The Marketing Mix, Concepts, and its Components

1. Identify and explain the marketing concept, the marketing mix and the components of the marketing communications mix.

2. Explain the relationship between the marketing environment, its impact upon organisational decision making and consumer behaviour.

3. Discuss the factors that determine competitive advantage within organisations

4. Explain key theories, concepts and models underpinning business communication to create effective communications.

5. Examine and discuss organisational issues and challenges that impact on the effectiveness of business communication through the use of pre-defined criteria to assist in improving communication within the organisation.

6. Demonstrate an application of concepts and techniques related to business communication processes used within the workplace.

All profitable and non-profitable organization involve themselves with different audiences to chase their objectives of business and marketing. It is a management process, and this process is known as marketing communications. The involvement deals with a communication system which occurs between the staffs, employees and customers of a company. Communication process can be in the form of a message or social media. Examples of profitable organizations are TESCO, Walmart, Marks & Spencer, etc. Examples of non-profitable organizations are OXFAM, Cancer Research UK, Royal Society, etc. In marketing process, communication is utilized as an integral portion of the various relationships that organizations share with customers. The organizations which are discussed in the examples are leading organizations. Apart from these, many small organizations also require and utilize communications in marketing for conveying the essence of their services and products as well as to involve their audiences. These organizations have suppliers, retailers, value-added resellers, wholesalers, distributors and other retailers. They join so that they can achieve the goals and objectives of the company. Today, an increase in digital media and the internet aided the organization to communicate with their potential customers regarding selling of products and receiving feedback. It also improved communication system between suppliers, distributors, financiers, employees and communities of a particular organization.

In a marketing process of OXFAM, the essential fundamental elements include the concept of promotion, product, place, and price (Otubanjo, 2013). By another name, it is known as the 4 Ps of marketing. The 4 Ps of marketing help the marketing manager to develop successfully a strategy based on promotion and services of products to customers. Firstly, the product or merchandise is something which can be sold in the market, satisfying the customer needs and demands. Products can be in the form of goods or raw materials. In the case of places, the buyers look for places where they can find products. The place also gives ideas about the places of competitors. The price deals with the cost of products (Otubanjo, 2013). The promotion is the strategy behind advertising of product to target customers. The extended three factors of the marketing mix are people, process, and physical evidence. According to the formal one, all organizations are operated by general population such as employees, staffs and Managing Director of the company. In processes, the conveyance of company’s administration is completed with the client display so how the management is conveyed is at the end of the day part of what the shopper is paying for (Milanovic and Bucalina, 2014). In the case of physical evidence, almost all authorities integrate some physically related components irrespective of the possibility that the central part of what the purchaser is paying for is intangible.

The Components of Marketing Communication Mix

The communication mix is a term used for the promotion of the organization’s products to target customers. The components of marketing communication mix includes:

Advertising – It deals with the promotion of services and products to public for its business growth.

Promotion and Discount – It is similar to advertising. The difference is that the products are sold at a discount price.

Personal Selling – It involves selling to products to public direct or direct marketing element.

Public Relations – It is also similar to advertising, but it includes mass media to communicate with the public (Ciriković, 2014).

Direct marketing – It involves personal selling and sales promotion.

Event Sponsorship – It happens when an organization pays for activities like entertainment, sports or community activities.

In 1942, OXFAM was founded. It is an independent relief, development and campaigning organization. It works with others to overcome suffering and poverty of the world. It employed around 1070 people in the United Kingdom (Luck, 2010). The marketing procedure of OXFAM consists of outdoor advertising and TV, mailings as well as online advertising. These marketing methods were developed and set by Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) and Advertising Standard Agency (ASA). They oversee a transparent and independent scheme of fundraising. As a charity organization, OXFAM facilitates fundraising which transmits into different strategies of marketing within various teams for promoting about the entertainment and supporting team of the organization (McGregor, 2015). It also uses campaigning procedures which allow them to inform people about the upcoming activities and methods such as demonstrating and petitioning. These raises awareness.

Based on non-profitable organizations like OXFAM, the number of choices made by the consumers contains consideration and motivation. The consumer behavior of a non-profitable organization can be determined by the treatment of the organization towards the consumer. The company does not profit from them. Therefore, they trust the company which will help them regarding facilities provided to the needy peoples. For example, a boy is an orphan and suffering from poverty and lack of nutrition(McGregor, 2015). Therefore, it is the responsibility of these organizations to take care of the boy by providing adequate food, education and all the fundamental requirements of a normal lifestyle.

Organizations such as OXFAM sustain and creates a competitive advantage to upgrade, improve as well as innovate their competitive advantages over time. The success based on competition market can be improved by moving early in each process and product generation. There are some factors which determine the competitive advantage (Kamat, 2012).

Marketing Environment and its Impact on Consumer Behavior and Decision Making of the Organization

 It is based on Michael Porter known as Porter’s five factors, they are as follows:

The power of suppliers – It determines the capacity level of a supplier. There are some reasons for the power of supplier. Firstly, input cost about selling price of the product. Secondly, the supply industry must have a higher profit than buying industry.

Threats of new entrants – It refers to the threat of new competitors entering in the market with innovative products.

The power of buyer – It determines the purchasing strength of a customer. Here, customers can bargain the product price (IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine – Call for articles – Winter issue 2012/2013: The impact of internet of things (IoT) on Consumer Electronics, 2012).

Competitive rivalry – Here, the important part is the number and capability of the competitors. If competitors are more, then products are offered based on attractiveness and low price.

Threats of substitution – This factor depends on the customer. If the company supply an android phone in the market, people may outsource the product by substituting the Android version which is a threat to the enterprise.

The operation of an organization like OXFAM can be processed by effective communication. An effective communication includes four fundamental ingredients such as clear communication, concise and easily understood by the receiver, honest as well as complete communication. There are five steps are observed to determine an effective communication. The first step is about identifying the message in which it deals with the type of information required to be communicated and reasons behind that. The second step is about targeting the audience. The next one is deciding on time (Anvari and Atiyaye, 2014). The fourth step is determining the format which determines the best format for communication. The last step is communicating and reviewing which deals with the operation of communication and examining to see if it worked.

The sender-receiver model

Figure 1

Figure 1 represents a sender-receiver model based on the communication system. It is one of the famous simplest communication models from others.  The sender sends a message or information to the end user, and the end user receives the information. In a sender-receiver model, the elements are:

Message – It is the output of encoding. A message contains data and information (Arhipova and Sergeeva, 2015).

Encode – Encoding is the process of translating ideas or thoughts into a form of language which can be understood by the receiver. For example, written English or spoken French.

Factors Determining the Competitive Advantage of the Organization

Noise – During the communication process, something interferes with the understanding and sending of the message. It is called noise.

Medium – Medium is the way of sending a message. For example, telephonic way, through email and face-to-face conversation.

Decode – It is the process of translation of messages like information by the receiver from the medium into their thoughts.

There are many organizational problems and challenges in OXFAM, which highly impact on effective business communication. Sometimes problems occur during the operation of business. The problems occur due to the result of a poor communication system which takes place in the working environment of the business. The boss of the company may not receive crucial emails from the subordinates (Silbey, 2013). On the other hand, any order might not have shipped on time. This happens due to missed phone calls. As a result, customers do not receive products or services on time. There are three fundamental factors due to which communication problems arise such as the morality of the employee, lower efficiency and decreased innovation.

Poor communication in a business like oral or written can barricade the efficiency of the organization such as OXFAM. It happens due to lower efficiency of the business. Effective communication skills play as a significant role in successfully completing any large or small projects. The improvement in communication can be increased if multiple employees team up to complete a large project. As a result, departmental skills can also be enhanced. The project of the company will be inefficient and slow if they do not implement precise practices in communication (Silbey, 2013). On the other hand, the morality of the employees means the motivation of the workers. If communication skills are poor, every employee will lack enthusiasm regarding working with their assignments. It will also demoralize the employees as they will be forced to sit and work out boring and dull presentation. As a result, it will lead to monotony and confusion. Other issues are problems in understanding language, personal issues, and lack of feedback as well as hiring new employees.

The problems based on business communication process can be resolved by improving the communication skills of employees, staffs, managers and customers of that company. First of all, listening is very crucial in the communication process. It is important for a listener to focus entirely on the body language, nonverbal cues, and tone of voice of the speaker. Secondly, paying attention to nonverbal signals also improves communication skills. This awareness can aid a person to connect with others and to express itself what he or she means. It also helps to navigate challenging situations and aids in building a better relationship. The next one is checking the stress which helps a person to stay calm under extreme pressure. All these improvements act as a catalyst for improving communication skills in non-profitable business since this type of business has excessive work pressure.

Importance of Effective Business Communication within Organizations

Moreover, meeting different persons develops communication skills. In this technique, conversations can be in the form of telephonic way, e-mail or by face-to-face. For example, the manager of OXFAM arranges a regular meeting with the employees to discuss the work progression and development of the company’s infrastructure. The discussions also include the rules and regulations regarding removing poverty. This lead to the increase in the relation to the employees, staff and managers with the customers. Another technique includes delivering promises to the customers and creating a team project. The delivery of a promise to a client and fulfilling them establishes a trust and improves the relationship between the company and the customers. Apart from the promises made to the customers, building a team project also tightens the communication system within the organization. If the manager makes a team with some employees to do a particular project which helps them to finish the project on time with less effort.

Conclusion

In the period of increasing market value of marketing and communication system, this report is based on the improvement of marketing strategies and techniques of OXFAM. This report is mainly concerned with the communication procedures and its growth so as to improve the market for a non-profitable organization. Today, OXFAM started recruiting executives for marketing and communication to join OXFAM unwrapped team. It is the team which includes charity gift scheme and selling gifts such as famous OXFAM goat.

The storyboard is based on the promotional mix, theory and decision process of a non-profitable organization. The product can be selected by the following factors such as the type of product, use of product, product complexity, and type of market, purchase quantity and frequency, an available fund for market promotion, the size of the market as well as stages of product life cycle. It is crucial to know the type of product before promoting the product in the market. The product can be classified into many groups. They are branded and non-branded products, necessary products, new or luxury products, etc. It is recommended for the non-profitable organization to promote non-branded, necessary products. Non-branded products are not at all very costly. The organization should look at the use of the product. The use of the product can be a consumable and necessary product or industrial product. Therefore, it is clear that the non-profitable organization should promote the consumable and necessary product. Personal selling is good for complex and innovative products because personal selling requires personal explanation and observation. The organization should also look sat purchase quantity and frequency of the product. Another factor is the availability of funds which can be collected by two methods. The first one is advertising via radio, televisions, magazines and newspapers which are costly, and the next one is personal selling which is comparatively cheaper.

All non-profitable organization must apply multi-attribute choice theory so that they can use different strategies for various types of decisions. The particular choice was made so that during the market crisis, they can go through various strategies for the market development.

References

Anvari, R. and Atiyaye, D. (2014). Determinants of Effective Communication among Undergraduate Students. International Education Studies, 7(9).

Arhipova, S. and Sergeeva, O. (2015). Features of the Information and Communication Technology Application by the Subjects of Special Education. International Education Studies, 8(6).

Ciriković, E. (2014). Marketing Mix in Tourism. AJIS.

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine – Call for articles – Winter issue 2012/2013: The impact of internet of things (IoT) on Consumer Electronics. (2012). IEEE Consumer Electron. Mag., 1(2), pp.13-13.

Kamat, S. (2012). Time to Market: Handheld Consumer Electronics Devices and Its Impact on Software Quality. IEEE Consumer Electron. Mag., 1(4), pp.40-46.

Luck, D. (2010). Assessing the marketing environment. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

McGregor, S. (2015). Framing consumer education conceptual innovations as consumer activism. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 40(1), pp.35-47.

Milanovic, V. and Bucalina, A. (2014). The development of the ‘customer lifetime value’ concept. Marketing, 45(2), pp.113-130.

Otubanjo, O. (2013). The Extended Corporate Identity Mix. IJMS, 5(1).

Silbey, S. (2013). Organizational challenges to regulatory enforcement and compliance. Los Angeles: SAGE.