Marketing Mix and Product Life Cycle - Coursework Example

Marketing Strategy – Marketing Mix and Product Life Cycle Product and the 4Ps/7Ps The product for this marketing plan is goat milk, specifically pasteurized goat milk. Statistically, 94% of all dairy products marketed and consumed in the United States are derived from cow milk. On the other hand, approximately 5% of dairy products in America are derived from goat milk. From a health perspective, goat milk is not only less allergic compared to cow milk, but goat milk also offers a myriad of nutritional benefits like easy digestibility, small fat content and higher amounts of calcium compared to cow’s milk. Apparently, there has been an increase in the popularity of goat milk in American societies. Consequently, there is a ready and growing market for pasteurized goat milk in the United States. Admittedly, the pasteurized goat milk exhibits superior market mix characteristics. First, the product meets consumers’ needs. American homesteads need dairy products with low saturated fat, high calcium content and less allergies on their children; goat milk satisfy all these consumer demands. Secondly, dairy shops and local convenience stores are ideal places where consumers can purchase pasteurized goat milk. With respect to price, a liter of pasteurized goal milk retail at $3.75; hence the product is fairy affordable. In reaching consumers of all ages, social media platforms like Facebook is the main tool for promotion and advertising of the goat milk product. Technically, the product exhibits a strong market mix profile. Currently, the market mix elements of product quality, pricing, promotion, and sales place offers an excellent and effective influence on marketing status of the pasteurized goat milk. Therefore, affordable pricing, sales at local convenience stores, and promotion through social media channels will remain as the main marketing strategy for the product. However, specific adjustments need to be made, particularly on aspects of people and marketing process. A preferable niche market for the pasteurized goat milk comprise of mostly parents and the elderly. Unfortunately, most parents and elderly citizens are not active on marketing platforms like social network sites. Therefore, sales personnel should be hired to deliver the products to workplaces and homes where the target consumers are mostly found. In this regard, direct marketing techniques will be incorporated into the product’s marketing process. In essence, optimizing market mix variables is an effective strategy for gaining overall competitive advantage in competitive marketing environments. Presently, most convenience stores and dairy stores in the United States have pasteurized goat milk on their shelves. Fortunately, the market for goat milk is still not saturated. In stores, goat milk occupies only 5% of dairy products shelves while cow milk occupies almost 95% of the dairy products shelves. In this regard, shortage of goat milk products is common in local convenience stores. Therefore, maintaining the current promotion, pricing and place strategies will optimize the marketing efforts and sales outcomes. However, niche marketing coupled with direct selling will further augment the marketing strategy. First, niche marketing will offer less competition. Most marketers of goat milk only wait for their customers to visit their stores. However, not all consumers who prefer goat milk have the time to locate specific stores selling goat milk on a daily basis. In this regard, delivering the product to places frequented by target consumers on a daily basis will expectedly increase sales. Secondly, incorporation of direct selling into the product’s marketing process will enhance the product’s marketing competitiveness. Direct selling not only enable marketers to make maximum sales impacts through controlled timing of sales activities, but direct selling also provide channels for feedback communication from consumers. Product Life Cycle Currently, the pasteurized goat milk is at its growth stage of the product life cycle. Basically, Pasteurized goat milk has been in the United States dairy market for the past decade. Therefore, the product has passed the detail design, requirement analysis, certification, and prototyping steps of the PLC introduction stage and is currently at the growth stage. In theory, growth stage of a product life cycle is characterized by slight adjustments in sales volumes, increased profits and growth in market share (Winston, 2013). In this regard, the first indication that pasteurized goat milk has entered the growth stage is increasing consumer acceptance. Most dairy products’ consumers are starting to embrace the health benefits of goat milk. As a result, the market acceptance of the product is no longer at the consumer testing stage; consumers have already showed significant acceptance towards pasteurized goat milk. Secondly, increasing sales volume is an indication that the product is at the growth stage of PLC. At its growth stage, the increased consumer acceptance of goat milk coupled with effective marketing strategies like social medial and direct sales promotion and pricing strategies are gradually building sales volumes. Subsequently, the goat milk will advance to the maturity stage of the product life cycle. However, certain strategies must be employed in order to catapult the product to the maturity level; otherwise pasteurized goat milk will fail at the growth stage. As a recommendation, one way of promoting the product to the maturity stage is increasing market share through active advertisements and promotions. Maturity stage is achieved only if market share and product’s demand has been optimized. As a result, active promotion and advertisement strategies will increase consumers’ awareness and demand of goat milk. Besides capturing optimal market share through increased promotions, maturity stage can also be attained through efficient distribution processes. Competitors start to increase towards the end of a product’s growth stage. In this regard, outperforming competitors requires efficiency and cost-reduction strategies in terms of timely and targeted distribution of goat milk to intended consumers. In practice, decline stage of a product life cycle can either be natural in which case it should not be salvaged, or it can be artificial in which case it can be salvaged through extension strategies. At some point, the pasteurized goat milk will experience declining sales and diminishing profits attributable to variables like product quality issues and effects of aggressive competition. In such decline situations, the product should be saved through extension techniques like product discounting and re-packaging options. In competitive markets for pasteurized goat milk, consumers will always be sensitive to pricing trends (Winston, 2013). In such markets, reducing prices through discounting will appeal a larger portion of consumers, thus salvaging the decline stage through expanding sales. In addition, re-packaging will give pasteurized goat milk a new image in the market. Incorporating certain visual appeals on the milk containers will draw the attention of target consumers, thus increasing sales. Reference Winston, W. (2013). Marketing Strategies: Practice, Theory, and Research. Pittsburg: John Wiley & Sons Publishing. Read More