Principles Of Marketing

The Principles of Marketing

E1. Produce a marketing strategy for a product or service with a clear

understanding of the principle of marketing.

My objective for the marketing strategy is to achieve more profits by

making some adjustments to the packaging of Coca-Cola. I want to see

whether the demand for Coca-Cola will increase or decrease due to

small changes. These changes are that I will replace the opening with

a cap on a Coca-Cola can to stop people throwing away the drink due to

a lack of storage space. By doing this I hope to gain a bigger market

share for Coca-Cola.

Before I start making any changes I need to primary and secondary

research in which consumers will be asked whether they would buy the

changed product. In order to make the idea a success I will have to

develop a marketing strategy which evaluates ways which we can achieve

these objectives.

The reason businesses seek to make a profit is that, without a profit,

a business is unable to do all the things it wants to do. Without

profit the business cannot keep its shareholders happy, it cannot pay

higher wages to its employees, it cannot invest in better technology

to improve its products and so on.

Understanding customer needs

In order to anticipate change, organisations need to have an antenna

that is highly sensitive to changes taking place in the buying

population. For example, what is happening to:

* The age structure of the population?

* Tastes and preferences?

* Incomes?

Market research is the antenna of an organisation and is far more

complicated then simply asking 100 people if they like as product.

This is the stage where market research starts. It is therefore, the

ability to satisfy customers that marks the difference between a

successful and unsuccessful organisation. There are only few firms who

can provide for individual needs. Most marketing activities are

therefore designed to meet the needs of groups of customers within a

market.

The first challenge for any organisation is to find a set of customers

and to identify their needs to that appropriate goods and services can

be developed. The first element in the marketing mix is the product,

then all the other elements in this marketing mix can be engaged to

meet customer needs. These may include developing the pricing for the

product or service provided, working out how to distribute (place)

goods to the customers, as well as how to promote them.

Coca-Cola need to understand customer needs to be able to sell their

product. They must undertake market research to find out what their

customers want so they can produce to their needs.

Understanding and keeping ahead of the competition

One of the key factors in any market is the existence and strength of

the competition. In a competitive environment organisations are forced

to be on their toes. They cannot allow rivals to gain advantages by

offering lower prices or goods customers perceive to be substantially

better.

In order to be successful, organisations will gear activities to being

better than their competitors, and to keeping up with any improvements

competitors make. Coca-Cola must be in front of their rivals so that

their product is at the top. They must make improvements all the time

to better their product so that competitors don't take over.

Marketing in any organisation must constantly seek to enable the

organisation to manage the effects of change and competition-by coming

up with new products, advertising promotions, price alternations and

special offers.

As competitor activity is one of the biggest threats to a business

organisation, many marketers spend a lot of time finding out what

their competitors are doing. Finding out about competitors involves

considerable amount of research. This will start with finding out as

much as possible about competitors' products and other elements of

their marketing mix.

Unfortunately, over the course of time, many organisations develop a

product orientation rather than a market orientation. Marketing

orientation is based on the belief that, if organisations do not

satisfy the needs of customers, they will not survive. It is therefore

essential