The service marketing mix is also known as an extended marketing mix and is an integral part of a service. The service marketing mix consists of 7 P’s as compared to the 4 P’s of a product marketing mix. Simply said, the service marketing mix assumes the service as a product itself. However it adds 3 more P’s which are required for optimum service delivery. Product — The product in service marketing mix is intangible in nature. The product element of the marketing mix includes the tangible good and all of the services that accompany that good to produce the final product. A product is a package, or bundle, of goods and services that comprise the total offering. For example, the purchase of a hotel room includes the guest room, fitness center, pool, restaurants, valet service, concierge, housekeeping service, etc. A restaurant meal consists of the actual food, host/hostess, and Continue reading
Marketing Management
Marketing management combines the fields of marketing and management. Marketing consists of discovering consumer needs and wants, creating the goods and services that meet those needs and wants; and pricing, promoting, and delivering those goods and services. Doing so requires attention to six major areas – markets, products, prices, places, promotion, and people. Management is getting things done through other people. Managers engage in five key activities – planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Marketing management implies the integration of these concepts.
Use of Propaganda in Advertising
Propaganda is a “systematic, widespread dissemination or promotion of particular ideas, doctrines, practices, etc. Some use it to cause or to damage an opposing one.” While it is true that many of the techniques associated with propaganda are also used in the practice of advertising or public relations, the term propaganda is usually applied to efforts to promote a particular political viewpoint. Additionally, propaganda can be used to promote specific religious views. Furthermore, companies use propaganda to persuade consumers into buying their product, and, sadly, misinformation is found all around people in magazines, on television, on billboards, and in movies. Subconsciously, people let the use of propaganda influence their decision to purchase items that they often would not buy. Advertisers lean heavily on propaganda to sell products, whether the “products” are a brand of toothpaste, a candidate for office, or a particular political viewpoint. Although propaganda may seem relevant only Continue reading
Risks of Generic Competitive Strategies
Fundamentally, the risks in pursuing the Porters generic competitive strategies are two: first, failing to attain or sustain the strategy; second, for the value of the strategic advantage provided by the strategy to erode with industry evolution. More narrowly, the three strategies are predicated on erecting differing kinds of defenses against the competitive forces, and not surprisingly they involve differing types of risks. It is important to make these risks explicit in order to improve the firm’s choice among the three alternatives. Risks of Overall Cost Leadership Strategy Cost leadership imposes severe burdens on the firm to keep up its position, which means reinvesting in modern equipment, ruthlessly scrapping obsolete assets, avoiding product line proliferation and being alert for technological improvements. Cost declines with cumulative volume are by no means automatic, nor is reaping all available economies of scale achievable without significant attention. Cost leadership strategy is vulnerable to the Continue reading
Advertising Creativity – The Role of Creativity in Advertising
The creative part of advertising involves the process of selecting and presenting the messages. The business of conceiving, writing, designing and producing these messages is called advertising creativity and the key wordsmith is called a copywriter or copy chief or copy supervisor. The success of advertising depends to a great extent on the quality of the message or copy of advertisement rather than the money spent on advertising. The conventional theory of advertising includes the concept of AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action). Most of the advertisers believe that the message in advertisement copy must attract the attention and interest of the consumer if buying is to result. But they forget that only good advertisement copy or good message can attract the attention and interest of the receiver until and unless the much advertise product attributes have a strong impact on consumers. The consumers come to know the existence of Continue reading
Brand Building Process – Process of Building a Brand
The art of marketing is largely art of brand building. When something is not a brand, it will probably be viewed as a commodity. Then price is the thing that counts. When price is the only thing that counts then the low cost producer wins. But just having a brand is not enough. What does the brand name mean? What associations, performances and expectations does it evoke? What degree of preferences does it create? 1. Choosing a Brand Name A brand name first must be chosen then its various meanings and promises must be built up through brand identity work. In choosing a brand name, it must be consistent with the value positioning of the brand. In naming a product or service the company may face many possibilities: it could choose name of the person (Honda, Calvin Klein), location (American airlines), quality (Safety stores, Healthy choice), or an artificial name Continue reading
Meaning of End Product Advertising
There are many products that are rarely purchased direct by consumers. They are usually bought as part or ingredient in other products. For example, there is Teflon (DuPont product), Pentium (Intel Corporation’s computer processor chip), Athelon (Advanced Micro Devices computer processor chip) and many others. Advertising of such products is called end product advertising (also called branded ingredient advertising). This type of advertising is often undertaken by manufacturers whose branded parts or ingredients are used in producing usually other branded or unbranded consumer products. Successful end product advertising helps create demand for the ingredient that helps in the sale of another product, such as Intel promotes its Pentium processors. The sustained existence of consumer demand for such ingredients encourages companies to use them in their consumer products. It is not easy to build end-product demand. The manufacturer must have an ingredient that is widely recognized by manufacturers and consumers and Continue reading