1. Subcultural allow marketers to divide their markets so that they meet the needs, motivations, perceptions, and attitudes that are joined by members of subcultural group. Subculture is a distinct cultural group that exists as an identifiable segment within a larger, more complex society. People that are apart of this group believe in their values, and customs that set them apart from other people who are apart of the same group. They tend to hold onto the beliefs that are the strongest of the overall group. In this country subculture groups include nationality, religion, geographic location, race, age, and sex by breaking them down to meet the needs of specific media needs. Because of the existence of all subcultural groups, the marketer must determine for the product category how specific subcultural memberships interact to influence the consumer’s purchase decisions.
The marketing mix is critical to determine a product or brand’s offering and is synonymous with the 4 P’s of marketing. The 4 P’s of marketing have been altered or changed in recent times to reflect the huge shift towards satisfying the needs of customers. The new system is called the 4 C’s and includes customer, cost, communication, and convenience.
Product: an item or service that satisfies the needs or requests of customers. Products are tangible and can be seen and touched while services are intangible and can include things like tourism and finance.
Price: the amount of money that a customer pays for the product or service being provided. The price is very important as it determines who can and cannot afford the product or service and overall relates to the profit that a company can make.
Place: refers to where a product or service is available. Place is essential in order to attract customers that can afford and will want to buy a product. Placement could include the decision to sell a product at a department store or just in one of the company’s own franchised stores.
Promotion: the method of communication that a company uses to make their product more known. Promotion comprises of: advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion. Promotion is the part of marketing that most people mistakenly encapsulate as being the only part of marketing.
2. One of the most common characteristics identifying one with his culture is the culture’s food. For the most effective marketing mix the subculture needs to be identified. While the culture may be Asian, the subculture may be Vietnamese and a further segmentation would be prosperous Vietnamese or vegetarian Vietnamese.
For instance there is an organic frozen brown rice product. Usually brown rice takes a long time to cook. The frozen rice is pre-cooked and can be heated in 4 minutes. It is organic. Usually rice is very inexpensive. Because of the processing and marketing the organic frozen product costs fifteen times more than buying a bag of unprocessed brown rice. Consequently the marketing mix should be directed at prosperous Asians who don’t have a lot of time to cook, who have the money to pay more for the product, and that have a desire for organic food.
Here as in the case generally the promotion of the product will vary from region to region. For instance, on the West Coast there are huge Asian populations in Seattle, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. These are areas with a high cost of living and high wages. It would be worthwhile to promote the frozen rice in this region. On the other hand, in the Deep South it would not be cost effective to market the product. There is a small Asian population. Rice is grown in the region and historically cooked at home. The average income is lower than most other regions
