Marketing Communications. Dramatic changes Essay

Marketing Communications. Dramatic changes - Essay Example To be able to satisfy customer's wants and needs it is necessary to consider the marketing mix of the product or service the company is providing. The marketing mix involves four marketing strategy areas, namely product, price, promotion (The marketing communication and place). In marketing, the "four PS" determine how a product is made or a service provided, how much it costs, where it is distributed and how it is presented in all company's communication. Keller (2001) contends that, the role of marketing communication in modern business practices has been identified as a key factor in survival in modern day business. Companies like Sony, Tesco, Volvo, BMW, McDonald and a host of others have increasingly used the four Ps as a competitive weapon. As part of the search for business effectiveness the entire process of marketing communication is being approached in a comprehensive and unified manner where by all activities of business communication functions in unison. This approach is called Integrated Marketing Communication. This is a relatively new concept in management. It is engineered to harness all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, promotion of sales, public relation, and direct marketing in a highly focused manner eschewing the former tendency of these departments to function in isolation.Competitiveness in business the world over is so acute that survival is possible for only those organizations, which are ready to employ every possible means to increase profit by reducing cost in production, while remaining uncompromising in quality and aggressive in marketing. The account of the phenomenon of Integrated Marketing Communication by Aaker, Batra & Myers (1992) constitutes a fair working explanation of the phenomenon Having said this so far, in the remaining part of the paper, using Sony as a product and at the same time a company I will outline the key characteristic of the target audience, the communication strategies used with the impact of its marketing strategies. 1.1 Sony and the Four Ps I have chosen Sony as my institution under case study. Focusing on Sony is based on a number of important advantages. Sony is a global leader in the electronic industry, it activities have been benefited in almost all the continents. "The influence of words over men is astounding." -- Napoleon. As the whole world gears for peace, marketers and other business people talk in terms of war. We see battle words everywhere in business: Japan bashing, corporate raiders, hostile takeovers, cola wars. Marketing is war (Duncan 2001). With the advent of events, ordinary business executive fancy themselves as warriors. Aggressively attacking weak companies, and defending market shares. Positioning products in people's minds and making them attractive to market segments requires careful formulation of the marketing mix. Getting the right blend of the product, promotion price and distribution is essential to put the carefully carried out analysis into operation. The aim is to portray an image for the product or service that will match with how one wants the product to be visualized in people's mine (Keller 2001, Duncan 2001) Table 1:A summary of what constitute each of the Ps of the 4Ps Product Tangible products Psychological attributes Quality Services Benefits and features Packaging Styling Image Branding Customer service After care Guarantees Image Pricing Selling price Price positioning Distributor margins