Our third lecture discussed that price is more than
what marketers charge for a product or service.
Price is the sum of all the values that consumers
exchange for the benefits of having it.

And based on dynamic market uncontrollable variables
such as competition, economy, and availability
of resources, changes may have to be made in form,
place, time, and possession utilities. This results in a range
of value the consumer will pay: Too high > not worth it;
too low > what's wrong with it?

As a result, pricing is probably the most complex and risky parts of developing a marketing strategy.

An organization's pricing policies are tied to its goals and flexibility, from skimming (maximizing profits) to introductory/penetration policies required to enter and hopefully gain a share of the market. The Price Setting handout reveals the depth and scope of pricing decision.

We then reviewed the 3 major pricing objectives of profit, sales and status quo orientation. Status quo non-price pricing involves changing any of the other 3 Ps, but NOT the actual price.

We then looked at the components of price setting, starting with BEP (break even point > where selling price = all costs), and ROI (return on investment).

Margins (total profit within a given commercialization schedule) is the marketer's playground. while Mark-up is the percentage of the selling price to each channel member.

After lunch, we discovered that Promotion is merely telling the TM that what they want (product) is now available where they want it (place exposure), at a price that's within their set range of values (pricing and possession utility).

And we learned another acronym for TM when discussing media:
TA (target audience = total of persons or households reached).

Personal selling allows marketers to ask questions and give feedback that meets the specific needs of the customer.

Mass selling is a one-way flow of communication generally in electronic (radio/TV/Internet) or print (magazines/newspapers, outdoor/transit, direct mail) media.

And Sales Promotion includes all promotional activities that support personal and mass selling (brochures and PowerPoint sales presentations to coupons, displays, and sampling).

The 3 dimensions fuse into an overall promotional mix based on what's needed in the pre- purchase, and post-purchase phase of introduction. You have a handout of the strengths and weaknesses of major promotional elements.

Finally, we now appreciate that marketers use push strategies to promote (create transactions) products through a channel (between channel members and ultimately, between retailer and consumer).

Pull strategies help create or reinforce channels by promoting to the end user, who then asks for the product where they expect/want to acquire it. That channel member in turn goes to a supplier, makes a request, and so on until ultimately, a channel member makes contact with the marketer and completes a commercialization schedule.

While the diagram below shows a promotional pull campaign from marketer to consumer, pull campaigns can apply to specific channel members to fill or complete the flow.

We concluded with an efficacious display of everything marketing is (the delivery of a standard of living = all activities involved, except making the product).

And we now better understand that while everyone is involved in marketing activities of some sort, not everyone is marketing-oriented.

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