Posts Tagged ‘price’

What is Marketing?

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

Marketing can be described as a business function communicating and delivering what customers want in ways that benefit the business. The business is the selling of flowers. Customers in the area that would like something special to give a loved one during a holiday season and jewelry is becoming a habit. The flower business has fresh flowers in an elegant arrangement that would satisfy the customer wanting to give a gift other than jewelry. Marketing is the tool to convey the message that flowers make the perfect gift to the customer.

Marketing consists of four Ps: Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. In order to build a successful business, organizations need to implement all four of these items. Many organizations have already implemented one or a couple of these items, but successful organizations have combined all four into a winning marketing strategy. Examining each element of the marketing mix provides a better understanding of how the organization can maximize the marketing effort.

Price: Price is what a customer is willing to pay for our product or service. This can be perhaps the trickiest part of the marketing mix, because low pricing can drive away customers as quickly as high pricing if quality becomes a question. E-business juncture presents methods to lower cost-per-unit, so you can maximize profits while not calling into question quality.

Product: Product is why the business was incorporated in the first place. Someone had a grand idea and wanted to share it with as many customers as possible. Products or services enable the organization to generate revenue and image. The business wants to show the World the product so the World wants to purchase the product or service. This means quality from the first step in the production process to when the buyer has the product in their possession. E-business juncture will provide the personalized tool to enable the organization to get the quality product into the possession of the purchaser.

Promotion: Promotion is the core of marketing. Promotion involves increasing customer awareness of your product, like newspaper advertisements, telemarketing, and mailers. No longer do organizations need to rely solely upon expensive, and sometimes fruitless, advertising means but can create their own promotions and catalogs, which are viewable by anyone with a web browser around the Globe. E-business juncture is going to aid in adding this new promotional tool to your arsenal, the Internet.

Place: Place is basically having the product available in the correct area in relationship to customer requirements. In the past, a snowmobile dealer would not be able to generate sales if they were located in Florida. However, with the advent of the Internet and e-business juncture, a snowmobile dealer in Florida can now market directly to customers in regions across the globe that have need of the product.

Marketing: Price is relative

Monday, December 1st, 2008

Price is not easy to grasp whether in a traditional marketing environment or e-commerce. In terms of economics price is set based upon supply-and-demand. If no one wants our product then we are forced to either reduce the price, eliminate the product or redefine the product’s purpose. No one wants to reduce their prices; however, there are methods we can use online to obtain a good pricing structure.

Search engines are one method for determining price. We can look for our product online and see what others are charging for similar items. The search query will need to encompass several aspects pertaining to our product. Examining the number of query returns can be a good indication whether the product is in demand or not in demand. If the query results are low you will need to consider that your product might be unique, which will effect your pricing.

Auction web sites are another good place to examine prices. Auction sites enable us to see exactly what people are willing to pay for our product. If your product is only selling on an auction site for $5, do not expect people to pay more than that amount through your web store. Remember, the overall price of an item is what customers are willing to pay for the item.

Do not forget one very important aspect of pricing: a break-even analysis. You need to associate all costs of the item to pricing. This is where e-commerce has a slight edge in regard to pricing. The pricing edge occurs due to the lack of overhead associated with e-commerce as opposed to traditional store front environments. You will need to know your break-even point not only for pricing, but for marketing activities.

Pricing is not easy to grasp, but is a major component of the marketing model. Examine the prices your competition is selling the product for through search engines and online auctions. Knowing the basic supply-and-demand as well as conduction a break-even analysis will aid in determining your price. The next area we will examine will be promotion and how you can manipulate the price through various methods of promotion.

Mike Kniaziewicz, MIS