Researching the marketing mix Essay

In this task, I am going to research the marketing mix and I am going to apply this to The Marketing mix is a general phrase used to describe the different kinds of choices organizations have to make in the whole process of bringing a product or service to market. The 4Ps is the best-known way of defining the marketing mix. The 4ps are: Product- what is sold? Place- where is the product is sold? Price-how much the product costs? Promotion- how a business communicates with its customers Place McDonald’s sell various food and drink products all over the world and will need to use methods to get their goods made available to consumers. McDonald’s use a distribution channel to get their products from the producer to the consumer. Here are the different distribution channels which exist. This is a direct channel between the producer and the consumer. They will deal together without intermediaries involved. This can be beneficial for businesses because it allows a larger proportion of profit and means they can have more control over the marketing of the product. The disadvantage is that the costs will be larger to distribute the products. Retailers such as farm shops and dell use this channel as they sell the products they make directly to the consumer. This is an indirect channel between customer and producer because of the use of a retailer as an intermediary. The producer will distribute their goods to retailers who will then sell the products individually to consumers. Retailers are focused on consumer markets and offer customers advice, convenience, financial assistance and after-sales support. An example of a retailer which uses this channel would be Next. Next will receive their products from their producer and then sell them in store to the consumers. This is an indirect channel between the producer and consumer because a wholesaler is an intermediary in this channel. The producer will supply the wholesaler with a large number of products and then will break the order into smaller quantities to supply to the consumer. The advantage of this is that the consumer can get the goods at a cheaper price because the transport costs are reduced due fewer journeys. The wholesaler makes its profit by buying the product at a cheaper price and adding a profit margin to the price paid by the retailer. Many small businesses such as cafes use this channel as they will get their products supplied by a wholesaler so they can supply the products to consumers. This is a longer indirect channel. There are two intermediaries in this channel which is a wholesaler and a retailer. The producer will supply large quantities to wholesalers who will then break the orders into smaller ones to send out to the retailer who will sell the product directly to the consumer. The retailer will make a profit by charging the consumers more money per unit than what they paid the wholesaler. An example of a retailer which uses this channel is a newsagent. The producers will send bulk orders to wholesalers. The newsagents will then buy the goods to sell in their store from the wholesaler and then sell the products to consumers in store. Product McDonald’s sell fast food and drink products all over the world. McDonald’s will need to continue to create customer interest and satisfy their needs by developing new products and releasing them into the market. For example, McDonald’s recently released their signature collection which was a new set of meals which created customer interest and demand. I will now apply the marketing mix to the McDonalds and using their most well-known McDonalds product which is the Big Mac to show how it is used. The Marketing Mix and the McDonalds Big Mac Product-The Big Mac McDonald’s most well-known burger. The burger is a low budget product. A Big Mac contains to beef burger patties, cheese, salad and a three-part bun. A Big Mac contains around 490 calories. You can also buy a Big Mac meal which comes with a drink and fries. Meals come in medium or large sizes. It is important that McDonald’s have a product like the Big Mac because it gives them a good reputation and image which makes them a successful and well-known brand. Place-The only place a Big Mac can be purchased is at a McDonald’s restaurant. McDonald’s restaurants can be found all over the country, some open 24 hours. There are 1,208 McDonald’s restaurants in the UK and 34,492 worldwide. The benefits of McDonald’s selling the Big Mac only at their stores is that they get all the profit from the product, where if they sold their products at other places they would have less profit. Promotion-McDonalds advertise the Big Mac on T.V, radio, the internet and in magazines. McDonald’s also offer promotions on the Big Mac such as giving away a free Coca-Cola glass with Big Mac meals and offering the chance to win prizes with the Monopoly stickers. Promotion is important for McDonald’s because it gains them more sales which makes them more successful. Price-An individual Big Mac would cost  £2.59 in the UK. A medium Big Mac meal  £4.19 and  £4.59 for a large. The Big Mac costs this much because it is a fast food budget product. It is important that McDonald’s sell the Big Mac at the right price because if it is too high people won’t buy the product and if it’s too low they won’t make a profit. The price is successful because it is relatively cheap and McDonald’s can make a profit out of it.