Marketing mix Analysis of Eco-store Australia Research (Research Paper Sample)

Marketing mix analysis of Eco-store Australia
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Executive summary
Marketing mix has been used by many firms to analyse the market and develop strategies that can be used to sustain a business. Sustainability has become a major issue in business since it touches on all aspects of business. Today businesses have been forced to used strategic business planning elements like the four Ps to forecast their future and therefore develop strategies that can enable them survive changing trends of the market. This paper analyses Eco-store Australia using four Ps to determine the relevance of the company in the Australian market. The paper analyses the company in comparison to its products and the Australian market environment.
Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc463104625 \h 4Marketing Mix PAGEREF _Toc463104626 \h 4Product PAGEREF _Toc463104627 \h 5Price PAGEREF _Toc463104628 \h 7Promotion PAGEREF _Toc463104629 \h 8Place or distribution PAGEREF _Toc463104630 \h 9Competitor analysis PAGEREF _Toc463104631 \h 10Market overview PAGEREF _Toc463104632 \h 11Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc463104633 \h 11Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc463104634 \h 12References PAGEREF _Toc463104635 \h 13Appendix one: SWOT analysis PAGEREF _Toc463104636 \h 15
Marketing mix analysis of Eco-store Australia
Introduction
Eco-store is a household cleaning and body care brand that produces household products for a healthier sustained world. The company started off in New Zealand before spreading to Australia. Today the company has over 400 outlets in Australia supplying different types of products. The idea behind the company came from the need for less toxic products that had fewer effects on the human body and the environment. These products have been described as healthier and more joyful, thus providing an alternative cleaning and nourishing of the family, home and environment. This has enabled the company to receives a diamond mark of certification for international environmentally standards in New Zealand. To ensure sustainability the company uses sourced plant and mineral ingredients rather than petrochemicals to make their products. The ingredients are assessed for sustainability and biodegradability to achieve safer ratings for the environment (Ecostore 2015, pp. 2; Kogut 1983, p. 33).
Marketing Mix
The success of firms is based on the ability to deal with problems and activities through adopting policies based on long term goals to develop comprehensive marketing strategies that make them competitive in the external environment (Mel 2011, P. 10639). Markets are dynamic and keep changing depending on the consumption patterns f the customers. These are based on population growth and changes in structure of the population. Marketing experts argue that the role of marketing is to know and understand the customer so as to ensure that the products developed by the firm meet the needs of the customer. Therefore firms that have sustained themselves in business for a long time have known how to meet the needs of the customer.
Vahlne & Nordstrom (1988, p. 265) suggest that market mix enables understanding of the customer needs and developing products that meet the segments within the market. Segmentation has been used in business to determine the demands of each segment in the market that enables development of product that meet the needs of the customer. When marketing products, firms create a successful mix of the right product, right price, sold at the right place and using a suitable promotion strategy. This is a combination f strategies and tactics used by a business to achieve its objectives within the market. These objectives are effective to a particular customer group. Businesses identify each customer segment that they have and plan how to meet the needs of each segment within the market. Therefore marketing is a business strategy that allows a business to communicate and determine the needs of the customer, then develop strategies that can be used to meet the customer needs (Newson et al., 2000).
Kotler argues that they are a set of variables that a firm uses to influence customers response. Firms, therefore struggle to build their businesses strategies around the four Ps to create high customer satisfaction and meet organizational objectives. Marketing mix is a business tool used by marketer to determine what product offers to the market (HaKansson and Waluszewski, 2005). Marketing strategies based on the four Ps are connected with decision making to influence business activities
Product
Product refers to the goods and services that the organization offers the market. Therefore customers pay for the benefit that they get in the product which defines its value. According to Baalbaki & Malhotra (1993, P. 23,) products can be divided into business and customer products. Product is what the customer gets through paying for the value; therefore brand, quality, design, and packing of the product are important when appealing to the customer. Every product has a life cycle that goes through maturity that goes through development to maturity too decline. Eco-store offers several products within the market that cover a range of sectors where they can be used. The products are developed based on different categories that give customers a wide range of preference. The main products of the company are based in the areas of laundry, dish washing, home, hand and body wash, skin care, hair, baby care and ultra sensitive products.
The company also offers product mix by offering a larger product depth and increasing the number of product lines that they offer. The company offers domestic, animal and environmentally products which exist in a wide range of products that meet different needs of customers. The larger product depth enables customers to be easily satisfied with the products since they have a variety of products that they can choose from. Customer tastes and preferences are met through increased number of product lines and depth. Eco-store products offer a one stop shop for all cleaning needs to be re required by the customer (Walker, Boyd & Larreche, 2001, p. 19).
The company has further, positioned its products as being environmentally friendly, easy to use and with low side effects. The products from the company have been rated as being the best environmentally friendly products that enabled the company receives a diamond mark of quality. Further, the products have been packaged using recycled and recyclable materials that can keep the environment safe. In the world of environmentally consciousness, customers prefer environmentally friendly packaging that makes it easier for them to dispose of wastes.
Therefore the products are based on customer perceptions and rival products within the market. They are then positioned within the market to exploit the brands and resources of the company to get the right product mix that ensures each product compliments each other. This has made eco-store products among the highly preferred products within Australia.
Price
Scholars argue that price is determined by the value that customers find in the product; this therefore determines what customers are prepared to pay for product. Pricing is highly competitive in all industries since it determines the revenue streams of the firm. Factors used to determine price include, production costs, exchange rate, market demands and the projections by the firm. The amount that a customer pays for the value of product determines how the products move in the market. Price determines the profit of the company and how it survives within the market. Companies therefore adjust their prices based on the customer demands and competition within the market determines customer perceived values within the market. In pricing for products, firms base on market skimming, pricing market penetration and neutral pricing (Boulding, Eunkyu and Richard, 1994, p. 32).
On the other hand the customer refers to the price of the product based on reference value which is based on the price of competing products and differential value based on the views of the consumer on the product attributes. Therefore customer opinions about the pricing strategies of the firm determine how the price will be accepted within the market. The organization, therefore needs to develop a price that is easily acceptable by the customer, competitive in the market and revenue generating to firm. Therefore a reasonable price should cover the costs that the firm has incurred in developing the product and leave the firm with a reasonable profit. However, the firm needs to be careful in fixing the price of the product since it affects the demand and the revenue streams (Hashim, 2011, p. 23).
In setting prices for the products, eco-store bares in mind that customer needs vary and thus their ability to afford the price is also affected. Due to this the company has packaged its retail products in smaller packages that enable breakdown of the price to enable the customer afford the lower packaged products. The company products are packaged in a range of sizes to enable different customers afford each of their products (McCarthy 2002, P.11).
Promotion
Promotion is based on communicating the benefits that a customer derives from the product that they buy. Promotion benefits the firm through increasing customer awareness on the brand and increasing customer demand for the brand. This entails all the marketing methods used to provide information and communicate to the customer about the product. It comprises of elements like advertising, public relations organization of sales and promotions. The need to interact with the customer and discuss the products that they buy from the company is important in shaping the demand for the product and responding to product related issue...