Business Environment and Marketing Research

Principle of marketing

Argosy University

23rd July 2014

Section 1 – The Environment

Introduction to Marketing

The processes of presenting a concept to customers so that they can buy the good or service offered is referred to as marketing (Wilkie &Moore, 2003). Marketing is important for any business as it alerts the customers of the product, its values and how it can be obtained thereby increasing sales. In the case of Water Bottling Company, a vibrant, comprehensive and expansive marketing initiative is vital to present their water to the public and to ensure its sales pick and stay up.

Marketing Mix

This is a business tool used by marketers to strike the perfect balance that best serves the customers and gives the company optimum income. Marketing mix can be summarized as the 4Ps; product, price, place (distribution) and promotion. Another model of the marketing mix, introduced in 1990, uses 4Cs; consumer need, cost, communication and convenience. The two models are similar and can be expanded as follows:

The product is equivalent to the consumer need in the 4Cs model. The market research determines what the consumers need and the company make their product to satisfy this need. In our case, bottled water is a necessity for the health of people during the day and not only for health reasons; our product is also classy and can be deemed an accessory.

The price is an important part of marketing a commodity. It should be set right to make sure the customers afford it and, for its quality, it is a bargain. The equivalent of Price in the 4Cs model is Cost.

The place or convenience of a product refers to the location of the product or service. According to our projected rollout plan, we plan to have stock in all convenience stores in the Munsonville area within one day of its launch and a deal is in place with the major fast food joints in the area from which it will be available within a week following its launch.

Promoting the product is vital in informing the target customers that the product exists, its value to their lives and where they can get the product. WBC plans on advertising in all media channels and most importantly we bank on our satisfied customers to spread the word.

The Marketing Environment

The factors or forces that affect how an organization builds and maintains a successful relationship with its customers is what encompasses a marketing environment. The marketing environment can either be internal, micro or macro.

Internal environment are the factors within the organization that affect the marketing of the product. The internal factors include the demands of the stake holders’, HR department, accounting and the research and development department.

Micro environment involves the venture itself and all the factors that come as a result of the business whereas the macro environment is the forces external to the business but affect the operations of the company such as competition to the product by similar products in the market.

An understating of the marketing environment is vital in planning, it helps a business compete effectively with the rivals, take advantage of strategic opportunities when they occur and is also important in identifying threats and opportunities.

Marketing and its Relation with Other functional Areas of Business

Organizations are divided into several functional areas which help in the effective running of the company as a whole. Marketing, being one of the function areas, has to link up well with the other areas so that in the long run the organization is sustainable.

Marketing of a product helps improve the sales which as a result increase the revenue of the company. The company finances are dealt with by the accounting and finance department and hence a vibrant marketing project directly affects the accounting department.

The Human resource department is directly responsible for the hiring and placement of employees within a company. To run a good marketing campaign, the HR department has to put together a competent Marketing team hence the marketing success is as a result of a good HR department.

The customer service department has to be well informed of the marketing of all products so as to inform the customers of WBC’s products. Customers being given the right information on the products is a good marketing technique and helps the sales and marketing team prosper.

The marketing team’s feedback to the research and development department staff determines the improvements on the product to suite the consumers better. A beta product released to the market solicits views from the consumers in order to make positive adjustments to the company’s product.

This shows that Marketing directly affects nearly all the functional areas of an organization.

Strategic Marketing

This is the determination of competitive advantages a company’s product has over similar products in the market and channeling the companies resources to best exploit this advantages. Strategic management is best achieved by finding a way to answer three questions; where, how and when.

The ‘where’ is which markets the product is to compete in? At the moment, it will be best for WBC to create bottled mineral water ranging from 300 ml to 1l in capacity which are ideal as carryon’s for office or school going people. The is because the filtered water systems in offices is largely dominated by Quench and it will be a tall order to get a market share in that region. The WBC product, preferably called Crystal Mineral water, will stand a better chance first being introduced in PET bottles then, depending on customer acceptance; make its way to the filtration systems market.

The ‘How’ describes the market advantage the particular company product has over its competition. As it is, the mineral water products in the market are plain bottles with no particular attractiveness on them. The WBC’s Crystal Mineral Water has the chance of capturing the attention of the customers by standing out with its attractive packaging. A nicely packed bottle of Crystal Mineral Water has the potential to accessorize the look of its carrier and as a result serves a double purpose of providing much needed nutrition to the customer and more important doing it in Style.

The time for introducing the Crystal Mineral Water is now. This is the answer to the question ‘When’, which happens to be the third and final part of the strategic marketing. Since there is no other product in the market which does this for the consumers, it is a high time WBC acts fast and occupies this market niche before any other company does it.

Strategy

It is a collection of choices made by the company’s executives on where to act and how to act in order to achieve their long term goals (Miles, Snow, Meyer &Coleman,1978). Where to act determines the target market for the WBC’s Crystal Mineral water where as how to act determines the steps taken to achieve the Brand success WBC is after.

In order to accomplish the strategy, WBC came up with this list of goals and objectives;

· To provide highly nutritious and affordable drinking water to the public

· To make Crystal Mineral water a must have item once any person leaves the house

· To instill a water drinking culture in Munsonville and the state as a whole.

· To be a market leader in mineral water production

Planning Gap

A planning gap is whatever separates the planning procedures and the real life manifestation of the business and making it profitable. A good marketing plan gets a company from its mission and goal to a practical profitable institution.

Ethics in marketing are the principles and values that govern the operations of marketing. In order to succeed in its goals, WBC must develop ethical marketing policies to guide it through pricing, advertising, research and competitive strategies.(Hunt &Vitell, 1986) There are a number of issues arising in any marketing plan and this affect all or most companies. To curb these issues, a number of ethical marketing principles were developed. These are;

· Marketing communications must all share a standard of truth.

· Persons in the marketing field must be held to a high ethical standard.

· A clear boundary should exist between news and advertising.

· Marketers should disclose whoever they pay to endorse their products.

· Consumers should be fairly treated according to the nature of the product and consumer (e.g. marketing to children).

· Consumer privacy should be maintained always.

· Standards set by governments or professional organizations must be adhered to by all marketers.

· All marketing discussions must involve an open discussion on ethics.

References

Hunt, S. D., & Vitell, S. (1986). A general theory of marketing ethics. Journal of macromarketing, 6(1), 5-16.

Miles, R. E., Snow, C. C., Meyer, A. D., & Coleman, H. J. (1978). Organizational strategy, structure, and process. Academy of management review, 3(3), 546-562.

Rust, R. T., Ambler, T., Carpenter, G. S., Kumar, V., & Srivastava, R. K. (2004). Measuring marketing productivity: current knowledge and future directions. Journal of marketing, 68(4), 76-89.

Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2004). Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. Journal of marketing, 68(1), 1-17.

Wilkie, W. L., & Moore, E. S. (2003). Scholarly research in marketing: Exploring the “4 eras” of thought development. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 22(2), 116-146.