Downtown Dealership - An Effective Marketing Mix (PDF)

Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Trade and Distribution, grade: 95.00, University of Phoenix, course: MKT 421 Marketing, language: English, abstract: Downtown Dealership- An Effective Marketing Mix
Introduction
Organizations face many challenges before introducing a product or service to the buying public. To assist organizations in determining what product or service to introduce to the marketplace, a marketing mix formula must be followed. Successful organizational products' follow the four main elements of the marketing mix, the four P's: product, place, price, and promotion. In some instances, due to the shift from products to service solutions business strategy, the four P's may be substituted by relevance, response, relationships, and results, the four R's (English, 2000, p.21, ¶2). More than just advertising, marketing is the procedure that answers the questions of what the needs, wants, fears, and desires of ones target consumers are.
Effective marketing is based on understanding a specific audience or consumer segment. Organizations can identify segments based on "the attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and values surrounding their decision not to obtain" a product or service (John and Cheney, 2008, p.67, ¶1). Instead of focusing solely on differences, organizations need to focus on customers grouped by commonalities, with services customized for each group" (Teo, Srivastava, and Ho, 2006, p.109, Executive Summary).As a result, this paper will focus on how Downtown Dealership, a General Motors dealership, in the automobile industry uses the individual components of product, place, price, and promotion as an effective marketing strategy