The Marketing Mix s2w1

Loughborough Business School - Marketing Mix

Course Information

  • Lecturer: Dr. Virginie Lavoye

  • Positions: Lecturer in Marketing, PhD in Marketing

  • Office: Room BE 2.29, LB School

  • Office Hours: Mondays 12-1 pm (email to set up an appointment)

  • Email: v.lavoye@lboro.ac.uk

Core Learning Objectives

  • Examine the nature of the marketing mix

  • Understand the contribution of each marketing mix element to effective marketing strategy

  • Critically evaluate marketing mix theories and their relevance to contemporary business

Module Engagement

  • Engage with lectures and materials, more than just reading

  • Essential to read core textbook and academic papers assigned per topic to fully participate

Recommended Reading

  • Core Textbook: Jobber, David and Fiona Ellis-Chadwick, (2019), Principles and Practice of Marketing. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Weekly Sessions Breakdown

  • Week 1 (04/02/2025): Module Introduction/Marketing Orientation and The Mix 1

  • Week 2 (11/02/2025): The Marketing Landscape

  • Week 3 (18/02/2025): Managing Products, Services and Brands

  • Week 4 (25/02/2025): Innovation and New Product Development

  • Week 5 (04/03/2025): Segmentation and Positioning

  • Week 6 (11/03/2025): Pricing and Marketing Strategy

  • Week 7 (18/03/2025): Place and Distribution

  • Week 8 (29/04/2025): Direct Marketing and Sales Promotion

  • Week 9 (05/05/2025): Advertising and Public Relations

  • Week 10 (13/05/2025): Digital Marketing and Differentiation

  • Week 11 (20/05/2025): Revision

Assessment Information

  • Type: In-person examination

  • Format: Answer 2 questions from a choice of 5

  • Duration: 2 hours

Today's Class Agenda

  • Discuss the importance of marketing and its orientation

  • Define the marketing mix

  • Explore the reasons for studying the marketing mix

  • Connect marketing mix with core marketing constructs and objectives

Definitions

AMA Definition of Marketing

  • Marketing encompasses activities, institutions, and processes involved in creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings valuable to customers and society.

Social Marketing

  • Application of marketing principles to enhance social and economic outcomes; concerns include analysis of social consequences of marketing policies.

  • Applications include topics like smoking, drinking, food nutrition, physical activity, sustainability, and more.

Marketing Impact on Society

  • Marketing creates value for firms and jobs

  • Raises and maintains community living standards

  • Essential for customer satisfaction for business longevity

The Marketing Concept

  • Achieving corporate goals by exceeding customer needs more effectively than competition

  • Integrated effort across all staff towards customer satisfaction

  • Corporate activities focused on providing customer satisfaction

From 4Ps to 7Ps

  • 4Ps: Product, Price, Place, Promotion (traditional marketing)

  • 7Ps: Adds People, Process, Physical Evidence (for services marketing)

Understanding the 7Ps

  • Product: Specific goods or services offered, innovations, technology, and value

  • Price: Represents value; includes strategies like cost-plus, consumer-led, competitive, and dynamic pricing

  • Place: Distribution channels; includes physical and online locations

  • Promotion: Advertising, communications, and strategic marketing approaches

  • People: Human resources involved in delivering services/products (e.g., staff training, customer interactions)

  • Process: How services are delivered, ensuring consistent customer experiences

  • Physical Evidence: Tangible aspects that showcase service quality, both physical and digital

Marketing Mix and Competitive Advantage

  • Essential for creating competitive advantages through aligning with customer needs and creating reliable and effective offerings.

Ethical Issues in Marketing

  • Marketing practices can harm consumer interests; concerns include product safety, misleading advertising, price fixing, privacy invasion, etc.

Conclusion

  • Think critically about your favorite brand by evaluating its 7Ps and their adaptation to include servitization and digitalization.

References

  • Gordon, R. (2011). Critical social marketing: definition, application and domain. Journal of Social Marketing, 1(2), 82-99.

  • Kowalkowski, C. et al. (2017). Servitization and deservitization: Overview, concepts, and definitions. Industrial Marketing Management, 60, 4-10.

  • Ritter, T.& Pedersen, C. L. (2020). Digitization capability and the digitalization of business models in business-to-business firms: Past, present, and future. Industrial Marketing Management, 86, 180-190.