The Marketing Mix Revisited: Toward the 21st Century Marketing
Article # 1: The Marketing Mix Revisited: Toward the 21st Century Marketing
This was an insightful article the primarily focused on the 4Ps Marketing Mix framework, which are the key considerations of product, price, place, and promotion that must be thoughtfully considered and wisely implemented in order to successfully market a product or service. The author argues that this framework is the dominant marketing management paradigm in use today, and the preferable management tool of modern-day practitioners. Moreover, according to Constantinides (2006) the future of the Mix as a theoretical concept hinges on the variables of market developments, environmental changes, trends, and changing academic attitudes. Balance is added to this article by the treatment that is offered on various criticism of the 4Ps Marketing Mix framework that transpire from the six marketing areas of consumer marketing, relationship marketing, service marketing, retail marketing, industrial marketing, and the emerging field of electronic marketing. This balance is buttressed by the identification of two major limitations of the Marketing Mix as a management tool, which can be applied to every common domain. The first limitation listed by the author was that this model is orientated internally, and the second limitation was that this model lacks the element of personalization. In conclusion, with such weaknesses cited by the author, this study supports the frequently expressed suggestion that scholars who focus on marketing should collectively focus their efforts on formulating conceptual foundations and marketing methodologies that address the real world needs of modern-day marketers (Constantinides, 2006).
Article # 2: The Elements of Value
This was an interesting article that focused on the elements of value as a convoluted subject that is often difficult for marketers to pin point due to its psychological foundations. To help readers sort through the complex aspects of value the authors provide what they call universal budling blocks of value that promise to help organizations improve their overall performance in their existing markets, and to help them penetrate into new markets. When used properly the authors’ analysis proves that these elements will equate to stronger customer loyalty, increased consumer willingness to try new brands, and sustained revenue growth (Almquist et al., 2016). The methodology in this article was derived from thirty combined years of doing consumer research and observation for corporate clients that led to the compilation of thirty elements of value. The model used by the authors transpired from Abreham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” and build from this foundation to focus on both people and consumers in the context of their behavior around products and services. These elements are cleverly arranged in a pyramid according to four types of needs: Functional (as the base), emotional, life changing, and social (as the peak). In conclusion, the authors claims are supported by real world examples such as Apple, Samsung, USAA, TOMS, and Amazon to demonstrate how they have utilized the various elements of value to grow revenue, pursue innovation, identify new customer perceptions, and cross-sell services (Almquist et al., 2016).
Article # 3: The CEO of Levi Strauss on leading an Iconic Brand Back to Growth
This was an inspirational article that charted the brand recovery of Levi Stauss as led by Chip Bergh. The journey started in 2011 when Levi Strauss had been experiencing erratic financial performance for a ten-year span of time. To vet the necessary information Bergh went on what he called an information tour to personally speak to the top sixty executives of the company. During these meeting two key questions were asked: what three things must change and what three things must remain the same? It became clear quickly that a unified and clear strategy was lacking along with a lack of urgency, financial discipline, and data discipline (Bergh, 2018). Within a six-month period, Bergh and his team rolled out a four-point plan that consisted of (1) building a profitable core, (2) expanding for more, (3) becoming a leading omnichannel retailer, and (4) achieving operational excellence. In conclusion, this new strategy was successful in providing investment capital for the Eureka innovation Lab and a new factory in Turkey. By 2013 the strategy was in full motion with a new facility that opened a mere four blocks from the headquarters in San Francisco and a revamped women’s line that was becoming the firm’s biggest success (Bergh, 2018).
Conclusion
These articles provided a wealth of information as it pertains to product strategy and branding. The first article primarily focused on the 4Ps Marketing Mix framework, which are the key considerations of product, price, place, and promotion. The author persuasively argues that these must be thoughtfully considered and wisely implemented in order to successfully market a product or service (Constantinides, 2006). The second article focused on the elements of value as a convoluted subject that is often difficult for marketers to pinpoint due to its psychological foundations., but that could be successfully sorted through by the use of the universal building blocks of value that promise to increase the market value of a firm (Almquist et al., 2016). The third article charted the brand recovery of Levi Stauss as led by Chip Bergh that was driven by building a profitable core, expanding for more, becoming a leading omnichannel retailer, and achieving operational excellence (Bergh, 2018).
Personally, I enjoyed the first article the most. It was entitled the Marketing Mix Revisited: Toward the 21st Century of Marketing. This article effectively focused on the 4Ps Market Mix, and when discussing elements that pertain to products, in my opinion, there is no better foundation. Rust (2020) asserted that the marketing strategy of a company revolves around 4Ps – Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Thus, author argued that companies devise a strategy by mixing the four, but that the most important among them is product. This is because all the marketing push and promotion will go waste if the product is not able to deliver. Thus, to come out with a winning product, companies have to understand target customers’ needs, requirements, and values (Rust, 2020).
References
Almquist, E.; Senior, J.; & Bloch, N. (2016). The elements of value. Harvard Business Review, 94(9), 46-53.
Bergh, C. (2018). The CEO of Levi Strauss on leading an iconic brand back to growth. Harvard Business Review, 96(4), 33-39.
Constantinides, E. (2006) The Marketing Mix Revisited: Towards the 21st Century Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management.
Rust, R. (2020). The future of marketing. International Journal of Research Marketing, 37(1), 15-26.
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