Effects Of Marketing Strategies On The Success Of An Organization Declaration

By Author: Anthony W Bills
Total Articles: 158
Comment this article

Effects of Marketing Strategies on the success of an organization
Declaration

The project that I have submitted in my own work and, with the exception of quotations (Which are clearly marked and referenced), is written in my own words. I acknowledge that the work shall be tested using the TurninUK software.
Student signature:…………………………………………………………

Effects of Marketing Strategies on the success of an organization

Marketing strategy can be said to be a process that makes an organization to concentrate its available resources to the highest as well as the available opportunities to increase its sales and still gain a sustainable competitive advantage. The marketing strategy should be centered on the key concept on which the customer satisfaction should be the main goal. The marketing strategy is a method on which an organization focuses on the available energy and resources to a given course of action which can in turn increase sales and also contribute to the dominancy of the target market (Porter, 1985).
A marketing strategy is a combination of ...
... different products development, promotions, distributions, pricing, relationship management and other elements that tries to explain the firms marketing goals and how they will be attained within a specified time flame. The marketing strategy on the other hand also help in distinguishing the market to be targeted, the positioning and the marketing mix as well as the allocation of the resources. It is important when the overall of the firm strategy defines a clear and precise way on how the company’s goals can be attained. On the other hand, the strategy should also ensure that there is a defined way on how the company will engage customers, current and the prospect as well as the competitors in the market arena. There should be also a defined corporate missions and goals of the strategy. The customers are well linked with the company’s source of revenue while the strategy is directly linked to sales. The main mission of the strategy is to keep the marketing in line with the company’s mission statement.
Motivations to the Research Topic
In most cases, most organizations fails to achieve their goals because the lack a defined marketing strategy. This has been an issue of concern and has raised many questions on how the problem can be addressed. In this research, Effects of Marketing Strategies on the success of an organization, which is the main problem to be addressed, will deeply look on the issue through conducting research with a help of primary and secondary sources.
Objectives & Research Questions
The first objective is to determine how marketing strategy impact the success of the company by focusing on the academic literature that clearly states it is caused by demographics and culture changes. Therefore, this first objective will bring out the company’s marketing trend that will contribute to the success of the organization, (Martín-Barbero, S., & Sandulli, F., 2006). To investigate these issues, people will be asked different questions to see what pulls them towards given products and serves by conducting questionnaires and spreadsheets to analyze the data. The spreadsheet data will help to determine which demographics are attracted to which those products that would stem from this academic approach. From there, the second objective is to take the key findings and apply them to the literature by showing how the percentage in some companies marketing strategy can change how a customer’s appeal to it can increase or decrease. This will be shown through the data that will be displayed on the spreadsheet so that the academic approach can help the research to reach its hypothesis. Therefore, the final objective is to draw to the conclusion that gives the effects of marketing strategy to the organization and how they must be done to improve the organization’s strategy. An organization must use the relationship Marketing Strategy, which would give them further insight into what the customer wants by examining the data collected from the questionnaires and spreadsheets.
 To determine how marketing strategy impact the success of the company
 To determine how the strategy can be applied to the company success
 To determine how the marketing strategies can be applied to the company’s success
 To draw conclusion on how the marketing strategy can be effective to the performance of the company
Overview of Chapters
 Introduction chapter, the dissertation will be introduced and the overall overview of the topic will be analyzed. This will give a way to the introduction of the research question and the objectives of the research. On the other hand, there will be an indication of why the problem was worth to be researched on under the motivation reason.
 Literature review. In this chapter, there would be a revisit of various literatures both primary and secondary sources that were done before addressing the same problem. This will help in comparing my findings and what was found by other fore researchers on this particular topic. This will help in drawing conclusion of the research.
 Methodology chapter. Methodology chapter addresses the methods that are used to conduct the research and how authenticate they are. In this chapter still, the research viability and ethics are also discussed to ensure there is no any viability of results and no violation of privacy is violated of the respondents and those who aid in data collection.
 Finding and Analysis. In this particular chapter, the findings that were got after conducting the research will be analyzed to get the results of the research and also to ensure there a conclusion is valid.
 Conclusion and Recommendations. In this chapter, the research will conclude the dissertation in reference to the data that was collected and analyzed. The recommendations of the steps that should be taken for an organization to benefit from the implementation of the best marketing strategy.
Literature Review
The marketing concept of building any given organization around the customer satisfaction have helped many firms to achieve high success in high growth rate in competitive markets. However, for a company to be successful in a market which economic growth has leveled and there is are many competitors who are also following the marketing concepts, a well developed marketing strategy would help in breaking the competition and also in helping the company achieve is marketing goals. Such strategy may include the products portfolio and will take into account the moves that are taken by the competitors in the market.
Marketing research for the strategic decision making
There are two most common uses of the marketing research in the marketing strategy. They are for the diagnostic analysis for the purpose of understanding the market and the organization’s current performance and also for the opportunity analysis for defining any available unexploited opportunities for the organization’s growth. In the marketing research, there are several things that are included including;
 Consumer studies- The consumer studies include the study of the consumer responses in regard to the product the company has availed in the market. It would be easier for an organization to know the weak points of their products and also know why other products are being preferred than their own products.
 Intelligence studies- In the intelligence studies, the organization will be able to collect information from other companies in the market as well as from consumers of other products. This will help the company in developing strategies that will aid in improving their products and woo other product users to use their products.
 Projections- This is the target the company sets for their products and revenues as well. The strategies the company sets must be able to fulfill the aspirations and the set goals by the company.
 Conjoint analysis- This infers the relative importance of the attributes of which the company can present two products to the consumer and allow them choose which products they may prefer. The question are repeated on different occasions in which it helps in predicting which attribute is more important and the combination of the attributes that is more preferred and this will help in estimating the expected market share of a given design or a product.
 Semantic scaling- This is a simple way of rating how the consumers perceive the physical attributes of some products and what the attributes of those values would be. The semantic scaling is not very accurate because some consumers are polled and may be they don’t have knowledge in regard to the product which makes it hard for the mathematical averaging.
 Distributions studies- The distribution studies help in researching how some products and attributes are being distributed and how this distribution affects the market.
 Multidimensional scaling- Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) addresses the problem that is associated with the semantic scaling problem by polling the consumers for pair-wise comparisons between the products or attributes. The main problem with the MDS is that it does not indicate the relative importance of between the attributes and also does not address why people have different perceptions in different attributes (Proctor, 2008).
The multi-product resource allocation in marketing
There are several ways to allocate resources to different products in the market.
 Percentage allocation
 Executive allocation
 All-you-can–Afford
 Match Competitors
 Last year based
On the other hand, there is another method in which managers are asked to answer few questions and is referred to as decision calculus. The questions are as follows;
What would be the sale be like with
 No sales force
 Half of the current effort
 50% greater effort
 A saturation level of effort
1) From the answers that would be given, it would be easier to determine the function of the S-curve parameters and use the linear programming techniques to determine the source of the allocations.
2) The decision algorithms that are achieved in the extreme solutions when some products are given more emphasis than others do not yield any practical solutions.
3) For new products, advertising gives a considerable return which on the old and existing products, there is a very little function of advertising expenditures.
4) The portfolio models can be used to allocate resources among the major products lines or in the business units through the use of different models including the BCG growth-share matrix.
Dynamic Product Management Strategies
There are two ways which are fundamental to the product management which are whether to pioneer or to follow the already existing way and also to manage the product over its life cycle. The order of the market entry is quite important. For instance, to forecast the market share, relative to the pioneering brand’s share divided by the square root of the order entry (Wilson & Gilligan, 1997).
Forecast market share (FMS) = Pioneering Brands (PB)/ √Order Entry (OE)
Therefore, FMS =PB
√OE
The pioneering advantage is achieved from both the supply and the demand. In the supply side, there are raw materials and the experience which is cost effective and from the demand side, there are familiarity and standard setting as well as the choice of perceptual position. When an organization gets a pioneering advantage, it can now maintain as it improves the products and advertise to have a considerable share. The company may make it hard for other companies to enter in the same market (Braithwaite, 2002).
There are also other advantages of being pioneers. This helps the company to use the latest technology and other companies coming in to the market will be replicating what has already been there and before they are able to replicate, the company will have won the trust of the customers.
There are four classic price/selling effort strategies:
Selling Effort Price
Low High
Low Necessity Goods

Classic Skim Strategy
Vulnerable to new entrants

High

Classic Penetration Strategy

Luxury Goods

Retrieved from http://www.quickmba.com/MarketingStrat.shtml on 6th march 2011

In general, when the product is introduced to the market, it will tend to either move to low-low or high-high. Increasing the breadth will have more advantages as the company may occupy most of the distributors’ shelf and offers the consumers a better selection site alleviating competition. On the other hand, the firm will be able to cannibalize its products which are better than the competition doing it.
To improve the profits the company can on the other hand improve on the production efficiency and increase the demand through having more users and uses.
Critical review of literature
Relationship marketing
Relationship marketing as a concept was first introduced by Franklin berry in 1983 in the context of service to describe a very long-term approach to marketing. Since that time it has received considerable attention from the practitioners and the researchers. In the 1950’s the interest in marketing was primarily focused on the consumer goods, in 1960’s an increased attention was placed on the industrial markets while in the 1970’s an academic effort was placed on the area of societal marketing (Christian, 2008). In 1980’s the attention was directed at the service sector and in the 1990’s the concept shifted to relationship marketing. Marketing orientation, customer service and quality are the three main elements in this kin of marketing. The linkage between these three elements will help in achieving a total customer satisfaction and a long-term relationship. The role of these three factors needs to be found, customer service is mainly concerned with getting the right products and services at the right place and time, the main focus is on the views of the distributors and the logistics (Bryman & Bell, 2007). The role of quality in relationship management is undergoing review. The idea of total quality across all the functions focuses the scope of the quality on the relationship between the firm and its suppliers, customers and other key factors on an ongoing basis. Marketing orientation’s role is that it is concerned with the dynamic interrelationship between the company’s services and products, the needs and wants of the customers and the various activities of the company. The framework of marketing mainly consists of marketing forces, marketing mix and marketing processes.
Relationship marketing puts emphasis on maintaining and building of a good workforce. The quality of service depends on people to a very great extent, and also developing long-term relationships with the internal customers is equally as important as developing a relationship wit the external customers (Smitha, 2005).
Overview of relationship marketing
Relationship marketing has nothing to do with the buddy- buddy relationship, this is not what the customer would like, it uses the customer retention marketing tactics that are event driven but it treats marketing like a process over time rather than the single unconnected events. The relationship marketing approach moulds marketing messages and tactics to the customer’s lifecycle so as to achieve the very high customer satisfaction and is also very highly profitable. This marketing process is often defined by a series of stages and different names are used for these stages, these names depend on the marketing perspectives and the business types. When using the relationship approach of marketing, one should customize the programs for the individual consumer groups and the stages of processes that they are going through in contrast to some of the forms of database marketing whereby everyone would get the same promotions with maybe a change in the offer. The stages in the customers lifecycle determines the marketing approach that the marketer should use with the customer. A very good but simple example of this would be sending a new customer a nice welcome kit which may have an incentive for the customer to make a second purchase (Kotler & Armstrong, 2006). If maybe sixty days pass and the customer has not come for a second purchase, then the marketer may follow up with a discount in the email. The marketer would be using the customer lifecycle in triggering the marketing approach. If the marketer can track the lifestyle of the customer, he or she can begin to predict the customers and if you predict them, then you can target the marketing efforts at the highest critical trigger points in the lifestyle of the customer. This marketing approach eliminates a lot of wasted spending in marketing and may create a very high return on investment campaigns in marketing. With this, one spends less money overall and the money spent is more effective. To accomplish all these, one uses the data created by the customer through their interactions with the marketer to build the simple lifecycle models to follow. The relationship marketing approach uses the lifecycle model as a blue print to follow and target the right customers at the right moment with the very most profitable offer (Drilling down, 2010)
A customer relationship that was built over a life time may be lost overnight because of your competition reaching out, capturing the customer’s attention focus and need and also addressing the customer’s needs. Thus to avoid this, one has to maintain the customers relationship as the key to continue his or her business and succeed in future. A global soft solution for relationship marketing provides a proactive one to one customer loyalty and customer communication programs that can leverage the customer’s information so as to maintain and build a strong relationship. To benefit completely from the relationship marketing one has to consider the following:
• Build a customer loyalty: this is accomplished by providing timely information on the services and products, this says that you understand the needs of you customers, it also says that you reinforce your commitment and loyalty to the customers and this increases the profitability of your business thus the customer will continue to buy from you even in future.
• Personalized content: this marketing solution involves variable templates of integration to personalize the content within the messages that will encourage dialogue, build customer loyalty and even capture the attention of customers.
• Content control :these solutions of global soft have been designed to help in reducing the business risk bum akin sure that the legal and compliance graphics and texts remain static during the marketing content and that it can only be modified by personnel that are authorized.
• Brand identity: These solutions enable the effective and deficient identity deployment of the corporate brand, guidelines, implementation and the ongoing continuity controls that are within the company’s standards.
• Effective resource usage: the global soft solutions group is an implementation expert and it recommends the effective step by step approach pr the given time, other resource and the budget that is dedicated to the project so as to produce results that are measurable.
These solutions help to control the operating expenses by reducing the
carrying costs that are incurred when printing and inventorying the large quantities, reducing storage costs and minimizing the collateral waste which occurs through obsolescence. Relationship marketing has relate services that include personalized URLs, database cleansing, management, design consulting, program management support, match mailing, collateral production, rebate programs, multiwave communications, digital asset management, binder and kit opponent assembly and many more (Global soft digital solutions, 2010).
Marketing is evolving continuously with response from the changing environment. Very new strategies, tools and techniques for the marketing managers are being developed constantly. It has moved from the original idea of bringing up mutual satisfaction exchange or benefits. Many consumers have responded to the changes and have become even more sophisticated in their expectations and demands. Service marketing is a specialty that is growing steadily and the concepts such as internal marketing have been developed with the, in the service sector are widely recognized as being the highly relevant to all the organizations. Relationship marketing has gone further than just marketing; organizations are urged to not only focus on their customer relationship internally and externally but also with other elements in the society and industry. The emphasis to the relationship marketing is not to bring about the exchange processes but it’s on building the relationships. Traditionally the perspective of marketing fails to bring about the three critical areas such as customer service, quality and marketing orientation into a closer alignment. Thus this concept emerged as a very new paradigm of integrating customer service and quality with the market orientation (Marn & Rosiello, 1992).
Relationship marketing is an effort directed at the creation of loyal customers, as it was define by Philip kotler, (1997), as the process of creating, enhancing and maintaining valued relationships with the valued customers, dealers, distributors and supplier by consistently delivering and promising them high quality products, fair prices and good products. Marketing has shifted from just trying to maximize on profits to building a beneficial relationship with the consumers and the other parties.
Relationship marketing targets its audience with a more direct information on specific services and products that a customer may have interest in. this kind of marketing differs from the others in that it seeks to retain the customers by building a relationship with them. It focuses on targeting the relationship of organization to customers. If a company has an existing customer base, then it makes sense for the company to learn what these customers like about the services and products and how the company can improve on this. If the company builds on the good relationship it already has with its customers and even create customer loyalty, this can be more valuable than putting energy towards attempting to gain a new business. This marketing strategy is a key strategy to retaining customers. The theory here is that attracting new customers is more costly but yet it is less profitable than even developing the existing customer loyalty. By promoting and developing the existing client base through an understanding and research, the company can create a loyal client base for many years to come, with higher returns and less expenses. A long-term marketing success can be achieved by building a lasting relationship with the clients that the company already has (Ezine articles, 2008).
The target of the sellers is to get a positive and deep long term relationship to their customers. This relationship can grow only if the customers’ demands and needs are accepted. To achieve these terms some special strategies in marketing need to be developed. The main focus of the relationship marketing should be the business connection to the customer. Thus there is need to have a combination of the classical marketing tools and the customized management. There are different kinds of relationship marketing, these include; fidelity discounts, loyalty cards and bonus programs. The relationship strategy is the only opportunity to build a very good relationship with the consumers (Bronson et al, 2004).
In implementing the relationship marketing one has too come up with a check list so that they follow it up and make sure all that is in the list has been worked on. Relationship marketing is usually represented as a process that is developmental; its aim is to improve the relationship the customer has with a company and to increase the customer loyalty. This process comes up through steps that reflect the customer’s value to the company or the increased importance to the company. The stages of this process are; a potential customer (prospect), a sale is made (customer), repeat sale is made (client), regular customer (supporter), regular customer who supports the company actively (loyal customer) and lastly a customer working in partnership with the company (partner). The primary aim of the company would be to gain as many customers as possible (Doyle, 1994). The action check list that a company has to make should be as follows:
1. Review the feasibility of adopting the relationship marketing.
This strategy is not viable for all companies, considerations have to be given to the size of the company and it’s standing within the industry that is to check if the relationship marketing is vital to its competitive edge. An analysis of the customer and product base is very vital. The long term commitment required to implement this strategy, the staff, resources information technology and capital investment should be taken into account.
2 Determine the scope of the relationship marketing efforts
Relationship marketing may be implemented in different levels, through an initiative that is limited in a very specific functional area or even on a wide level. This may involve targeting a range of customers like those who between them, they generate 50% of profits.
3. Agree strategic objectives
The technique for relationship marketing needs to be part of a larger organization that emphasizes on quality, customer service and marketing. This requires the commitment of the senior management and how this affects the whole organization. Considering the first point of contact and how the overall organization will execute the overall strategy as well as how it will affect the entire organization. The advice, feedback and views of these departments will be the center of effectiveness and success of the initiative.
4. Identifying the customer base
The key to implementing a very successful strategy lies with the recognition of the customers at every level of contact. The information from the customers should always be stored on database. The statistics of the customers, their needs, their interaction with different divisions or departments of the company and their purchasing habits must be understood an analyzed and the potential customers identified. The records that are in existence should be updated regularly and information that is out of date should be deleted.
5. Categorize customers
It is very advisable the organizations should rank their customers in relation to their value to the organization, isolate those customers whose custom has slackened off, those who are regular buyers or who generate a large proportion of the profits, select possible new customers and investigating the customers who make orders occasionally and are important to competitors.
6. Interaction with customers
The two way flow of the information between the suppliers and the customers is dependent upon for the success of the relationship marketing strategy. The root of this strategy should be grounded in the effective after sale services and the feedback or complaint procedures. Also a variety of techniques like the customer magazines, call centers, direct mail, websites, discount and loyalty schemes, and user clubs may ensure regular customer contact and increased customer retention.
7. Customer behavior/services/products.
The success of the strategy lies within the customization of behavior or products to meet the customers’ needs. The continuous cycle of collecting information from the customers, disseminating the information, tailoring the products or services, marketing the products to the customer’s \and receiving the feedback on the products success offers an opportunity to update and improve products constantly (Entrepreneur, 1999)
The dos and don’ts of relationship marketing
The Do’s
I. First and foremost be very clear on the overall objectives of the strategy.
II. Plan the strategy to suit the circumstance and the size of your organization and also the customer base.
III. Communicate and consult on your objectives
IV. The profits from relationship marketing rarely show in the short term, one need to commit themselves for a long term to achieve this.
The don’ts
I. Do not neglect to use the customers’ information once it’s collected and analyzed.
This kind of marketing has various advantages, these include ensuring better relationship with the customers and other stakeholders of the company, it ensures a low amortization cost for the acquiring of new customers, also with this option the customers will be less sensitive to the prices, these customers will later on be mouth advertisers and referrals for the organization, there is increased loyalty, possible reduction in the transaction costs, higher levels of satisfaction by the customers, there are prospects of long term profits and there is improved awareness of the organization and interaction within the organization. The disadvantages of this strategy are that it first and foremost may involve a substantial investment of capital without any guarantee of return, there may be significant changes in the company’s culture that are necessary before the implementation of the marketing strategy and lastly it may require an expenditure on new technologies like the customer database. Relationship marketing ensures the employees as well as the customers satisfaction are improved thus retaining them for a very long time. With this marketing strategy there will be a very healthy relationship with the suppliers, the government and the other regulatory bodies (Smitha, 2005).
2.2.3 Application of marketing mix in marketing
The marketing decisions fall in the four categories that can be controlled through the decisions that are made. These categories include;
• Product
• Price
• Place (also distribution)
• Promotion
Marketing mix became popular after the Neil H. Borden’s article (The Concept of marketing) was published in 1964. He began using the term through his teaching in 1940s soon after the James Culliton described the marketing manager as an ingredients mixer. According to Borden, the ingredients of his marketing mix included the product planning, the branding, the promotion tactics, the pricing, the distribution channels, the product packaging, advertisements and personal selling of the products (Porter, 1998).
These strategies were later combined by E. Jerome McCarthy and came up with the four famous categories that are used today, the 7Ps.
The 4Ps is one of the common concepts of marketing. These concepts are found in nearly all business plans of any given company. Most companies are working towards the application of this concept in their business. (Porter, 1998)
• Product
Product is the first concept in the 7Ps marketing strategy. The products are the offered goods or services that are offered by the given business or the anything the business intend to sell or lease but in return for money. When a company is working on its marketing strategy, it gives a great consideration to this concept through the choice of the design of their products as well as the benefits and features off all products that are intended to be marketed (Dwyer, 1987).
In order to attract more customers, the company has to list reasons why their products should be preferred more than products from other companies. Any serious company has to list the reasons why their product has to be preferred more than other products from other companies through giving the benefits it provide other companies are not providing. Though this is a hard trick and there are no differences between may be the product being marketed and the substitute product and they are offering the same services, the company has to formulate a way of convincing the target customer on how the product would benefit them more compared to the alternative product (Porter, 1998)
Most companies do not give an allowance of alteration of their product, in some cases, some companies don’t listen to what the customer prefer in their products, but rather they like doing it their way. This have affected some companies as customers have moved to substitute products and leaving the company unaware of what is happening and wondering why there was such kind of immigrations. On the other hand, some companies have listened to their customers more than they should and have altered the original product through changing packaging, the process of making them thus producing a new and a different from what is being advertised. The originality of a product is vital and should market the product without altering its originality (Barney, 1991). The company has to improve the brand in the market rather than introducing a different and altered product that has no originality. Product being market is vital and should at least retain its originality to ensure it stick to the customers’ minds.
• Pricing
Pricing is another complicated concept of marketing. In order to win on this, there must be some considerations on several issues that include the target group and the actual cost of the commodity. When looking at this target group there some concept that needs to be put into consideration. The status of your target customer is very important as it will help determine the price of the product. People with a low status will tend to buy goods which are cheaper in price. If the cost of production is high, then the price of goods will automatically be high. Therefore your product should be of a price that can be afforded by people of all status. This will help a company win people over because it will not be bias on one class. In this regard, for any business to succeed in the market through the pricing strategy, it has to consider the break even point because this can lead to a worse situation. The aim of every business is to make profits, and this is done through sell a product slightly above the buying price. A company can conduct market research and compare prices of other companies. By so doing the company will be able set its prices slightly lower than its competitors. This will help attract customers from their competitor as well as increase sales and as a result, make profit (Gumersson, 1994).
While a company wants its products to grow in the global market there is need to carry out a number of considerations when pricing the product. The price must be set in a way that it will cover the cost of operation of the company, the cost incurred by the manufacture, supplier and other miscellaneous. The following will be important factors to consider in pricing (Barney, 1991).
• The cost of production
• Economic status of the American shoppers
• Taxes that are imposed by British government
These three factors will determine the price at which the products will be sold at. The price must cover the cost of production and operation. Therefore for the goods to have a lower price and affordable, a company should reduce the cost of production and operation. The company will also have to make consideration.
Due to the marketing condition, the company will not opt for penetration pricing which is used by many companies penetrating in a new market (Johansson, 2006). It is vital to have in mind that the company is operating in a high competitive market and it should take advantage of using pricing strategy to survive the competition in the market. This is also in consideration that there is a supplying company that is undertaking the supply and their costs must be met. Due to the condition of the Asian buyers, it would also be unethical for a company to use premium pricing strategy and set the price higher (Johansson, 2006). It will therefore be advisable for the company to adopt economy pricing where the cost of marketing and production will be kept at minimums in order to lower the cost of the products so as most target group can afford. The price that is adopted by a company should therefore ensure that it covers the cost of production, as well as achieve it marginal profit (Lamb, 1984).
• Placement (Distribution)
In the issue of placement, there are several questions that are to be answered before the final decision is made. These questions include, how will the target customers access the product or service? How will they get to know the product? And how will they buy the product? Once these questions are answered, it’s easy now to plan for the distribution of the product. For a product to be notices on purchased by potential customers, its existence must be known. It’s important to have a product displayed and available to the customer whenever they need it. Being a way from your customers will mean they do not get to know of your product or if they get to know of it through other means like advertising, they will not be able to reach it due to the location. Placing the product at a strategic place means putting your product where your target customers can see as well as access it with less difficulty.
The place aspect in marketing determines the chain of distribution of the product. The chain of distribution determines how the product reaches every consumer. A company may put in place an effective promotion strategy and sell the most magnificent product but without an effective distribution chain, the product will not reach consumer and therefore the efforts will be wasted (Johansson, 2006). Putting in place an effective distribution chain is quite tricky in a market since the distribution chain must have a reach to the local areas to ensure that products reach the entire target market. A company may find a product that is similar to that it has. In this case it can change the brand name so as consumers may not clearly make out the similarity. This will help the customer to have different products and varieties to choose from.
Setting up an entire distribution network would be costly for the company (Johansson, 2006). To go round this cost, it would therefore be advisable for the company to enter into agreement with local distributors of different products who can supply the product. However the company will also need to have its staff in the sales office that will be coordinating the receiving and selling of the products and ensuring that are of high quality. The local distributors who will be appointed dealers will be paid on commission in order to increase encourage them to sell more to earn more profits. Therefore they will be paid a commission for every sale unit they make. This will ensure that the products can reach to all the segments in the market. By setting up your products in many places, you will be able to reach a lot of customers and thus make enough sales and increase profit.
Place is an important factor to consider as it have to a strategic place where the business has a potential of growing. The company has to do a market research and have enough information concerning the place, the main competitors. With this, the company is able to come up with a conclusive decision regarding the place of establishment.
• Promotion
After you have had all the other Ps in place then you can begin the promotion process. Promotion is the process in which a company reaches out to the consumer and inform them of the products they have to offer. Here the promotion person has to convince the customer of the benefits one gets from using the product in question. When it comes to promotion, there are most common ways that most company uses that include: Coupons, Road shows, TV and Radio, advertisements, Contests, Fliers and posters, News letters, Through News papers and Magazines, Public relations, and Free sample. Promotion is the most used concept of marketing for it’s cheaper compared to other concepts. Through this, a company is able to get messages and responses from their target group that help them improve their ROI (Return on Investment) (Porter, 1998)
Promotion is a very important aspect of the 4Ps in the marketing plan. It is very important for a company to have a clear strategy in promotion to keep its rival at bay and also retain the market share. Promotion may not be a problem for a product that consumers are used to since this ends up as a war of brands (Johansson, 2006). One has to have a convincing language to win customers in this process. The product may have the best packaging, but if it is new in the market and no one knows of it, then it will prove hard for customers to trust in its potential. Inform you customer how better are than those of your rival brands and what benefits they would get.
The company will need to use below and above the level marketing strategies which include advertisement in mass media and other outdoor places. However, the most effect promotion strategy that the company can use is carrying out a number of field activities among the prospect customers which will ensure there is increased awareness of the products. The company will need to take part in a number of road shows and trade fairs in order to intertwine with supplying and customers prospect. It is important for a company to identify the best promotion strategies that best suits its products. For example you may opt to carry out road shows. However, there is need to understand that not all customers attend road shows especially the low income earners and therefore it will be imperative for the company to carry out ground promotion activities especially a the local levels. This will assist the company to reach as many people as possible (Lamb, 1984)
In this regard, the company has been using different promotion strategies in promoting its products. The company uses the in store promotions through selling some at discounted rates and also allowing them to pay in monthly basis that also help in attracting more customers. With the internal promotions in the store, the company has managed to attract more customer as well as attracting more new customers.
The other strategy commonly used by the company is through media advertisements, the company advertises through TV, radios, magazines and out door adverts like in bill boards and in neon boards. Most companies use this method to keep its business running and reaching more people. The organizations of road shows help companies interact with its customers and have a face to face interaction which is an essential promotion factor. This will help a company know what its customers know about its goods. In case of misconception, the image is set right and the customer’s confidence and trust won.
2.3 Research Framework
The research starts with the introduction of the question and objectives of the study. It then highlights the research question that is to be answered by the entire dissertation. The Dissertation then looks at various researches that were conducted by other researchers and compare their results with the results that are achieved by this particular research. In the methodology chapter, the research methods that were used to collect data were is highlighted and how the research can be authenticated. The data is then analyzed to draw a conclusion of the entire dissertation.
2.4 Summary
In the entire literature review chapter, the primary and secondary data was contacted to ensure there are viable results. Marketing strategy is one of the most important aspects in marketing for it gives a road map on how marketing would be done and what might be achieved.
Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1 Methodology
In this research, human subjects will be used for data collection. The data will be collected by observing two groups that are controlled; one group will be that of people who have already used the Apple iPhone before and those who have never used the brand before. Both of these groups have the same usage advantages as far as my research is concerned. Their iPhones and the usage habits will be measured over a period of six weeks by the use of questionnaires regarding the perception of how well the operations of the phones are, while they report back their experiences two or three times a week. At the end of the sixth week, they will fill in another questionnaire to measure if there is any improvement or decline in the behavior and perception of their phones.
Sample size
The sample size for this stud y will be 50 people, the procedures here will include but not limited to the distribution of fliers so as to obtain the participants. The population was selected due to the varying percentages of male and female and the races of those who have used iPhones before. The questionnaire will include questions on race, gender and questions that will determine the perceptions of people towards the iPhones. The reporting session will obtain the details of both groups which would have been missed by the questionnaire about their perceptions which are in-depth of the iPhone from Apples that they have used.
Concepts under study
In order to have a complete and concise research on the subject, there is a great need to understand the actual problem and the topic of study. Which to analyze the effectiveness of advertisement in promoting Apples brands and what other methods the company uses to promote its products.
The topic or research is broad and needs time and dedication to acquire the required information in regard to Apples advertisement tactics. To verify this, there must be a better research method that will help in gathering enough and vital information on the former and the current methods of advertisements.
Analyzing data
To analyze the data regarding the selections that are made on the questions that will be broken down by gender and race, to allow for the rejection or confirmation of the hypothesis SPSS software will be used. The independent variable here will be gender and race while the dependent variable will be the current marketing strategy. Ethical concerns in this research will be addressed by the use of data concerning race and gender as the variables. To maintain anonymity and deter the researcher from skewing the results because of association, no names will be used for any of the participants. All the participants will be given a number and their race and sex will be identifiers on the questionnaire.
Paradigm used in this study
As was explored above, the traditional research paradigm is not suitable when dealing with human subjects. The traditional research paradigm is not appropriate when dealing with human subjects because the variables require manipulation and this can harm the human subjects. There are ethical and pragmatic reasons why there are variables in research that cannot be held constant or manipulated in an experiment. This study will mainly deal with human subjects since they are the main stake holder in the subject. This means that a different approach will have to be used and the research will have to use interpretivist research paradigm. This will be like holding an in-depth interrogation of the subject to establish the trust like in interrogating people who owns the MMC models. This research will be set in interpretivist paradigm in order to understand and how and why something mainly happens (Henning et al, 2004).
Qualitative method
There are three main methods that can be used in data collection in a qualitative study. These include interactive interview, written descriptions, and observation (Cousin, 2005). Interactive interview takes place when people are verbally asked to describe their experiences for a given phenomenon. On the other hand, written descriptions by participants takes place when people are asked to write descriptions of their experiences for a given phenomena while observations mainly include a descriptive observations of verbal or non-verbal behavior (Lather, 2006; Torrance, 2005). This study is aimed at getting an informed understanding of the issue under stand through interaction with individuals. This means that the best way to get this information will be through personal interview. Unlike other method of data collection mentioned above, personal interviews are important in qualitative study because they ensures that the researcher has direct contact and interaction with the subjects and hence captures different aspects of the phenomena under study that may be omitted in the other methods of data collection (Cohen et al., 2000). There are different methods of interview method and this study will use semi-structured interview. A semi structured interview has formalized, limited set of questions that assists the research to focus on different aspect of the phenomena (Torrance, 2005). The main reason why semi structured interview has been chosen for this study is because they are flexible and allows new questions to be brought up during the interview in response to what the interviewee says. Although the interview in semi structured interview has given sets of theme to explore, new themes can arise from the information given by the interviewee, which means a deeper understanding of the subject can be established (Torrance, 2005). Therefore, semi structured interview in this study will help to gain a range of insights on specific issues. This method is less intrusive because it is based on two-way communication rather than a formalized interview. It will provide researcher to get more information about the issues and make it easy to discuss sensitive issues (Denzin, 1994).
Research Philosophy
I begun this research through pre-understanding of general factors which are applicable to the topic am researching on. Through accessing helpful and relevant sources are researching on will help me acquire important and significant information that will help in conducting this research. The approach to research, the way data is collected and analyzed, is a direct consequence of one’s belief about the world, and to a lesser extent depends on the issue being researched (Macdonald, et al, 2002).
Research philosophy is regarded as a way through which a person thinks in regard to the development of knowledge and how it affects data collection method, approach and the entire methodology as well. A well understood research philosophy is vital in clarifying the right research design that would be used as well as how the research design can be adjusted to fit the current setting on how the research shall be done (Creswell, 2003).
I had to closely look for a method that will not affect anyone or any company’s affairs. The research philosophy will determine the researcher’s carefulness and consideration to factors that may bring in bias there after. Though the research philosophies are different and are differently analyzed, the entire research should adopt a mixed approach. One should be always being cautious not to have contradictory results especially when the researcher has used both the qualitative methods. Positivists’ detach the respondents from their social context for this research it is important to view the respondent’s in their context, to understand their perceptions. A highly structured research design is preferred by positivists to restrict the findings to a small extent. Possible positivist paradigm weakness is that it is not very useful in understanding the processes or significance of people attached to actions. The social constructivists approach and the complementary qualitative method are suitable in this research because of their ability to understand people’s meanings and adjust to new issues and understandings as they emerge (Creswell, 2003).
Research Ethics
Ethical considerations are very important issues in the research. Respecting other people, honesty and academic integrity, explicitly addressed constitutes an ethically responsible research work. To validate the research, there were several ethical aspects that were taken care of as was found in the research (Schein, 2004).
Considering that the research ethical responsibility would only involve using plagiarism and bias free writing would only be a superficial. A researcher committed to producing an ethically responsible research, addresses the issues of informed participants’ consent and the organization, confidentiality and anonymity, and reciprocity (Schein, 2004).
Am more sympathetic to the participants’ feelings in a qualitative research; hence ethical issues need to be well addressed in qualitative research. A research that is ethically responsible ensures the participants do not face any problems or difficulties for the participating in the research. This is a very important consideration in this research because of the sensitive nature of the research issue. Avoiding questions such as respondent’s name, their designation etc has assured the respondents that their privacy is guaranteed and they cannot be identified for research purposes. Anonymity is essential especially when researching for a controversial and a sensitive topic. Anonymity of the entire case and of the individuals is being maintained (Livingston, & Lunt, 1994).
Reliability and validity of research
In any research, reliability, validity and replication are important considerations and these are as important as it was used in determining the choice of the methodology. Consistency and purity of a measure are attributes of reliability and on the other hand repeatability or stability is also an important aspect of reliability. Reliability is given higher importance in quantitative research. These four constructs are similar to the constructs reliability, replicability and validity which are measures of quantitative research (Livingston, & Lunt, 1994).
It is difficult to achieve external reliability in qualitative research because the settings change, and hence it is difficult to replicate the entire study in the same setting as when researched previously. External validity deals with generalizing the results that goes beyond the research setting.
It would be useless if the research conducted has no validity. It’s always important to validate the research to avoid all efforts that are made in doing this research futile. Any research which is not reliable is not valid. Concurrent validity deals with the issue of whether the question is truthful and honest and the predictive research deals with the forecasting. Research validity is a degree by which findings are able to present the reality in an accurate way. Validity also is concerned with the extent to which the findings are original. Face validity determines if the constructs used by the researcher actually represent what they should. A number of hypothetical constructs could be used in the research, and the extent to which the chosen construct is coherent with the findings is construct validity (Livingston, & Lunt, 1994).
Summary
The marketing strategy is one of the most important factors in the prosperity of a company. When a company has a better marketing strategy, its easier for the company to prosper and acquire a considerable market share. When the company understands the market, it’s easier to have a strategy that will aid in penetrating and setting a stance that will not be easier to be replicated by other companies. The relationship between the company and the market also helps in wooing the prospective customers to prefer the company’s products thus increasing sales and hence profits.
Application of the marketing mix also helps in understanding how the market is and in planning of the best strategy. In most cases, the company will be able to plan on the best way to approach the market and also move with the trend hence improving on the weak points.
Findings & Analysis
Introduction
In the finding and analysis of the research, data that was collected from the market survey and also from different individuals will be analyzed and get the best information to answer the question. Different people were involved in the research through responding to a questionnaire in order to have different perceptions people have and how they influence their mode of buying different products.
Profile of the respondents
Respondents that were selected to answer to the queries were between the age of 18 and above because they have different perceptions that influence their buying mode and are also able to make their own decisions. According to those were queried, their profiles are as follows.
Age 18-25 26-30 31-35 Above 36
Males
6 3 6 8
Females
8 2 6 9

Findings
Age 18-25 Quality price
Man 2 4
Women 1 7

Age 26-30 Quality Price
Men 2 1
Women 2 0

Age 31-35 Quality Price
Men 5 1
Women 4 2

Above 36 Quality Price
Men 8 0
Women 9 0

Analysis and Results
According to the findings, only majority of the young people are concerned about the prices compared to older people. Therefore, the company that is not targeting young people because there are no much difference in sex preferences, they should consider having relatively low prices compared to those targeting older people which should concentrate on the quality of the product.
By analysing the results obtained from both the interview and questionnaire, it is quite clear that most of the people believe that Apple is using effective marketing strategies to market its brand. Our survey cuts across all populations since there was equal representation of the main population of the country. Reasons that were cited in favour our study in both interview and questionnaire appeared to bear some similarities. Other than that, interview and questionnaires evidenced that people were not ready to go drop using iPhone anytime sooner.
The results obtained from this study are purely depended on information collected on this matter and also wide expertise knowledge on the interviewees about the subject. Form instance, among the sample group is financial advisors and bank managers who posses a wide knowledge on matters regarding tomarketing . Although the information obtained fin this study does not represent individuals’ opinions, it can be used to represent the general perception of the public especially considering the fact that the sample was assembled randomly though for specific age bracket. After carefully reviewing the answers form the interview and questionnaire, it became quiet obvious that all the categories posed similar results as far marketing strategies is concerned. This shows that the benefits of the move outweigh the costs by far, though not many supported the issue that Apple is using the best marketing strategy.
Summary
It has been found that most people concentrate on the quality of the products they are spending money on. According to the research that was conducted, it has revealed that if the company advertises low quality products, there is possibility that there would be no much impact but when the quality is ok, there is high probability that the product will achieve its marketing goals.
Conclusion & Recommendations

In the regard of the goals set by any company seeking to develop and benefit from the set marketing strategies, it has to seek to develop consumer satisfaction strategies. The company will ensure all supplied products reach the consumers and would give the expected service. It would also ensure that all the products that are supplied to the market are user friendly and will meet all the consumers’ needs and are affordable while buying and in maintenance as well. On the other hand, the company may think of using psychographic and demographic strategies to fulfill this in respect to the demand of 7Ps (Ranchhod, 2007)
An organization that uses appropriate marketing strategies must have a considerable market share in the market. For an organization to benefit from the market, must have a well defined growth strategy and definitely has the potential of growth should the planned strategies be implemented and put into great consideration. When the company gets a good marketing reputation, it usually breaks through because most people associate the company that has good reputation with quality and affordability (Ranchhod, 2007). When the competition is stiff, the company must ensure that customer satisfaction strategies that will boost sales and hence profits. This will help the company to retain its current customers and hence get new customers booting sales and also enabling the company to break through.
In almost all markets, regardless of what is being sold, there has been a cut-throat competition and to win over, each and every participating company must have well planned strategies that would be hard to be replicated by other companies. Most people look for products that are low priced and have a better package compared to other competing products in the market. To respond to the competition, each company must establish strong 7Ps so as to cater for the all corners of market. This will help to seal all loopholes that other companies could use to get into the market. Of help also, is to consider the reorganization of bureaucracy structures which could help eliminate variability in results. Better results would be realized if and when leaders in an organization have different skills, goals and experiences.
Max Weber (1995), in 'Organization Management Strategies", states that the rules themselves should be standardized so as not to disrupt the whole company strategies. If this is well implemented, any organization will have a better performance both locally and internationally in future. The problems afflicting a company are of two types: those caused by the external and internal factors. The internal factors can be avoided via having a better management through giving departmental heads freedom to lead their respective departments. This will immensely improve the management of a company and push it to greater heights of success.
The external factors can be solved by practicing relationship marketing where by they interact with their customers and make sure that they maintain these relationships, and be loyal to their customers making sure they take care of all their customers’ needs and respect their views and suggestions. (Lucia, 2000)
Every company should be aware of its market environment to distinguish what areas it needs to strengthen and where to put more effort. The implementation of relationship marketing strategy has a great lesson to other businesses in the market. A strict bidding to the theory of success will catalyze an organization to venture in new and stronger methods of doing its business.
Managerial implications
In setting up or planning for a marketing strategy, managers must play a vital role in ensuring that the set strategies are of help to the company and its marketing goals. In most cases, manages may have different experiences and skills and they can apply in different ways that can lead to viability in results. Marketing strategy can help in ensuring that all managers work together towards the Limitations of Study
 When conducting the research, most people were unwilling to respond to the questions because they claimed that it wasted their time without any gain. Convincing unwilling people was one of the hardest things in research.
 Privacy issues. Most people claimed that their privacy might be at stake for having responded to the questions even though their personal information was not needed. They were not comfortable with their physical presence in data collection.
 Financial problem. There was much money that would be needed to move in different areas and markets as well as visiting different companies to collect data. Financial difficulty made it had to move to different regions to have a wide range of data.
Future direction of research
In this regard, in order to have much data that will help in getting the required results, there would need to have a wide area data collection that would require moving from one town to another and visiting different companies in order to know how they feel and view about the question of the research and may be they could have the remedy to the problem.
Summary
Each and ever company must be able to distinguish the market tread in order to have a share. The company must have set goals that are to be scored through the use of the already planned strategy. The company must be able to develop the consumer satisfaction strategies and ensure the products supplied to the market fulfill the required services. On the other hand, the products supplied to the market must be user friendly and affordable as well.

List o