix.
Consumer stands in the centre. The gold is to create value to consumers and built profitable customers relationships. Next comes marketing strategy, the marketing logic by which the company hopes to create this customers value and achieve this profitable relationship. The company decides which customers it will serve (segmentation & targeting) & how (differentiation & positioning).It identifies the total market and then divides it into collar segments, select the most promising segments, and focuses on serving and satisfying customers in these segment.

3. Contd
Guided by marketing strategy, the company designs an integrated marketing mix made up of factors under its control – product, price, place and promotion (the Ps).To find the best marketing strategy and mix the company and engages in marketing analysis, planning, implementation, and control. Through this activites, the company watches and adapt to the actors and forces in the marketing environment. We now look briefly at each activity.

4. Figure1.1 – Managing Marketing Strategy and Marketing Mix

5. Customer Driven Marketing Strategy
Companies know that they cannot profitably serve all customers in a given market – at least not all consumers in the same way. There are too many different kinds of consumers with too many different kinds of needs. And some companies are in a position to serve some segment better than the others. Thus each company must divide up the total market, choose the best segments and design strategies for profitability serving chosen segments. This process involves:

6. Contd
Market segmentation – The market consist of many types of customers, products, and needs. The marketer must determine which segments offer the best opportunities. Consumer can be grouped and served in various ways based on geographic, demographic, psychograhic, and behavioral factors. The process of dividing a market into groups of buyers who have different needs, characteristics or behavior who might require separate products or marketing program is called market segmentation. Companies are wise to focus their efforts on meeting the distinct needs of individual market segments.
Market Targeting – It involves evaluating each market segments attractiveness and selecting one or more segments to enter. A company should target segments in which it can profitably the greatest customer value and sustain it over time.

7. Contd
Market differentiation and positioning – A company has decided which market segments to enter, it must decide how it will differentiate its market offering for each targeted segment and what positions it wants to occupy in those segments.

8. Marketing Analysis
Managing the marketing function begins with a complete analysis of the company situation. The marketer should conduct a SWOT analysis, by which it evaluates the company’s overall strengths[S], weaknesses [W], opportunities [O], and Threats [T].
Strength includes:
Internal capabilities
Resources
And positive situation factors that may help the company to serve its customers and achieve its objectives.

9. Contd Weaknesses include: Internal limitations
And negative situational factors that may interfere with the companies performance
Opportunities include:
Are favorable factors or trends in the external environment that the company may be able to exploit to its advantage.
Threats include:
Are unfavorable external factors or trends that may present challenges to performance.

10. Contd
The company should analyze its markets and marketing environment to find attractive opportunities and identify environmental threats. It analyzes company strengths and weaknesses as well as current and possible marketing actions to determine which opportunity it can best pursue. The goal is to match the company’s strength to attractive opportunities in the environment while eliminating or overcoming the weaknesses and minimizing the threats.

11. Figure 1.2 – SWOT Analysis

12. Contd

13. Contd
The marketing mix is a good place to start when you are thinking through your plans for a product or service, and it helps you avoid these kinds of mistakes.
Understanding the Tool

14. Understanding the Tool
The marketing mix and the 4Ps of marketing are often used as synonyms for each other. In fact, they are not necessarily the same thing.
"Marketing mix" is a general phrase used to describe the different kinds of choices organizations have to make in the whole process of bringing a product or service to market. The 4Ps is one way

15. Contd
– probably the best-known way – of defining the marketing mix, and was first expressed in 1960 by E J McCarthy.
The 4Ps are:
Product (or Service).
Place.
Price.
Promotion.
A good way to understand the 4Ps is by the questions that you need to ask to define your marketing mix. Here are some questions that will help you understand and define each of the four elements:

16. Product/Service
• What does the customer want from the product /service? What needs does it satisfy?
• What features does it have to meet these needs?
• Are there any features you've missed out?
• Are you including costly features that the customer won't actually use?
• How and where will the customer use it?
• What does it look like? How will customers experience it?
• What size(s), color(s), and so on, should it be?
• What is it to be called?
• How is it branded?
• How is it differentiated versus your competitors?
• What is the most it can cost to provide, and still be sold sufficiently profitably? (See also Price, below).

17. Place
Where do buyers look for your product or service?
If they look in a store, what kind? A specialist boutique or in a supermarket, or both? Or online? Or direct, via a catalogue?
How can you access the right distribution channels?
Do you need to use a sales force? Or attend trade fairs? Or make online submissions? Or send samples to catalogue companies?
What do your competitors   do, and how can you learn from that and/or differentiate?

18. Price What is the value of the product or service to the buyer?
Are there established price points   for products or services in this area?
Is the customer price sensitive? Will a small decrease in price gain you extra market share? Or will a small increase be indiscernible, and so gain you extra profit margin?
What discounts should be offered to trade customers, or to other specific segments   of your market?
How will your price compare with your competitors?

19. Promotion
• Where and when can you get across your marketing messages to your target market?
• Will you reach your audience by advertising online, in the press, or on TV, or radio, or on billboards? By using direct marketing mailshot? Through PR? On the Internet?
• When is the best time to promote? Is there seasonality in the market? Are there any wider environmental issues that suggest or dictate the timing of your market launch, or the timing of subsequent promotions?
How do your competitors do their promotions? And how does that influence your choice of promotional activity?

20. WHAT IS A SWOT ANALYSIS AND WHY SHOULD YOU USE ONE?
SWOT stands for: Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat. A SWOT analysis guides you to identify your organization’s strengths and weaknesses (S-W), as well as broader opportunities and threats (O-T). Developing a fuller awareness of the situation helps with both strategic planning and decision-making.
The SWOT method was originally developed for business and industry, but it is equally useful in the work of community health and development, education, and even for personal growth.
SWOT is not the only assessment technique you can use. Compare it with other assessment tools in the Community Tool Box to determine if this is the right approach for your situation. The strengths of this method are its simplicity and application to a variety of levels of operation.

21. WHEN DO YOU USE SWOT?
A SWOT analysis can offer helpful perspectives at any stage of an effort. You might use it to:
Explore possibilities for new efforts or solutions to problems.
Make decisions about the best path for your initiative. Identifying your opportunities for success in context of threats to success can clarify directions and choices.
Determine where change is possible. If you are at a juncture or turning point, an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses can reveal priorities as well as possibilities.
Adjust and refine plans mid-course. A new opportunity might open wider avenues, while a new threat could close a path that once existed.
SWOT also offers a simple way of communicating about your initiative or program and an excellent way to organize information you've gathered from studies or surveys.
WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF A SWOT ANALYSIS?
A SWOT analysis focuses on Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. 
Remember that the purpose of performing a SWOT is to reveal positive forces that work together and potential problems that need to be recognized and possibly addressed. 
We will discuss the process of creating the analysis below, but first here are a few sample layouts for your SWOT analysis.