Article # 1: The Marketing Mix Revisited: Towards the 21st Century Marketing Mix
The marketing mix framework was developed over 60 years ago and is often referred to
as the foundation of marketing. The marketing mix represents the 4Ps, which are product, price,
promotion, and place. Academic and marketing professionals embrace this theoretical marketing
concept as the principal and indispensable element of marketing (Constantinides 2006). The 4Ps
are vital for a business to thrive and gain success. Constantinides (2006) brings up the argument
that the 4Ps marketing mix isn’t perfect due to a lack of addressing the ever-changing marketing
environment and consumer behavior. Every decade since its initial introduction in 1960,
marketing has evolved slowly, adding to the variety of what marketing can offer.
Constantinides (2006) highlights the article by mentioning how information and
communication technologies evolved, which evolved the marketing landscape in the 21st
century. The 21st century emphasizes innovation, relationship building, customization, and
networking, which bolsters marketing efforts for a business. Changes in the marketing
environment help expand the scope of marketing management theory, which leads to better
strategies for marketers to use. Researchers and marketing professionals push the agenda for
expanding the framework of the marketing mix to react to the climate of what marketing is
nowadays. Wu & Li (2018) discuss how the marketing mix gradually lost its edge due to the
rapid advance of information and communication technologies, especially with the introduction
of the Internet. This brought a change in consumer demands, which turned simplicity into
complexity. This is what is argued in this article, highlighting the need for consumer, strategic,
industrial, service, social, international, retail, non-profit, relationship, trade, direct, network, and
online marketing to advance the marketing mix to excel in the future.
Article #2: The Elements of Value: Measuring and delivering what consumers really want
Companies are known to focus their time and energy on managing product prices with
the help of their marketing department since pricing can play a major part in making a profit.
Almquist et al. (2016) discuss the use of price management as a marketing tool, which is a short-
term strategy used to focus on analytics. It’s argued that the focus for marketers should be on
what consumers perceive as value to them, which can make it difficult for marketers due to the
unpredictability.
Value is something businesses strive to achieve; they do so by analyzing their target
market to best provide the value wanted by consumers. Value is broken down into four
categories: functional, emotional, life-changing, and social impact, which are crucial for
consumers to determine value. Park et al. (2018) discuss how companies deal with unknown
factors on how the product market reacts to their marketing activities and strategies, making
value designation crucial for effective marketing campaigns. This can be achieved by companies
putting effort into their marketing department with underlying values on consumer value being
important to strategies going forward.
Article #3: The CEO of Levi Strauss on Leading an Iconic Brand Back to Growth
Bergh (2018) states that Levi Strauss never exceeded $4.5 billion in sales between 2001
and 2010, which shows that Levi Strauss is in trouble and needs to pivot to match its competitors
in the apparel industry. Levi Strauss appointed a new CEO in 2011, where he spoke with
executives, employees, and customers to see how to fix the company. The accumulative
assumption was that Levi Strauss lacked a clear marketing strategy. The CEO took this
information and led the charge by changing the advertising tagline to a new advertising tagline,
“Live in Levi,” to begin the development of a clear marketing strategy. However, a new slogan
isn’t going to be the only answer to a clear marketing strategy. Therefore, a four-part strategy
focusing on building a profitable core, expansion, becoming a leading omnichannel retailer, and
achieving operational excellence was the plan put into place to help the company bounce back.
According to Bergh (2018), this strategy revitalized Levi Strauss and has more than doubled the
value of the company. This study goes to show without the proper marketing strategy even a
distinguished company can fail if they don’t have a clear and effective marketing strategy in the
21st century.
Bible Verses: Product Strategy and Branding
The Bible, states, “And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they
thus?questioned?within themselves, said to them, “Why do you?question?these things in your
hearts” (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Mark. 2:8). I believe this passage from Mark 2:8
fits well with our discussion of product strategy and branding because it shows the importance of
questioning strategy and branding efforts in a company. Asking and answering questions are
vital for new information and growth for a company. This will lead to clearer marketing
strategies that will lead to success.
Genesis 1:9 says, And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together
into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so (English Standard Version Bible,
2001, Genesis. 1:9). This passage from Genesis 1:9 shows that not everything is easily shown in
business, especially value in a product or service. A company has to dig deep and rely on strong
strategies to provide value to its product or service to best attract its consumers.
Lastly, another verse in the Bible that resembles our topic of discussion is Proverbs
18:15. Proverbs 18:15 states, an intelligent heart acquires knowledge and the ear of the wise
seeks knowledge (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Proverbs. 18:15). This Proverb
represents the Levi Strauss study where the new CEO listened to his staff and customers on what
was wrong with the company. Success isn’t built off arrogance; one has to be open to listening to
others and be open to changing strategies to be successful. Companies who execute this stand out
from their competitors and build value for their consumers.
Conclusion
The three articles that are the basis for this discussion speak on the marketing dynamics
resulting from market shifts and consumer behavior. It discusses how the 4Ps marketing mix
discussed in the first article doesn’t solve problems like consumer behavior and service
marketing. The second article discusses how value is a crucial aspect of marketing and should be
valued higher than pricing for long-term effects. Lastly, the last article goes to show that even
well-established companies can be on the brink of closure by not having a clear marketing
strategy. All these articles show the importance of strategy and show that companies have to
adapt to evolution in the market place.
References
Almquist, E., Senior, J., & Bloch, N. (2016). The Elements of Value: Measuring—and delivering
— what consumers really want. Harvard Business Review, 94(9), 46-53.
Bergh, C. (2018). The CEO of Levi Strauss on leading an iconic brand back to growth. Harvard
Business Review, 94(6), 33-39.
Constantinides, E. (2006). The Marketing Mix Revisited: Towards the 21st Century Marketing.
Journal of Marketing Management, 22(3-4), 407-438.
https://doi.org/10.1362/026725706776861190
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). ESV Online. https://esv.literalword.com/
Keller, T., & Alsdorf, K. L. (2014). Every good endeavor: connecting your work to God's work.
Penguin Books.
Park, K., Chintagunta, P., & Suk, I. (2018). Capital Market Returns to New Product
Development Success: Informational Effects on Product Market Advertising. Journal of
Marketing Research, 56(1), 37-56. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022243718820560
Wu, Y., & Li, E. Y. (2018). Marketing mix, customer value, and customer loyalty in social
commerce: A stimulus-organism-response perspective.Internet Research,28(1), 74–
104. https://doi.org/10.1108/IntR-08-2016-0250
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