Marketing Mix and Its Application to Dove Soap by Unilever

This report discusses the marketing mix and its application to Dove soap produced by Unilever. It covers the 4Ps of marketing mix, namely product, price, place, and promotion, and how they are used to promote the soap. The report also provides an introduction to marketing and marketing mix, and an explanation of the concept of 4Ps marketing mix.

BSc (Hons) Business Management
BMP4004
Contemporary Issues in Marketing
The nature and importance of
marketing mix within marketing
process
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Contents
Introduction 3
An explanation of marketing 3
An explanation of marketing mix 4
A brief theoretical explanation of 4Ps marketing mix
4
Introduction of product/service
6
Application of 4Ps marketing mix to the selected
product/service 6-7
Product 6
Price 6
Place 7
Promotion 7
Conclusion 7
References 8
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Introduction
Marketing process is defined as the procedure of identifying current
opportunities in market, then selecting market which organization wants to pitch
(Rouban, 2022). After it, planning for marketing mix is performed along with it making
proper control towards all the executed marketing plans made by company.
Marketing mix are the tools used by business units in order to promote their products
and services among its customers. The companies are able to identify needs and
wants of people and can produce goods according to it. This makes the companies
proactive and reduces chances of error. With the help of marketing mix,
organizations can even reduce or cut down unnecessary cost incurred within their
businesses. For preparing this report, chosen company is Unilever and are dealing in
consumer goods. The products or Unilever involves various varieties such as ice
cream, beauty products, food, cleaning and personal care products. Soap is the
most producing product of Unilever, even they are first in introducing soap. It is a
public limited company founded on 1929 by William Lever. It's headquarter is in
England, United Kingdom. They are serving across the world having 149,000
employees present globally. This project will include about marketing, marketing mix,
4Ps of marketing mix and the marketing mix application of the product of Unilever.
An explanation of marketing
Marketing refers to all actions taken by the organizations in order to reach out
their products and services among potential customers (Lowe,Kainzbaue and
Ngamcharoenmongkol., 2019). Marketing includes promotion of products through
different modes of advertisement, with this distribution of products throughout the
retailers and lastly selling products to its customers. Initially, marketing was
performed only through limited platforms, but now reach and mode of advertisement
are increasing rapidly. Now, along with offline modes of advertisement, online mode
is also very helpful in generating traffic. Marketing helps in increasing the demand of
products because when sing rapidly. Now, along with offline modes of advertisement,
online mode is also very helpful in generating traffic. Marketing helps in increasing
demand for products because when customers are aware about product they will
start demanding for it. The brand awareness and traffic generation also takes place
when companies are engaged in marketing. Along with advertisement in
newspapers, billboards, radio now companies are taking help of email marketing,
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social media marketing, internet marketing, content marketing, blog marketing and
various other marketing tool.
An explanation of marketing mix
Marketing mix is the technique used by organizations in order to promote their
brand, product or services (Novela and Hansopaheluwakan., 2018). Along with this
they aim to achieve set marketing goals with the help of marketing mix. Initially there
were four crucial elements that is Place, Product, Price and Promotion collectively
they are considers as 4Ps of marketing mix. They are also considered as traditional
way of marketing whereas, the modern marketing mix included three more elements
which are based serving marketing (Solimun and Fernandes, 2018). These elements
are process, physical evidence and people. There is a specified steps for identifying
marketing mix, it starts from finding out potential customers. Then, analyzing the
requirements and problems of customers. The next step is to identify solution of
customer’s problem and after getting an appropriate solution, start working on it and
sell it to target customers.
A brief theoretical explanation of 4Ps marketing mix
The concept of 4Ps of marketing mix was introduced by Edmund Jerome
McCarthy in 1960s. This marketing mix included four elements of marketing, which
helps the organizations in understanding needs and wants of customers (Eti, 2020).
The elaboration of 4Ps of marketing mix are as follows -
 Price – To decide the prices of products or services is most difficult task that
an organization has to perform as price of goods and services affects the
demand for product. The companies have to keep certain key points in mind
while deciding prices for products. These factors include prices of raw
material, expenses incurred while manufacturing product, cost incurred while
transporting products to retails or with end users. Along with it, labor charges,
salaries to employees, promotion cost and fixed cost. Whereas, in service
sector companies like restaurant they have to consider to types of expenses,
first expenses incurred while preparing food and other is their ambiance cost
along with labor cost. All above mentioned factors is to be considered while
deciding prices of products. In case, prices are kept high than cost incurred,
then customers will not consume product or services of company and if
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prices are kept low than companies would incurred loss. That is why it is
most difficult task to decide prices any product or services.
 Place – In case of products, places are considers as location at which sale of
company’s product took place (Lahtinen, Rundle-Thiele and Dietrich, 2018). It
also includes distribution channel through which companies want to make
their products deliver. There are certain places where companies deliver their
product, it includes retail outlets, malls, supermarkets or shopping centers. If
company, what’s to open their own outlets then they have to select posh or
highly populated areas in order to attract more customers. Also, companies
had to choose that distribution channel where cost of company could be
reduced. Whereas, in case of service sector they do not required any
distribution channel only thing which is required by them is place from where
companies can operate their businesses. Like in restaurants, they have to
select area having a beautiful view along with it they should select place
where high income group residents.
 Product – Products could be either goods or services, goods can be touched,
feel and can be used for multiple times. Whereas, services can't be touched
they can only be experienced. The services can be used at a time, once they
are consumed their time period is finished, again customers as to pay if they
want to consume it. For example, in case of services offered by water park or
adventure park. Once tickets are purchased customer can consume it for
limited period of time. After its consumption it is over, if customer wants to use
services again then they had to purchase new ticket.
 Promotion – Producing product along with distributing it along middlemen is
not only sufficient to make sale. The companies had to made promotion of
product in order to aware customers about products and to attain their focus.
There is various mode through which promotion of product or services could
be made. The tools may include advertisement through newspapers,
billboards, sponsorship, direct marketing, online marketing, social media
marketing, network marketing or marketing though word of mouth. In current
scenario, online or social media marketing is the most trending way of
promoting product or services of company in an effective manner. The social
media marketing is most cost effective and revenue generating tool. It helps in
generating traffic for company and also helps in increasing sale of product.
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When customers are more aware about products or services this will build
trust for brand among customers.
Introduction of product/service
For this report, chosen product is soap i.e. dove produced by Unilever. Dove
soap produce by Unilever is most popularized beauty soaps. Unilever has introduced
soap for first time in 1894 in United Kingdom in its consumer market. Dove soap was
introduced for first time in 1957. Apart from soap, dove have various product lines
which includes body wash, moisturizers, hair and skin care products. The Unique
selling proposition of product is that it can act as two in one product along with soap
it also acts like a moisturizer. It provides same nourishment as a normal moisturizer
provides to persons having dry skin. The quality of dove soaps offered by Unilever is
of high quality. Now, dove is the most largest premium subsidiary brand having
annual revenue around 12 billion euroes. The other important factors though which
they are able to attain large customer base is that they are targeting all skin tone,
age and size customers. They had kept prices of product at low to high range so that
they can target all income and class groups of customers. Some of toughest
competitors of their product is Olay, Nivea and Neutrogena.
Application of 4Ps marketing mix to the selected
product/service
Product
The soap i.e. dove of Unilever has created it's value as a high quality soap
then normal bathing soap, it is been recognized as a beauty bar (Hill, 2018). The
ingredients used while preparing this bar is free from harsh chemical by which skin
could be damaged. The soaps are available of all color, size, quality, fragrance and
quantity as per requirement of customer. By analyzing demand of customers and by
analyzing current market trends, company starts producing product, this helps them
in getting competitive advantage.
Price
The company has set prices of dove soap by keeping all income group
customers in mind. For attaining large customer base, company is involved in selling
soap at lowest to highest price range. To compete with all price range of competitors,
Unilever has launched soaps with different brand names. With this, Unilever use
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competitors pricing strategies for deciding prices of products to give them a tough
throw competition.
Place
The company is involved in selling its soap i.e. dove on online as well as
offline platforms. The soap of company is easily available at all retail stores,
supermarket, shopping mall and also at popular e- commerce websites (Truong,
2019). The company sells soap i.e. dove across world with this, they have a large
number of suppliers which helps company in reducing delivering cost. The easily
availability of soap at every possible places helps company in acquiring large
customer base. By having large customers base, company is effectively reaching
economics of scale.
Promotion
The company is using every possible place where they can make promotion.
The companies are acquiring customers base by using advertisement mode like
publishing in newspapers, making useful content and posting it on billboards. Also
companies use social media marketing for high priced products. Along with it they
use celebrity endorsement strategy to make product recognized in mind of
customers. In order to attract customers company uses buy one get one free or get
25% extra strategies to gain focus of customers. They are also sponsors many
popular shows through which their product could be popularized. They are publishing
about their products in magazines and also published feedback of happy and
satisfied customers as their advertisement.
Conclusion
From the above project, it can be concluded that marketing is tools through
which companies can make their product or service popular. Along with it, marketing
mix helps in identifying requirements and problems faced by customers and then
pitching products as per there needs and wants. The 4Ps of marketing mix that is
price, place, product and promotion helps in deciding appropriate strategies for
customers. Taking decisions for this aspects are most difficult task for company, as
this might affect sale and cost incurred within company. The prices of product are
ranges as per considering all income group. Different attractive promotional tools are
being used by companies in order to promote their product. Along with traditional
marketing tools company is using modern marketing strategies.
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References
Eti, I.A., 2020. Theoretical Inspection and Rethink of Marketing Mix. Available at
SSRN 3685642.
Hill, J., 2018. Marketing in the Dark: How Multinational Brands Communicate in the
“Media Dark Regions” of Developing Countries. Partridge Publishing
Singapore.
Lahtinen, V., Rundle-Thiele, S. and Dietrich, T., 2018, May. An Abstract: Do We
Need to Imply a Full Mix? 4P Versus 1P. In Academy of Marketing Science
Annual Conference (pp. 445-446). Springer, Cham.
Lowe, S., Kainzbauer, A. and Ngamcharoenmongkol, P., 2019. Conceptual blending
of meanings in business marketing relationships. Journal of Business &
Industrial Marketing.
Novela, S. and Hansopaheluwakan, S., 2018. Analysis of Green Marketing Mix
Effect on Customer Satisfaction using 7p Approach. Pertanika Journal of
Social Sciences & Humanities.
Rouban, A.S., 2022. Marketing Management and Its Role in Business Development
and Growth. Issue 1 Int'l JL Mgmt. & Human.. 5. p.2363.
Solimun, S. and Fernandes, A.A.R., 2018. The mediation effect of customer
satisfaction in the relationship between service quality, service orientation,
and marketing mix strategy to customer loyalty. Journal of Management
Development.
Truong, V.D., 2019. 19 Using Social Marketing to Promote Handwashing with Soap
for. Social Marketing in Action: Cases from Around the World, p.283.
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