Introduction of Marketing:

Marketing is a very important function of business and the success of an organization depends to great extent on the marketing strategies adopted by the organization. Companys strategic planning defines the marketing role. A marketing strategy is formulated on basis of many principles and processes involved. For instance the most important aspect of the marketing strategy is the marketing mix referred to as 4ps of marketing which have now evolved to 7cs. The first P is the most important that is the product which you are selling and it could be a product or service. Marketers identify a consumer need and then provide the product or service to fill that need. The identification of this need is made through proper market research which is a key feature in marketing strategy. Then come the price i.e. deciding on the price strategies and that whether a marketer wants to be proactive in setting price rather than simply react to the marketplace. To that end, the marketer researches the market and competition and plots possible price points, looking for gaps that indicate opportunities. Then one of the most important things is to decide the distribution of your product or service that is Place or distribution. The success of the product depends if it is available to the market who wants to buy it. For example, should the company sell the product to distributors who then wholesale it to retailers or should the company have its own direct sales. Promotion encompasses the various ways marketers get the word out about a product most notably through sales promotions, advertising, and public relations. It refers to as how an organization is telling the target market about its product. Promotion includes coupons, rebate offers, two-for-one deals, free samples, contests, magazine ads, billboards, TV and radio commercials and Web site ads. The success of the marketing strategy is also based on the positioning that is how you want to place your product in consumers mind. By employing market research techniques and competitive analysis, the marketer identifies how the product should be positioned in the consumers mind. In contemporary context now Personal Relationships have gained immense importance this is the strategy to retain the customers. Companies do this in two ways: They tailor their products as much as possible to individual specifications, and they measure customer satisfaction. Along with the Ps of marketing now days 4cs of marketing has gained popularity as well. Product has been now changed to Consumer wants and Need. You can't develop products and

then try to sell them to a mass market. You have to study consumer wants and needs and then attract consumers one by one with something each one wants. Price has now been termed as Cost to satisfy that is you have to realize that price - measured in dollars - is one part of the cost to satisfy. If you sell hamburgers, for example, you have to consider the cost of driving to your restaurant, the cost of conscience of eating meat, etc. Place has been replaced by Convenience to buy. You must think of convenience to buy instead of place. You have to know how each subset of the market prefers to buy - on the Internet, from a catalogue, on the phone, using credit cards, etc. Lands End clothing, Amazon Books and Dell Computers are just a few businesses that do very well over the Internet. Promotion became Communication which requires a give and take between the buyer and seller (that's nicer). Developing a brand takes into account these considerations. Developing a brand is developing a promise. When you take into consideration the "4 Cs" noted above you begin the process of developing a brand. The formulation of marketing strategy involves the process that companies use to divide large heterogeneous markets into small markets that can be reached more efficiently and effectively with products and services that match their unique needs; this process is termed as Market Segmentation. Markets consist of buyers, and buyers differ in one or more ways. They may differ in their wants, resources, locations, buying attitudes, and buying practices. Through market segmentation, companies divide large, heterogeneous markets into smaller segments that can be reached more efficiently and effectively with products and services that match their unique needs. Rather than trying to compete in an entire market, sometimes against superior competitors, each company must identify the parts of the market that it can serve best and most profitably. One of the most important issues involved in this process is the demographics. Marketers normally join a number of variables to identify a demographic profile. A demographic profile provides adequate information regarding the usual member of this group to produce a mental picture of this hypothetical collection. For example, a marketer might speak of the single, female, middle-class, age 18 to 24, college educated demographic. Demographic segmentation divides the market into groups based on variables such as age, gender, family size, family life cycle, income, occupation, education, religion, race, and nationality. Demographic factors are the most popular bases for segmenting customer groups. There are many benefits of market segmentation as it makes it easier of marketer to market their products provided the financial and resources constraints they face. Market segmentation focuses on that division of diagnosis that has the greatest prospective of being customers and earning revenue. Companies who fragment their markets go with their strengths and aid to the groups of customers most prone to react to them. Differentiate your products and services to congregate your customer requirements and wishes. Categorize behaviors and buying motives for your products. Classify your most and least advantageous customers. Amplify brand faithfulness and reduce brand switching. Refine your pricing to

maximize revenue. Find markets where you can increase your price. Optimize your marketing resources and get the most impact for your investment. When segmentation is done right, you get the highest return for your marketing expenditure. Along with the processes and principles mentioned above one of the foremost aim of marketing strategy is to achieve market growth and market share. The BCG Matrix is one of the most effective tools in identifying market growth and market share. Therefore it is very essential that the main aim of marketing strategy is to attain high market growth and maximum market share that is the starts. The marketing strategy not only aims to increase the market share or growth but it should also accommodate retention of customers which is the most important part. The marketing strategy should be planned to retain your customers and build partner relationship management. Customer retention is additional than providing the customer what they be expecting; its about more than their expectations so that they be converted into loyal advocates for your brand. Creating customer loyalty puts customer value rather than maximizing profits and shareholder value at the center of business strategy. Another important principle which should be kept in mind while constructing a marketing strategy is the product development and life cycle. Product Life Cycle (PLC) provides us with the variety of stages that a product undergoes and this information can be used to invent strategies on how to position and differentiate a product. Proper planning goes a long way in creating Brand Equity, which is ads value to products and services. Products have evolved, but in some cases they have shorter life cycle compared to the earlier times, especially technological products like cell phones and home computers. It seems that, this has become a major concern for companies as the PLC of products are becoming shorter with each day. So they are faced with multiple challenges to sustain the product in the market and create brand equity. To cater to such segment of the market, companies have to come up with products with short PLC. For example - mobile phones, clothing and accessories. Product Development Cycle is an idealized, comprehensive description of a controlled design and development process within a quality system. Its purpose is to deliver a quality product that is appropriate for its intended use. The cycle defines the major phases, activities, milestones, responsibilities, and deliverables required in a concurrent, integrated, product development process. The five (5) phases of the Product Development Cycle are Concept, Feasibility, Planning, Development, and Production. A review follows each phase of the product development to verify attainment of objectives for that particular phase and to authorize continuation into the next phase. The new era has brought together new varieties in every field so it did with marketing and there are many new approaches in it, which plays an important role in formulating an effective marketing strategy of an organization. Traditionally product oriented approach was used but now it has evolved into customer oriented due to which the usefulness of market research has increased a lot. When a business bases its marketing mix on what the business sees as its internal strengths, the business's marketing is said to be 'product orientated'. When a business

bases its marketing mix on its perception of what the market wants, the businesss marketing is said to be 'market led', or 'market orientated' or customer oriented.
When a business is product orientated, it will base its products or services on what it perceives as its internal organizational strengths. Firms with a product orientated approach to selling, try to sell whatever they can make, without trying to find out if it's what the customers want. Sony grew hugely successful using this policy, and became famous for this approach. A more up to date example is Apple, the iPhone being the latest in a long line of product led launches. When a business is market led, the business's activities will be dictated by the market, it will at all times attempt to meet the needs of the market with little if any reference to internal strengths of the business. An organization with a market orientation thinks that its most important asset is its customers. The firm believes that, as long as it is able to identify potential customers, find out what they want, and then produce that for them, it will remain successful. The above mentioned processes and principle apply to almost all business irrespective of the vast variation in operations they perform and all businesses need to take account of the above mentioned things in order to formulate an effective marketing strategy.

Now in order to understand the market organizations of organizations let us take a business or an organization of which we will understand the marketing strategy. Since I am very much familiar with the product Lux and its one of the most famous beauty soap around the word therefore I would be taking Lux as me product under consideration. The Lux Marketing Strategy is simple build a brand based on beauty ("Beauty Begins With Lux") and then throw millions of dollars at the media to support it. There is little to no talk of what makes LUX any better or any worse or any different than any other soap. The marketing strategy that LUX Soap uses is no different than 90% of the large corporations out there. Lux has effectively managed its PLC through careful brand building and changing the product in line with the changing consumer. The brand is being positioned as the favorite soap of Film stars has been consistent in terms of communication and positioning. The brand is also the classic example of successful celebrity endorsement. From this we could identify that how has branding influenced the success of Lux soap throughout the world. Building strong and lasting relationships with customers and the communities in which the businesses reside as well as with their own employees seems to be the focus of this company. Just as there are many branding techniques, there are also many different uses for branding. Here are the seven common types of branding. Corporate Branding: Making the promise of quality products, service, and delivery to customers. The intent is to attract new customers and create loyalty in past customers. Corporate branding is nothing new; its been around as long as competition between businesses has existed. Employer Branding: Focusing on employees to understand the vision, mission, goals, products, and services of the company. It is designed to educate employees in order for them to uphold the corporate brand to their customers. Cause Branding: Attempting to attract customers by associating the company with a cause or purpose that potential customers would find beneficial to their personal goals or in line with their

values. This might be a percentage contribution of company sales to charitable organizations or donations to nature and wildlife preservation councils. Co-Branding: Becoming more familiar to the consumer all the time. These include, for example, mini-marts attached to gas stations, banking facilities within grocery stores. Community Branding: Showing the collective good a company can do for the community in which it and its employees reside. This branding can include company and employee outreach programs to help the needy and support elderly. Culture branding: Another method of branding, branding to employees may be something new to consider in waging war against sagging morale and high employee turnover. Culture branding is making promises to employees concerning their working environment and relationship to their leaders and managers. Celebrity branding is a type of branding, or advertising, in which a celebrity uses his or her status in society to promote a product, service or charity. Lux soap uses the celebrity branding and had been very successful with it.

SWOT analysis is a strategic method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective. In many competitor analyses, marketers build detailed profiles of each competitor in the market, focusing especially on their relative competitive strengths and weaknesses using SWOT analysis. Marketing managers will examine each competitor's cost structure, sources of profits, resources and competencies, competitive positioning and product differentiation, degree of vertical integration, historical responses to industry developments, and other factors. Marketing management often finds it necessary to invest in research to collect the data required to perform accurate marketing analysis. Accordingly, management often conducts market research (alternately marketing research) to obtain this information.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF LUX:

STRENGTHS The biggest strength of LUX is having vast range of skin types. It has a very strong brand name. Due to its strong brand repute, LUX has a huge customer base. The customers of LUX are extremely brand loyal and have less tendency of switching on to some other brand. LUX is always bringing innovations to sustain its customer base. WEAKNESS The major weakness of LUX is that it has limited itself in the category of being a beauty soap, whereas its competitors like Safeguard is positioned towards anti bacterial soap and thus gaining a reasonable share in the market. Another weakness is that LUX is more oriented towards middle-aged and above age group whereas its competitors target the younger generation of teens and kids like Safeguard. OPPORTUNITIES One of the opportunities for LUX is to invest in the segment for children. Being brand of personal care item, it has the opportunity to further expand its ranges and varieties. Trend of liquid soap in is not there in Pakistani market, it is an opportunity for LUX to capture the market share in the innovation of liquid soaps. THREATS Safeguard is the biggest threat for LUX as it is the most sought after alternative to LUX. With the advent of new FMCG providers in market with less priced products, people in markets like Pakistan, where due to inflation customers can switch to other low price soaps. As Unliver is operating globally therefore the regulations of Government in different geographical areas may affect the policies of Unliver. As the world economy is going through the unprecedented economy crisis that may prove to be a threat for all the businesses being operated globally.

Other than all the processes and principles used alongside different analysis involved in formulating a marketing strategy it is very essential that how sales and promotion is used to promote a product. Businesses operate in an external environment in which as well as competition from rivals businesses have to take account of legal, political, social and economic influences. A SLEPT(Social, Legal, Economic, Political, Technological) analysis is often carried

out by business planners which enables them to develop more informed strategies (i.e. long term plans).Social factors relate to change is society and social structures. Changes in the structure of the population, and in consumer lifestyles and behavior affect buying patterns. Legal factors relate to changes in laws and regulations. Businesses must be careful to keep within the law and to anticipate ways in which changes in laws will affect the way they must behave. Economic factors relate to changes in the wider economy. A growing economy provides greater opportunities for businesses to make profits, so businesses welcome rising living standards. Political factors relate to ways in which changes in government and government policy can influence business. Technological factors provide opportunities for businesses to adopt new breakthroughs, innovations, and inventions to cut costs and develop new products. A business producing confectionery like Cadbury Schweppes examines SLEPT factors in designing new products. For example, social factors that it needs to be aware of include changing patterns of eating. Today many consumers like to eat 'on the go' so bite sized chocolate treats are in great demand to top up consumers energy supplies. Legal factors to be kept an eye on include European Union regulations about the content of products that can be advertised as chocolate. Economic factors relate to changes in living standards and how these affect consumptions patters. Technological change is particularly important today, for example, the development of new technologies that have enabled variations on chocolate bars to be produced in an ice cream format. Political changes are closely tied up with economic ones and relate to changing governmental influence. For example, a change from a Labor to a Conservative government would affect taxation policies which would impact on the cost of chocolate production. The process whereby businesses examine the external environment to identify key structural changes in the world around them which affect demand and supply conditions for their products is termed as environmental scanning. Organizations also need to take into account of the internal factors together with the external one so as to be successful. This starts by looking at the internal factors which might influence success. Such analysis is often carried out by conducting a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis which we have already discussed above. Todays marketing is usually customer oriented rather than product oriented therefore the main aim of marketers is proper market research by which they can identify the needs and wants of customer and try to satisfy it accordingly. There are many types of research that marketers use for this purpose like pure Research and Applied Research, while in case of method; it would be deductive research and inductive research. However the most important forms are primary and secondary research. Primary research is one which is directly done through surveys, questionnaire and observations while secondary research is researched based on published statistics and articles. Advantages of primary research are Quick and cheap if your sample is small, Computer codable for quick analysis and repetition, Coding enables multiple comparisons among variable, Allows generalization to a larger population and Verifiable by replication and re-questioning of interviewees/respondents. Advantages of secondary research are Cheap and

accessible - especially a University Library, Often the only resource, for example historical documents and only way to examine large-scale trends. However it should be noted that research in itself is not that much of importance if the information available is not credible, therefore the information available is of far more importance. There are two main sources of information internal and external information. Both of this information is of equal importance in business research. In order to expand the business and planning both helps a lot. This is information held within the organization for example Sales figures, employee records, manager reports. Advantages of Internal Information are that it is easily accessible and it is only available to the organization. Disadvantages of Internal Information that it may be out-of date and it is limited in nature. External Information is gained out with the organization such as Government statistics or competitor accounts. An advantage of External Information is that it is used with PESTEC analysis and wider amount of information available. A disadvantage of External Information is that it could be biased, irrelevant and can be expensive to gain.