Contemporary Issues: Marketing Mix in Backup North West

This report provides a detailed analysis of the marketing mix strategies employed by Backup North West, a UK-based charitable organization focused on supporting young people. It explores the seven Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence) in the context of the organization's mission and activities. The report also discusses the importance of the marketing mix in achieving differentiation, adapting to dynamic environments, and enhancing the product portfolio. Furthermore, it examines the impact of key marketing theories, such as the STP model (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) and the Consumer Decision-Making Process, on the success of Backup North West's marketing efforts, highlighting how these theories inform the organization's approach to reaching and serving its target audience.

Contemporary issues in
marketing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Marketing mix..............................................................................................................................3
Nature of marketing mix in context to organisation....................................................................4
Importance of marketing mix.......................................................................................................5
Impact of marketing mix and its theories on success of marketing activity................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a process that is used by the organisations for promoting the goods as well
as services of the business along with promoting its brand image within the market. This process
includes different activities and these are advertising, dispersing and commercialising the
products and the services to the target market or any business corporation. The concept of
marketing is a significant within a business as it undertakes any course of action for gaining
attention of the market share towards the brand at the time of providing products and services of
superior quality by using multiple techniques and tools (Desbordes, Aymar and Hautbois, 2019).
This report is based on the case study of Backup North West which is UK-based charitable
organisation. In this report, the nature and importance of marketing mix is going to be discussed
within the process of marketing. Furthermore, the impact of marketing mix along with its
theories on the success of marketing activity will also be explained in this report.
MAIN BODY
Backup North West is an organisation within the United kingdom and founded in the year
1992. The motive of the organisation is to germinate as well as transform the lives of young
generation by offering them accommodation, support, direction along with advice for fulfilling
multiple needs and wants. The respective organisation is running its business in such a way that
no any young person should experience homelessness. The discussion of marketing mix of
Backup North west as well as other key theories of the marketing which can influence the
marketing activities is given below.
Marketing mix
Marketing mix is the combination of controllable variables that can be used by the
companies in order to impact the response of the customers within the market place (Foroudi and
Palazzo, 2019). The tool of marketing mix facilitates Backup North West in shaping as well as
combining various components of the marketing in order to achieve the business goals and
objectives in an effective as well as efficient manner. The main elements of marketing mix are
product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence and therefore they are
known as 7Ps of marketing mix.

Nature of marketing mix in context to organisation
The nature of marketing mix consists of its seven main elements and these are product,
price, place, promotion, process, people and physical evidence. The description of these seven
main components of marketing mix in context to the Backup North West is given as under:
 Product: This is the essential element of marketing mix tool that directly satisfy the
demands and requirements of the market share of a company. This can be tangible or
intangible in nature (Gbadamosi, 2019). The Backup North West is needed to make a
product or a service for its potential customers, that are, young people in order to satisfy
their needs and wants. The services that are offered by the respective organisation to the
young people includes assistance to homeless people, accommodation to live, offering
suggestions as well as providing guidance on how young people can develop their career
and grab opportunities along with enhancing their livelihood. They also provide guidance
regarding declining the alcohol and drugs exploitation.
 Price: This element depicts the amount that a customer pays while purchasing products
and services from the organisation in order to consume them. This is a very critical
component of the marketing mix tool as it shows the profit margin as well as
sustainability of a firm. In relation to the Backup North West, it is a charitable
organisation that is serving voluntarily to the homeless as well as young people so that it
can help them in improving their living standards. The respective organisation is
increasing its funds through multiple sources like the charities, donations and from many
other people or business organisations. The organisation cost very reasonable and
therefore, anyone can donate its funds according to their choice by using any of the
payment mode like online and offline.
 Place: The element of place impacts the marketing plan as well as strategy and is quite
fundamental for the business in order to plan the distribution or place to offer products
and services of the company (Hyde and Mitchell, 2021). It leads to easily access the
products as well as services of the company through their market share. In context to
Backup North West, the young people can easily access and avail the services of
respective organisation with the help of calls, official websites, emails, helping centres
and many others.

 Promotion: This component facilitates an organisation in publicising its goods as well as
services along with their features and benefits to its potential customers. It is considered
as the most expensive element of the marketing mix as it facilitates in capturing the
attention of market share and along with it, also influencing them in order to grab the
offers (Lehman, Fillis and Wickham, 2021). Backup North West is a charitable
organisation and is using various promotional tools such as advertising through online an
offline mode like social media and print media, digital marketing, public relations,
personnel selling and many more for awaring its customer-base in respect to the services
of organisation.
 People: This refers to employees, supporters and workers of an organisation who deliver
the products and services of the business to their end users. It is very important for a
business in order to provide training as well as development sessions to its employees for
improving their skills and abilities so that they can work effectively within the
organisation. In context to Backup North West, the people and the supporters may be
customer service representative, event programmers, a support desk, etc. The respective
organisation includes volunteers and many other charitable support companies for
exploring services within the market place.
 Process: This is very significant for a company to follow appropriate and effective
processes within the business in order to operate different business activities. Backup
North West uses customer oriented process for offering the services of assistance and
accommodation (Mirror, 2019). The organisation focuses on satisfying its young
customers and also facilitates in enhancing customer loyalty.
 Physical evidence: In case of Backup North West, the physical evidence may involve the
online receipts, official websites, follow up e-mail newsletters, posters, brochures, etc.
Importance of marketing mix
The tool of marketing mix is very important within a business and there are some of the
reasons of its significance. The importance of marketing mix within the marketing process is
described as follows:
 Helps in differentiation: There are different methods through which an individual can
create differentiation from its key competitors. There is a possibility that a rivalry might
have improper promotional tools and by getting understanding of these tools, one can

develop better promotions of its products or services within the market. It helps the
company in gaining competitive advantages over competitors within the marketplace.
 Supports in being dynamic: At time of poor working environment or recession, an
organisation should get ready to react on it (Niininen, 2021). During that time, businesses
must have feature of dynamic and also requires to get to know about its products, price,
place, promotion and other components as well.
 Increases product portfolio: If a business wants to enhance its product line, then it has
to make some changes in its products or service and ultimately, minor changes within the
marketing mix also takes place itself. Changes in features of product, pricing and
promotions can result in altering marketing mix tool as well as specific attributes within it
and end up the process with an enhanced product portfolio.
Impact of marketing mix and its theories on success of marketing activity
There are various theories of marketing mix that are greatly impacting the success of the
activities that are concerned with the process of marketing in terms of the customer awareness as
well as their satisfaction. Some of the theories of marketing mix are given as under:
STP Model is a theory of marketing mix and is very useful in designing effective
marketing plans. It supports the marketers of the company in prioritising the purposes as well as
creating and delivering relevant and personalised content for capturing customers towards the
brand. By using such theory, the organisation segment its markets and target its audiences along
with position products and services to each segment. Backup North West use this marketing mix
theory to target its market in an effective manner. The description of three stages of this model is
given as follows:
 Segmentation: This is initial stage of STP model and at this stage, an organisation
segment its market on different basis like age group, gender, beliefs, taste, behaviours
and many more (Nwankwo and Richards, 2020). Backup North West can segment its
market on the basis of age group, occupation, educational level and religion.
 Targeting: It is second stage and at this stage, the company target its market in such a
way that it should be the best as well as the most attractive target market and can be
accessible, profitable and affordable. Backup North West can target its market on the
basis of age group of 16 to 25 years and can make every possible efforts in order to reach

out to them. It mainly concentrates on young customers and vulnerable as well as
homeless people.
 Positioning: This is last stage of STP model and includes positioning of brand within the
target market. Backup North West uses its various promotional tools in order to publicise
its services to its potential customers along with describing the features and benefits of
the services. It uses online marketing, digital marketing, emails, etc. in order to advertise
and promote its services within the market place.
Consumer Decision-Making Process:
The process of consumer decision-making is said to be the process that helps in creating
awareness among the customers of an organisation along with identifying their perceptions and
requirements (Sharma, Kaur and Syan, 2021). It accumulates the information for getting the best
possible solution in order to satisfy the different needs and wants of the consumers. Consumer
decision-making process evaluate each alternatives that are available to them and make buying
decisions and after that analyse their buying decisions
(6 important marketing theories—and how to apply them in social media campaigns, 2021)
In context to Backup North West, the marketing department of the organisation use this theory in
order to determine and understand the aims as well as objectives behind the buying decisions of
the consumer. The description of different stages of Consumer decision-making process is given
as follows:
 Need recognition (Awareness): This stage starts with creating awareness among
customers in relation to the products and services of company. In context to Backup
North West, young people identify needs of accommodation whether it is temporary,
emergency or short-medium housing. It also helps in recognising the need of improving
mental health or desiring some employment related support.
 Search for information: At this stage, market share wants to identify available
alternatives for making an evaluation in terms of benefits, prices and other factors (Al
Abdulrazak, 2019). In case of Backup North West, homeless people will recognise
alternatives that are very less in prices as well as having full advantages that fits the
budgets.
 Evaluating alternatives ( Consideration): Customers evaluate and compares various
alternatives in order to select the most attractive and best option. In relation to Backup

North West, young as well as homeless people will evaluate alternatives of the services
that are provided to them by the organisation and then compare it with those
organisations who are same services with same benefits.
 Purchasing decision (Conversion): This stage helps in concerting the buying decisions
into actions. Backup North West offers the best services that gives a large amount of
benefits as well as support, it will help in capturing more customers and converting their
buying decisions into actions.
 Post-purchase evaluation (Re-purchase): This is the last stage and buying decision is
evaluated at this stage that whether it gives high level of satisfaction to its customers or
not. It also evaluated whether it is worth to recommend the products and services to other
people. In context to Backup North West, Young, homeless as well as jobless people will
give their feedbacks and reviews regarding services of organisation. This can be
favourable as well as unfavourable and therefore, Backup North West must make efforts
to satisfy its market share through fulfilling their needs and wants.
CONCLUSION
From above explanation of the report, it has been concluded that the process of marketing
helps an organisation in fostering its brand as well as its products and services. This is a very
significant function within a business that helps it in enhancing the volume of its sales along with
the profitability within the company. In this report, the concept of market mix has been explained
and together-with, key elements of this respective tool have also been described in context to the
organisation. Moreover, different theories and models of marketing mix have also been
explained in this report that helps an organisation in making effective marketing decisions.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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in Marketing: Principles and Practice, 185.
Hyde, F. and Mitchell, S. L. eds., 2021. Charity Marketing: Contemporary Issues, Research and
Practice. Routledge.
Lehman, K., Fillis, I. and Wickham, M. eds., 2021. Exploring Cultural Value: Contemporary
Issues for Theory and Practice. Emerald Group Publishing.
Mirror, B., 2019. Advances in the Technology of Managing People: Contemporary Issues in
Business. marketing, 135, p.136.
Niininen, O. ed., 2021. Contemporary Issues in Digital Marketing. Routledge.
Nwankwo, S. and Richards, D., 2020. Contemporary issues in entrepreneurship
marketing. Entrepreneurship Marketing: Principles and Practice of SME Marketing,
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Sharma, R. R., Kaur, T. and Syan, A. S., 2021. Contemporary Issues in Sustainability Marketing.
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Al Abdulrazak, R. M., 2019. NATION BRANDING AND PLACE