Benefits and opportunity to the business Essay

An effective ‘Marketing Mix’ including all 7 is a way of identifying a businesses achievements of marketing objectives, meeting customer needs, is balanced and consistent, creates a competitive advantage and matches corporate resources. ‘It is known as a â€Å"mix† because each ingredient affects the other and the mix must overall be suitable to the target customer’. The 7p’s include: -Product -Price -Place -Promotion -People -Process -Physical Evidence * Product: This is first considered in the marketing mix as it all depends on it. This can be a physical product or a service that the corporation is offering to the public. The only way to have a good marketing strategy is by making sure that the ‘product’ is up to standard, promoting every quality part of that good or service. ASOS Products: ASOS promotes their products very effectively as they use clever visual tools such as 360-degree view of their product, video and picture to enhance the quality of the product itself. They also provide a range of products and service including clothes, accessories, shoes/sandals etc and its provided for men and women. They include their own brand and designer wear which shows that they have high quality in their product. ASOS have mentioned in their annual report that their 20 biggest brands are now represented by a ‘shop in shop’ providing a rich brand experience for their customers and a unique distribution platform for ASOS brand partners. ASOS also sells a range of products matching famous celebrity’s outfits that customers would want to buy. ASOS, online or in their magazine provides customers the latest fashion info and what not to wear giving them an advantage to promote their products. Their business attract over 5.2 million visitors per month and has over 24,000 lines for sale. * Price: This is the total amount a customer pays for the product. It is decided through a number of factors a product have to offer including material costs, product identity, competition, market share and the customer’s percieved value of the product. If other store/business have the same product on stock other businesses may decrease or increase their price for customer satisfaction. ASOS Price: Thier price for the products vary depending on the product – quality, brand etc. For the designer items it can be expensive, although ASOS may provide same looking product without the brand name making it affordable. With the price they offer ASOS is making a Profit over  £10,009,000 (figure taken from ASOS annual report) as they have increased number of active shoppers over 1.2 million. * Place: Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often known as the distribution channel. The place can be situated as a physical store or as virtuals stores on the internet. ASOS Place: ASOS.com is rapidly becoming the market leader in the UK online fashion world. All the products are sold ONLINE and not located anywhere else where people can purchase ASOS items Promotion: Is a way of communication that a business/organisation may use in the market place. It enables the marketer to a advertise the product or service being provided by them. Advertisement is a powerful tool that corporations uses to enhance their products/service to encourage buyers/customers. Promotion has four distinct elements made up of advertising, public relations, word of mouth and point of sale. ASOS Promotion: As their business is purely based upon the internet everything is promoted through the World Wide Web on the website and off. They have promotion on other websites and also ASOS has developed an application to allow customers to track particular products on its sites through their web browser, whatever websites they are looking at. The online retailer has used functionality within the latest version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 web brower. ASOS.com also mentions on the annual report that one of their aim is to have Uncompromising Presentation. ‘The ASOS website is our shop window and we will continue to develop it to ensure that our customers enjoy their time on the site and find it easy to find their way around it’ this being a vital promotion towards their website. ASOS organisation communicates information about their product and service to potential customers by identifying customer details and sends them information through mail, post etc aiming to sell the products. Another advertising method ASOS uses on their website is that they have added a page of feedback from customers which enables ‘public relation’ which is one of the promotion powerful element. People: It is appropriate to have people in the marketing of services as all people who directly or indirectly influence the perceied value of the product or service, inlcuding knowledge workers, employees, management of the business and also the consumers. People deliver services – they could be any mentioned. People promote and sell. products and services. For example promotion elements inlcuding ‘word of mouth’ ‘public relation’ is achieved through PEOPLE. Service quality is a key source of customer retention and brand differentiation. Hence skills, manner and appearance are important. ASOS People: Are their employees, customers – their family and friends, and any other people associated with ASOS.com. Employees are important to this strategy of marketing mix as in can be those who deliever the products to customers. So they have to polite, helpful and have the knowledge of the business for them to answer any questions provided by the customer. It can also be the employees that answer the phone when any customer calls for any quiries. ASOS.com also have employees updating their website and replying to emails and online comments on their feedback page. ASOS employees has the knowledge, training and other aspect helping the business with marketing for their business. ASOS customers are also people that help in the marketing of services as they spread the business information. Process: This is the procedures of activities which lead to an exchange of value. The process should include how customers are handled from first and last point of contact. ASOS Process: ASOS is determined to be number one in the online market. They have thought through their process and kept it clear and have made it customer satisfactory. ASOS’s strategy consists of aims that has a well-defined process. ASOS have control of their website, their information/images etc are presented without any doubt intelligibly promotional. Payments are all done through their website online as they are only an online business. Also they have a step-by-step information on how to use and buy off their website, they also have page on delivery information. Here they can track down on where shopping is, know how much is cost to deliver, know when to expect the delievery etc. Physical Evidence: It is the tangible form of the service – the service – this can include how a customer is treated by a staff member, a train ticket, the length of time a customer has to wait for service or their product (depending on the business). A physical evidence is aproof for customer to measure whether he or she has recieved value. ASOS Physical Evidence: As ASOS.com is an online company their customer has difficulty not knowing how for example a dress will feel, look on them. ASOS therefore provides annual reports, articles, etc showing them that ASOS products are worth the value. ASOS helps customers with their products by giving them full information about the product. They have recieved awards that convince customers to buy online. First award was given to them in 2008 from Company High Street Awards for ‘Best Place To Spend’ and the second was given in 2009 from Drapers Etail Awards for ‘Best Customer Experience Cosmopolitan Online Fashion Awards – Best for Bargains’. ASOS allows to give unwanted products back and their staff are always helpful and polite towards their customer as its one of their business objectives.