Marketing Mix To Promote A Premium Product

This report will evaluate the marketer’s marketing strategy using the extended marketing mix to promote a premium product and how he has interacted and serviced me as a customer of the product. It will also talk about my decision making process as the customer in purchasing the product.

This report will evaluate how a marketer has serviced and interacted with me as his customer of a premium product that I have purchased and experienced. In order to have a better understanding of the marketing strategies employed by the marketer the marketing mix employed by the marketer will be assessed in detail. I will also explain the marketing strategy create interest in me for the product.

I will then differentiate between a need/want using the Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory I will try to explain if the chosen premium product is a want or need for me. After which I be explaining my decision making process as a consumer I recognized the need, the information searching I carried, how I evaluated the alternatives and finally the experience of purchasing the product the post purchase behavior using my experience of the product.

Finally the segmentation process for a premium product, the pricing and distribution strategies will be evaluated.

Overview of premium product with company background.

The premium product that I will be looking at this report is the Sony Bravia 900 series LCD TV from Sony Corporation. This product is one of the premium series of Sony’s 2010 lineup. The prototype has a Full HD panel with 240Hz Motion flow processing and an LED backlight capable of local dimming. The TV also supports internet.

http://mosaic.cnfolio.com/M528Coursework2008A110

Sony Corporation is a multibillion company in Japan. The company is mostly engaged in manufacturing of electronics, video, communications, video game consoles and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. (Sony in Wikipedia, 2008). The corporation with their vast experienced and their involvement in the market has developed the company into one of the world’s biggest and richest companies. Under the Sony Group name, Sony Corporation has more than 30 subsidiaries Company in Japan itself and more then 50 affiliated companies outside of Japan.

Marketing mix.

(marketing core concepts and applications)pp 6-7) 2nd edition , Elliot rundle waller paladino.

In this section I will look at the marketing mix used for a premium product in theory and compare as much as possible with the company’s marketing strategy to promote their premium product and also compare with my expectation. I will look in detail the dominant factors of the marketing mix which include the product, pricing, place (distribution) and promotion and. Followed by this I will also attempt to relate extended 3ps of the marketing mix in for my premium product.

Marketing managers’ work hard to come up with a marketing mix that fits the needs of customers. Usually a company will be focusing on a specific group of customer or target market to in creating the marketing mix. “Ex: Mercedes-Benz, target its cars at a small, very exclusive market: wealthy people who want the ultimate in a car.” marketing core concepts and applications)pp 6) 2nd edition , Elliot rundle waller paladino.

Following are the marketing strategies that are most applicable to promote a premium.

Product

A product is anything that can satisfy a need or want of a consumer. Product decision is normally based on brand name, Functionality, Styling, Quality, Safety, Packaging, Repairs and Support, Warranty, accessories and Services. These product attributes can be manipulated depending on what the target market wants. As a buyer you are drawn to a product because these feature attributes and service of the product.

The premium product falls under specialty products. Specialty products are consumer products and services with unique characteristics or brand identification for which a significant group of buyers is willing to make a special purchase effort. (Essentials of marketing, Lamb Hair pp 264)

Below are some of the outstanding features functions that most appealed to me in my premium product.

http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/sony-bravia-xbr-52lx900/4505-6482_7-33943221.html

http://www.sony-asia.com/article/388375/section/home/product/kdl-52lx900

The TV is full High definition and 3D quality. The high-quality super-fine Full HD 3D images deliver unprecedented reality and presence. It promises the best picture that Sony can produce.

Edge LED backlight technology results in a much thinner and lighter BRAVIA with more efficient light transmission process and lower power consumption.

With four user-adjustable settings available it creates incredibly vivid colours on screen. You can choose just how vivid you want your images to be.

Wi-Fi Integrated enabling you to use the BRAVIA Internet TV & Widgets without any additional wires.

BRAVIA Internet Widgets are configurable and customizable add-ons that allow you to access the news, weather, and all sorts of information from the Internet directly from your BRAVIA television.

Full HD quality! From the smallest detail to the brightest colour, everything appears clearer and more lifelike for a truly immersive experience.

BRAVIA televisions have an intelligent MPEG Noise Reduction (NR) feature that gets rid of both speck-like noise around subtitles and block noise that are usually found in fast-moving scenes.

BRAVIA Sync lets you link all compatible devices together.

Price (pricing strategy

Introduction to marketing, 8th Edn Mac Danel pp 586 – 587)

Price is the something you pay in exchange of a good or service. It is the source of income and the key to a company’s profit and it is the only marketing mix variable that can be altered quickly. Price variables include dealer and retail price, discounts, allowances, credit terms etc. Price is a major factor that influences the assessment of value obtained by customers it also greatly influence the development of marketing strategy.

I believe customers relate price to quality, especially if the product that are expensive or technology based. Sony being a company which emphasizes product quality, it tends to sell its products with price range from moderately-high to high-prices, depending on the use and the targeted customers.

For a premium product a high pricing or premium pricing strategy will be applied where an organization decides to keep its prices high; reasons for such a strategy might include a growing super-premium segment of the market, overcrowding at the bottom-end of the market, or the desire to create a prestige image for the product.

The price of the Sony Bravia 900 series LCD TV is US$3795.509 and I consider it as good comparing to the quality and features provided.

Some of the other competitive and similar brands offer the following prices. But they do not have advanced features.

http://electronics.pricegrabber.com

Sony BRAVIA LX900 Series XBR-60LX900 60″ LCD TV, – $3,795.50

Sharp AQUOS LC-52LE810UN 52″ LCD TV As low as $1,545.00

Toshiba 52RV535U 52″ LCD TV Total Price: $1,499.22

Samsung LN52A850 52″ LCD TV Total Price: $2,495.00

Place(Distribution)

Place is the effort put by the marketer to locate the product at a convenient location and time for the customer. And the channels use the marketer to bring the product to the customer. (Marketing real people real choice). Depending on the nature of the product, marketing management decides to put into place an exclusive, selective or intensive network of distribution, while selecting the appropriate dealers or wholesalers. Sony being the company which positions itself as a seller of durable and

high-end products, it is practicing selective distribution of its products from the

selective dealers.

The Sony Company has 3 exclusive shops in Male’. And one of them specifically sells electronic.

Another good news was they also provide after sales in Male’ they also have a service center uniquely for Sony products.

Promotion

Company’s goes through promotional efforts to create awareness about itself and also the products and services they offer. Major activities of promotion include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, and publicity. Sony Corporation has used all of these marketing communication mix elements.

People

Marketing teacher.

People are the most important element of any service or experience. Services tend to be produced and consumed at the same moment, and aspects of the customer experience are altered to meet the ‘individual needs’ of the person consuming it

At the shop I that I purchased the product the sales assistant were very friendly were well aware of the features and were able to reply to all my queries regarding the product. They were fully informed of the various features of the product and help demonstrate it to me.

Process(marketing mix) http://www.marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-marketing-mix.html

Processes – associated with customer service are a number of processes involved in making marketing effective in an organization. The processes for handling customer complaints, processes for identifying customer needs and requirements, processes for handling order etc.

Physical Evidence (Marketing, real people real choices pp. 306)

Consumers typically come into contact with products in retail units – and they expect a high level of presentation in modern shops. The shop was not as grand as I expected. But the shop had a sufficient number of sales assistants. They wore a specific uniform which was helpful in identifying.

Consumer Buying decision

I will reflect on my behavior and decisions in the process of purchasing the selected premium product. In this process I will elaborate on the need/want before moving on to talk about the recognition of my need/want. I will also look at the the process I went through in search of gathering the information and the alternatives options that was considered, the actual process of purchasing, and the service rendered to me in the purchasing process and finally the satisfaction I experienced after purchase.

Need Recognition.

Need and want

http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/mkt/dictionary/www.html

http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/theory/theory–needs-wants–233.php

A need is a feeling of deprivation in a person. Our needs make up our basic survival kit like shelter and food and sex clothing. Needs are easier to define but vary according to a person’s age, physical environment, health and many other factors.

On the other hand wants are the desires we have for non-essentials. It is shaped by culture and individual personality, in which basic human needs are given expression. Our wants are infinite. And what is a only a want in a one country may be seen as a need in another country.

According to Maslow, humans seek to satisfy five levels of need, from the most important to the least important. Once need at one level are met humans seek to fulfil needs at the next level. The third level of need are social needs at this level we try to fulfill love and affection and sense of belonging. Next are the level of self esteem where people need respect and recognition from others and a sense of their own worth. (Marketing, Core concepts and applications pp155). We will only be able to think about purchasing a high quality or expensive products when we reach at least the level of social needs. But this level also there are many deciding factors depend on the persons motives to satisfy his need or goal.

We buy things to fulfill a need or a want.

I come from middle income family and for me the basic and Television has become a common house hold item as cannot remember any time in life that we did not have a television set at home. As such I have got used to it and TV has become part of life making it a need for me. But I consider, the high quality Sony TV I that I have purchased as want for me because the need for a television set can be fulfilled by purchasing any model and quality of television set. As individual from of my class it is not an item I cannot that easily afford. $4499 television set. And there are cheaper and more affordable alternatives that suit me more.

I realized the want when my television set broke down, and I searched for alternatives. I have been only using Sony brand electronics for more than 15 years and I have trust and confidence in their technology and high quality products.

Information Search

Consumers use both internal and external information search. Internal information search is the information you already have of the product. Whereas external information searches from other sources, it can be straight for the marketer or friends, family, core workers.

As a user of Sony products I have some internal information. But I did also use external information through Sony website and also through their retail shop in Maldives.

Evaluation of alternatives.

I did search for alternatives but the effort was minimal as in my mind I have already made my decision to purchase the sony model TV. As I mentioned I am brand loyal to sony and I had confident in the company’s products.

Purchase.

I purchased the product at the retail shop in Male’ Madives. But for demonstration they did not have specific area and I was actually not able to clearly identify the full quality of the sound. The shop also provided home delivery. I was able to receive my product within 10 hours of the actual purchase. With a warranty of 1 year was given.

Post purchase behavior.

After the purchase I was satisfied with the product as the product deliverd me with much more than I expected. Finally was able to experience high definition entertainment with 3D quality. The 3D was a new feature for me and was very exited about it. I planned to set the tv in my room but had to move it to the living room as the 52″ was a bit too big to watch in my relatively small single room. I specifically bought the TV to enjoy the world cup 2010 matches and I invited my friends to experience the 3D technology with me.

Target Market

The customers can be divided into groups based on their needs, behavior and characteristics. For the premium product the focused segment is selected using variables from demographic, geographic, behavioral and psychographic segmentation. I will look the deciding factors of premium product segmentation.

http://www.marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-segmentation.html

The customers can be divided into groups based on their needs, behavior and characteristics.

Segmentation is identifying buyers within a market that share similar needs and demonstrate similar buyer behavior. Segmentation aims to match groups of purchasers with the same set of needs and buyer behavior. Such a group is known as a ‘segment’

Companies will evaluate segments based upon potential business success, the potential growth of the segment, the state of competitive rivalry within the segment how much profit the segment will deliver, how big the segment is and how the segment fits with the current direction of the company and its vision.

http://www.marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-segmentation.html

For premium product the focused segment is usually selected using a mix of variables as mentioned below from, demographic, Geographic, Psychographic and Behavioral segmentation.

Demographic variables include consumers form upper middle class who are professionals with high education background. For geographic for the population from urban or big cities,

Under psychographic the decision is mostly depending on the person’s characters like the personality, motives, opinion and Lifestyle of the person.