Marketing Concept †Britvic Essay

Question 1 Identify three key characteristics of the marketing concept. ‘Marketing concept is a philosophy that an organisation should try to provide products and services that satisfy customer’s needs through a coordinated set of activities that also allows the organisation to achieve its goals’ (Dibb, 2012:18). According to marketing concept customers should be at the centre of all the organisations activities. Therefore all departments of organisation are responsible for customer satisfaction and only in that way organisation goals can be achieved. According to Drucker, the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous, is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him/her and sells itself. Marketing puts customers in central of all business activities, finding out what customers wants, meeting customer needs, supplying them more efficiently and effectively and creating and maintaining profitable relationships. Putting the customer in the middle of all company’s operation allows Britvic to be one of the biggest branded soft drink businesses in UK. Britvic provides fresh, bottled fruit juices with source of Vitamin C. Question 2 Explain Btitvic’s micro and macro environment. Marco forces of marketing environment can affect all organisations operating in market. External marketing environment consists of six categories of forces: political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal (Dibb, 2012:76). Those forces are uncontrollable and often called PEST or PESTEL. Generally, businesses can prepare for the unexpected by using PESTEL analysis. For example a new legislation of television advertising of food and drink to children has led to the use of non – television campaigns i.e. sponsorship and celebrity endorsement like Wimbledon or British pantomimes play an important role in Britvic’s marketing strategy. Micro environment factors are factors close to a business that have a direct impact on its operations and success. These factors include competitors, customers, distribution channels, suppliers, employees, media, shareholders and the general public. Businesses cannot always control micro environment factors but they should endeavour to manage them along with macro environment. Environmental forces are always dynamic and even though the  future is not very predictable, marketers can estimate what will happen and modify their marketing strategies to the new environmental circumstances. Britvic try to minimize their competitors by supplying their products to 200,000 outlets across UK, possessing the licensed distributor of PepsiCo brands in country, and becoming the number two branded soft drinks business in the UK. Question 3 Explain why market research and the information gathered are important to an organisation like Britvic. According to American Marketing Association ‘marketing research is the function that links consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems, generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions, monitor marketing performance, and improve understanding of marketing as a process’ (www.marketingpower.com). That information must be accurate, reliable, timely, relevant and affordable. There are five basic steps of planning marketing research: locating and defining problems or research issue, designing the research, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting findings, and reporting research findings (Dibb, 2012:264). Marketing research helps businesses like Britvic to identify consumer’s needs, competition, market segments and size of the market. They are also used to determinate company goals, pricing strategy or reduce risk of putting a new product onto the market. Question 4 Explain how Britvic might collect and use market research information. Britvic may collect for its purpose secondary (information compiled inside or outside the company) or primary (information gathered first hand) data, or both. Primary research can be classified as either Quantitative or Qualitative. Quantitative methods are used to discover something that can be measured. They ask questions such as: how many, where, when, what. These methods includes: survey (a method of questioning via post, Internet, telephone or personal interview), observation and experimentation. Qualitative research looking for the answers to the questions why or how people feel which is very difficult, if not impossible, to be found out through a survey or a questionnaire. This data is often called ‘soft’ as it is often difficult to quantify statistically. Methods include in-depth interviews or focus groups. For Britvic purpose, which is to find out about customers’ preferences, thoughts and feelings with regards to the new product (Tango Clear), more sufficient would be a personal interview (quantitative method) and a focus group (qualitative method). Question 5 Explain the process of market segmentation and targeting and benefits of segmentation and targeting to Britvic. Market segmentation is the process of grouping customers into smaller, more similar or homogeneous segments. It is the identification of target customer groups in which customers are formed into groups with similar requirements and buying characteristics (Dibb, 2012:212). Thus market segmentation is the process by which customers with different requirements can be grouped into smaller, more similar segments. One of the basic ways to consider segment is to segment the market by geography, demography, psychographic or socio – cultural factors. Britvic distinguishes between core brands and seed brands. Core brands are the central point of the business and include Pepsi, Robinsons, J2O, 7Up, Fruit Shoot and Tango. Seed brands are those that are believed to have potential for growth in the future and include Gatorade, V Water, Drench. Once segments have been identified, decision about which and how many customer groups to target can be made. There are several options to consider for companies like Britvic. The choice needs to be made between concentration on a single segment with one product and one marketing programme and offering one product and marketing programme to a number of segments (Dibb, 2012:215). By launching new ‘Tango Clear’ Britvic has targeted a slightly older market than traditionally. Business like Britvic by creating separate offers for each segment provides customers a better choice; retain customers who might switch to competing products and brands. Thus using market segmentation Britvic can reach customers more effectively and at a lower cost. List of references: American Marketing Association (2004) Definition of Marketing, available from www.marketingpower.com/aboutama/pages/definitionofmarketing.aspx (last seen on 29th December 2012) Dibb Sally, Simkin Lyndon, Pride William M., Ferrel O.C., (2012) Marketing Concepts and Strategies 6th edn, Hampshire: Cengage Learning EMEA