Principles and Practices: Marketing Mix Analysis of Oliver Bonas

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Oliver Bonas' marketing strategies, focusing on the marketing mix elements (product, price, place, and promotion) and their strategic decisions. It explores how Oliver Bonas utilizes value-based pricing, online and offline store presence, and digital promotion through social media channels. The report also delves into the application of STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) analysis, examining demographic, behavioral, and psychographic segmentation to effectively target customers aged 18 to 50. Furthermore, it evaluates the effectiveness of Oliver Bonas' marketing efforts, highlighting their focus on eco-friendly products, recycling initiatives, and accessible brand presence through various online and offline channels.

Principles and
Practices of Marketing
PPM
Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1

Marketing Mix........................................................................................................................1
Reflects strategic decisions and relevant taught theories in its marketing efforts..................2
Does/ can evaluate the effectiveness of its marketing efforts................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
References:.......................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is defined as the sum total of all those activities which are undertaken by the
marketers in order to reach to the customers and result in the increase in sales of products and
services of the business organisation. The marketing manager of business organisation is
required to develop effective marketing strategies in order to attract the customers towards the
organisation. The marketing function is crucial in each and every business organisation as it
directly leads to the generation of higher revenue. The effective marketing strategies are being
developed by the marketing manager on the basis of marketing mix of organisation (Ma and
Wang, 2021). The chosen organisation for this report is Oliver Bonas which is a UK based
company. It is a online department store for fashion, dresses, home ware, jewellery, gift
shopping and furniture. The respective business organisation is performing its business
operations in all over the UK through the use of online channels. This report include the
components or elements of marketing mix which the company is reinforcing for positioning,
reflection of strategic decisions along with the relevant theories. In addition to this, it also deals
with the detailed evaluation of the effectiveness if its marketing efforts of the marketing manager
of Oliver Bonas company.
TASK
Marketing Mix
Marketing mix is defined as the collection of actions and tactics which are being used by
the management of a business organisation for the purpose of promoting the bran or the products
offered by the business organisation. Marketing mix help the management in offering the right
product to the customers at the right time, right place and at right place. There are various
benefits of marketing mix which state that it is important for the business. It help the
management in analysing the products and services which they can offer to their customers along
with the successful product offerings. Along with this, through analysing all the factors f
marketing mix, the management of business organisation can effectively plan, develop and
execute the effective marketing strategies. The marketing manger can also work over the
reduction of costs along with making stronger strengths (Saberi and et. al., 2019). Traditionally,
the marketing mix include the four P's i.e. Product, price, place and promotion but later on, three
more new tools were added in the elements of marketing mix i.e. people, process and physical
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evidence. All the elements of marketing mix are being used for the purpose of bringing the
effectiveness in he marketing strategies of business organisation. Below mentioned are the
components or principle of marketing of Oliver Bonas in detail:
 Product: It is defined as the products and services which are actually being offered
by the business organisation to their customers. In simple words, it can be described
as the products and services which are consider as the source of satisfaction to the
needs and requirements of customers. At the time of development of product, the
management of business organisation have to focus on the life cycle along with the
plan which can prepare the organisation to face the challenges raised during the life
cycle of products. The products can be in any form i.e. tangible or intangible. It has
been found as crucial for the management of business organisation to do extensive
research and after that they have to work on the development of product which also
result in the increase in sales of products (Kumar, Shankar and Aljohani, 2020). The
life cycle of product include several stages which include growth phase, maturity
phase and the sales decline phase. It is important for the business firm to make
some changes in their products, so that they can constantly develop the interest
among the customers and result in the increase in the sales of products. Oliver
Bonas is a chain of online store which is dealing with several products. The
products categories of the respective business organisation include jewellery made
of several materials such as gold, silver, stud, hoop and many more, women wear,
furniture, home ware, gift and accessories and many more. The respective business
organisation s well known because of its brand design as they are offering eco
friendly collection filled with products along with the environmentally friendly gift.
They are also following the process of recycling under which they are using
recycled food storage box and home ware.
 Price: It refers to the cost of product or service along with the profit which is being
charged by the management of business organisation from their customers in the
exchange of products and services. It is also found as the vital component of
marketing mix of business organisation as it helps the management in generating
higher revenue. It is the value which involve several values such as designing the
product, distribution expenses, costing of promotion and distribution (Kim and
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Kim, 2018). Sometimes, the amount of sales of products of business organisation is
depend on the prices of the products on which the organisation is offering the
products. In the context of Oliver Bonas is adopting the value based pricing
strategy. It is defined as the pricing strategy under which the prices are fixed to
charge the products and services at the rate, which the customers are willing to pay
for the particular or specific products. The management of Oliver Bonas do not
calculate the production cost and do not apply a standard markup. The management
of Oliver Bonas is measure the standard value which the customers are willing to
pay for the product and then they decide the price accordingly.
 Place: Another essential component of marketing mix is place which refers to the
geographical location of the organisation where they are providing the products and
services to their customers. While developing the marketing strategy, the location
has its vital role. While making the selection of location, the management should
take care that the customers can easily reach to their store and buy the products and
services as per their convenience. The location of product distribution must be
nearby to the target customers. Oliver Bonas opened their first offline store in
London in 1993. The respective business organisation is providing their products
through both online as well as offline stores. The customers can purchase their
offerings from the offline stores as they have almost 80 stores in the entire United
Kingdom. Along with this, the customers of Oliver Bonas can also buy the products
from their online website. The management of respective business organisation is
performing all the best possible practices to reach to their target customers (Lim,
Jee and De Run, 2020.). They are providing the products from all there offline
stores available in the United Kingdom. In addition to this, they are also accepting
the order of the products from their customers through the social media platforms
such as Instagram. Through adopting such practices, the business organisation is
making the brand and the products higher accessible to the higher possible number
of customers. There are several online channels, through which the customers can
get the
 Promotion: Promotion refers to the most essential element of marketing mix
because it si a basic process of communicating with their customers. Through the
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application of this element, the management majorly focus on creating the
awareness about the products and services which are being offered by the business
organisation to their customers. It help the management in creating the brand image
of organisation in front of customers. In simple words, the promotion is defined as
the activity of developing the public relations among target customers, so that they
can sell the products and services to them. The traditional promotional tools include
advertisements, magazines and many more but the digitalization and advancement
of technology also bring the changes in the promotional activities of business
organisation. In the modern world, several of people are using social media
channels along with the other internet based application and website. Hence, the
advancement of technology bring several changes in the promotional activities of
organisation (Sulistyo, 2021). Hence, the management of Oliver Bonas shift to the
digital promotional activities through the use of several social media channels such
as Instagram, Facebook, twitter and many more. It has been found that the
marketing department of Oliver Bonas is focusing on both traditional as well as the
advance promotional activities which result in the higher revenue generation along
with the increase in overall increases in the sales of products provided by the
business organisation.
Reflects strategic decisions and relevant taught theories in its marketing efforts.
There are unique and different needs and wants of the consumer for that there is a
procedure of combining three marketing approaches in a model which will help the market in
segmenting, targeting, selecting the segments and aligning the position the products and services
accordingly. This procedure also aids in figuring out a profitable segmentation and in enhancing
the quality of their product effectively. In context to the Oliver bonas, the STP analysis has been
discussed below:
Segmentation - it is the duty of the characteristics to maintain and organise the entire customer
base and after that separate them in different audiences according to the data needed (ratnapuri,
and et. Al, 2021). Basically it includes 4 kinds of segmentation which are discussed below: -
 demographic – it is majorly based on the occupation, age, gender etc. of the person.
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 Geographic – this is based on the location, state, region , country and so on.
 Psycho graphic – this is based on some aspects like interests, hobbies, lifestyle etc.
 behavioural – this is based on when and how oftenly the users used the company's apps,
websites, outlets etc.
the chosen company Oliver bonas can segment its market on the basis of demographic,
behavioral and psychological aspects. In demographic the company can segment its market
according to the gender and age of the consumer. In behavioral, as it focus on the behavior of
consumer in which people demand for the different varieties of products. And lastly, the
psychological bases in which the company observes that the prices of product remain reasonable
according to the income of the consumers so that it can give them a sense of level.
Targeting – this is one of the most valuable segmentation in which there is various approaches
which assist the targeting. There are several factors which can assist the company in identifying
the perfect sections, which are discussed below: -
 profitability – it might get tough to evaluate the profitability of the company, but if
company's customer base is strong and for lifetime then it is an effective way to predict
the profitability.
 Size – the bigger the segment, the more facilities will be there which will result in
potential growth of an organization.
 Ability to reach - it is also an crucial data point. Basically the customer's acquiring
outgo hedged against the profitability which is an easy as well as effective way to reach
the conclusions.
Oliver bonas has finalized targeting the customers between the age of 18 to 50 for both
the genders males as well as females. This segment is targeted by them because the product is
majorly designed from teenagers to adults.
Positioning - the major goal of positioning is to link and relate with the customers on a very
personal level. When the positioning is been taken into the consideration, there are some
essential points which are needed to be considered too. The factors are discussed below: -
 Symbolic positioning – this is also known as the lifestyle positioning. The company can
identify its lifestyle position by centering the attention towards on what kind of image is
being displayed.
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 Functional positioning – it includes various problems and issues regarding the product
of the company. And sort them out to make the lives much more easier.
 Experimental positioning – the emotion as well as the experience rendered by the
organization to its customers.
In context to the Oliver bonas, as per the global strategy the positioning strategy is also in
line, the quality of each products allows the company to attain the competitive benefits. Apart
from the price the satisfaction of the customer is also important (Ma, Pu, and Wang, 2021). So
the company supplies best quality product to the customers.
Does/ can evaluate the effectiveness of its marketing efforts.
The effectiveness of market is basically evaluated by the strategies made by the
organisation, that how much helpful those strategies are in increasing the revenue and decreasing
the value of customer's acquisition. It is very crucial for the company to evaluate the
effectiveness of their marketing efforts which will help them to improve the strategies and other
marketing operations. In relation to Oliver bonas, they uses various tools for measuring the
marketing efforts, which are discussed below:-
 KPI – this term means Key performance indicator which is a quantitative measure of the
performance time to time for the specific objectives. This is an essential tool for making
that sure that the team is making efforts to achieve the the targets of the company (Sehar,
Ashraf, and Azam, 2019). In context to the Oliver bonas, they uses KPI to keep their
workforce aligned with each other which will lead the team into a specific direction.
 Social media analytic – with the help of this tool organizations can easily generate high
revenues and measure the efforts of the company. It becomes easy for the companies
track the queries and the engagement of the company can also be tracked by the posts,
shares, likes, followers etc. in context to Oliver bonas, they uses social media to promote
their products online and track the performance of the company through the reviews of
customers . The company launches their new products online to get the reviews of
customers that how much they are liking it.
 Bench-marking - this tool is used to measure the progress of the employees as well as
the business against their rivals.. this basically refers to setting up a goal which will result
in increased productivity. In relation to the Oliver Bonas, they uses this tool to achieve
the competitive benefit in the market for long period of time. With the help of this tool
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company can also understand the needs of customers (Baumgartner, and Weijters, 2019).
Through benchmark company can figure out new opportunities to improve the sales of
the company.
RECOMMENDATION
from the above discussion, it is recommended that Oliver Bonas should use KPI to
evaluate the effectiveness of the efforts done by the company (Ramani and Srinivasan, 2019).
With the help of this technique Oliver Bonas can execute their operations effectively which will
help them to measure the revenue of the organization. So this tool is an effective tool
recommended to the respective company.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that the marketing is an important function
in each and every business organisation because it leads to the creation of awareness about the
product and the organisation among the customers. It is essential for the organisation to present
the products in an effective and efficient manner in front of customers as it result in the higher
attraction of people and increase in sales of products along with the generation of higher revenue.
In order to present the product effectively, in front of customers, the management of business
organisation have to focus on their target customers. For the same purpose, the management can
perform STP analysis. STP analysis is a tool which is being used by the business organisations
for the purpose of classifying the entire market into several groups and then making the selection
of their target customers who are really interested in their products and organisation. After the
development of several marketing strategies, the management have to evaluate the effectiveness
of their strategies which state whether the strategies are helping the management of business
organisation in attaining the organisational goals an objectives in an effective and efficient
manner. The evaluation of marketing strategies can be done through KPI. Social media analytics
and benchmarking as well.
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References:
Books and Journals
Baumgartner, and Weijters, 2019. Measurement in marketing. Foundations and Trends in
Marketing, 12(4), pp.278-400
Kim, M.S. and Kim, J., 2018. Linking marketing mix elements to passion-driven behavior
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Kumar, A., Shankar, R. and Aljohani, N.R., 2020. A big data driven framework for demand-
driven forecasting with effects of marketing-mix variables. Industrial marketing
management, 90, pp.493-507.
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institutions with graduate degree programs: empirical insights from the higher education
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Management and Cultural Industry (ICEMCI 2021) (pp. 1282-1287). Atlantis Press.
Ndungu, C.W., 2020. Effects of marketing mix strategies on the growth of customers for
microfinance banks in Nairobi (Doctoral dissertation, Strathmore University).
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Saberi and et. al., 2019. Designing of Social Marketing Mix Model to Development of Sport for
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