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Marketing Mix Assignment
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Marketing Mix Assignment
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Abstract
This paper examines the four elements of the marketing mix from the context of Fender
Musical Instrument Company, the maker of Fender guitars.
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Marketing is often defined as putting the right product in the right place, at the right
price, at the right time. In other words, creating a product that a particular subset of people want,
offering it for sale at a place that those same people visit, for a price it at a level which matches
the value they feel they get out of it. The marketing mix blends the product offering with
effective manufacturing and distribution strategies to achieve the right price and investment
potential for promotions. The concept is certainly much more complex in terms of finding out
what customers want, and identifying where they shop. Then you need to figure out how to
produce the item at a price that represents value to them, and get it all to come together at the
critical time. Additionally, each subset of consumers is considered a different target, and each
target often must have a completely different marketing mix. The marketing mix can help
identify the correct strategic plan, but it can also result in disaster, as it is often said that the
marketing mix is only as strong as its weakest part. We will examine the marketing mix from
the perspective of Fender guitars, manufactured by Fender Musical Instrument Company.
The first element in the marketing mix is product. Marketers use the term product to
refer to both goods and services. Creating a product also involves choosing a brand name,
packaging, colors, accessories, and even a warranty or service plane. The product element also
examines what the customer wants from the product and what needs it satisfies. In order to
satisfy a certain need or desire, the product needs to have certain features to meet those needs. In
the case of guitars, there are two main subsets of consumers: professional musicians and
hobbyists. These subsets can have very different needs when it comes to the product. For
example, hobbyists will typically be much more interested in the visual appearance, sometimes
even flashy appearance, of the guitar, where as a professional musician will be more interested in
quality components that will hold up to abuse on the road. Fender is aware of these differing
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needs of consumers and adjusts the elements of their product mix accordingly to meet those
needs. For example, a hobbyist will be interested in a Jaguar vintage model with lots of chrome
and switches, a unique body shape and special pickups, whereas a professional musician would
be more interested in an American Deluxe Stratocaster, which has a much more simple and
refined design with higher quality components. Fender also markets their guitars with a limited
lifetime warranty, which is especially important for the professional musician.
The next element of the product mix is place. This element focuses on where buyers look
for your product or service. Distribution strategy is creating the means by which a product flows
from the producer to the consumer. One must decide how many stores to offer the product in
and also whether to offer the product online. It requires the company to know where there
customers are located, as well as their shopping habits. The distribution channel used by Fender
caters to both hobbyists and professional musicians. Hobbyists tend to enjoy searching and
reading up on (and drooling over) products in magazines for weeks, months or even years before
they buy, and they tend to have way more guitars than they actually need. Fender caters to this
market by having a strong online presence both themselves (www.fender.com) and through
major retailers, such as GuitarCenter.com. Professional musicians, on the other hand, tend to be
looking for a specific feel and sound that they are confident will service them well on the road.
This is accomplished through a strong presence in traditional brick and mortar stores located
throughout all major cities, through retailers such as Guitar Center, Sam Ash, as well as local
mom and pop music stores. Fender also started the Fender Music Foundation, which invests
heavily in childhood musical education, using Fender instruments of course, to ensure brand
recognition by the next generation of musicians while at the same time helping the greater good
of the community.
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The third component of the product mix is price. Pricing strategy is based on demand for
the product and the cost of producing it. Pricing also depends heavily on whether the product is
a cost leader (low cost) or has taken a product differentiation strategy. Price sensitivity also
depends heavily on the type of consumer interested in each product line. Fine tuning prices to
fall within the range attractive to buyers is a significant effort. There are consulting companies
that do nothing else but gather data and compile findings for companies to use in developing
their pricing strategy. Firms will easily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars dialing in the
right price. Fender is well aware of the fact that professional musicians tend to buy one, highquality instrument that will use for several years on the road. Some professional musicians even
buy for life and use the same guitar their entire career. Because of this fact, as well as the fact
that the professional guitars tend to have higher quality components and higher manufacturing
costs, the professional product lines tend to have a much higher costs, as noted with the $1,700
price point on the American Deluxe referenced above. In contrast, Fender recognizes that
hobbyists tend to buy much more often. They read up on and get excited about the latest new
model and just have to have it. Fender knows that to capture that market, they need to price the
product lower in order to seal the deal, as noted with the $900 price point on the Jaguar model
referenced above. They are also able to accomplish this through lower production costs on this
type of model. It’s all part of the strategy.
The fourth and final component of promotion. Promotion is the outward delivery of the
marketing model. This element focuses on where and when can you get across your marketing
messages to your target market. It covers personal selling, advertising, public relations and sales
promotion. Each element is coordinated with all of the other elements of the marketing mix I
order to create one consistent promotion strategy for each target market. Often there will also be
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consistency of certain elements across all of the targets, such as the case with branding. Fender
uses a wide variety of marketing strategies. They start very early in the life cycle of the
consumer (as noted by the Fender Foundation referenced above), and the other main way that
they impact consumers at a very young age is by sponsoring popular musicians, and even has a
special website dedicated to it. This focus on early age consumers allows Fender to ensure they
are a household name. By the time consumers grow up and are ready to buy a guitar, they are
already intimately familiar with the Fender brand. Fenders commitment to the community
through the Fender Foundation also has a public relations element, which is very important to
promotion efforts, because it is used to create a positive image of the company and its products.
Promotion also focuses on the seasonality of marketing. In the retail industry, the strongest sales
are in the 4th quarter of the year closest to Christmas and Hanukah. As such, Fender does a
significant amount of promotion in the summer, which also conveniently coincides with when
their artists are primarily on tour. Fender invests heavily in the “Fender Concert Series” a
sponsored series of events with a dedicated website and even a social networking element that
allows fans to share stories of their favorite concerts, all the while reinforcing the brand image
and promoting the Fender artists.
Fender uses the four elements of the marketing mix to ensure a strong presence in
the guitar market and ensure that their brand is a household name. They cater to the right groups
of people by manufacturing the right products, selling them in the right place at the right price,
and backing it up with the right promotion strategies to ensure long-term sales growth.
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References
Guitar Center, Fender Jaguar, http://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender-Classic-PlayerJaguar-Special-HH-Electric-Guitar-104907233-i1397681.gc
Guitar Center, Fender American Deluxe, http://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender-AmericanDeluxe-Stratocaster-HSS-Electric-Guitar-105812341-i1519086.gc
Fender Limited Warranty,
http://support.fender.com/warranty/FENDER_LIMITED_LIFETIME_ELECTRIC_INSTRUME
NT_WARRANTY_9-2001_revC.pdf
Fender Music Foundation,
http://www.fendermusicfoundation.org/who/index.cfm?sec=mission
Fender Artists, http://www.fender.com/artists/
Fender Concert Series, http://www.fender.com/news/index.php?display_article=414