Balancing the marketing mix through creative and innovative strategies

The Kellogg Company was founded in 1898 by W.K. Kellogg and his brother, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Through experimentation with flaked corn, W.K. Kellogg created the recipe for Corn Flakes. In 1906, he opened the "Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company" and recruited his first 44 employees. Together with these employees he developed the initial batch of Kellogg's Corn Flakes bringing to life his vision for great-tasting, ‘better-for-you' breakfast foods.

Kellogg embraced every opportunity to make a difference in peoples' lives and was motivated by his passion to help people improve their health. Today, over a hundred years since it was first founded, the Kellogg Company still upholds his original values. The company is the world's leading producer of cereals and a market leader in health and nutrition. Kellogg's was one of the first companies to print nutrition labels on its packaging and, in 2007, was amongst the first companies to print Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) on its products to inform the public about the food they are eating. This has helped the company to engage with a market more concerned with healthy living.

A marketing strategy determines what a company is going to produce in terms of products or deliver in terms of services, how much it is going to charge for these products or services, how it will deliver these products or services to the customer, and how it is going to tell its customers about its products and services. This is known as the marketing mix and is often referred to as the 4Ps of marketing. The mix involves creating the right product, sold at the right price, in the right place, using the most suitable methods of promotion. Although the marketing mix will vary from business to business and market sector, its purpose is to assist a business to balance these four key factors to meet the needs of the customer

Kellogg's balances the 4Ps by

Offering a wide range of popular products and regularly introducing exciting new products to the market - Product
Pricing its products to ensure that customers receive the best possible product for their money - Price

Help ensuring its products are available wherever shoppers are, from supermarkets, to the internet or on-the-go, and by understanding

shopper behaviors - Place

Delivering engaging and exciting marketing communications - Promotion

Getting the right product or service to the customer, at the right price, in the right place and at the right time is fundamental to business success. Understanding and balancing the marketing mix enables an organization to uniquely position its brand to drive sales of its products and services. To remain as a market leader a business needs to continually look at new ways of engaging and exciting customers in its products and services.

Question 1: Today's successful companies have one thing in common: they are strongly customer focused and heavily committed to marketing.

a-What does marketing means?

b-Discuss in details the five marketing management orientations and explain which one you believe is mostly used by today's organizations?

Word count: 300 words

Question 2: The first four steps in the marketing process involve building customer relationships. The final step involves capturing value in return.

a-Describe what is meant by customer relationship management?

b-What are the different relationship levels companies can build with customers?

C-In respect to customer relationship management concept and referring to the case above, explain what did Kellogg focus on in order to retain and gain its customers loyalty?

Word count: 400 words

Question 3: The marketing mix is the set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target mark.

a-Explain how Kellogg managed to balance its marketing mix strategy. How did it manage each of the marketing mix components? The students should begin by explaining the marketing mix component while referring to BE200 material and then apply it to the case.

b-Discuss how Kellogg succeeded in differentiating and positioning its products for maximum competitive advantage in the marketplace?

c-Identify any one of Kellogg's competitor.

-Discuss the differences in marketing strategies between the two?

Word count: 500 words