Core Marketing Strategy, Mix (4Ps), and Consumer Behavior Fundamentals

Posted on Oct 26, 2025 in Marketing

Marketing Foundations: Definitions & Mix (4Ps)

  • Marketing: Process of creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value.
  • Needs vs. Wants: Needs are basic requirements; Wants are specific desires shaped by culture and marketing.
  • Exchange: Buyer/seller trade that satisfies both parties.
  • Marketing Plan: Document outlining situational analysis, mission/objectives, strategy, tactics, and evaluation.
  • CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Building and maintaining profitable customer relationships through loyalty programs, service, and personalization.
  • Marketing Data Analysis: Using data to measure performance, segment customers, and forecast trends.
  • The 4Ps (Marketing Mix):
    • Product: Goods, services, or ideas that satisfy needs.
    • Price: Value exchanged; reflects willingness to pay and positioning.
    • Place: Distribution and supply chain delivering the product to the consumer.
    • Promotion: Communication (advertising, PR, sales promotions, digital marketing).
  • Key Market Types:
    • B2B: Business selling to business.
    • B2C: Business selling to individual consumers.
    • B2G: Business selling to government.
    • C2C: Consumers selling to each other (e.g., eBay).
    • D2C: Direct-to-Consumer (e.g., Warby Parker).

Marketing Strategy and Planning Frameworks

  • Marketing Strategy: A firm’s plan to achieve competitive advantage through value creation.
  • Competitive Advantage: Factors that enable a firm to outperform rivals:
    • Customer Excellence: Strong customer service and loyalty.
    • Operational Excellence: Efficient operations, supply chain, and cost advantage.
    • Product Excellence: High quality, strong branding, and innovation.
    • Locational Excellence: Prime geographic or digital presence.
  • Marketing Plan: Written roadmap (analysis → goals → strategy → tactics → control).
  • SWOT Analysis: Internal S/W (Strengths/Weaknesses) and External O/T (Opportunities/Threats).
  • Segmentation: Dividing the market into distinct groups (demographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioral).
  • Targeting: Selecting specific segments to serve.
  • Positioning: Crafting a unique value proposition in the consumer’s mind.
  • Marketing Mix Implementation: Applying the 4Ps to deliver value to target segments.
  • Portfolio Analysis (BCG Matrix): Assessing products based on market growth and share:
    • Stars: High growth/high share → requires investment.
    • Cash Cows: Low growth/high share → generates cash flow.
    • Dogs: Low growth/low share → typically divested.
    • Question Marks: High growth/low share → uncertain potential.
  • Performance Metrics: Key indicators like ROI, sales growth, market share, profitability, and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
  • Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy: Plan for reaching, selling, and delivering to chosen segments.
  • Ansoff Matrix: Growth strategies including market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification.
  • Porter’s Five Forces: Industry competition shaped by (1) threat of new entrants, (2) supplier power, (3) buyer power, (4) threat of substitutes, and (5) competitive rivalry.

Ethics, CSR, and Conscious Marketing

  • Conscious Marketing: Marketing that considers ethics and stakeholder impact while seeking profit.
  • CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility): Voluntary business actions extending beyond profit obligations.
  • Triple Bottom Line: Evaluating success based on three dimensions: Economic (profit/jobs), Environmental (sustainability), and Societal (community impact).
  • Benefits of CSR: Improved reputation, brand loyalty, employee pride, risk management, and long-term value creation.
  • Business Ethics: Standards of conduct applied across all business decisions.
  • Marketing Ethics: Standards applied specifically to marketing activities: targeting, pricing, advertising, and privacy.
  • Ethics Framework (Decision Process):
    1. Identify the issue.
    2. Gather information.
    3. Evaluate stakeholders.
    4. Consider alternatives.
    5. Choose and act.
    6. Reflect on the outcome.
  • Leadership & Culture: The “Tone at the top” shapes ethical decision-making; organizational culture reinforces standards.

Analyzing the Marketing Environment (PESTEL)

  • Microenvironment: Close actors affecting the company:
    • Company Capabilities: Core strengths and resources.
    • Competitors: Other firms; monitoring their reactions is crucial.
    • Corporate Partners: Alliances, supply chain members, and collaborators.
    • Physical Environment: Resources, climate, and sustainability concerns.
  • Macroenvironment (PESTEL):
    • Culture: Shared values, regional, and national culture.
    • Demographics: Age cohorts (e.g., Gen Z = digital natives; Boomers = wealth).
    • Social Trends: Health consciousness, sustainability, diversity, and changes in food distribution.
    • Technology: AI, IoT, robotics, mobile applications, and big data.
    • Economic: Income distribution, recessions, and inflation rates.
    • Political/Legal: Regulations, privacy laws, FTC oversight, and greenwashing laws.
  • Current Legal Impacts and Concerns:
    • Generative AI in advertisements.
    • Advertising directed toward children.
    • Recurring subscription models and cancellation difficulty.
    • Hidden fees and dark patterns in user interfaces.
    • Influencer and endorsement disclosure requirements.
    • Accuracy of sustainability claims.
  • Environmental Scanning: The ongoing process of monitoring the external environment for threats and opportunities.
  • Value Chain: The sequence of activities: inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing/sales, and service.

Consumer Behavior and Decision Making (CDM)

  • CDM (Consumer Decision-Making Process):
    1. Need Recognition: Realizing a gap between current and desired states (Functional vs. Psychological needs).
    2. Information Search: Gathering options:
      • Internal: Memory, prior experience.
      • External: Web searches, sales promotions, stores.
      • Influenced by: Benefit vs. cost, need for control, and perceived risk.
      • Risk Types: Performance, Financial, Social, Safety, and Psychological.
    3. Alternatives Evaluation: Assessing potential choices:
      • Universal Set: All possible options.
      • Retrieval Set: Options remembered by the consumer.
      • Evoked Set: Options actively considered for purchase.
    4. Evaluation Criteria:
      • Evaluative Criteria: All attributes considered.
      • Determinant Criteria: Decisive attributes that differentiate choices.
      • Compensatory Decision Rule: Trade-offs between attributes are allowed.
      • Non-compensatory Decision Rule: Must-have, non-negotiable attributes (e.g., must be eco-friendly).
    5. Choice and Purchase: Includes impulse buys, nudge buys, and the impact of opt-in vs. opt-out defaults.
    6. Post-purchase Behavior: Measured by conversion rates, satisfaction, loyalty, and Word-of-Mouth (WOM).
  • Factors Influencing Decisions: Perceptions, memory, attitudes, and lifestyle.
  • Social & Situational Factors: Context and sensory input:
    • Touch (e.g., clothing texture).
    • Sight (e.g., packaging design).
    • Smell (e.g., bakery aroma).
    • Sound (e.g., music tempo in a store).
    • Taste (e.g., food and beverage sampling).
  • Journey Mapping: A diagram illustrating the consumer’s path from awareness to purchase and loyalty.
  • NPS (Net Promoter Score): Measures the likelihood of a customer recommending the brand.
  • AIDA Model: A communication framework: Attention → Interest → Desire → Action.
  • Hierarchy of Effects: Awareness → Knowledge → Liking → Preference → Conviction → Purchase.
  • Product Life Cycle: Stages of a product: Introduction → Growth → Maturity → Decline.