Marketing
and PR
The
Big Six Questions
1.
What is marketing?
Marketing is the process of
creating a product/event to the sale of it. This process includes; identifying
needs (is there an opening in the market for your product/event), understanding
the target audience, analysing the market, Developing products/events, pricing
and placing of product/event and the promotional side.
2.
What is involved in a marketing campaign (tools
& techniques)
I have stated what is
involved in a marketing campaign above, here I am going to list what is involed
in the promotional, direct marketing and internet sides of the campaign.
Þ
Promotional:
§ Street promotion
§ Events
§ Tv
§ Radio
§ Adverts
§ Print Marketing
§ Leaflets
Þ
Direct Marketing:
§ Post
§ Telephone
§ E-mails
§ Endorsements
§ Sponsorship
§ Word of mouth
Þ
Internet:
§ Social networking
§ Emails
§ Youtube
§ Adverts/web banners
§ Viral Marketing
3.
What is PR?
PR stands for public
relations, this focuses on the exposure of the product, getting the media talking about your product,
and managing the message that is passed on to the audience (public). PR is used
for; Products, individuals, government, media products, services and
organisations
4.
How has marketing strategy/techniques evolved
over the last 10years?
The marketing strategies have
had to evolve because there is much competition about in most industries. Due
to modern technology and social networking sites, there was a demand for new
strategies, this has lead to more jobs and more money being spent on these
strategies. The importance of marketing has grown so much over the last 10
years.
5.
How has our understanding of marketing
audiences changed in the 21st century?
In our modern era, the
audience/customer has a lot more power over how a product is marketed due to
the amount of competition. The audience isn’t likely to buy something that
doesn’t suit there needs if there is another product out there that does meet
these needs. The audience also like brand names or companies they can trust so
getting the right message out about your company means so much to the
development and reputation of the company. We the audience question a lot more
and are a lot more fussy about what we spend our money on, this gives us more
power and in fact allows us to tell the marketing companies what to do.
6.
What is more important, the product or the
marketing?
If this question was asked 10
years the answer would have simply been the product, but today marketing has
become so important that this question is a lot complicated to answer.
Without marketing you
wouldn’t be able to develop the best product for your target audience, you
wouldn’t be able to get the media talking about or let the audience know about
the product. It wouldn’t allow you to make much money, or allow success of your
product.
On the other hand, without
the product being good quality or reliable it would make your audience annoyed
and bad media would go around about your company leading to you to fails a
company. Like I stated earlier the modern audience likes brands and names they
know, so if they hear bad media your reputation will go down.
In my eyes they are both as
important as each other, without either your product would fail you wouldn’t
make money.
The
Marketing Mix and Case Study
The marketing mix is a recipe for effective
marketing, a method used when planning the marketing for a product. It includes
looking at the price, product, promotion and place, otherwise known as the 4
P’s, they are all different but they need each other to work a functioning
marketing plan. The marketing mix principles are all variables that can be
controlled and all of which need to meet the needs of a defined target
audience. Here I breakdown each P, and explain why it helps the marketing
process.
· Product
The definition of a product
is ‘Anything that is capable of
satisfying customers needs’. The role of marketing is to highlight the
products USP’s for example the USP of an iPhone is the branding and ‘status’ of
owning an apple phone. When talking about wants and needs, it can be argue that
promotion can make your wants feel like needs.
· Price
The pricing is a difficult
process that must look at the cost of making the product along with showing the
supply and demand relationship. There are 5 different ways to plan the pricing
of a product:
1.
Cost Plus Pricing: This is the simplest pricing
strategy for you product, it’s aim is to cover the cost of the product plus
making an acceptable profit.
2.
Competitive Pricing: This is where there is a
competitive market for your product so you make the price similar to
competitors regarding unique selling point and the quality.
3.
Penetration Pricing: This is where the price
starts lower than competitors to get the product out there and brought, the
price will later be raised due to the low profit they would make.
4.
Price Skimming: This is where the price starts
high due to the high volume of initial sales, the price will be dropped after
the high demand had subsided.
5.
Destroyer Pricing: This is where you set your
product at such a low price, competitors cant compete and therefor are driven
out of the market, prices will then be raise when the threat of competition has
gone.
· Promotion
The promotion is the
advertising of the product; it looks at showing the benefits of the product,
presenting a good image of the product and informs customers of the product and
business. It is important to get the promotion right as this will start word of
mouth of your product and will also attract a lot of your customers.
· Place
This is how you distribute
your product, you can directly distribute your product by selling from the
manufacture to the customer, or you can indirectly distribute by selling from
the manufacture to the retailer and then to the customer.
Apple iPhone 5C
Product: The iPhone 5C target audience is wide
as it has many different unique selling points that meet many individual needs
and wants. It is slim, sleek and lightweight which makes it easy to carry and
hold, this also makes it looks smart and expensive. It comes in a range of
colours so you can add you own individual taste, this also attracts people
because they are eye-catching colours that stand out. It has a good battery
life, which will attract people that are on their phone all day and travelling
around. It also has the iO7 on it that makes it easy to use and as this is new
apple software that has recently been brought out which will attract customers.
Apple have built up a brand name that people want to be part of, so the iPhone
5C will make people believe they ‘need’ (want) to own it.
Pricing: The pricing stagy used is Price
skimming as they know people will be queuing up to get the phone and they will
pay the high price to be one of the first people to have one. The price will
later go down when the high demand has subsided.
Place: The iPhone 5C will start out being
directly distributed so that apple benefit from the high demand, and then
further down the line when the demand of the product has subsided a little but
still people want to go and get one it will be indirectly distributed getting
the middle man (retailer) involved. This benefits the company as the get the
first burst of profits and then they introduce retailers, which makes the
product more widely available.
Promotion: Apple advertises their products
everywhere, they mainly air video adverts showing all the USP’s of their
product. They advertise on TV in prime time so it hits a wider audience. They
advertise on the Internet by putting them before popular YouTube videos and as
a web banner on various websites, this will be seen by a wide range of people
all of who will probably been interested in the advert as apple have built such
a big name that people want to be part of.
Public
Relations and Branding
1.
What is ‘public relations’?
Public relations, is the side
of marketing that deals with the reputation of brand, product, celebrity or MP.
PR deals with what society think and feel about there product, the word of
mouth, social networking and being seen at highly rated events.
2.
What is branding?
Branding is a name, term,
sign or design, that identity’s the goods and services of the one seller or
group of sellers and to differentiate them from other sellers, like Apple
differentiate themselves from Samsung and Blackberry. PR is deals with getting
a good reputation and general view of the view in society.
3.
What could harm a brand’s image?
Bad PR can damage a brands
image such as rumours, bad media or bad reviews on a product. When it came out
that GAP were using sweat shops for the production of their clothes, there was
a lot of negative media attention on their brand, this happened six years ago
and you still hear about it today. This has been damaging to the brand and they
would have had to work really hard to keeo their customers.
4.
What are the methods organisations use to
promote their image?
o Organisations use celebrities
to promote their brand/product, such as subway using athletes such as Louis Smith, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Holly
Bleasdale and Anthony Ogogo to promote their brand and their new healthier
options.
o They use videos and news
releases of their new products to attract attention.
o There is a lot of advertising
used, when there is a new iPhone out, we see adverts everywhere such as:
billboards, magazines, TV, newspapers, internet and social networking sites.
o Some organisation sponsor
events such as Robinsons Squash sponsored Wimbledon, and Nike and McDonalds
sponsor large football games.
o There is also the sponsorship
of education, Apple and Microsoft sponsor some schools and colleges and give
them free equipment, this looks really good for the brand because there are
kids and education involved, organsiations wont keep quite about sponsoring
education as it looks really good for them.
PR Case Study
NIKE
· Business:
An american multinational cooperation that is engaged in the design and
development and worldwide marketing by selling clothing, footwear, equipment,
services and accessories.
·
Founded:
1964 it was founded as blue ribbon sports 1971 it was renamed 'nike'.
·
Operations:
World HQ in Oregon, and european HQ in Netherlands and 756 stores
worldwide.
· Employees:
There are 44,000 employees across the world.
· Claims/Achievements:
o
Inspiring athletes and building relationships.
o
It’s not just about getting better at what we do –
addressing impacts throughout our supply chain – it’s about striving for the
best, creating value for the business and innovating for a better world.
o
Adverts in big magazines.
o
Nike has been the official sponsor for the indian
cricket team since 2005.
· Concerns:
o There was a lot of negative media attention on nike
at one point as it was rumored they were using sweatshops for the production of
their clothes.
o There was media attention suggesting that the women
that worked at nike’s converse factory in Indonesia were being mental and
physically abused.
