The product essay

Task 1

a) I have chosen to produce a perfume for single woman as I feel that there is a gap in the market in this area. There are no perfumes aimed at people that are single and I feel that if I produce a product for them then it will catch their eye and tempt them to buy it. This ‘unique’ perfume will be in touch with single peoples lonely heart.

b) ‘The marketing mix’ is a combination of things that help the business sell a product. They are usually known as the 4 p’s, which are price, product, promotion and place. The marketing department might use these factors to help focus on the important features required to make the new product sell as for example ‘The place’. The amount of products sold can depend greatly on the place that it is being sold at. For example it is no use selling perfume aimed at young people in a city with an entire population of old people as they will not sell. This is just an example of the effect that it can have. The path taken in which the product gets to the consumer (the channel of distribution) is also very important.

‘The product’ has to also be considered. What does the customer want? What will it smell like? The customer will very unlikely want a perfume smelling like tuna sandwiches or cat food. They want a pleasant smell. So there is no point launching a product that no one will buy.

‘The price’ is one of the main factors as it can be highly persuasive. A normal person is not going to buy a bottle of perfume for £200, if they can buy a bottle of perfume that they like just as much, but is only £20. The ‘demand’ of the product affects the price that people will pay. If there is a high demand for a product then producers can afford to be competitive with the price and maybe decide to hit the top end of the market with a high quality product at a high price. Selling a product at a high price maybe even sacrificing high sales is called creaming. Businesses do this in order to earn high profits. Some businesses try the complete opposite. They set an initial low price for new product so that it attracts customers. The price is often raised as the product gains more market share. This is called penetration pricing. Another root in which businesses often take when deciding a price is competition based pricing. This is when they set their prices based on the prices charged by the competitors for similar products.

‘The promotion’ of the product is important if you want the product to sell because the public need to be aware that the product is for sale. This is the promotion. It is the communication between the business and the customer and it informs them of what the product is and tells them how the product will satisfy their needs and will persuade them to buy the product again or for the first time. Where the promotion takes place can also be important because advertising perfume for woman in a kiddie’s magazine can often be a complete waste of time and money or advertising. Large businesses will not normally take care of this themselves. They will employ an advertising agency, which is a business that specialises in organising the promotion of other businesses.

The above are all exaggerated examples of ‘the marketing mix’ but they show all the aspects that need to be considered when producing a product.

Task 2

A) Field and desk research are both very different. Desk research involves the use of secondary data. This is information that already exists such as sales records, government statistics and newspaper articles from advertising agencies. This information can help businesses when producing a product and can save them a lot of time and effort if the information is already readily available.

Field research is the collecting of primary data. Primary data is information that has been collected for a specific purpose by direct investigation like surveys, questionnaires and observations.

B) Sampling is undertaken when conducting market research. A survey cannot ask every customer so businesses choose a fraction or sample of people that may be potential customers to survey. The whole population cannot be selected to take part in a questionnaire so they choose a small group out of the total population and try to select a range of consumers. In a random sample any potential customer has an equal chance of being chosen. A small random sample is not as reliable or affective as a large sample but a large sample can be costly and takes time.