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Organizational managers and heir staff can easily control these four variables to serve their customer base better (Make et al. , n. D. ). Managers must searcher for products that meet their customers’ needs and wants; in some instances, the product comes in the form of a service. After managers discover the desired product or service they must establish the proper price customers will be willing to pay. The manager must find the desired product at a reasonable price so they may convey a reasonable price to their customers.
Placing the product in strategically throughout the store or on the tore’s website can determine the success of the chosen product. Some customers may not be able or want to walk throughout the store to see the various products the store has to offer so placing items that may be purchased at the same time is Important. For example, building a display of cake mixes and frosting feet away from the eggs may remind customers to purchase eggs along with the other ingredients important in baking their cake.
Promotion has many aspects that include informing customers about what products and services the organization has to offer, where the product or service is located its price. Organization. Its Marketing Strategy, and Implementation Wall-Mart is most widely known for its pricing and large selection of products; its “Rollback Pricing” has been the center of many commercial advertisements. The company has approximately 9. 00 stores in the united States and other countries (Investors, 2011); its marketing mix has focused on pricing, product, and placement more than promotion. Some of the insight provided will be from the perspective as a former employee, the knowledge and training received from the company and from the perspective of an employee of a company that produces and packages sugar for Wall-Mart. Product Because Wall-Mart has so many stores located throughout the united States and in various countries, they are able to make bulk purchases from distributors and other companies.
They also require rigorous quality assurance product testing and they reserve the right to perform Inspections of the facilities who supply their products (personal, 2011 Wall-Mart strives to provide customers with the latest trends in fashion and technology; they also dedicate an aisle or center aisle display to many of the “As Seen on TV’ Items that are often popular like Pillow Pets or the Shake Weight.
Along with a large variety of brand named items, Wall-Mart carries its private label items under the name Great Value, Cam’s Choice, or Equate; these sales make up items are purchased from the branded companies in a larger bulk than the brand name then packaged with the store’s private label; this is the case with Florida Crystal’s and Domino sugar (personal, 2011). Wall-Mart also offers many services within their Superstores.
Each Supercomputer’s service varies based on the needs of the community; some of the services include an auto center, restaurants, hair and nail salons, portrait studios, shipping centers, eye doctors. These services provide customers with a convenient means to multi-task within their busy lifestyles. Shoppers are able to pick-up a few items or do their weekly grocery shopping while waiting for their oil to be changed or tires replaced. Parents can stop into the salon to have their children’s haircut or eyes examined before or after their school supply- shopping excursion.
Many of these stores are not Wall-Mart owned companies but hold contracts with the company, which equally benefits both Wall-Mart and the vendor. Price Because the company purchases many of its products in large amounts, they often re able to convey the bulk purchase savings onto their customers. This allows the company to offer lower more competitive prices than other stores in the industry. Along with lower prices, the company offers other customer service perks to shoppers like unquestioned returns or exchanges, depending on the product.
Using or applying for a Wall-Mart credit card will often provide the shopper with free interest for a certain period if the total is $250 or more; this allows them to make their purchase and pay the bill as though they paid in cash without costing them extra The company also prides itself in competition with accepting competitors’ money. Coupons or matching the prices in their sales ad. Customers only need to provide a copy of the ad to receive the competitor’s price thereby saving the customer time and money on travel expenses to purchase the product from the other store.
With the popularity of phones and Androids, Wall-Mart is also matching prices found at other stores by using barded scanning phone applications; however, the store will not meet prices found on the store’s on-line store. Place Wall-Mart is not a sole company; it has many facets to its whole organization. They have a membership-based warehouse called Cam’s Club; members may purchase many items in bulk for home, church, school, or business use. The store also has a gas station called Murphy’s Gas.
Along with having many different facets the store has many locations that are strategically place in rural communities and even more strategically within urban or metro communities. Another aspect of place is strategically placing merchandise throughout the store is paramount to increasing or maintaining sales in Wall-Mart. When shopping, customers will often find products in arioso areas of the store and not with other products similar in nature. These locations can change on a weekly basis and specialty items like holiday merchandise are rotated according to the season.
Often consumers will find items that seem to be unrelated located near each other; an example of this would be placing Tide pens with products likely to stain clothing like Juices, condiments, or soups. Wall-Mart also places their private labeled products directly to the right of each brand name product signifying to the customer and the associate that it is the item comparable to the brand (personal, 2011). Often these products are a “clone” of the brand as with company but labeled with the private label.
Promotion Because Wall-Mart is the largest grocery retailer in the United States and a household name, promotion is not as aggressive as it may have been in the past. Television commercials seem to appear more frequently around major holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas and seem to wane during less busy months. Wall-Mart publishes a circular, as do many stores; however, they are seldom placed in the mailboxes of consumers. Periodically, they can be found in the Sunday edition of he newspaper but reliably they are found as the consumer walks into the store.
Wall- Mart is a household name and often the only store in many rural communities so promoting a company where there is no other competition is useless and a waste of resources. Stores are often located so closely within urban and metro communities that customers can find them Just by driving and if they miss one they will most often approach another within a short distance. In conclusion, product, pricing, product placement, and promotion were discussed as the elements of marketing mix; these are more popularly known as the ups of Marketing.