M4A2

Marketing

Student’s Name

Institution

Introduction to Marketing

Marketing refers to the process of promoting and selling products and services to consumers. When a business comes up with a new product, it should put in some effort to make sure that the potential consumers are aware of the product. The business should go ahead and sell its products. This is typically what marketing entails. The major role that marketing will play at WBC is to create awareness that the company has a product to offer. Basically, marketing will promote the product and create demand for it.

The Marketing Mix

The marketing mix consists of the 4ps of marketing which are: product, price, promotion, and place.

Product

This is the product or service that a business offers to the market. In this case, the product is water. The Waters Bottling Company believes that the market will need its product. A business should be able to come up with a product that is needed in the market to make sure that there is sufficient demand for it. WBC needs to make sure that the water that they avail to the market meets and surpasses the expectations. In addition to this, the product should be uniquely packaged to create differentiation from competitors (Maclaran & Saren, 2012).

Price

This is basically the amount of money that a product or service is sold for. The price affects the demand for the product, therefore, a business should base its prices on the market average. Taking this into consideration, WBC should conduct a market analysis to know how much different quantities of water are sold for. For instance, a liter of water should be sold for about $1 as this is the market average.

Promotion

This refers to the effort and the channels that a business uses to create awareness of its product in the market. WBC should utilize television and the internet to promote its product. This is the right channel since many potential customers can easily be reached.

Place

This is where the product of a business will be available for customers. Basing on the nature of the product, WBC should avail its products in urban centers where the population is large. This is an ideal place since there is demand. In choosing the place, a business should consider a location that is likely to have a great demand for the product or service.

The Marketing Environment

The marketing environment is basically composed of two major environments; the micro and the macro environment. The microenvironment is made of basically internal factors that can be handled by the business (Proctor, 2014). For instance, the microenvironment involves issues such as employee motivation. The company has the responsibility of motivating its employees to ensure that marketing goals and objectives are achieved. For instance, WBC should ensure that sales and marketing teams are provided with necessary resources to enable them to achieve their targets. Basically, the internal marketing environment is made up of factors that the business can single-handedly manipulate.

The macro environment involves external factors such as political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors. These exist in the external environment and WBC cannot single-handedly manipulate them. Instead, it needs to adjust its strategies to fit in the external environment. For instance, the business needs to use the latest technology to purify its water so as to achieve competitiveness. Additionally, the company needs to take into consideration the legal factors. It has to meet all legal requirements such as acquiring licenses and permits for operation. Basically, the marketing environment contains factors that affect the business internally and externally.

Marketing and its relationship

Marketing is a business function that is related to other business functions. It is noted that a business is made up of different units that should work together as one system. This implies that marketing is related to the rest of the business functions (Baker & Hart, 2016). For instance, marketing is related to the human resources department in the sense that it is the source of the personnel. The human resource department determines who should be hired to be a member of the marketing team. In the same manner, marketing is also related to the financial department. Funds are needed to make sure that the marketing process is successful. Taking this into account, it is necessary for the management team at Waters Bottling Company to ensure that the marketing function forms close relationships with other business functions for efficiency and effectiveness.

Strategic Marketing

Marketing is a strategic process that should be handled with keenness. Waters Bottling Company needs to understand that this is a strategic function that should be handled with precision.

Planning Process

Waters Bottling Company should start its marketing planning process by first analyzing the market to understand the various factors that will affect operations. For instance, the business needs to understand the legal considerations that should be taken into account to before engaging in actual marketing. It is also necessary for the business to look at its internal capabilities to determine whether or not it can meet its obligations with its resources. Basically, the planning process helps a business to adequately prepare for the marketing activity.

Strategy

The strategy involves organizational levels as well as goals and objectives. With respect to organizational levels, marketing should be handled from both the top and low level. The top organization levels make the strategic decisions while the low level implements them. The two levels have to work together for Waters Bottling Company to achieve its marketing goals. The strategy also involves goals and objectives. Basically, WBC looks forward to creating awareness in the market and sell its products. Eventually, it should be able to make profits from the marketing efforts.

Planning Gap

The planning gap involves the observation of ethics in marketing. Marketing is a social aspect and ethics should be prioritized. Some of the ethical issues include the images and messages used in the market efforts; they should not be offensive (Eagle & Dahl, 2015). WBC should consider the social and moral aspect to ensure that it captures the expectations of the society.

References

Baker, M. & Hart, S. (2016). The Marketing Book. London: Routledge.

Eagle, L. & Dahl, S. (2015). Marketing Ethics & Society. London: SAGE.

Maclaran, P. & Saren, M. (2012). Critical Marketing. London: Routledge.

Proctor, T. (2014). Strategic Marketing: An Introduction. London: Routledge.