Marketing Mix

https://marketingmix.co.uk/
https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/products/17417-dolce-n-gabbana.html

4P's 

Place:
You have to position and distribute the product in a place that is accessible to potential buyers.
This comes with a deep understanding of your target market. Understand them inside out and you will discover the most efficient positioning and distribution channels that directly speak with your market.

There are many distribution strategies, including:
- Intensive distribution
- Exclusive distribution
- Selective distribution

- Franchising

Some of the questions that you should answer in developing your distribution strategy:
Where do your clients look for your service or product?
What kind of stores do potential clients go to? Do they shop in a mall, in a regular brick and mortar store, in the supermarket, or online?
How do you access the different distribution channels?
How is your distribution strategy different from your competitors?
Do you need a strong sales force?
Do you need to attend trade fairs?

Do you need to sell in an online store?

Product:
You must ensure to have the right type of product that is in demand for your market. So during the product development phase, the marketer must do an extensive research on the life cycle of the product that they are creating.
A product has a certain life cycle that includes the growth phase, the maturity phase, and the sales decline phase. It is important for marketers to reinvent their products to stimulate more demand once it reaches the sales decline phase.
Marketers must also create the right product mix. It may be wise to expand your current product mix by diversifying and increasing the depth of your product line.
All in all, marketers must ask themselves the question “what can I do to offer a better product to this group of people than my competitors”.
In developing the right product, you have to answer the following questions:

What does the client want from the service or product?
How will the customer use it?
Where will the client use it?
What features must the product have to meet the client’s needs?
Are there any necessary features that you missed out?
Are you creating features that are not needed by the client?
What’s the name of the product?
Does it have a catchy name?
What are the sizes or colours available?
How is the product different from the products of your competitors?

What does the product look like?

Price: 
It's a very important component of a marketing plan as it determines your firm’s profit and survival. Adjusting the price of the product has a big impact on the entire marketing strategy as well as greatly affecting the sales and demand of the product.
Pricing always help shape the perception of your product in consumers eyes. Always remember that a low price usually means an inferior good in the consumers eyes as they compare your good to a competitor.
Consequently, prices too high will make the costs outweigh the benefits in customers eyes, and they will therefore value their money over your product. Be sure to examine competitors pricing and price accordingly.

When setting the product price, marketers should consider the perceived value that the product offers. There are three major pricing strategies, and these are:
- Market penetration pricing
- Market skimming pricing
- Neutral pricing

Some of the important questions that you should ask yourself when you are setting the product price:
How much did it cost you to produce the product?
What is the customers’ perceived product value?
Do you think that the slight price decrease could significantly increase your market share?
Can the current price of the product keep up with the price of the product’s competitors?

Promotion:
Promotion is a very important component of marketing as it can boost brand recognition and sales. Promotion is comprised of various elements like:

- Sales Organisation
- Public Relations
- Advertising
- Sales Promotion

Advertising typically covers communication methods that are paid for like television advertisements, radio commercials, print media, and internet advertisements. In contemporary times, there seems to be a shift in focus offline to the online world.
Public relations, on the other hand, are communications that are typically not paid for. This includes press releases, exhibitions, sponsorship deals, seminars, conferences, and events.

Word of mouth is an informal communication about the benefits of the product by satisfied customers and ordinary individuals. The sales staff plays a very important role in public relations and word of mouth.
An extremely good example of this is online social media and managing a firm's online social media presence.

In creating an effective product promotion strategy, you need to answer the following questions:

How can you send marketing messages to your potential buyers?
When is the best time to promote your product?
Will you reach your potential audience and buyers through television ads?
Is it best to use the social media in promoting the product?

What is the promotion strategy of your competitors?

Your combination of promotional strategies and how you go about promotion will depend on your budget, the message you want to communicate, and the target market you have defined already in previous steps.


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Dolce & Gabbana 4P's 

Product:
D&G have a wide range of products from mens, women's, children, footwear, handbags, jewellery, make up, perfumes and watches. Dolce & Gabbana differentiates itself from other brands with its bold prints and brightly coloured designs which are inspired by the Sicilian traditions.  
It had two main lines until 2012, named Dolce & Gabbana and D & G. Dolce & Gabbana specialized more in luxury items that had a formal style, inspired by the existing trends and seasonal changes. It sold sunglasses, watches and purses. In April 2009, they also launched their own make-up range which was unveiled by Scarlett Johansson. In 2010, they partnered with Madonna and came out with a collection of sunglasses called MDG. D&G on the other hand sold watches as well as clothing, but it was discontinued so that they could focus more on strengthening their other collections.


Price:
Dolce & Gabbana products are priced high as it is a high-end luxurious brand and they appeal to and target a niche market of individuals belonging to the elite class. It is a designer brand and is considered a status-symbol brand, so the products are priced accordingly. D&G brand has a loyal customer base belonging to the younger generation as it has a more urban inspiration and a flamboyant line of products. Another reason as to why the products are so highly priced, apart from the supreme quality, is that they engage in many celebrity endorsements for promoting their brand. Some of the big names that have endorsed the Dolce & Gabbana brand include Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, and Jennifer Lopez. The money that is paid to these celebrities for promoting the brand needs to be earned back, which is one of the reasons which results in the high prices of the products.

Place:
Dolce & Gabbana have their headquarters in Milan, Italy and have stores in multiple countries worldwide. They have their store outlets from where products can be bought located in New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. In India, they have a store in a high-end locality that caters to a niche segment which is brand conscious and can afford the price of such luxury brands. Dolce & Gabbana also have tie-ups with various e-commerce platforms where they offer selective products such as perfumes, sunglasses, purses etc which can be purchased by the consumers belonging to the target market. To retain their brand status of being an exclusive brand catering to the ultra-rich segment of consumers, they have controlled the number of their distribution outlets to a few as these are not products that would be preferred by a mass audience.


Promotion:
Dolce & Gabbana promote their brand through their website, television advertisements and social media. They are even featured in top magazines like Vogue all over the world. Also, some big names in the fashion and entertainment industry are associated with Dolce & Gabbana which leads to massive promotion of the brand. They are infamously known for their controversial advertisements that always manage to catch the attention of the viewers. They make use of gender stereotypes to sell their products and even objectify women/men in many of their advertisements. They have also launched a mobile application called ‘The D&G Fashion Channel’ which is available for the I-phone users. It is using mobile as a direct way of communicating with its customers and following the users in real life. The application gives the users a very personal and one-on-one experience which is exactly what the customers receive when they visit an actual Dolce & Gabbana store. The shoppers get a targeted service and are shown exactly what are looking to buy through this mobile application. 




















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