Principles of Marketing

Learning outcome 1: Analyse the effectiveness of the marketing mix for any given company or brand.

Learning outcome 2: Demonstrate knowledge of STP marketing planning process

Report - The 4Ps/marketing mix

Assignment task: An individual 1500 word report on target marketing and the 4P's of the marketing mix i.e. Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

You need to compare and contrast the target audience for the brand and also how effective the brands are in their application of the 4Ps of the marketing mix for one selected pair of brands (NOT ALL OF THEM) from the list below:

You need to carry out in-depth research into the brand's target market (who they are, their likes/dislikes, their levels of personal disposable income etc.) using market research databases - e.g. Mintel reports, WARC and TGI. You then need to look at the brands themselves, their brand values and competitive positioning in the market before going on to discuss their application of the 4Ps - product, price, place and promotion. The key to getting a good mark on this is to prepare a comparative analysis. Do not describe the brands in isolation - always look at the two together and explain why they do things differently.

You need to research the following:

1. Target Market
You need to develop a detailed target market profile for each brand using data sources such as Mintel, the companies' own websites and other secondary sources. You need to think about age, gender, personal disposable income, social class, level of education, family life cycle, lifestyles, other brands they like, TV programmes they watch, hobbies etc.

2. Product /Brand
Using Levitt's model of a brand, try to analyse your two selected brands (their shape, packaging, colour scheme etc.). How different are they at the functional and emotional level? What are the brand values that the companies are trying to portray? In addition include coverage of Aaker's brand personality framework to see which personality type(s) each brand follows.

3. Price
You need to carry out some on-line and in-store research to establish a market price for each of the brands and any competing products. Display all this competitive pricing research in a table and draw conclusions about which pricing strategy they are adopting.

4. Place (Distribution)
You need to look at channel management. Which stores stock this product? Is it a mass market product where the company has maximised distribution outlets, or is it a luxury brand where distribution is deliberately limited? Explain your answer. If possible, take photos of the product in- store/on-line. What does this tell you about brand values?

5. Promotion
You need to research their past methods of communication (e.g. cinema, TV, outdoor, print, social media, mobile, own website etc.). Which communication methods do they use to build their respective brands? - and how do they do this? How are they positioning themselves in the minds of target audiences? (E.g. affordable, luxury, healthy, socially conscious etc.

You only have 1500 words for your report so you need to decide what goes in the appendices. It is suggested that you follow this structure for your work.

Executive Summary

THIS IS WRITTEN LAST (because it is a summary of your research) BUT IT APPEARS FIRST (before the contents page), in order to catch the attention of the reader and encourage them to read further. It should cover in one page or less:
• The aim of the report,
• The methods of research,

• The results (top-line summary only)
• Conclusions

Contents Page (Use the feature in Word to do this automatically)

Introduction
This should be quite brief - it's NOT a detailed coverage of a 100 years of corporate history. It should include the aim of the report and some background information on each of the chosen brands - i.e. a brief description of the brands with useful data such as market share, market size and trends in sales, which you can find from the most recent Mintel reports as well as in the trade press.

Findings
Use sub-headings to make your report easier to follow. We suggest you adopt the following headings:
1. Comparison of Target Markets
2. Product - Evaluation of the Products and their Brand Values
3. Price - Evaluation of the Pricing Strategies Used
4. Place - Distribution of the Brands
5. Promotion - Communications by the Brands

You should try to put relevant raw data in the appendices with only a summary of the data in the body of the report. Every time you state a fact e.g. market size, price data, sales etc. you must provide a referenced source for that fact (both in the text and in the reference list based on the Harvard referencing rules). All graphs, data, diagrams and tables should have the title on the top e.g. Figure 1: XYZ Product Category Market Share; or if it's a table, Table 1: XYZ Product Category Market Share with a source written directly underneath and to the right of that table e.g. Source: Mintel (2021).

Conclusion and Recommendations
This is where you provide some element of evaluation of your research findings.
• How has each brand applied the 4P's?
• Why have they applied the 4P's in this way?
• Which brand has been most successful in its application of the 4P's?
• How could each of the brands improve their use of the 4P's?