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3.0 Theoretical Aspect:

In the arena of competitive business, organizations are surviving on strategy, which play very vital role to achieve the organization goal. Marketing policy is one of the major strategies for stay in the market with brand locality. Especially in consumer products, the role of marketing is very important to satisfy the customers through quality of product, attractive TV advertisement, new flavor, better packaging, competitive pricing and product availability. According to Webster, Preference is grant of favor or advantage to one over another. That means some criteria of marketing that creates willingness to receive any product. That may be influenced by the products quality, promotional activities, organizational commitment, facility, packaging, value addition etc.

3.1 Market:

The set of actual and potential buyers of a product or service is called market.

Figure: Elements of a Modern Marketing System.

3.2 Marketing:

Marketing is a social and Managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they needs and wants through creating and exchanging products and values with others.3.3 Needs:Need is states of felt deprivation. Human needs are states of felt deprivation. They include basic physical needs for food, clothing, and satisfy: social needs for belonging and affection and individual needs for knowledge and experience.

3.4 Wants:Want are the form of human needs take as shaped by cultural and individual personality.

3.5 Demand:Demand is human wants that are backed by buying power.

3.6 Market demographic:

Dividing a market into smaller groups of buyers distinct needs characteristics or behavior that might require separate products or marketing mix.3.7 Geographic:

Dividing a market into different geographical units such as nations, stats, regions, counties, cities or neighborhoods.3.8 Demographic:

Dividing the market into different groups based on demographic variables such as, sex, age, family size, family life cycle, income, occupation, education, religion, race and nationality.

3.9 Behavioral factor:

Dividing a market into groups based on consumer knowledge, attitude, use or response to a product.3.10 Market positioning:

Arranging for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive, and desirable place relative to competing products in the minds of target consumers. PRAN Confectionery market positioning strategy is More for the Same. That means PRAN offers superior quality products at the same price with competitors.3.11 Target market:

The process of evaluating each market segments attractiveness and selecting one or more segments to enter.3.12 Customer Satisfaction:

The extent to which a products perceived performance matches with buyers expectations. If the products performance falls short of expectations, the buyer is dissatisfied. It the performance matches or exceeds expectations, the buyer is satisfied or delighted (Principles of Marketing 13th edition, Philip Kotlar & Gary Armstrong).

Marketer must be careful to set the right level of expectations. If they set expectations too low, they may satisfy those who buy but fail to attract enough buyers. In contrast, if they raise expectations too high buyers are likely to be disappointed. Dissatisfaction can arise either from a decrease in product and service quality or from an increase in customer expectations. In either case, it presents an opportunity for companies that can deliver superior customer value and satisfaction. Expectation> Performance= Dissatisfied.

Expectation= Performance= Satisfied.

Expectation< Performance = Delighted.

Although the customer center of firms seeks to deliver high customer satisfaction relative to its competitors, it does not attempt to maximize customer satisfaction. A company can always increase customer satisfaction by lowering its price increasing its services, but it may result in lower profits. Thus, the purpose of marketing is to generate customer value profitably. This requires a very delicate balance: The marketer must continue to generate more customer value and satisfaction but not give away house.

3.13 Marketing mix (4 Ps) analysis:

The marketing mix is probably the most famous phrase in marketing. The elements are the marketing 'tactics'. Also known as the '4 Ps', Marketing decisions generally fall into the following four controllable categories:

Product

Price

Place (distribution)

PromotionThe concept is simple. Think about another common mix - a cake mix. All cakes contain eggs, milk, flour, and sugar. However, you can alter the final cake by altering the amounts of mix elements contained in it. So for a sweet cake add more sugar! It is the same with the marketing mix. The offer you make to you customer can be altered by varying the mix elements. "Marketing mix" is a framework which acts as a guideline for marketers to implement a marketing concept. It consists of a set of major decision areas that a company needs to manage in order to at least satisfy consumer needs.According to Kotler et al. (1999) the mix is a set of "controllable tactical marketing tools that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market". Hence, in an effective marketing programme all of those elements are "mixed" to successfully achieve the company's marketing objectives.Origins of Marketing MIX (4 Ps):

The term "marketing mix" became popularized after Neil H. Borden published his 1964 article, The Concept of the Marketing Mix. Borden began using the term in his teaching in the late 1940's after James Culliton had described the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients". The ingredients in Borden's marketing mix included product planning, pricing, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, and fact finding and analysis. E. Jerome McCarthy later grouped these ingredients into the four categories that today are known as the 4 P's of marketing, depicted below: These four P's are the parameters that the marketing manager can control, subject to the internal and external constraints of the marketing environment. The goal is to make decisions that center the four P's on the customers in the target market in order to create perceived value and generate a positive response.Definition of Marketing Mix:The traditional marketing mix contains of four major elements, the "4-Ps of marketing". As defined by Philip Kotler. (1999):1. Product: "Anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. In includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations and ideas." Here our products are confectionery items.2. Price: "The amount of money charged for a product or service, or the sum of the values that consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service." Here, price is competitive.3. Promotion: "Activities that communicate the product or service and its merits to target customers and persuade them to buy."

4. Place: "All the company activities that make the product or service available to target customers." We supply confectionery products all over Bangladesh.The set of controllable tactical marketing tools product, price, place and promotion that firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market.

Figure: The 4 Ps of the marketing mix

All of these elements have their specific place in any company's marketing strategy: Marketing Mix in Details

Product:

The product is the most important aspect of the marketing mix. The product can be a service or even a holiday destination. Products have both tangible and intangible benefits. Tangible benefits include benefits which can be measured such as the top speed of a car. Intangible benefits are benefits that cannot be measured such as the enjoyment the customer will get from the product. It is important that the product is changed as necessary to bring it up to date and prevent it from being overtaken by competitors.

Exactly what product or service are you going to sell to this market? Define it in terms of what it does for your customer. How does it help your customer to achieve, avoid or preserve something? You must be clear about the benefit you offer and how the customer's life or work will be improved if he or she buys what you sell

The term "product" refers to tangible, physical products as well as services. Here are some examples of the product decisions to be made:

Brand name

Functionality

Styling

Quality

Safety

Packaging

Repairs and Support

Warranty

Accessories and services Price:

The product is the most important aspect of the marketing mix. The product can be a service It is very important that the correct price is charged for a product. If the price is too high consumers will avoid the product as they will believe it to be too expensive yet if the product is priced too low they may believe that there is something wrong with the product for it to be so cheap. Also if the company charges too low a price, it may not cover its costs. There are many different pricing strategies that companies can use to decide on a price for their product including market and psychological pricing methods. Exactly how much are you going to charge for your product or service, and on what basis? How are you going to price it to sell at retail? How are you going to sell it at wholesale? How are you going to charge for volume discounts? Is your price correct based on your costs and the prices of your competitors.

Some examples of pricing decisions to be made include:

Pricing strategy (skim, penetration, etc.)

Suggested retail price

Volume discounts and wholesale pricing

Cash and early payment discounts

Seasonal pricing

Bundling

Price flexibility

Price discrimination

Value pricing is also common in luxury items. Sometimes, the higher the price, the more you sell: Fashionable clothing or restaurants for snob people. Of course value pricing is limited by the price elasticity as you have already learnt in Economics. Place:

The product is the most important aspect of the marketing mix. The product can be a service. The place is where you can expect to find your customer and consequently, where the sale is realized. Knowing this place, you have to look for a distribution channel in order to reach your customer. The place is not where is located your business but where our customers are. For a retailer it is the same but for a boat producer located in Philippines the real place is the entire world. Do not confuse positioning and place. Here place means the real physical position of the customer in a geographic area or along a distribution channel.Distribution is about getting the products to the customer. Some examples of distribution decisions include:

Distribution channels

Market coverage (inclusive, selective, or exclusive distribution)

Specific channel members

Inventory management

Warehousing

Distribution centers

Order processing

Transportation

Reverse logisticsIt exists today, with the internet, more channels than in the past but basically, you have to consider three main distribution channels: Selling to the customers:

Whether you sell by yourself ( as retailer) whether you employ a sales force, you are in these cases in front of the final customer. There are not intermediaries between you and him. Unfortunately, except for the retailer business, this situation is far to be the general case. Selling to the retailers:

For example, you manufacture the fun boards and you sell them to the Arizona retailers. This practice could be a bit complicated. Selling to the wholesalers:

There are maybe four or five sport articles wholesalers in Arizona. You sell your fun boards to these big men. On turn the wholesalers sell the fun boards to the retailers which finally sell to their customersAs you can see, the choice of your distribution channel heavily depends on your product and place in the productive process. If you are in coal mining, do not expect to sell some coal buckets to the final consumer! Promotion: The product is the most important aspect of the marketing mix. The product can be a service in the context of the marketing mix, promotion represents the various aspects of marketing communication, that is, the communication of information about the product with the goal of generating a positive customer response. Marketing communication decisions include:

Promotional strategy (push, pull, etc.)

Advertising

Personal selling & sales force

Sales promotions

Public relations & publicity

Marketing communications budgetAdvertising, public relations and so on are included in promotion and consequently in the 4Ps. Sometimes, packaging becomes a fifth P. As promotion is closely linked to the sales, I will mention here the most common features about the sale strategy.Definition:

The function of promotion is to affect the customer behavior in order to close a sale. Of course, it must be consistent with the buying process described in the consumer analysis. Promotion includes mainly three topics: advertisement, public relations, and sales promotions.Advertisement:

It takes many forms: TV, radio, internet, newspapers, yellow pages, and so on. You have to take notice about three important notions: Reach is the percentage of the target market which is affected by your advertisement. For example, if you advertise on radio you must know how many people belonging to your segment can be affected.Frequency is the number of time a person is exposed to your message. It is said that a person must be exposed seven times to the message before to be aware of it. Reach, frequency gives the gross rating point. You have to evaluate it before any advertisement campaign.Message:

Sometimes, it is called a creative. Anyway, the message must: get attraction, capture interest, create desire and finally require action that is to say close the sale. Public relations:

Public relations are more subtle and rely mainly on your own personality. For example, you can deliver public speeches on subjects such as economics, geo-economics, futurology to several organizations (civic groups, political groups, fraternal organizations, professional associations) These speeches will enable you to develop new relationships and their cost is nil!Sales promotion: Sales promotion is a short time incentive to consumers and retailers to buy and sales products more by lowering prices. There are many forms of sales promotions. It includes fair trades, coupons, bonus pack, cash back and discounts and is linked to the sales strategy.Limitations of Marketing MIX (4Ps):

The marketing mix framework was particularly useful in the early days of the marketing concept when physical products represented a larger portion of the economy. Today, with marketing more integrated into organizations and with a wider variety of products and markets, some authors have attempted to extend its usefulness by proposing a fifth P, such as packaging, people, process, etc. Today however, the marketing mix most commonly remains based on the 4 P's. Despite its limitations and perhaps because of its simplicity, the use of this framework remains strong and many marketing textbooks have been organized around it.A Summery table of the Marketing MIX:

The following table summarizes the marketing mix decisions, including a list of some of the aspects of each of the 4Ps.

Summary of Marketing Mix (4Ps) DecisionsProductPricePlacePromotion

FunctionalityAppearanceQualityPackagingBrandWarrantyService/SupportList priceDiscountsAllowancesFinancingLeasing optionsChannel membersChannel motivationMarket coverageLocationsLogisticsService levelsAdvertisingPersonal sellingPublic relationsMessageMediaBudget

Company

(Market)

Suppliers

Competitors

Marketing intermediaries

End

Users

Marketing Mix

4Ps

PRICE

PLACE

PROMOTION

PRODUCT