The trading Mix: Pricing StrategieS

The Marketing Mix: Pricing Strategies

The Marketing Mix: Pricing Strategies

What pricing and marketing (target market, product, place, and promotion) strategies should P&G follow?

The pricing and marketing strategies that P&G should follow will depend on following subheads of marketing and pricing concepts;

Because marketing is organizational process focused directly on exchange, ethical issues in marketing have existed since inception of trade. The Roman philosopher Cicero counseled merchants to avoid raising prices too high in times of shortage, lest they alienate their customers, who might shun them when supplies were more abundant. However, analysis of marketing ethics from more systematic and analytical standpoint has only begun to develop in past 40 years. Since mid-1999s, literature on marketing ethics has grown substantially. (Lazer 2000)

Marketing Practice

At heart of marketing ethics are decisions that marketing practitioners make about ethical questions. Ethical questions most often arise in marketing when stakeholder group or some segment of public feels that actions taken by some (or many) marketers might be judged to be morally inappropriate. (Kotler & Armstrong 2004)

Market Segmentation

One of basic strategies of marketing campaigns involves division of mass market into “segments” followed by development of specific offerings to appeal to selected “target market.” Ethical questions especially surround target marketing of segments that include potentially vulnerable populations such as children, elderly, impoverished, and marketing illiterates. (Lauterborn 1999)

Marketing Promotion

Since trading conclusions are often facts and figures driven, market research techniques and yields are frequently used by trading practitioners. Market researchers themselves often have considerable training in methodological and statistical techniques, and one might surmise that because of their greater education, they exhibit higher degree of ethical professionalism than other marketing practitioners.

Product

Ethical issues surrounding management of products are central to marketing because marketing process generally begins with product (broadly defined to include goods, services, or ideas). The most common ethical concerns in this area pertain to safety of products. Earlier, in brief discussion concerning AMA practitioner norms and values, notion of “never knowingly doing harm” was introduced as central ethical percept. Certainly, this prescription directly applies to area of products. (Lazer 2000)

Explain pricing strategies that firms use?

Pricing strategies of P&G

Perhaps no area of managerial activity is more difficult to assess fairly and to prescribe normatively in terms of morality than area of pricing. The given price of product or service commonly results from confluence of three factors: demand, competition, and cost. Each of these factors can be central to ethical questions about pricing fairness and is implemented by P&G. For example, when high demand puts pressure on supply, such as desperate need for construction materials after natural disaster, there may be temptation for sellers to price-gouge. (McCarthy 1999)

Explain what factors are involved in development of pricing strategy?

Or in an attempt to gain dominant market share, strong competitors may use predatory pricing (below cost pricing) to drive economically challenged sellers from marketplace. In business-to-business setting, vendor may simply mislead client concerning what “actual costs” have been incurred especially if they are operating ...