Use Of Marketing Mix In The Organizations

Use Of Marketing Mix In The Organizations

Introduction

The use of marketing mix in the organizations has helped most businesses in targeting a specific market because of its controllable variable that the companies use in putting together so as to satisfy the targeted groups. It plays a significant part more so in marketing; its purpose is to use tools which are combined together to satisfy the need of the customers as well as obtaining the goals of that organization. It is therefore advisable for every company to carefully address the marketing mix such as product, price, place, and promotion also known as the four P’s before making decisions about their products. One organization that I have been familiar with over the years is Starbucks Company. The Company has a very extensive marketing process and the way they address their marketing mix process provides a good example of the way major corporations should develop a marketing mix for the better development of the organizations’ marketing strategy and tactics. The four P’s allows other businesses to have the ability of connecting to consumers surrounded by the targeted market. The ability of Starbucks Company to create a successful marketing mix has enabled them to produce a good result and a high quality coffee brand as compared to those companies who choose wrong mix that has led them to a fail in their marketing strategies hence resulting to the dissolve of the business. In summary, this research paper will describe the elements of the marketing mix (product, place, price, and promotion) of the Starbucks Company as well as describing how each of the four elements impacts the development of the organization’s marketing strategy and tactics.

Starbucks originated in the year 1971 in Seattle with a one store and in 1981 the company had almost 17,000 stores across the countries all over the world (Starbucks website). Today, Starbuck is the company leader and the largest chain which is known for producing a high quality coffee in the business world of the coffee industry. The Company is able to import and export the bean coffee for selling as well as sell their coffees in retail stores. Because of this, the company implanted a program of marketing that used a marketing mix in order to target and satisfy the needs of its large audience.

Product

The product is the central part of the marketing mix and a good and service for every organization. The company has different ranges of coffee which is accompanied with a wide offer of pastries salads as well as breakfast options offered to its loyal consumers. Starbucks specialize in coffee along with other related beverages as it offers the drinking supplies such as tumblers and coffee mugs to the customers. The company also has products such as Italian-style espresso beverages, cold blended beverages, a selection of premium teas and coffee-related accessories. These products has helped the Starbucks in satisfying a targeted group of customers and in determining the market need and desires in assessing the internal resources concerning market needs satisfaction with the innovation desires of developing the process for product testing, market resource and forecasting the life cycle of the product.

The Company also produces Tazo Tea which is its brand with different flavors and can be gotten in iced teas, lemonades, lattes, hot or cold. The perfect collection of tea by the Tazo Teas fails to leave indifferent to those who do not love taking coffee. The Starbucks product line is not limited to other conventional beverages that one can drink in coffee houses, however it offers a bottled coffee drinks that are sold in drink ware, coffee machines, souvenirs and supermarkets. The company provides its loyal consumers with a free internet to surf while they are taking coffee and a comfortable environment for socializing when customers take a cup of coffee.

Price

Prices are what create revenue in every organization. The price of the product is determined by what the consumer feels like the value should be. In most case, the Starbucks pricing strategy is usually based on the quality, its differentiation as well as the authority value (O’Farrell &Media, 2012). The company is best in offering a high quality of product plus providing excellent services to its customers; furthermore they are ready to pay more so as to provide a better and a quality goods and service. The high quality of the coffee enables the company in justifying on its pricing strategy by increasing the price of the coffee bean. Starbucks more often than not spend much of their time in differentiating from its competitors and social networking to create additional value for the customers for which they are willingly ready to pay more. Because of its strong global brand positioning as the coffee expert, the company price its products according to the upscale image that is related to its branding. The Starbucks expects to lower the price of some beverages such as espresso while raising the prices of the labor-intensive and larger-sized beverages. The main competitor of Starbucks has form a trend of pricing their products significantly lower and this gives an advantage to the Company since the perceived usually benefit from consuming the coffee which seems to be very high for some consumers.

Place

Today, the Starbucks coffee Company is all over across country and according to its mission, it is today be found in every neighborhood. According to Sightseeing Helsinki (2012), Starbucks currently opened one café in the cities of Vantaa-Airport and will soon open the second one as well not only to target the passengers but also to target the guests so as to enjoy the taste of specialty coffee offered by the company. Generally, the Company has a plan of opening up to 20 coffeehouses in Finland. According to Bhaskar 2009, Starbucks can be found in the neighborhoods where there are high traffics for its stores. Its other outlets are found in stores of larger chains that it targets. The location where it is placed makes it extremely conducive for the coffee drinkers who are on the go and to those who enjoy listening to music while taking the specialty coffee. The Starbucks Company’s stores are named after the street where it is located and the new stores created attempt to localize the Company’s stores with no Starbucks logo on the products offered to the loyal consumers, but instead have got a specific street address that is used as the brand name.

Promotion

Promotion within the marketing mix of Starbucks Company determines the success or the failure of products brought to the market by Starbucks. Promotion of products can be through personal selling, advertising, sales promotion and public relation tools. The Starbucks Company makes its promotion decision in the context of other marketing mix such as place, product and price. However, in most case, pricing and the product quality can affect the promotion nature making it to be different depending on what various marketers are achieving to be their competitive advantage. The Starbucks have developed different promotion methods where they have a community website which was designed for collecting the suggestions as well as the feedback from their coffee consumers. The company also has rewards for those who are coffee drinkers allowing members to earn a free drink after they have purchased at least 15 purchases from the participating Starbucks stores. The company has also went to a greater lengths of creating an atmosphere which is favorable for the community who are premium coffee lovers as well as introducing the Starbucks cards that tends to be a stored-value card used by customers and reloading. The research carried out shows that, the company only spend about 1 percent of its revenues in promotion using advertisements, however it mostly rely on word of mouth and on the ability of the its brand to the market itself.

Conclusion

The Starbucks Company in marketing mix excel by focusing on the strategy of the new products, which has stronger connection with their loyal customers by expanding on their store locations in different countries. Their success has been as a result of not failing to compromise on their services and quality but also to maintain their relationship with the loyal consumers or customers. This paper described four elements of the marketing mix of Starbucks Company as well as describing how those elements impacted the development of the organization’s marketing strategy and tactics. Today, Starbucks can be found in all the cities of the United States of America and other countries given that the level of their success achieved continues to hold more important lessons and a lot of inspiration to the business world.

References

Sightseeing Helsinki (2012), Finland’s first Starbucks opens at Helsinki Airport. Sightseeing Helsinki. Retrieved December 3, 2012 from http://www.sightseeinghelsinki.fi/finlands-first-starbucks-opens-at-helsinki-airport/Bhaskar, S. (2009), Starbucks Marketing Mix. Indews Broadcast. Retrieved December 3, 2012 from http://www.indews.com/marketing/starbucks_marketing_mix.php

O’Farrell,R. & Media, D.(2012), Starbucks Pricing Strategy. Meet Fluor at the SWE conference Retrieved December 3, 2012 from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/starbucks-pricing-strategy-10544.html