Real world examples of the marketing mix

The concept of marketing is based on the premise that firms should determine consumer wants and needs before designing products and services. This consumer – orientation results in greater demand for a firm’s products and services and higher levels of customer satisfaction after the purchase. Marriott International followed this approach in developing their Courtyard and Residence Inns hotels. For example, the Courtyard concept is supposed to attract business travelers and transient customers who do not really like staying at hotels. The researchers recruited individuals for focus groups representing these two market segments to determine the hotel attributes that were most important to them. Next; a tradeoff analysis was performed on a larger sample of people from the target groups to determine the utility, or value, placed on each of the attributes and its possible level. The final result of this study was the concept of a hotel that would have a high level of appeal to the target markets, created using consumer inputs. The hotel possessed all of the attributes that were important to the target market in adequate levels, at a price they were willing to pay.

Starbucks coffee has closely examined the four P’s and implemented them to become the largest coffee restaurant in the world. They constantly strive to meet or exceed customer expectations and take customer feedback very seriously.

Starbucks is best known for one product: extremely good coffee. This is their core product and they have refined their business model to give the consumer the best cup of coffee possible. If a customer is not 100% satisfied Starbucks will give the customer a new cup at no additional charge. One of the more interesting trends with Starbucks is that they are now allowing customers log on to their web site or use a mobile phone application to build custom drinks and then bring in the recipe to have the barista prepare the drink. Recently Starbucks announced it was getting out of the breakfast sandwich business and concentrating on their core product: coffee. After careful consideration it was determined that by eliminating the breakfast sandwiches food cost could be reduced considerably since the sandwiches had to be discarded after a certain amount of shelf life, where as unused coffee could be resealed and reused. One of the more interesting aspects of the decision to remove breakfast sandwiches was that CEO Howard Schultz did not like the breakfast sandwich smell competing with the roasted coffee aroma that Starbucks was best known for. Again this goes back to having a core product that company is center around.

Starbucks has achieved the highest price point for coffee in the restaurant industry. They are conveying a since superior product to the consumer by giving the consumer a consistent high quality beverage. Other competitors have entered into competition with Starbucks including McDonald’s with their McCafe brand and Dunkin Donuts with their Dunkachino offerings. Starbucks has countered this by trying to appeal to customers who previously would not consider spending $3.75 for a basic coffee drink by introducing their new $1 coffee item. By doing this Starbucks is aiming at opening up a whole new segment of the breakfast market that in the past had excluded many price conscious consumers.

Starbucks has strategically located its retail locations (place) to achieve maximum daily visits from consumers and to engrain into consumers that if they want coffee that Starbucks is where they would want to purchase it. Several ways that they have achieved this is by opening on college campus through out the country, through licensing agreements with Barnes and Noble so they instantly developed over 700 new locations with out having to spend money on development costs and lastly they are willing to pay top dollar for irreplaceable real estate. As the average customer of Starbucks is typically in a hurry to get their coffee on the way to somewhere else it is interesting that Starbuck’s mobile application will tell the consumer where the closest Starbucks is, whether it is a walk up or drive through location and store hours.

Finally Starbucks is an expert at promoting their product and services. The green sign has become synonymous with the company. The company is striving to make Starbucks “the third place” that consumers go when they are not at home or at the office thus creating a unique and relaxing “experience” and “atmosphere” for people has been very important for the company as they have realized that this is one of the strongest concepts attached to the company, to which customers have been strongly attracted. Starbucks has sought technology to promote their brand by building their own mobile phone application as previously discussed which allows consumers to use messaging to systems to encourage meeting at a Starbucks location for social encounters as well as a meeting place for business people to conduct work meetings. It is interesting that Starbucks chose mobile phone development as a tactical marketing strategy. The brilliance is that Starbucks realizes that most consumers have their phones with them all the time and Starbucks can “push” information to consumers rather than spending money on commercials that people are most likely to see after they have arrived at their residence and unlikely to leave. Furthermore commercials tend to be broad and are so short the individuals hardly have enough time to absorb the information being broadcast. This type of viral marketing be it mobile applications or social networking sites such as FaceBook where once consumers become fans Starbucks can send daily notices to constantly stimulate a consumers desire to visit the store has been a huge success for the company. One potential backlash that Starbucks is facing is that they do charge for their wifi access. This could turn away some consumers who feel that they should be entitled to free wifi access if they spend money in the store. Starbucks counter to this is that they don’t want people coming to the locations and using the wifi access that Starbucks is paying for and not purchasing a product. A compromise that has been suggested is that Starbucks print out a code on each receipt that customers can use while in the store to gain wifi access. The code would expire after 24 hours. Starbucks has also started issuing loyalty cards to customers so that after a certain number of purchases the consumer gets a free product. This promotes visits as the consumer has a goal in sight.

From only one store more than 30 years ago in Seattle to its still growing empire today with thousands of outlets in the United States and in foreign countries, the Starbucks Coffee Company is no doubt a well-known success story all over the world. Every business can learn from another, especially if a particular business is one that has displayed tremendous success over the years. The Starbucks Corporation and its successful marketing strategies are definitely something that anyone interested in business can learn about. When a marketing manager is planning out a product’s selling points they generally think of them from a seller’s point of view. A true marketing manager should also consider the reciprocal for each the four P’s which are known as the four C’s or the Consumer’s Point of view. Those include: Customer Value, Cost to the Customer, Convenience and Communication. By taking a global view of the product from both the producer and consumer side the marketing manager will have a great chance for superior product development and deployment.

References:

Bowie, D., & Buttle, F. (2004). Hospitality Marketing: An introduction. Burlington, MA:

Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

Lockyer, T. L. (2007). The International Hotel Industry: Sustainable Management. : Haworth

Hospitality & Tourism Press.

The post Real world examples of the marketing mix appeared first on Discounted Hotel Rooms.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/1DigA2x

via IFTTT