1 Explain various concepts of marketing with suitable examples? 2 Explain market segmentation with suitable examples? 3 “PLC as a tool for marketing strategy” justify? 4 Explain process of selecting the final price? 5 Explain the process of integrated Marketing communication? CONTENT I INTRODUCTION Today, commodity markets or services are almost no longer bounded by territory borders, geographical distance and marketing is not only to sell goods or services, but also perform the function of bringing customers closer to companies Or there is interaction and relationship between customers and companies toward the goal to satisfy each other's needs through products or services Marketing management and establishing a marketing mechanism with a focus on customers is a core factor in the sustainable development of enterprises, satisfying customers’ needs and ensuring living environment of human In order to make sure for the success in the context of a severe competition and the current globalization, a company should clearly identify its strengths as well as limitations to choose for itself the unique products or services with outstanding advantages for integrating into a larger market but lacking space for any companies which don’t have appropriate marketing strategies and don’t understand the complex fluctuations of the market After studying marketing management under the guidance of lecturer, I decided to choose some content to do my assignment, including: i) Explain various concepts of marketing with suitable examples; ii) Explain market segmentation with suitable examples; iii) “PLC as a tool for marketing strategy” justify; iv) Explain process of selecting the final price and Explain the process of integrated Marketing communication Page 1 II BODY 1 Explain various concepts of marketing with suitable examples? Marketing management is the conscious effort to achieve desired exchange results with target markets If marketing managers are in favor of any philosophy, they will enhance the activities towards that direction, if they want a market with many cheap products distributed, they will concentrate all the enterprise’s resources to strengthen the production In business activities, depending on awareness each enterprise can have different thoughts and philosophies There are five basic philosophies of marketing management as the following: 1.1 The Production Concept Focus on production duties, because in this sense that customers will benefit due to the availability and widely distributed at low prices, the marketing management should focus on boosting production as well as product distribution This concept is often explained by two main reasons: - First, when demand for a product exceeds the supply, the customers will pay much attention to getting the product to consume rather than focus on the subtle attributes of product quality Therefore, the company will focus on increasing the scale of production with the desire to increase sales volume and profitability - Second, to reduce production costs, the company will look to increase production to achieve economies of scale and thereby expand the market Positive aspects of this concept are evident when demand exceeds supply However, the biggest drawback is the occurrence of oversupply situation (will cause excess waste due to the absence of a sale, the revenue could not offset the cost spent); or lower price as well as the ease of shopping (due to the wide distribution) are not the major factors to attract customers in purchasing decisions 1.2 The Product Concept Page 2 Focus on the products, so that customers will benefit most when offered the same quality products of unique design with innovative features Thus, the marketing management will prioritize efforts to improve the quality of products continuously But to ensure the effective business, managers should be aware how to properly consider the needs and demands of customers Positive aspects of this concept will promote market to have many good products, but it will have difficulties due to appearing risks of alternative products increased, and customers will buy the alternative products with better uses and benefits instead of choosing high quality products but less efficiency 1.3 The Selling Concept Focus on the task of selling, because it can attract customers and if not actively selling and implementing strong promotions, customers will not buy all products This concept is applied strongly to detect the prospective customers and pressed by convinced of the benefits, as unsought goods that normally buyers do not think the premium, functional foods or sought goods but expensive as houses, cars The downside of this concept is making many potential customers to be surrounded by the advertising, promotion too much, so it will make them feel at any time, any place there are people trying to sell a something, and they will shy away 1.4 The Marketing Concept This is one of the cornerstones of the modern business concepts Marketing concept confirms the key to achieve the objectives of the organization to lie in determining the needs and wants of the target markets, and distributing the satisfaction effectively than competitors This concept focuses on the satisfaction of the consumers to bring success, so the company should only offer products under customers’ desire However, its drawback is not to pay attention to social welfare 1.5 The Societal Marketing Concept Not only bring customer satisfaction but also to ensure the social benefits, it is the societal marketing concept This is almost a step further than the marketing concept, because it was Page 3 believed that only the satisfaction of consumers is not enough, but also the sustainable development must also focus on protecting the interests of the whole society If a company produces a car consuming less gas but polluting more, then, to a certain extent, it has brought satisfaction to consumers but damaged the living environment Before the companies have made marketing major decisions based on profit, but now satisfying customer needs and perceptions of the importance of the social benefits have been focusing more and more As a result, marketing activities will be significantly better with the longer-term benefits Choosing one of the above five philosophies of marketing management depends on a lot of factors such as: Competitive position of the enterprise, the characteristics of products or services, the demand of target market, the ability of enterprise’s marketing staff Therefore, applying a philosophy will depend on capacity of a company, market situation and other social objectives to have tight dominance in accordance with the actual conditions and avoid restrictions in order to bring the best results The fact that the company can manufacture products that are cheap and widely distributed or, focus on improving to make products with high quality as well as promote products with the hope of selling more products or meeting customer’s demand better and better to satisfy them is really not enough for companies today These factors are necessary but the most important thing in marketing is to bring the highest satisfaction to customers, contributing to achieve business goals and promote social benefits 2 Explain market segmentation with suitable examples? Market segmentation is a marketing strategy that involves dividing dividing a broad target market into smaller segments that fit the needs of a group of customers who have common needs and application of the goods and related services Depending on the specific characteristics of products, these segments can be divided according to criteria such as age and gender, or other discrimination, such as location or income Accordingly, the marketing campaign is designed and implemented to target segments of specific customer Page 4 In business, the company in market segment to improve competitiveness and profitability in ways as follows: - By focusing on product development, marketing, resources and services on the most promising segment, the companes can deploy effective marketing - By developing products, services, and marketing messages to address the specific needs of the segment, the companies can improve their market share in the best way At the same time, by focusing on the needs of customers to enhance the attractiveness to customers A good segment of the market is determined by the following five criteria: Be possible to identify and measure; Be large enough to be effective; Be easy to hold; Stability; And responsiveness Market segmentation strategies to meet these criteria can include the wide range of consumer characteristics These small segments can be determined by a number of personal characteristics such as race, gender, age or education level and income, but particularly social class, lifestyle and interests of customers In most segments mentioned above, there will be some customers may be relatively consistent with the criteria of multiple groups This overlap often leads to a new segment incurred a drag on demand adjustment of marketing strategy Therefore, a targeted marketing plan for some customers may be more effective if focused on a particular trait Other Benefits: Along with roles in innovation marketing methods, market segment can also help the companies identify ways to improve customer loyalty As part of the process of identifying specific groups of potential customers, the companies will often conduct surveys to understand customer requirements to improve products or services This can lead to changes in packaging or some other similar parts that do not necessarily have an impact on core products, and sometimes make such simple changes make the customers feel their needs to be important to the companies The result is to promote the relationship between the consumers and the manufacturers Market segment is not only beneficial for the companies or distributors, but sometimes there are benefits for customers Customers in a market segment can benefit when the companies focus on those products that fit such group requests, or find Page 5 the more popular products When the companies meet customer feedback, which means that the companies better meet customer requirements The drawbacks of the market segment: One of the biggest drawbacks in the market segment is expenses Because the companies often need to spend a lot of time and money to perform market research to determine exactly what the most important segment for themselves, then the different marketing messages need to be deployed In addition, each change of a product in each segment is forced the companies to invest more expenses in order to adjust So all investment resources will be wasted if the market is not effectively segment When defining a narrow market segment, the benefits of the companies can be not good because sales are not high, it is difficult to offset the costs spent, it can not be profitable or have but very low so not worth the investment The challenge occurs when the customer tastes change or appearing strong competitors in selected segments of a company, a company focusing too much on one segment may lose its customers in other segments quickly Targeting smaller segments means that the companies may have overlooked other potential customers and lost business opportunities 3 “PLC as a tool for marketing strategy” justify? The development stages in the life of a product is known as the “Product Life Cycle” Product Life Cycle is a famous concept in marketing to describe four distinct stages a product: Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline Not all products reach this final stage Some continue to grow and others rise and fall Companies should be aware of the stages in which theirs products are in to have a marketing plan: Launching a new product, refreshing an old product or simply replacing the old products with the new ones In other words, to help companies with a lot of applications in product management and pricing strategy, and marketing budget management 3.1 Introduction Stage: This is the initial stage, customers do not know or do not know much about the products, the companies have a lot of costs to introduce and advertise products on the market Page 6 3.2 However, if the companies implement pricing strategies, product positioning error would create the risk of reducing the value of the products In terms of market size is too small will not be able to have good sales, so the companies must rethink marketing strategies if the market uncertainty Target customers who are interested in exploring and experimenting, and they always want to be the first to use the products 3.3 Growth Stage: After the initial stage, many customers were interested in those products due to their value brought, as well as from the effects of marketing activities and through the targeted customers The property of products becomes a great demand, the number of products sold will increase, the companies will have greater revenue and profitability When products are dominant and dominant market, they will bring the biggest profit margin 3.4 Maturity Stage: After the development stage, the number of customers has owned high products, so the attractiveness of the products is not as large as before and the demand for products gradually becomes saturated Sales will be leveled off and begun to decline over time due to the emergence of many competitors, loss of market share or products unfit for consumers At this stage, the companies need to deploy marketing strategies for new products or for the lifetime of the product line instead 3.5 Decline Stage: Products have become too familiar and not so attractive, so consumers have been boring and appeared psychological to want more new products and more features So this time, purchases fell, sharply increased cost of sales and reduced profits The companies should reduce the price to attract customers in lower segment and to have revenue in the period Marketing strategy is to identify what the market needs, basing on the formation and development of a product The task of marketing is to research the market demand, manufacture products that satisfy those needs and promote the development of products to expand markets and increase the company’s profits A marketing strategy will help a company focus and identify the different ways to talk to customers, and concentrate on the Page 7 ones that will create most sales A successful marketing strategy depends on understanding your customers, what they need and how you can persuade them to buy from you Therefore, for each stage of the PLC, a company should develop and engage in a variety of appropriate marketing tasks to exploit the strengths of the product and market Every product has a life expectancy and marketers must correctly identify each stage of the product life cycle to develop the appropriate marketing They have to try to keep the products not fall into decline stage with appropriate transition steps by launching alternative products with more advantages at the right time to attract the best target customers and maximize profits 4 Explain process of selecting the final price? Price is the quantity of payment in return for goods or services or it is the sum of all the benefits when possessing or using goods or services In the past, price is the main factor affecting a buyer’s decision But today the non-price factors become more important, as a result, many products or services have the proportion of non-price factors much higher than the their tangible value Today, there is almost no existence of border concept for markets Because there are many suppliers for the same products, the price competition has become the number one problem that administrators have to face The companies must establish a price for the first time when developing a new product, when introduced into a new distribution channel or geographical area This is usually done as follows: - Identify target market segments for products or services, with expectations to achieve and how to deliver products or services to access it - Establish the level of consumer prices for the target market segment - Check prices (and costs if possible) of the actual or potential competitors - Check prices range from the different levels of quality or product delivery method - Identify profitable could get at each price - If low profits, to change specifications of products to reduce the cost to generate the desired profit Page 8 The order to set pricing policies: 4.1 Selecting the Pricing Objective This is the most important stage The clearer objectives, the easier setting prices Five major objectives through pricing are: The survival of the companies, the maximum profit, maximum market share, maximum surf market and product quality management Although specific objectives, the companies use price as a strategic tool that will benefit more than the companies simply for cost or market valuation of their products Sony is one company that has experienced surf market They sell very high price when launching a high technology product to market for consumer groups having a lot of money (premium segment), and the purchasing power decline in this segment, they will reduce the price to attract purchasing power in lower market segments 4.2 Determining the demand The next stage is to identify needs Each price level will create different needs towards be inversely proportional to each other and have different impacts on marketing objectives Most customers are sensitive to the price of the products of the essential goods A seller can charge a higher price than competitors and still sell as long as the customers can own with the lowest cost The process of estimating demand, leading to: i) Estimation of sensitivity; ii) Evaluation and analysis of the demand; iii) Determination of the price elasticity of demand 4.3 Estimating Costs Cost of products include: costs for production, distribution and sale of products (including the favorable factors and risks) This cost depends on each different production levels 4.4 Analyzing competitor's costs, prices and offers This is an important factor This stage depends on market demand and the cost of the products, the cost of competitors and the reaction may be of price In particular, if the poor products or services, the companies will not be calculated as high as their competitors, on the other hand they can also change prices to compete with the cost of the companies Page 9 4.5 Selecting a pricing method There are three pricing methods be used: 1) Costs oriented prices; 2) Competitors oriented prices; 3) Marketing oriented prices Costs oriented prices: Two methods are commonly used: - Full costs: Synthetic full costs associated, however this method has weaknesses lead to an increase in prices, as opposed to the affordability of potential customers - Direct costs: Only for the costs are to increase as production increased, helping determine the lowest price to increase profits while reducing prices to increase sales during peak hours The discount for the vacant seats on the plane is to attract more passengers Competitors oriented prices:Market pricing: Based largely on prices of competitos, may equal, more than, or less than competitors In case of pricing higher than competitors, the companies need through the delivery schedule or quality of services to justify a higher selling price Competitive bidding: The buyers will choose the lowest cost providers Marketing oriented prices: The price of a product is set to match the marketing strategy For new products, prices will depend on locations and strategies; existing products will be affected by strategic objectives 4.6 Selecting the final Price This stage is to narrow down the companies’ choices in its final prices, to consider additional factors such as psychological prices, favorable and riskable prices, the impact of marketing, company policies and effects, the impact on market prices A purchaser’s concern about prices is related to their expectations about the satisfaction or the utility of products Sometimes, high prices can attract customers and bring high profits while low prices don’t appeal and even fail For customers they always have to decide whether the utility achieved in an exchange corresponding to the amount of money they pay for it or not Therefore, the process of setting costs to reach a price for each stage in order to launch a product or service for the market in the most beneficial way: Achieve the original goals of the Page 10 company, in which attracting target customers of each stage to get maximum profits in the long term, contribute to a company’s development With 6 steps above, depending on the specific conditions that a company should choose some appropriate steps to take priority over others in order to achieve the best goals 5 Explain the process of integrated Marketing communication? Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is planning a marketing communication strategy by coordinating tools of advertising, promotions, public relations, digital marketing for them to work in concert to communicate the messages about the products, brands and the companies to customers clear, steady and consistent in order to provide maximum efficiency Communication process: Integrated marketing communications use communication process to persuade potential customers to listen and act upon the marketing messages Implement marketing how to target customers interested, confident and willing to spend money to buy products and services is always a challenge for managers Recently, online marketing has grown in comparison with previous forms of marketing such as advertising through mass media, personal selling, direct mail Because there may be many messages in many forms of marketing from too many companies, it requires managers to provide a consistent message when customer contact The answer is that managers should have a marketing communication strategy in coordination and allocation of financial resources a good way of tools of advertising, promotions, public relations, digital marketing for them to do the same work in concert to communicate messages about products, brands and the companies to customers clear, steady and consistent in order to provide maximum efficiency, often referred to as Integrated Marketing communications (IMC) IMC’s mission is to bring targeted customers to buy the products and services The impact to customers that are shopping via the following process: 5.1 Develop awareness: Customers will not want to buy or use if they have not heard or have awareness about a product or service, so the companies need to spend so much effort Page 11 to explore the market, approach customers to build this awareness For customers, when there is information on benefits will arise desire to further understand and appear the use needs Informing policies of electricity price for poor people: From when? From that point on, the next was, what is the purpose? What is the next, what is the purpose? 5.2 Provide knowledge: A stage to provide information about the characteristics of the products or services What products? What tools? How is the quality? The Power Companies have propagated fully and directly to poor households that if the amount of power they use per month is less than 50 kWh, they will only have to pay for the electricity with the price the same with the production costs, about 993VND/kWh, lower than 425 VND compared with the first 50 kWh using of other households; besides, the State will support 30.000 VND per month 5.3 Create a positive impression: Characterizations of the products or services are information for customers to compare with other products or services in selected thoughts, and this stage for potential customers to see the benefits of the products or services (which will help customers have a better life, save money or solve problems) to influence their purchasing decisions Policies of electricity price for poor people bring customers two benefits: They can save 21.250 VND per month compared with normal and they can gain 30.000 VND from the support of the State 5.4 Achieve favorable positions in the consumer’s mind: Favorable factors have positive implications in customer’s mind and significantly impact the decisions to buy the products or services If customers continue to use the power of less than 50 kWh per month, they not only monetary benefits in the next few months, but also contribute to energy savings for society and for the use of fossil fuels less, keep a better living environment The convenience is much appreciated customers, as they balance the benefits and responsibilities, and it is also using electrical solutions very well Page 12 5.5 Create interest to buy products: Customers will determine or significantly impact the purchasing decisions of others if marketing does good stages outlined above, in which the right of customers, many who have the ability to attract others to buy them The fact that saving 255.000 VND per year is not a big problem but the saving amount of a year can be spent for other needs Transact: After completing the stages above, this is to take the target customers to buy the products or services, potential customers become actual customers, as a result of process of integrated marketing communications III CONCLUSION For marketing philosophies, any philosophy has its strengths and helps administrators follow a particular direction in the marketing activities of the enterprise But these philosophies show better in each of the separate business activities It is important for administrators to identify what philosophy that their companies need in a certain period to emphasize And with the signification for sustainable development of a company, the Societal Marketing Concept is on top priority of many responsible companies One of the main reasons to use market segmentation is to help companies understand better the needs of specific customers The ways and marketing content for each segment will be far more effective compared with general implementation for all customers By identifying the differences of each group of potential customers, the marketing message will aim to better target, closely meet customer’s needs and desire, and enhance the overall effectiveness of the company’s marketing efforts Today, together with many progress in science and technology, we have a lot of new products However, besides this, there is an increasingly fierce competition, therefore, the product life cycle also become shorter, even cannot go through all the normal stages This require administrators to have to find ways to stop the decline with the continuous improvement solutions in order to make customers feel their tastes are always responded better and better with value added time to time Page 13 Besides, to make sure for the products to be accepted, quickly dominating the goal market is to establish the most appropriate prices in order to gain not only the enterprise’s objective market, but also to ensure profits for the survival and development of an enterprise And in the business activities, each enterprise should always know how to identify the necessary marketing tools and coordinate them in a certain extent according to the conditions of their own at a suitable time with the best effectiveness IV REFERENCES http://www.marketing91.com/pricing/ http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-market-segmentation.htm http://www.marketingteacher.com/three-levels-of-a-product/ http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-market-segmentation-14403.html http://www.knowthis.com/product-decisions/product-components-augmented-product http://www.knowthis.com/product-decisions/product-components-augmented-product https://www.boundless.com/marketing/products/product-life-cycles/impact-on- marketing-strategies/ http://www.dineshbakshi.com/igcse-business-studies/marketing/revision-notes/814- product-life-cycle http://geekyfry.com/management/marketing/5-competing-marketing-concepts-to- conduct-marketing-activities/ http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/marketing/5-important-concept-of-marketing- management-philosophy/1076/ https://www.boundless.com/marketing/products/product-life-cycles/impact-on- marketing-strategies/images/product-life-cycle-stages/ Page 14