Explain the Role of Pricing within the Marketing Mix Essay

Explain the Role of Pricing within the Marketing Mix - Essay Example In order to use the best pricing strategy for the products, a good estimate of the quantity of money the consumers are willing to spend on the products is required by the company. It is important to note that most companies do not use adequate pricing strategies for the products they generate. Majority of the pricing decisions are cost oriented instead of being value-based as perceived by the consumer (Breidert 2006, p10). Product differentiation entails the modification of the product to make it appear more attractive to a particular group of consumers, thus making it different from the competitor’s products. The main purpose of differentiation is to divide the consumers into segments â€Å"and optimizing the products for the specific needs of the segments. Differentiation requires a sophisticated pricing strategy based on the perceived values of the products† (Breidert 2006, p10). In most cases, product pricing is placed within the penetration strategy. Penetration st rategy determines the factors affecting pricing as noted by Cohen (1983). For instance, a company may want to look for short-term objectives using a defined strategy for a particular type of product. The common objectives mostly used are current product profit maximization or market share increase. Both objectives depend on the knowledge of how the market will respond to diverse pricing patterns. Price is the crucial element for such short-term objectives. This is because it is the mainly flexible component in marketing mix. Price can be adjusted and changed rapidly and short-term adjustments indicates changes in market shares and profits (Breidert 2006, p10). The price of a particular product for most of the companies is based on the consumer’s perceived value, that is, the company uses value-based pricing. The price of the product is considered with other marketing elements before setting the marketing program (Colin 1989). In order to develop a value-based pricing strategy , the company is required to estimate the present perceived value of its product(s). In such a case, the company attempts to measure the products demand and the demand is dependent on the historical sales data and the competitor’s prices. External factors such as holiday and weekends, and advertising also affect the demand for the products. Lastly, the introduction of a new product into the market by a company requires the adoption of different strategies. The launch of a single product requires a pricing strategy such as penetration or skimming strategy. Adoption of a skimming strategy entails charging the consumer for a short period of time a relatively high price for the launched product. Penetration strategy entails setting a lower price for the product to gain a large market share (Breidert 2006, p11). 2. Visit the Easyjet London (Luton) to Madrid for various periods. Return flights assumed with a duration of one week a. Leaving tomorrow 21-28 Jan 21 January, 2012 - Outb ound -â‚ ¬ 73.99 21 January, 2012 - Return - â‚ ¬ 46.99 Total = â‚ ¬ 120.98 b. Leaving in 1 weeks time 28 January, 2012 - Outbound - â‚ ¬ 73.99 4 February, 2012 - Return - â‚ ¬ 46.99 Total = â‚ ¬ 120.98 c. Leaving in 1 months time 21 February, 2012 -Outbound -â‚ ¬ 25.99 28 February, 2012 Return - â‚ ¬ 10.99 Total = 36.98 d. Leaving in 3 months time. April 21, 2012 Outbound - â‚ ¬ 35.99 April 28, 2012 Return – â‚ ¬ 89.99 Total = 125.98 Easyjet generally offers competitive prices to customers on the same routes and

Social Networking Sites and its Effect on Friending Research Paper

Social Networking Sites and its Effect on Friending - Research Paper Example It is also a source of emotional support especially during the events of emotional trials. Friends are also the people needed in times of problems aside from parents and relatives. However, due to the evolution of social media in making friends, the definition of friends has changed and a different meaning had been acquired. Social network sites (SNSs) have many advantages to on line users. For job application or work related issues you can use Likedin.com. When people are looking for people with common interest certain social networks such as Myspace.com comes to mind. People who are looking for possible partner or wanted to start a relationship can log-in to Friendster.com. For college students for example, social sites such as Facebook.com are used to connect to peers or share school lessons and activities and can also be used to answer queries (Ellison et al., 1143). Social network sites (SNSs) provide an easier approach to different reasons, a cheaper version where a good intern et connection and a device or a gadget i.e. personal computer, laptop, mobile phone, tablet or a notebook are needed. One can gain access to all of these sites wherever and in anytime of the day. A person can also log in on the different sites all at once and multi-task. It provides countless unimaginable opportunities to users such as finding long lost friends and childhood friends who had not been seen in years. Other scenarios are finding the right partner, finding a better job and so on. It makes the process of making friends easier and faster by sending a request and accepting it just by clicking the accept button. It is a no fuss activity and one can know more about the person connected with by visiting his page and reading its contents such as recent activities, likes, dislikes, pictures posted aside from personal information. It also provides a wider range of network consisting of different people with different degree of physical interaction in one’s day to day life. Facebook which is established in 2004 in Harvard University and made 200 users worldwide as of 2009 has provide a strong link with users’ high school friends that they left behind due to studying college in other places (Lewis J., West A. 1148). It also provided information on the up to date information of the makers and their friends’ lives. In every new technology discovered, there are always few drawbacks that arise and one of them is giving the word friends a different meaning and context. It also provides a new range or levels of friends when it comes to social network sites. One of the drawbacks of using these media is that they provide new sense to the word friendship with other people. They provide less interaction with them and a shallow definition of it. According to Allan (1989) as cited by Lewis & West (2009) in real life, there are different sorts of friends; those who are close and those are merely acquaintances. Always acquaintances are grater in number in your friends’ list than your close friends. These acquaintances are people one bump into everyday without having a conversation with each other, a classmate in one of your classes, a group mate in a project and anyone else where a person does not have a significant interaction and does not provide a sense of commitment and emotional support. Boyd (2006) as cited by Lewis & West (2009 1211), assessment of this relationship has no weight as well as what