Analysis of Marketing Strategies and Consumer Behavior: Ralph Lauren

This report provides an analysis of the marketing strategies employed by the Ralph Lauren corporation, specifically focusing on their Polo Ralph Lauren women's products. It begins by identifying and defining key marketing concepts, such as the sales concept, and explains how these are utilized to market the brand. The report then delves into the consumer buying decision process, outlining the steps women customers take when purchasing Polo products, from need recognition and information search to evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation. The report concludes that the sales concept is the most suitable for the organization, emphasizing the importance of understanding consumer needs and demands. The report references marketing concepts, consumer behavior and the decision-making process, providing a comprehensive overview of Ralph Lauren's marketing approach.

MARKETING
PRINCIPLES &
PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
(a) Identify and define the key marketing concepts used by the Ralph Lauren corporation
explain how they are used to market Polo Ralph Lauren women's products..............................3
(b) Explain how Polo Ralph Lauren women consumers make their buying decisions when
purchasing polo products............................................................................................................4
CONCLUSIONS..............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a very crucial division of the functional operations of any company. A well
versed marketing strategy can help in increasing the number of sales and revenue of the
organisation. It is consist of activities that are related to buying and selling of the products along
with many other activities such as advertising, promotions, etc. This report will discuss about
Ralph Lauren corporation which deals in various lifestyle products such as clothing, home décor,
accessories and fragrances (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). The company have various brand
names such as Polo Ralph Lauren, American Living, and many more. The respective
organisation is now offering dresses collection in silk georgette and various other products under
Ralph Lauren Polo Women's brand. This file will discuss the market concepts that are practised
by the respective company in order to increase the number of sales and the rise in profit of the
company. Also, this report will also discuss various factors that are involved in decision making
of the customer and how the customer of Ralph Lauren Polo Women range address their needs
and final decision about purchasing.
(a) Identify and define the key marketing concepts used by the Ralph Lauren corporation explain
how they are used to market Polo Ralph Lauren women's products.
A marketing concept can be defined as a philosophy which believes that the company
should analyse the needs and wants of the customer in a more advance way than comparing it to
the customers (The Marketing Concept, 2011). There are various marketing concepts such as
production concept, sales concept and marketing concept. These concepts are mentioned below:
 Production Concept- The production concept is a theory which believes that the
company should produce only those products which it could produce in a most efficient
manner in order to achieve low cost of production and increase the demand of the
products (Moriarty and et. al., 2014).
 Sales concept- According to this theory, the organisation should focus on both the
aspects i.e production of the products and convincing the customers to buy with the help
of advertising and personal selling techniques. Additionally, this theory also looks
forward to the requirement of the products in the market.
 Marketing concept- This theory undertakes many aspects which can help in maximising
the sales and profit. The marketing concepts focuses on the needs and demands of the

customers before production (Child, 2015). It assures to align all the functions of the
business on centring the demands of the consumers which could help in earning the profit
and satisfying the needs of the customers.
Though, all the methods are been practised by many organisation, but the method that
suits Ralph Lauren corporation the best is sales concept. The respective organisation should
adapt sales concept of marketing concept theory which would help them keeping the uniqueness
of the brand name and help in attracting more customers for their Ralph Lauren Polo Women's
dresses through various means such as advertisement, digital marketing, ramp shows
promotional activities and many more.
(b) Explain how Polo Ralph Lauren women consumers make their buying decisions when
purchasing polo products.
The customers of Ralph Lauren Polo Women's range undergoes many steps to come up
to the final decision of purchasing the products of the respective company. These are mentioned
below:
Need Recognition → Information Search→ Evaluation of alternatives → Purchase Decision
→ Post-purchase decision.
 Need Recognition- The first and the foremost step while deciding their purchases is to
understand the need of the product. This includes the particular mind set of the
requirement of the customer which helps them decide what type of product do they really
want which can be based on anything like fabric selection, colour, size, print,etc. (Jin
Gam, 2011) Therefore, the customer of Ralph Lauren Polo Women's range will first
identify the needs of the products that they have in their mind.
 Information Search- In this step, the customers will collect information of the products
that are available in the market through different platforms like online portals, newspaper,
advertisement and other methods. This is will help in educating the customer's about
different types of products available in the market (Brito and et. al., 2015). Hence, the
women customer of Ralph Lauren Polo Women's range can identify different products
that are available in the market and which suites the best according to their requirements.
 Evaluation of alternatives-In this step the evaluation of the alternatives which are
available in the market are analysed. The evaluation is done on the bases of price, design
and availability of the product which helps in mind making of the customer. The women

customer than evaluate the Polo Ralph Lauren's product with other products that are
available through other competitors in the market.
 Purchase Decision- This involves the decision making of the customer after all the
above steps. The final decision is than made by the women customer of Polo Ralph
Lauren in favour of the most suitable product that fulfils the requirements of the targeted
customer.
 Post-purchase decision- This is the last step of the decision making process of the
customer. The post purchase decision reflects the satisfaction of the women customer of
Polo Ralph Lauren after buying the products (Atik and Fırat, 2013). This helps in
decision making of the future purchases from Polo Ralph Lauren women clothing items
and also helps in enhancing the future sales growth of the respective organisation.
CONCLUSIONS
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that market concept theories are very
important for a company in order to assure maximum sales and revenue of the company. There
are many theory of marketing concepts such as production concept, sales concept and marketing
concept. However, the most suitable theory for the respective organisation is sales theory. It
helps in promoting the products of the company along with maintaining the owner's designing
uniqueness. Additionally, there are various elements which helps in decision making of the
women customer of the company women range products. These include Need Recognition,
Information Search, Evaluation of alternatives, Purchase Decision and Post-purchase decision.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Atik, D. and Fırat, A.F., 2013. Fashion creation and diffusion: The institution of
marketing.Journal of Marketing Management,29(7-8). pp.836-860.
Brito, P.Q.,and et. al., 2015. Customer segmentation in a large database of an online customized
fashion business.Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing,36, pp.93-
100.
Child, J., 2015.Organization: contemporary principles and practice. John Wiley & Sons.
Jin Gam, H., 2011. Are fashion-conscious consumers more likely to adopt eco-friendly
clothing?.Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International
Journal15(2). pp.178-193.
Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2012.Principles and practice of marketing(No. 7th).
McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Moriarty, S., and et. al., 2014.Advertising: Principles and practice. Pearson Australia.
Online
The Marketing Concept, 2011 [Online]. Available
through:<http://www.netmba.com/marketing/concept/>.