Market research 4Ps Essay

In todays multi-faceted traffic environment, it is gener altogethery agreed that a strong customer-driven tradeplaceing schema can give adept an edge over his competition. Designing it, however, did not prove to be so straightforward. It is therefore this reflection papers aim to ponder over the various aspects that I pretend eyeshade intriguing and glean insights from them. Firstly is the trade Mix aspect, detailally the 4 Ps framework Product, set, Placing & Promotion. The 4 Ps is angiotensin-converting enzyme of the best known frameworks for a merchandise picture, of which the aim is ultimately to sate a basic marketing purpose Putting the right overlap in the right place, at the right price, and at the right time.acquiring all aspects of this framework is of paramount importance. Miscalculating one could result in fatal consequences, for example you could be promoting a revolutionary diet political platform in a country hit by famine or create a textbook af ter school term has started. In the ferment of brainstorming for a product, some innovative ideas were eliminated due to the fact that they were deemed mismated for the Singapore market. One such example is the ostrich pillow1, a not bad(predicate) headgear for people to catch a comfy nap anytime, anywhere. ascribable to its odd shape and Singapores conservative culture, we decided that the market might not open up to the idea.The Product itself was good, besides the promotional dodging would encounter difficulties. One of the other groups did their forcing out on space-saving furniture. The halt result was that one convertible table/couch would cost upwardly of $2000. This is a potential mismatch between Product and Pricing strategies, as the average consumer who could afford such prices would unlikely be living in a house that requires space-saving technology. The Pricing aspect by itself alike turn up to be exceedingly interesting, as e rattlingones project seemed t o unanimously subscribe a value- base determine strategy. So consequently, what of cost-based determine? Is it not an effective strategy? With this in mind, I began my research to find out more astir(predicate) it.The classic example cited in this debate is that of Steve Jobs vs surface-to-air missile Walton, two of the superior business leaders in history. An interview conducted by Fortune Magazine2 best highlighted the difference between these two extraordinary men and their methods. It is noted that Steve Jobs epitomized value-based pricing by focusing mainly on the product kind of of margins. He said, If you keep your eye on the profit, youre going to skimp on the product. and if you focus on making really great products, then the profits will follow. Sam Walton, on the other hand, built Walmart nearly the concept of low margins and high volume, i.e. cost-based pricing. If the margins got above anything that was infinitesimal, he would get angry. two have built extremely successful companies using entirely diametrical pricing strategies. So why does a value-based pricing strategy seem so much more popular than a cost-based one? mayhap it all boils down to prestige. Being the boss of a premium tell on certainly holds more distinction than say, opening a dollar store.Or perhaps the road to building a company large profuse for cost-based pricing to be effective is an arduous task that faces more obstacles in the form of existing industry giants. In any case, it is worth noting that cost-based pricing is in no way obsolete, yet simply overshadowed by the juvenile successes of premium brands3. Another strategy that the class unanimously adopted is promotional strategy, specifically in cordial media terms. Facebook appe ard to be the prime choice of social media strategy for everyone, and rightly so.A survey conducted in 2011 showed that Singaporeans are the globular leaders for the longest time spent on Facebook, clocking 38mins 46secs per sessio n, lay us ahead of countries like US, UK, and Australia . Add that in to the capital limitations of start-up companies, Facebook becomes the lawful choice for our promotional channels. A case study on blasts4 wildly popular Facebook marketing campaign gave us further avouchment that this was the right way to go . As for the Placing aspect, the dilemma existed whereby in disposition to position ourselves as a high street fashion brand, a retail store had to be open at a prime location such as Ion. The rental for such locations, however, would strain our reckon even further.To put it in perspective, the rental costs for an Ion level 1 space is $29 per square feet whereas the rental costs for Ang Mo Kio Hub is a mere $19 per square feet. That adds up to almost $40k difference per socio-economic class for a store of 330 square feet, which is an extremely large sum for a start-up company. We eventually decided that it was worth the risk, but had to make careful work out adjustment s to manage our finances. Next issue of interest is the importance of an action figure. wherefore is an action plan so important? Without an action plan, all we have is a broad strategic plan. Think of itlike making a resolution for a new year you may state that you plan on losing weight, however you do not add in specific details as to how you are going to do it .A cover action plan ensures that one stays focused and has a exceed idea of what to do and when to do it by. The group that did the project Fitting existence had an impressive action plan which was both detailed and tailored to paper for contingencies. That way, should anything go wrong, there would still be plans to fall back onto instead of the whole project being thrown into disarray. Another particularly far-famed issue is that seemingly all groups focused on customer acquisition, but few bothered to put effort into customer retention. This is puzzling for one main reason It is a widely held belief that acquir ing a new customer costs on average 5 time more than retaining an existing one.It is therefore wise to invest equally in customer retention alongside customer acquisition, or else it would be equal to taking one step forward and two steps back. some(prenominal) recommended strategies of customer retention include loyalty discounts and membership privileges, as headspring as constant updates and active engagement with the customers . An area that I shew intriguing was the fact that no other groups seemed to conduct a market survey in their marketing plans. To me, a market survey is extremely useful as it helps gauge the future demand of the product. A pitiable response would allow to us to pull the plug on the project before anything concrete is launched, thereby cutting our potential losses massively.Furthermore, based on the results of our market survey, we were able to effectively segment our consumers as it showed distinctly which group of customers were most interested in our product. Of course, a counter end could be made that a well-crafted marketing strategy would amp up the hype over the product and turn initial consumer skepticism into en thereforeiasm. both arguments are certainly valid, but it seems that market surveys are still very much recommended as an important requirement for initiating any successful business . One of the difficulties encountered by our group in the process of designing our marketing plan is the aspect of controls. We all know the importance of controls.It monitors the progress of our plan and makes adjustments when it deviates off course. So how then do we determine the key achievement indicators (KPI) and at what level do we set it? Should we operate on the economists definition of bottom-line or the accountantsdefinition? These were all daunting questions that had to be answered. Ultimately, we chose to follow sales projections quoted in our financial plan as the main control. In hindsight, we could have adopted a market share analysis instead as sales figures may not give a wholly accurate representation.For example, if the footwear market faces a sharp downturn, we could be facing lower than expected sales figures but still capturing a large market share vis--vis our competitors. A qualitative control method in the form of customer attitude track can also reveal to us what customers feel about our organisation, products and services, thus allowing us to make pre-emptive changes and preserve the brand reputation . The final egress of interest again lies with the marketing mix, but this time with respect to B2B commerce. two of the groups came up with products that were targeted solely at businesses and within their marketing plan include the conventional 4 Ps.The 4 Ps has been a great framework that has served marketers well for over half a century. But the nature and evolution of B2B commerce as compared to B2C means that it might be time to rethink and reassess the framework for today s B2B reality. match to a comprehensive study done by Harvard Business retrospect , the conventional 4 Ps model has been found to deletion B2B marketers in 3 major ways 1 It leads the marketing team to stress product technology and quality even though these are no longer differentiators but simply the cost of entry. 2 It underemphasizes the fill to build a robust case for their products superior value. 3 It distracts companies from supplement on their competitive advantages as a trusted source of expertise. Of course, it is also worth noting that this in no way renders the 4 Ps obsolete.Rather, they just require some tweaking to better suit the B2B industry, such as Motorolas SAVE framework moving the emphasis from Product to Solution, Placing to Access, Pricing to Value, and Promotion to Education . As the study so aptly cites, B2B marketers who hap to embrace the 4 Ps mind-set risk acquire locked into a repetitive and increasingly unproductive technological arms race. And indeed, as trends change and industry evolves, so too must marketers and our strategies.BibliographyAsiaOne. (2011, September 27). AsiaOne News. Retrieved April 17, 2013, fromscience and Tech http//www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Science%2Band%2BTech/Story/A1Story20110927-301776.html Ettenson, R., Conrado, E., & Knowles, J. (2013, January). Rethinking the 4 Ps. Retrieved April 18, 2013, from Harvard Business Review http//hbr.org/2013/01/rethinking-the-4-ps/ar/1 FAO, UN. (2012, Feburary 5).FAO Corporate Document Repository. Retrieved April 17, 2013, from Marketing Strategy, Planning and Control http//www.fao.org/docrep/004/w3240e/W3240E03.htm Gandhi, R. (2012, July 2). Pitney Bowes. Retrieved April 17, 2013, from Keeping Your Customers with Email Marketing http//www.pbsmartessentials.com/customer-satisfaction/keeping-your-customers-with-email-marketing/ Mind Tools Ltd. (2011, decline 12).The Marketing Mix and 4 Ps. Retrieved April 15, 2013, from Mind Tools Website http//www.mind tools.com/pages/article/newSTR_94.htm Senic, N. (2013, Feburary 2). EFFECTIVE marrow STRATEGY GUIDED BY THE SAVE FRAMEWORK. Retrieved April 18, 2013, from Zemanta http//www.zemanta.com/blog/content-strategy-guided-save-framework/ Serwer, A. (2012, December 3). Steve Jobs vs. Sam Walton Tale of the Tape.Fortune, pp. 59-64. Tan, R. (2012, October 9). Flamingo Singapore. 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