Question

I would like to complete this on Levi's Jeans

Pick a good or a service that you are interested in and prepare a report on the Marketing Mix actually used for that product. You are required to choose a product by brand name. You may choose a well-known name like Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, and Coke or a lesser-known brand such as Louisville Slugger, Peavey, or Furby. It can be a familiar product such as a soft drink, automobile, backpack, a piece of sports equipment or a computer; or one that is of special interest to you that is less familiar to most of us such as deer stands, paint ball equipment, or a musical group. The choice is yours but my one criterion is just to ensure that there is enough marketing information readily available on the good or service. Discuss this product in a single report describing Product, Place, Promotion, and Price. Divide the report into four sections and devote at least one page to each section.

1. Product
   
   This section is the heart of the marketing mix and should describe the product offering and product strategy. The product includes not only the physical unit but also its product depth and breadth of the line/service, package, warranty, after-sale service, brand name, company image, value and many other factors like the products life cycle stage.
   
2. Place
   
   The section should describe the Place associated with your product. Place is concerned with making products available when and where customers want them. A part of place is physical distribution, which involves all the business activities concerned with storing and logistical transporting of the finished products distribution channel and channel management. The goal is to make sure that the products arrive in usable conditions at designated places where they are needed.
   
3. Promotion
   
   This section should describe the Promotion associated with your product. Promotion includes advertising, public relations, sales promotion and personal selling tactics that create attention, interest, desire and action. Promotion’s role in the marketing mix is to bring about mutually satisfying exchanges with target markets by informing, educating, persuading and reminding them of the benefits of an organization or product.
   
4. Price
   
   This section should describe the Pricing strategies associated with your product. Price is what a buyer must give up to obtain a product. The "value" they see associated with it versus competition which fosters lower pricing. What pricing strategy is used also relates to distribution availability (supply and demand). It is often the most flexible of the four mix elements- the quickest element to change. It is an important competitive weapon and is very important to the organization because price multiplied by the number of units sold equals total revenue for the firm.

PAPER FORMAT- USE APA Style TITLE PAGE INTRODUCTION PRODUCT SECTION PLACE SECTION PROMOTION SECTION PRICE SECTION CONCLUSION REFERENCE PAGE

The paper should be done in APA format, Times New Roman Font 12 pt, double spaced. You must use at least three references.

Answer 1

Products in the Marketing mix of Nestle

Nestle has 4 different strategic business units to manage various food products and those are

1.Beverages – One of the most known coffee brands Nescafe, belongs to the house of Nestle and is one of the cash cows for Nestle. However, it is not the biggest cash cow. Nestle has a worldwide distribution and has many different variants.

2.Milk and Milk products – Nestle everyday, Nestle slim and Nestle Milk maid are some of the milk and milk based products from the house of Nestle.

3.Prepared dishes and cooking aides – Nestle has a third category of products which comes into prepared dishes and cooking aides. The major cash cow of Nestle lies in this segment, which is Maggi Noodles. Probably one of the most widely sold ready to cook noodle brands is Maggi. Maggi has a fantastic taste and quality. Thus, it was not a surprise, that Nestle expanded the Maggi brand to create an umbrella of different products like Maggi pasta, Maggi sauce, Maggi cubes etc. The maggi range contributes vastly to the bottom line of Nestle.

4.Chocolates – Nestle has some popular chocolate products, most popular being Nestle Kitkat, Munch, Milky bar, Eclairs and Polo. The newly introduced Alpino is targeting the gifting segment in response to various chocolates like Dairy milk and Bournville by Cadbury. The chocolates segment of Nestle is a star, where the competition is high and the expense is high but at the same time the market size is huge as well.

As we can see, two major brands of Nestle are a very high contributor to its Brand equity – Nescafe and Maggi. These are two brands sold across India in small as well as big shops and super markets. There have been many competitors for these products, like Bru for Nescafe and Top ramen and Sunfeast Yippie against maggi.

The appreciable factor in Nestle is that quality maintenance of products is upto mark and there are hardly any complaints about Nestles products in the market. This is a major achievement for a company which relies majorly on food products.

Price in the Marketing mix of Nestle

The price is dependent on the market of each individual products. For example, Nescafe and Maggi being the clear leaders are priced with higher margins for the company as compared to competition. This is because the product quality is good enough and a bit of skimming price will not cause the customer to switch brands.

The strength of pricing for Nestle comes from its packaging or consumption based pricing. For Nescafe as well as Maggi, Nestle offers a lot of sizes and package options. In supermarkets, you can even find a 16 packet maggi whereas in small retail shops, you can find 2 packet maggi.

Thus, with the variety available, customer can make his own choice based on his consumption. In other products like Kitkat and Munch, due to tough competition from other companies, Nestle offers competitive pricing. You will find that nestle will be similar priced to many of Cadbury’s Products in the chocolate segment.

Place in the Marketing mix of Nestle

Nestle follows the FMCG strategy of distribution which involves breaking the bulk. The typical distribution strategy of Nestle is as follows.

Manufacturing >> C & F agent >> Distributors >> Retailers >> Consumer
Manufacturing >> Bulk buyers >> Consumer

These are the two different forms of distribution which Nestle has. It is typical of any FMCG company. However, the Nestle channel is known to be strong with a good marketing and sales network for channel distribution.

On top of it, Nestle regularly introduces trade discounts and various tactics to keep the channel motivated. The major challenge is in the distribution of Maggi which is the most in-demand product along with Nescafe. Due to these two products, Nestle is able to drive other products in the market as well. Thus, on purchase of one weak product, the distributor might get a discount on the stronger product or vice versa.

The challenge for Nestle is in the chocolate segment where it faces stiff competition from Cadbury and hence selling the chocolates becomes difficult. Kitkat might have its own brand positioning, but it is not better than Dairy milk. Thus, converting retailers to sell Nestle instead of Cadbury is the toughest task for Nestle. This is converted mainly through promotions.

Promotions in the Marketing mix of Nestle.

One of the most widely known tunes is the Nescafe tune. It was one of the best advertising campaigns and was launched at least 2 decades back. However, that campaign brought Nescafe strongly in the market.

On the other hand, Nestle’s brand was pushed by the excellent product quality of Maggi and the witty and innovative campaigns of Maggi. Where Nescafe focuses on value and the good things in life, Maggi focuses on moments you had with your Maggi. The recent campaign was completely focused on your maggi story, where people had to come out with various innovative ways that they had their maggi.

Promotions for other products too is done smartly. Kitkat focuses on “Take a break” and has done some good marketing for the same. Kitkats website too is very innoative and shows nothing but asks the visitor to take a break and have a Kitkat. The major push expected of a FMCG company is in sales promotions at the ground level. This is where Nestle really rocks. Nestle focuses on its strength which is Maggi, Nescafe and Kitkat which are the most promoted brands in the market on ground level.

Besides this, Nestle regularly uses TVC’s and ATL marketing. It is also present online through some smart creative. Overall, Nestle is a brand which has strong products as well as strong marketing, and hence the brand has a very high brand recall value.