The Marketing Mix (Research Paper Sample)

The Marketing Mix
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The marketing Mix
Marketing mix refers to the way companies use 4Ps to entice customers to buy their products. There is a need to choose the best marketing mix to achieve greater profitability. The choice of the 4Ps depends on the type of products and the target market (Strauss, 2008). Smartphones are some of the products that are common among the youths in the current world. It is important to evaluate the marketing mix that is used by the producers. More specifically, the paper focuses on Samsung, which is one of the companies that produce and sell smartphones. The paper evaluates how the company uses the 4Ps to market its products. The paper will also give recommendations on improvements that can be made in relation to marketing strategy that the company uses.
Place
Place in the marketing mix refers to the ease with which customers can access the products by the company. For luxurious products, the supply is limited to a certain number of retailers because the price is high and the target is to certain individuals only. On the other hand, some producers prefer having many people avail their products such that customers can get the products at a convenient place.
For Samsung, place is highly valued and the strategy is to ensure that customers can access the products at the most convenient place. Smartphones target youths and these people are found in all parts of a country and there is a need to ensure that the distribution channel reaches all customers. To achieve this, the company deals with sales and service dealers. These are corporations that engage in provision of services such as telecommunication companies offering network services. Such corporations are trusted by the residents of the regions that they operate. These service providers display the Samsung products as well as the products of other producers. It ensures that the company products are available to compete with those of other competitors.
The sales and service dealers are trusted in their countries and this means that the customers have great trust in the products that are sold through their shops. Such companies can also offer additional services when customers buy the Samsung products and this benefits the Samsung Company engaged in the sale of its products.
The company also avails its products to the customers through modern retail segment. This includes the supermarket and hypermarket distributers. There are also known retailers in various countries and Samsung makes deals with such retailers to ensure that their products are available to the customers. These distributers deal with other similar products and their aim is to ensure that the Samsung products are available as alternative to the customers. Since Samsung has loyal customers, it is obvious that they are likely to reach these retailers and buy products of their choice.
Distribution network is an important strategy of reaching the customers. Samsung has large retail shops that are the major distributers of the company smartphones. These retail shops buy products from the customers and then supply the same products to the other retailers in the rest of the world. This ensures that the small retailers do not have to import products from the country directly but can instead deal with the major distributor in the country. This creates convenience and ensures that customers get the smartphone that they want from their local retailer.
Samsung Company has properly utilized "place" in that it ensures that it reaches as many customers as possible. This is advantageous because it has been able to increase its market share hence its profitability (Belch, 2012). The difference with Samsung is that the company ensures that there is ease of access. For companies like Apple who are the major competitor, place is strategically designed to ensure that only a few people access the products considering that the products are expensive and target the high income class.
Price
Price plays a great role in influencing the sales of Samsung smartphones. As products are sold to the major retailers who buy and sell in bulk, great discounts are given. The other retailers buying from the major retailers are also given discounts to enable them sell to the final customers at reasonable prices and still generate profits from their sales (Kazmi, 2007). Discounts are therefore important factors that shape the sale of smartphones from Samsung Company.
Skimming is one of the pricing strategies that Samsung uses. In this strategy, the company ensures that the price of products that are new in the market and have greater perceived value is high. This is important in that for the first sales that the company makes, it generates huge profits before the competitors can also design similar products and sell them at a lower price (Belch, 2012). The lower price is implemented once a competitor has launched a similar product or the company has become old. By the time the competitors avail their similar products in the market, Samsung will have already recovered the costs invested in innovative activities and offering lower prices for such products ensures that sales of the products increase. Skimming is therefore a very crucial strategy in ensuring that Samsung Company encourages innovation and inventions.
Competitive pricing is another important pricing strategy that Samsung applies in its smartphones. Because there are many competitors in the smartphone industry, the prices are designed in such a way that the company products are cheaper as compared to the price of the products of the major competitor such as Apple. This ensures that Samsung benefits from the great market share that helps ensure that greater revenues are generated from the greater market share that can afford the cheaper high quality products.
Product
Product is another major factor that is valued by Samsung and is manipulated to ensure that profitability in the company is achieved. In the first place, the company products are known to be o high quality. The customers are interested in having products that can last for a long period without breaking down. The company brands are said to last for a longer period and have features that make the company prefer them as compared to those of the competitors.
The company also ensures that there is a variety of products for the customers. The products are also availed at different prices to ensure that people choose what they can afford. The difference in the various smartphones is the features that they have. The higher the price, the better are the features of the products. This is crucial in that the company saves costs when making products that target the low income customers and at the same time, it is able to design products that are desired by the high income earners. Every customer gets value for the products that they buy.
It should also be realized that apart from smartphones, Samsung has many other products that the customers need. These products also generate revenues for the company and the fact that the company brands are trusted for their quality, the company generates good revenues from the products. Additionally, the company also makes phones that are not smartphones and those who can cannot afford the smartphones have an option.
The analysis shows that product is an important factor for Samsung in that it ensures that sales are achieved. The quality of products coupled by variety is very crucial in achieving greater profitability for the company.
Promotion
This is the other P tha...