Text 3. The Ps and Cs of Marketing

The marketing mix is the combination of techniques used to market a brand. The techniques are often called the Ps. Originally there were four Ps:

• Product (or service): what you sell, and the variety or range of products you sell. This includes the quality (how good it is), branding, and reputation (the opinion the consumers have) of the product. For a service, support for the client after the purchase is important. For example, travel insurance is often sold with access to a telephone helpline in case of emergency.

• Price: how much the product or service costs.

• Place: where you sell the product or service. This means the location of your shop, or outlet, or the accessibility of your service - how easy it is to access.

• Promotion: how you tell consumers about the product or service. The promotional mix is a blend of the promotional tools used to communicate about the product or service– for example, TV advertising.

Today some marketers talk about additional four Ps:

• People: how your staff (or employees) are different from those in a competitor's organization, and how your clients are different from your competitor's clients. This also refers to the knowledge, skills and personality of sales force and who come into contact with the customer.

• Physical presence: how your shop or website looks.

• Process: how your product is built and delivered, or how your service is sold, delivered and accessed.

• Physical evidence: how your service becomes tangible. For example, tickets, policies and brochures create something the customers can touch and hold.

Some writers would add one more 'P': packaging. The importance of packaging is often underestimated: it attracts the buyer's attention, it explains the benefits of the product inside, it describes the contents, and of course it also protects the product during handling and contributes to convenience and ease-of-use. And these days environmentally-friendly packaging can give a product a competitive advantage.

A basic criticism has been that the 4Ps represent the seller’s mind-set, not the buyer’s mind-set. Robert Lauterborn suggested that sellers should first work with 4Cs before setting the 4Ps. Look at 4Cs:

• Customer solution (not product) aims to find a solution to a customer 'problem' by offering the right combination of products and services to satisfy particular customer needs.

• Customer cost (not product): the price paid by the customer for the product. It includes the "price" related to not buying another product of the same or another type. For example, someone who buys a sophisticated mobile may not then have the money to buy a laptop computer that they wanted.

• Convenience (not place): distributing our products in the way that is most convenient for each type of customer. We have to decide, for instance, how many new shops to open and where they should be.

• Communication (not promotion) with the customer: customers are informed about products through advertising and so on, but the communication is two-way because customers also communicate with us, for example through telephone helplines. This is a good way to find out more about what our customers want, and to change or improve our offering and to get ideas for new offerings.

Once the marketer thinks through the 4Cs for the target customer, it becomes much easier to set the 4Ps.

For marketing to work, you must manage the marketing mix in an integrated scheme. Yet in many companies, responsibility for dif­ferent elements of the marketing mix is in the hands of different in­dividuals or departments.

Exercise 21. Answer the questions.

1. What are 4 Ps of the marketing mix? Characterize each element. 2. What are additional four Ps? Describe them. 3. Why shouldn’t marketers underestimated importance of packaging? 4. Why are 4Ps criticized? 5. What did Robert Lauterborn suggest?

Exercise 22. Give Ukrainian equivalents.

Access to a telephone helpline in case of emergency, promotion, to underestimate, to attract the buyer's attention, to contribute to convenience and ease-of-use, to improve offering, for instance, environmentally-friendly packaging, buyer’s mind-set, sophisticated mobile.

Exercise 23. Find in the text ‘noun + noun’ or ‘noun’s + noun’ combinations in which the first noun modifies or describes the second. Translate them.

Exercise 24. A small educational games company is launching a new game to teach English vocabulary to beginner learners. The marketing manager is making a presentation using slides. Read it and discuss.

Marketing a new product

The Educational Game PRODUCT • Innovative way to learn new vocabulary • Launch: how we are planning to introduce the product onto the market PLACE  • Distribution: high street retailers and mail order via website and catalogues       •   Delivery: five days by mail order or straightaway in shops PROMOTION • Advertising: in children's magazines • Direct marketing: insert catalogue in Parent magazine PEOPLE • Customers: educated, city-dwellers with pre-teen children, school teachers • Competitors: they have a larger sales force to sell their products PRICE • Premium pricing: 20% above market average for a CD-ROM • Special deals: 15% discount for schools

 

Exercise 25 . Do the following words and expressions refer to product, price, place, promotion, or people? Look at exercise 24 to help you.

accessibility	customers	discounts	location	sales force
branding	delivery	distribution	quality	special deals
competitors	direct marketing	launch	reputation	support

Exercise 26. A marketing manager is talking about the marketing mix for a brand of cleaning products. Choose the correct words from the brackets to complete the text, and then match each speech with one of the Ps.

1. Our (staff/reputation/competitors) are highly motivated. We really believe in our brand. For example, our (consumer, employees/ customers) are always trying to improve what we do. 2. Our (tools/range /support) includes detergent, toothpaste and sponges. 3. We use a lot of (advertising/ presence/promotional), usually in women’s magazines. 4. You can find the brand in supermarkets and local shops. The (tangible/accessibility/process) of our (staff/ mix/ outlets) is important. We need to be in a lot of (locations/supports/distributions) so that we are easy to find. 5. We are more (accessibility/ reputation/expensive) than our (competitors/ staff/ sales) but we offer good credit terms and we sometimes run special (deals/ processes/ support).

 

Exercise 27. Complete the text using the words from the box.

advertising mix    price    products    promotional

Marie Curie Cancer Care is reviewing its marketing strategy in an attempt to attract a wider audience. It will stop using (1) …techniques, such as mailings and events. Television (2) … and face-to-face marketing are both being tested in a bid to supplement the charity's typical over-60s donor base with younger supporters. If tests prove successful, they will become part of Marie Curie's marketing (3) ... In addition, Marie Curie Cancer Care is expanding its online shop. Stylish handbags at a (4) … of $10 are attractive to younger customers. Marie Curie Cancer Care says it is responding to customers' needs and wants by selling elegant fashion wear (5) ….

Exercise 28. Learn the following words and word combinations.

market segment	– ринковий сегмент
competitive marketplace	– ринок з конкуренцією
business unit	– економічний суб’єкт
positioning	– позиціювання; розміщення
total product	– сукупний продукт
value-for-money	– співвідношення ціни та якості
brand name	– торгівельна марка; фабрична марка
brand image	– репутація торгівельної марки
product launch	– випуск нового товару на ринок
Unique Selling Point analysis (USP)	– аналіз унікальних властивостей продукції
industrial product	– промислові товари
consumer product	– споживчі товари
durability	– строк придатності/ експлуатації
sales channel	– канал збуту
marketing action	– маркетингова акція; маркетингове зусилля
sales figures	– дані про продаж; обсяги продажу продукції
consumer buying pattern	– модель поведінки споживача
survey	– опитування; дослідження
benchmarking	– порівняльний аналіз
target market	– цільовий ринок; ринок збуту
mass market	– ринок товарів масового виробництва
brand awareness	– впізнанність бренду
market leader	– ринковий лідер
product mix	– перелік товарів
product line	– асортимент товарів
brand loyalty	– уподобання певної марки; прихильність до певного бренду
breakeven volume	– мінімальний рівень рентабельності
mark-up	– націнка; різниця між собівартістю та ціною продажу

 

Exercise 29. Read, translate and give the gist of text 4.

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