Elements of the marketing mix and organizational strategy development

Marketing Mix

Target Corporation was founded in 1902 and is now the sixth-largest retailer in the United States founded in 1902 in Minnesota. Target Corporation currently operates over 1,450 stores in 47 states. The key to Target's success is how it uses the marketing mix. The marketing mix is a controllable variable that the company puts together to satisfy customer needs. The marketing mix is also referred to as the four P's or four elements product, place, price, and promotion. This paper will provide a brief description of these four elements and how each one of the elements affects the development of their organization. Additionally this paper will describe the implementation of each element.

All four P's of the marketing mix are necessary and final decisions about them should be made at the same time to ensure maximum congruence between the variables. Product for Target refers to the goods that they stock. Target characterizes its product offering as focused on value (Target.com, 2011). This refers to goods that are generally low-priced but are of good quality. The scope of the product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, branding, and packaging. Target aims to have a mix of name brands and relatively unknown but low priced brands in its stores, attempting to be seen as higher quality than main competitor Wal-Mart but to still offer low prices on select goods. The ability of Target to offer low prices relates in large part to the purchasing function, where Target selects products that it can get at prices it likes.

Place is the concern for getting the product or service to the customer where and when it is needed using channels of distribution or flow of products and services from the producer to the final consumer. For Target, place relates primarily to their choice of locations -- in particular sites that are convenient for customers and highly visible to encourage higher traffic volumes at its stores. Target also seeks to locate in areas that are near its core demographic audience.

Promotion is the concern of telling and selling the customer (Kotler, 2002, p. 37). Promotion includes three methods of communication personal selling, mass selling, and sales promotion. Personal selling is a form of direct communication between sellers and customers such as customer service. Mass selling is communicating with a large number of customers at the same time such as advertising. Sales promotion is other nontraditional promotional activities such as coupons, samples, and catalogs. Price is the concern for pricing product in consideration of not only the competition but also the customer's reaction to the price as they may or may not buy the product or service depending on the price. Target is focused on providing goods at a low price, and aggressively seeks to deliver prices that are in line with the competition.