Chapter VIII: Concluding remarks and Future work
8.4 JWST, Lucy , and beyond
It is therefore necessary for the marketing manager to understand the changing technological environment and how technologies can serve human needs. They • need to work closely with the research and development people to encourage more market - oriented research. More importantly, they must be alert to the negative aspects of any
innovation that might harm the users and thus bring about distrust and opposition.
changing much faster than ever before. Examples of these changes include:
From a thrift and savings ethic to spending freely and buying on credit
From a work ethic to self-indulgence and having fun
From sexual chastity to sexual freedom
From a husband-dominated family to equality in husband-wife roles; or in a broader
context, the changing role of women,.
From emphasis on quantity of goods to quality of life From the artificial to the natural (e.g. "braless" look)
Al these changes pose serious marketing challenges to marketing executives.
3.5 INTERNAL FORCES: CONTROLLABLE 1WARICETING VARIABLES OR THE MARKETING MIX
The second set of forces that make marketing an endlessly changing activity is put in
motion by individual enterprises when they make continual adjustments in the
control able marketing factors. These forces are known as the marketing mix.Though there are a multitude of these controllable variables, Jerome McCarthy has popularised a four-factor classification, now commonly known as the 4Ps: Product, Place,
Promotion, and Price.
Definitionally, marketing mix is the mixture of controllable marketing variables that
the firm uses to pursue the sought levels of sales in the target market.The 4Ps give the marketing manager a framework within which he can operate on a cost- effective manner. His eventual success will be determined by the wisdom of his choices, his ability to modify his mix in the face of uncertainty and change, and his determination to
make his strategy work.
Under the first P, which stands for the product, the company
con
ildam
al the problems of developing the product or service which it plans to offer the target market.Such problems include:
(i)selecting a product or product lines;
(ii)adding or dropping items in the product line;
( i i i ) b r a n d i n g ;
( iv)p ack ag ing; and
(v)Standardising and grading
In a nutshel , the product area is concerned with developing the right product to the target
market.
A product (or a service) is not of any use to the consumer if it is not available when and where he wants it. Therefore, the company must consider where, when, how and by whom the goods and services are to be offered for sale. Sometimes, for example, complicated channels of distribution are necessary, while at the times, very simple methods can be used effectively. Wholesaling, retailing, transportation, and storage play a part in the distribution of most goods and services. Hence the second P (for place) is concerned with al problems, functions and institutions involved in getting the right product to the target market.
The third P (for promotion) has to do with the methods of communicating to the target market, the "right product" that wil be sold in the "right place" and "price".
Here, al the problems of sales promotion, advertising and the development, training, and utilization of a sales force are usual y covered. Advertising, sales promotion and personal selling are to be considered as complementary methods of communicating with customers.
While the marketing manager is developing the "right" product, place, and
promotion, he must also decide on the "right" price, i.e the one which wil make his total marketing mix atractive. Before set ing the price, the marketing manager considers the nature of competition in his target market, as wel as the existing practices on mark-ups, discounts, and terms of trade. Ili some instances, he must also consider legal restrictions affecting prices. In summary, price is concemed with determining the
"right price" to move the "right product" to the "right place" with the "right promotion" for the target market.
By varying each of these controllable marketing variables, a marketing mi can be selected from a great number of possibilities. Though this framework may appear
simple, the task of making choices within it is fairly cumbersome. For instance, each
of these four control able marketing variables has man-, potential variations, thereby making the number of possible marketing mixes very large. Let us assume that there are five (5) variations of each of the variables (i.e 5 products, 5 places, 5 promotions and 5 different prices), there would be 625 possible different marketing mixes!. And, it could be more. Hence, as the number of variations increases the number of possible mixes which must be considered by the marketing manager increases geometrically.
We must stress here that no human mind is quite capable of cur ently evaluating all the possible marketing mixes. What is practicable a progressive elimination of the least desirable, such that the problem can be reduced to manageable proportions.
Generally, there is only one "best" strategy at any given time. However, since conditions, often change in the market situations; there may be many good ones. Even then, a good strategy will need to be altered as consumer behaviour, competitors'
behaviour, and other non control able variable change.
4.0 CONCLUSION
You have learned in this unit that environmental forces influence an organisational marketing. The marketing environment presents an unending series of opportunities and threats. The major responsibility for identifying changes in the macro environment falls to a company's marketer. Environmental scanning and analysis are particularly important here.
5.0 SUMMARY
Various environmental forces influence an organisation's marketing activities. Some are external to the firm and are largely uncontrol able by the organisation. Other forces are within the firm and are general y control able by management. A company manages its marketing system within its external and internal environments.