Marketing Management
Domain 11 - Marketing Management - tests the marketing mix, product decisions, pricing strategies, channels of distribution and promotion tools.
Marketing and the mix
Marketing is identifying and satisfying customer needs profitably. Marketing mix: product, price, place, promotion. Marketing differs from selling - selling begins after the product exists and pushes it; marketing begins before production and aims to satisfy the customer.
Product
Product mix and product line; branding (brand name plus brand mark; generic vs branded); labelling (information, grade, statutory warnings); packaging (protection, identification, convenience, promotion).
Price
Factors: cost, demand, competition, objectives, government regulation. Strategies: penetration pricing (low introductory price to capture market share) and skimming (high initial price to recover costs before rivals enter).
Place
Direct (zero-level) and indirect (one-, two-, three-level) channels. Merchants such as wholesalers and retailers take title to goods; agents such as brokers and commission agents do not.
Promotion
Advertising (paid, impersonal), sales promotion (short-term incentives), personal selling (face-to-face), publicity (unpaid, uncontrolled).
Worked example
A new entrant prices a 200 ml shampoo at ₹99 against an established ₹150, expecting volume to build quickly and unit cost to fall from ₹90 to ₹70 once output doubles. Reasoning: this is penetration pricing - viable only if demand is price-elastic and economies of scale will restore margin later. If the rival matches the price and costs do not fall, the firm is left with a loss. Skimming would suit an innovative product with no close rival.
Traps
Marketing is not selling; packaging is not labelling; wholesalers are merchant intermediaries while brokers are agents.