Morgan Zintec College

APPLIED ICT AND ENTREPRENEUSHIP

Name Mundoko Priscillar

Subject Entrepreneurship

Date 20 March 2024

Block 2

Lecturer Mr Karengo

Assignment topic
Discuss the four elements of marketing in
entrepreneurship. Give relevant examples in your
discussion.

Lecturer’s comments
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There are four original principles of marketing referred to as four Ps. These four basic
marketing principles Product, Price, Place and Promotion are interconnected and work
together; hence , they are also known as Marketing Mix. Typically successful marketers and
business consider the four Ps when creating marketing plans and strategies to effectively
market to their target audience. Marketing a business is about how you position it to satisfy
your market’s needs. In this write up the writer is going to discuss on the four critical
elements in marketing.

Marketing is a form of communication between a business house and its customers with the
goal of selling its product or services to them. According to American Marketing Association
(AMA) Board of Director, Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and process for
creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have values for customers,
clients, partners and society at large. Dr Philip Kotler (2010) defines marketing as ‘the
science and art of exploring, creating and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target
market at a profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines measures and
quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which
segments the company capable of serving best and it designs and promotes the appropriate
products and services.’ Goods are not complete product until there are in the hence of
customers. Marketing is that management process through which goods and services move
from concept to customer. Marketing has less to do with getting customers to pay for a
product as it does with developing a demand for that product and fulfilling the customer’s
needs. Thus, marketing refers to all the activities involved in the creation of place, time,
possession and awareness utilities and beyond.

“Product” refers to the goods and services you offer to your customers. Apart from the
physical product itself, there are elements associated with your product that customers may
be attracted to, such as the way it is packaged. Other product attributes include quality,
features, options, services, warranties, and brand name. Thus, one might think of what one
offer as a bundle of goods and services.Product’s appearance, function, and support make up
what the customer is actually buying. Successful managers pay close attention to the needs
their product bundles address for customers. A business product bundle should meet the
needs of a particular target market. For example, a luxury product should create just the right
image for “customers who have everything,” while many basic products must be positioned
for price conscious consumers. Other important aspects of product may include an
appropriate product range, design, warranties, or a brand name. Customer research is a key
element in building an effective marketing mix. The knowledge of one’s target market and
competitors will allow one to offer a product that will appeal to customers and avoid costly
mistakes.

Purdue Extension Knowledge to Go If a company is considering starting a new business or

adding a new product, then make sure the product bundle will fit the business’s strengths and
weaknesses, and that it will provide an acceptable risk/return trade off. For instance, if the
business is very good at timely response to customers, then timely service should be an
important part of the product bundle. A business developer should think long term about the
venture by planning for the ways to deepen and broaden the product bundle. For instance, one
may be able to take advantage of opportunities to add value through processing, packaging,
and customer service. Other future growth may allow a company to offer the product to
different customers. Start-up businesses are most successful when they concentrate their
efforts on one product or one market, like a restaurant or a car service centre does. Later
growth may occur in the same location or may be in different geographic regions. A different
type of growth would be a diversification of products, with the business offering related
products. Offering a whole range of products is most successful if the raw materials,
production processes, and distribution methods are similar, which means a company do not
have to acquire new suppliers, skills and equipment, and distribution methods.

Price can be defined as how much one charge for the product or service. Determining the
product’s price can be tricky and even frightening. Many small business owners feel they
must absolutely have the lowest price around. So they begin their business by creating an
impression of bargain pricing. However, this may be a signal of low quality which is not part
of the image a business wanted to portray. Pricing approach should reflect the appropriate
positioning of the product in the market and result in a price that covers the cost per item and
includes a profit margin. The result should neither be greedy nor timid. The former will price
the product out of the market; pricing too low will make it impossible to grow. As a manager
one can follow a number of alternative pricing strategies.
Promotion is the advertising and selling part of marketing. It is how a company let people
know what they have got for sale. The purpose of promotion is to get people to understand
what a company product is, what they can use it for, and why they should want it. A business
want the customers who are looking for a product to know that the product satisfies their
needs. To be effective, a company’s promotional efforts should contain a clear message
targeted to a specific audience reached via an appropriate channel. The target audience will
be the people who use or influence the purchase of the product. A business should focus their
market research efforts on identifying these individuals. A business’ message must be
consistent with their overall marketing image, get the target audience’s attention, and elicit
the response desired, whether it is to purchase the product or to form an opinion. The
channel one select for the message will likely involve use of a few key marketing channels.
Promotion may involve advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotions.

Place is the distribution channels used to get your product to your customers. What your
product is will greatly influence how you distribute it. If, for example, you own a small retail
store or offer a service to your local community, then you are at the end of the distribution
chain, and so you will be supplying directly to the customer. Businesses that create or
assemble a product will have two options: selling directly to consumers or selling to a vendor.
REFERENCES

Gummerson E, Total Relationship Marketing, Butterworth-Heineman, 2003

Imbler,J,and Toffler B, Dictionary of MarketingTerms, Barrons 2000

Kotler,P,Kartajaya,H, and Sertiawan,I, Markerting3,0 John Wiley and Sons.Inc,2010

Minnett,S, B2BMarketing,Prentice Hall, 2005

Palmer,A, Principles of Services Markerting, McGraw-Hill, 2005.