Companies have various marketing tools at their disposal as they try to formulate their marketing strategies. This research paper will analyze some of the five separate marketing options that can be applied namely advertising, personal selling, public relations, promotions, and sponsorships (Kerin & Hartley, 2009).
The paper will rank them according to their effectiveness. The research paper will finally offer a formulation for a marketing strategy that can be applied in successfully branding, offering a position statement and competitive advantage for a new wine product.
The fore mentioned marketing options that can be used all have different strengths and weaknesses. The first option, advertising, is most vital for any business as it offers a company the opportunity to increasing and sustaining sales and revenues (Mercer, 1996).
Advertising gives a company the opportunity to use various mediums such as print, radio, internet, and television to reach and persuade potential consumers on the need to buy the product.
Brand image and brand loyalty can be enhanced through use of advertising and this will form the key components of any company’s advertising scheme. The advantage that advertising offers companies is its ability of reaching more customers and sustaining existing ones.
Companies can use advertising to also improve their brand image and enhance brand loyalty. The main disadvantage or weakness of advertising is that it is expensive to carry out a successful advertising campaign, as it requires companies to invest a substantial amount of their resources (Kotler, 2009).
Personal selling is another important marketing option at the disposal of companies. Personal selling is defined as a face-to-face selling where a customer is persuaded by a seller to make purchase of a product or service. One of the major advantages of this method is that the person selling the product has a direct communication with the potential buyer and can thus structure his strategy to suit different customers.
The interactive nature of this approach offers an effective method of creating relationships with clients and customers. It also offers a practical option for reaching people who might not be reached by other methods applied in marketing.
One of the major weaknesses of this method is that it has a high cost-per-action since it requires a company to employ sales staff. Training the sales staff is also expensive and can be a major deterrent to companies adopting this strategy (Kotler, 2009).
Public relation as a marketing option is important to companies because it promotes the company’s goodwill to the public, customers, and employees. It is defined as the actions that will be taken by companies or institutions to promote its goodwill between the society and itself.
The major strength that lies in this approach is that it helps to establish the credibility of the product or service. It also helps to divulge more information about a product to the target group. The activities carried out during the public relations campaigns may be picked by media outlets and thus help in promoting the product.
The major weakness of this strategy is that it overlaps with advertising activities of companies and this can pose a great problem to the company. Another disadvantage of using this approach is that companies lose control of the information that is given to the public as well as falling under the risk of being unsuccessful if its coverage in the media is interrupted by other news reports (Kotler, 2009).
Promotions are the activities that are carried out by companies as they try to influence the public into buying their products. The major difference from advertising is that advertising is a more specific endeavor that companies will use while promotion entails using all the available resources and ways to influence consumption or buying of a product or service.
The major strength of using promotion is that companies can use all their resources including employees to promote their product as a marketing strategy. The major fallings of this is that sometimes it may contravene to other methods being employed and their effectiveness (Kotler, 2009).
Sponsorship is a much growing marketing strategy that is being adopted by companies. It can be defined as all the activities especially events that are funded or supported by companies. This support is usually in return for advertising opportunities or space during the event.
The major strength of using sponsorship as a marketing tool is that it helps to improve the image of the company as seen by the targeted audience. Sponsorship also helps a company to appeal to the public and shape the buying attitudes of consumers as well as create a positive reaction to their product.
The major weakness of this strategy is that the company has no control of what takes place during the event and this may end up ruining the image that the company is trying to create (Kotler, 2009).
When trying to formulate the marketing strategies for a new wine product there are several things to consider. There should be consideration on the branding strategies to be applied, getting the positioning statement, and identifying the competitive advantage for the product. One of the competitive advantage the product could have over its competitors could be its superior taste, price and use of advertising strategies that people would find appealing.
The product positioning could be to have it labeled as a product from a top of the line organization or company that specializes in offering quality wines at affordable prices. The marketing strategy for the product could be based on the foundation of a great system where a marketing plan is formulated identifying the various roles and duties that are required to successfully achieve these goals.
References
Kerin, R & Hartley, S. (2009). Marketing: The Core. Boston : McGraw-Hill Irwin
Kotler, P. (2009). Marketing: An Introduction. Harlow, England : Financial Times Prentice Hall
Mercer, D. (1996). Marketing. Oxford: Blackwell Business.