Episode 206 Professional English The Marketing Mix

Disclaimer

I am using an automatic transcript service as it is not possible for me to do it on my own and I cannot afford human transcription at the moment. The service claims to have about 95% accuracy, which means there will still be some mistakes, so my apologies for having a less than perfect transcript, but I hope I can afford human transcription soon and I will solve this problem. However, the service is pretty good, and the transcript is almost perfect.

Transcript

Welcome to a new episode from English plus podcasts. Today, our episode is about professional English, and this is a new series we’re starting in English plus podcast in which we’re going to talk about different topics. Every time, this time is going to be about marketing business, English marketing, and we will talk about the marketing mix.

[00:00:26] Other times we will talk about professional English used in different fields like medicine, law, computers, and others. So without further ado, Let’s start, but let me remind you first that you can support English plus podcasts by becoming a patron on Patreon. If you become a patron, you get the premium practice worksheets with their answer keys.

[00:00:47] And of course you can find the transcript of this episode in the link. I will leave in the description. So now let’s not waste any more time. And let’s start talking about the marketing mix. When we talk about the marketing mix, what do we mean by that? The marketing mix is the combination of techniques used to market a brand, and the techniques are often called the peas.

[00:01:08] Originally. They were four PS. The four PS were first P is the product or service? That is what you sell and the variety or range of products you sell. This includes the quality, how good it is, the branding and reputation, which is the opinion the consumers have of the product and for a service support for the client after the purchase is important.

[00:01:31] For example, travel insurance is often sold with access to a telephone helpline in case of emergency. So that was the first P, which is the product or obviously service. The second P is the price. And that is how much the product or service costs. The third P is the place where you sell the product or service.

[00:01:52] And this means the location of your shop or outlet or the accessibility of your service, how easy it is to access. That brings us to the fourth B. And that is promotion. How you tell consumers about the product or service? The promotional mix is a blend of the promotional tools used to communicate about the product or service, for example, TV advertising.

[00:02:17] So these were the original four P’s product price, place and promotion. But today, some marketers talk about an additional four PS. We have people, physical presence, process, and physical evidence. So let’s talk about the first additional P and that is people that is how your staff or employees are different from those in a competitor’s organization and how your clients are different from your competitors clients.

[00:02:47] So that is an UPP. Some marketers talk about nowadays. And there is the second new P and that is the physical presence. And that means how your shop or website looks. The third additional P is processed, and that is how your product is built and delivered or how your service is sold, delivered, and accessed.

[00:03:09] And the last P the physical evidence. And that is how your service becomes tangible. For example, tickets, policies, and brochures, create something the customers can touch and hold. So just to remind you, we said that we have the original four, P’s the product price, place, and promotion. And we talked as well about the additional four piece, and these are the people physical presence, the process, and the physical evidence.

[00:03:36] So that being said, let’s move on to talk about marketing a new product and talking about some example that will tell us how usually marketing a new product happens. And for our purpose, we’ll talk about an example of a small educational games company. It is launching a new game to teach English vocabulary to beginner learners, the marketing managers, making a presentation using PowerPoint slides.

[00:03:59] The game is called the turnover game. Now, when I tell you about the content of this PowerPoint slides that the marketing manager presented to the team, we will get to know important steps. Some of them, of course, related to the piece we talked about, and we will understand better what is meant by the marketing mix that we just talked about.

[00:04:17] So first the marketing manager talks about the product and he talks about two points, the innovative way to learn new vocabulary. And he talked about the launch, how they are planning to introduce the product onto the market. So the launch is an important part of the product itself. When is it going to be, how is it going to be.

[00:04:38] And here, we’re talking about the beginning of showing this product to people that is the launch. Then the marketing manager talked about the place. And in this one, he talked about the distribution and delivery. So he talked about for distribution, a high street retailers and mail order via website and catalogs and for delivery.

[00:04:57] He talked about five days by mail order and straightaway in shops. So these details are important to think about when you want to think about your marketing mix piece. And then he talked about promotion and in promotion, he discussed two different things. He talked about advertising in children’s magazines, and he talked about direct marketing that is to insert catalog in parent magazine.

[00:05:21] And then he talked about people and that is one of the additional piece. We talked about people. He talked about the customers. And he described customers as educated city dwellers with preteen children, school teachers. You might think that not all customers are going to be like that, but in marketing, it’s very important to create a marketing persona and market to this specific marketing persona, to have a clear tone and marketing message and other people will come, but basically.

[00:05:51] Everything you want to market, you must have one type of persona in mind, or sometimes different types, of course, depending on what kind of product you have. But if you just go on and market without having this marketing persona in mind, they’re going to be problems in consistency, especially in the tone of voice and the message that you write in your advertising campaigns and other promotional activities.

[00:06:16] So back to people, the marketing manager talked about customers. He described them as educated city dwellers with preteen children and maybe school teachers and for competitors or competition. He mentioned that they have a larger sales force to sell their products. So that is the point of strength. We may discuss that in later episodes when we come to talk about SWOT analysis, but for now he talked about this strength that they have a larger sales force to sell their product.

[00:06:42] And then he talked about the price. You talked about premium pricing and here 20% above market average for the digital product. And then he talked about special deals and that is 15% discount for schools. And that’s not everything about the marketing mix and that’s not a comprehensive look at it. And of course, We have a lot more details to talk about, but remember, this is professional English.

[00:07:08] This is not a marketing lesson, but it should help you a lot learn about what marketing mix is. And let’s get into some more details to talk about what some marketers have supplemented the four-piece with. They’ve supplemented it with new ways of thinking about marketing the peas. C’s A’s and O’s now, you know, these are fancy terms, but it’s not just about being fancy.

[00:07:31] When you say the marketing mix, the BS, the A’s, the O’s it’s not just about being fancy or sound educated, or you just use this jargon. Nobody understands. It’s an easy way to remember. That’s why they create those kinds of fancy acronyms and fancy peas and owes et cetera, because they’re very easy to remember.

[00:07:51] So with that being said, let’s take a look at what the C’s, the A’s and the O’s are now some marketers, as we said, they’ve supplemented the four PS with new ways of thinking about marketing. The BS, the CS A’s and O’s, and they can all be combined with the piece. So we have a C for every P and a, for every P and N over every piece.

[00:08:16] So that’s why I’m going to start with a piece. And then I’m going to walk you through the C’s, the A’s and the O’s let’s start with the first P and that is the product. They supplemented that with a C and a very important one. And that is the customer needs. What does the customer need to solve a problem?

[00:08:34] For example, people don’t have time to cook. We offer the solution of frozen dinners. The company must identify customer needs. So that products that meet these needs can be developed. And the aim for the product is Acceptibility. How acceptable is the product and do people approve of the product? Is it socially acceptable, fashionable and attractive.

[00:08:58] Does the product respect the laws of the country? Is it legally acceptable? All these questions must be asked when you want to think about the product. When you want to think about your marketing mix, it’s not just like we created something cool. Yeah, it is cool, but is it legal? Is it legally acceptable?

[00:09:16] Is it fashionable? Is it not? Is it out of fashion? So all these questions must be asked under the AI that is related to product and that is accessibility. And then there is the Oh, that is related to products and that is objects. What do you sell? How is it manufactured or made? Is it a high quality or excellent product or is it bottom end?

[00:09:39] Because it doesn’t have to be high quality all the time. It depends on your market. It depends on the competition. It depends on the segment you want to take from the market. You may want to produce some high end products or some low end products. And we’re not saying that because you’re trying to cheat your customers.

[00:09:56] No, it’s just a different market. So that is for the product, the first C. A and O for the product are the customer needs, acceptability and objects. And then for the price, we have the C for the price, and that is the cost to user. Does the customer perceive the cost of the product as fair or is it too expensive?

[00:10:17] So that is an important question. You have to ask when you want to think about your price or your second P in the marketing mix, the cost to user, and then there’s the, a, the affordability. Does the customer have enough money to buy the product? Can he or she afford the product? The affordability. That is a very important question.

[00:10:38] You have to ask when you want to think about the second P in your marketing mix and that’s the price. And then we have the OE objectives, the revenue objectives concerned, the income you want to generate. And the price objectives, concern, the price you want to sell at. So you must have, or you must think about revenue, objectives and price objectives.

[00:11:00] When it comes to talk about pricing in your marketing mix. And then when we move to the next, be in the marketing mix and that’s the place we have first RC, and that is convenience. How convenient is it to find your product? Is it easy or does the customer have to make an effort? You have to ask this question, is it a very easy product to find or no, it’s not that easy to find.

[00:11:24] So if it is not that easy to find, maybe you don’t have a problem with that. Maybe you do. I just want to mention here, all these questions, the PS, the A’s, the O’s the CS. They’re not to tell you how to market your product, because how to market your product. That’s the creative side that you will have to find out, or you will have to figure out, but they ask you important questions or they help you ask important questions to have a clear idea what your marketing campaign is like.

[00:11:51] So for the place we have the sea, which is convenience, and then we have the a, which is accessibility. Is the product easy to access? Is the product accessible for people with disabilities? That’s very important to think about because it’s not just about being polite or being politically correct. It’s not about that because you have to create products that can be sold and consumed by everybody.

[00:12:18] Especially if your product can be physically used by people with disabilities. You have to think about what you’ve added to your product that can make it easier or accessible for people with disabilities and for the Oh, that is related to the place we have the organization. How should you organize the sale and distribution of your product and which distribution methods will work best?

[00:12:44] So that is about the place, the final P that is the promotion, the C for this speed, the C for promotion is communication. How should you communicate with your customers? That is a very important question. You need to answer and you need to figure out because remember in a company of one or in a company where one person does all the marketing.

[00:13:09] Maybe that’s easy because the same person communicates more or less the same way with everybody. But when you’re drawing plans for bigger companies, where a lot of people are going to do this job, it is very important to define the way you need to communicate with your customers. At least the guidelines.

[00:13:28] We’re not saying exactly where to word. Of course everybody has his or her own. Personality in which they communicate with customers, but you have to define the guidelines for this kind of communication to have this communication as consistent as it can be. And of course, to reflect the brand you’re trying to build.

[00:13:49] So that is communication in relation to promotion. What about the aim? The aim is awareness. How many people know about or are aware of the product? Is awareness of your product, high, low average, et cetera. So the answer to this question is very important because it tells you if you need to focus your effort on awareness or on other areas of marketing the product, the same goes for all the A’s, the O’s and the CS in relation to the piece we talked about, because the answers should tell you where to focus more efforts.

[00:14:24] And of course not to leave anything for chance. And now for the Oh four, this last, Oh, for promotion that is operations. What kind of promotional operations such as direct mail or other kinds of promotional operations will work best for the product? Because of course we have many ways we can use to promote the product, but which ways are the best based on answers you got from other parts of the marketing mix?

[00:14:53] PS C’s A’s and O’s. So now just to remind you what the four CS were, the four CS were customer needs for the product, cost the user for the price, convenience for the place and communication for promotion for the four A’s. They are the acceptability for the product. Affordability. When we talk about the price accessibility for the place and awareness for promotion and the four O’s are the objects for the product objectives for the price organization, for the place and operations for promotion.

[00:15:28] So with that being said, we just have one more idea that I want to talk about before we wrap up today’s episode. And that is the Ida, and this is one of those fancy acronyms you hear in marketing all the time. But as I told you before, these are not just fancy acronyms. That. Yeah, I know Ida, but I don’t know what it is about.

[00:15:47] That’s a big problem. Of course, if you want to use any acronym or any of those four PS or whatever, make sure that you know what you’re talking about. You don’t want anybody to ask you a question and you have no idea what you’re talking about. That’s one thing, but as I said, these are not just fancy acronyms.

[00:16:03] These are ways to make it easy for you to remember those key concepts in marketing. And of course we will see later in other episodes from this professional English series. In other fields as well, we use acronyms to help us remember those concepts better. So what is the Ida? The Ida is an acronym which represents the steps a marketer takes in order to persuade customers to buy a product or service.

[00:16:29] So these are the steps. These are the Ida. Each letter here stands for an important step. The first step, the a that’s the attention. The second step is the interest. The eye. The D is the desire and the aim is the action. So that is the Ida attention, interest desire. Action. So first attention marketing must first attract the customers attention to the product.

[00:16:54] Customers become aware of a product and know it’s available. That’s the attention phase. And then when we achieve this phase, we move on to the next phase and that is the interest. Then marketing must create an interest in the product. Customers will develop an interest in the product and next there’s the desire.

[00:17:13] Marketing must develop a desire to own or have the product so that customers actively want the product. And finally there is the action marketing must prompt action to purchase so that customers take steps to buy the product, for example, by going to the shop or ordering it online. So here we have these four steps and here you have to ask yourselves and to think about it is the marketing campaign I’m working on is focusing only on action.

[00:17:43] Am I constantly asking customers just to buy this, buy this, buy this. Am I just asking them for action? What if I’m asking somebody to buy something? They have no idea about it’s a big problem. That means I have not worked well on the awareness phase of the promotion. It is not just about telling people to buy.

[00:18:00] You have to help them become aware of your product. You have to help them become interested in your product. And then they move on from becoming just interested in the product, into this phase of having the desire to get your product. And finally, when they are at this stage, you can ask them to buy. And at this stage they are ready to buy.

[00:18:20] They are ready to take this action, but if you keep asking them questions and they’re not even in the interest phase or in the desire phase, so they’re not going to take action. And actually that will leave a very negative image of your marketing methods, because you always want us to buy stuff. You don’t educate us about your product.

[00:18:39] That being said, we talked about the Ida, which is the acronym, which represents the steps a marketer takes in order to persuade customers. To buy a product or service. So the steps we talked about are the attention, interest, desire, and action. And here comes the a I D a or the item that being said, that was everything I wanted to talk to you about today.

[00:19:02] I hope you like this new series, the professional English series. It is useful for a lot of people. That want to use their English in the world of business and especially in this one in marketing, but as I told you, it’s not going to be only about business and marketing. We’re going to talk about law.

[00:19:18] We’re going to talk about medicine engineering and professional English from other fields. That being said, let me remind you that you can find the transcript of this episode in a link. I will leave in the description and you can support English plus podcast by becoming a patron of the show on Patreon.

[00:19:33] I will leave a link to that in the description as well. If you would like to take the link and become our patron today, and that will give you some benefits, such as the PDF practice worksheet with its. Answer key that is focused on what we talk about in every single episode. So we launched in English plus podcast and more benefits are coming your way.

[00:19:53] So that being said, this is Danny your host saying, thank you very much for listening to another episode from English plus podcast. I will see you next time.