Commission Commando

SATISFYING  COMMISSION COMMANDO CONSUMER NEEDS
Commission Commando Marketing doesn’t stop with the ideas obtained from the assessment of consumer needs. Since the organization obviously can’t satisfy all consumer needs, it must concentrate its efforts on certain needs of a specific group of potential consumers. This is the organization’s target market, one or more specific groups of potential consumers toward which it will direct its marketing program.
The Four P’s: Controllable Commission Commando Marketing Mix Factors Having selected the target market consumers, the firm must take steps to satisfy their needs. Someone in the organization’s marketing department, often the marketing manager, must take action and develop a complete marketing program to reach consumers by pulling a combination of four levers, often called the four P’s—a useful short¬hand reference to them first published by Professor E. Jerome McCarthy10:
• Product: a good, service, or idea to satisfy the consumer’s needs
• Price: what is exchanged for the product
• Promotion: a means of communication between the seller and buyer of Commission Commando
• Place: a means of getting the product into the consumer’s hands
We’ll define each of the four P’s more carefully later in the book, but for now it’s important to remember that they are the elements of the marketing mix, or simply the marketing mix. These are the marketing manager’s controllable factors, the marketing actions he or she can take in specific circumstances. The marketing mix elements are called controllable factors because they are under the control of the marketing department in an organization.
The Uncontrollable, Environmental Commission Commando Factors There are a host of factors largely beyond the control of the marketing department and its organization. These factors can be placed into five groups (Figure 1-2): social, technological, economic, competitive, and regulatory forces. Examples arc what consumers themselves want and need, changing technology, the state of the economy in terms of whether it is expanding or contracting, actions that competitors take, and government restrictions. These uncontrollable or environmental factors in a marketing decision may serve as an accelerator or a brake on marketing, sometimes expanding an organization’s marketing opportunities and other times restricting them. These five environmental factors are covered in Chapter 3.
Traditionally, many marketing executives have treated these environmental
factors as rigid, absolute constraints that are entirely outside their influence.”

However, recent studies and marketing successes have shown that a for¬ward-looking, action-oriented firm can often affect some environmental factors. IBM’s technical and marketing breakthroughs generated the entire electronic digital computer industry, even though initially consumers were apathetic. Apple did the same for personal computers. H.J. Heinz received permission to buy a controlling interest in a Zimbabwe food company to produce and sell Heinz products there. These consumer and political factors might have forestalled productive Commission Commando marketing actions had they been seen as rigid and uncontrollable.
The Marketing Program After assessment the marketing manager must translate the ideas from consumers into some concepts for products the firm might develop (Figure 1-4). These ideas must then be converted into a tangible marketing program a plan that integrates the marketing mix to provide a product, service, or idea to prospective consumers. These prospects then react to the offering favorably (by buying) or unfavorably (by not buying), and the process is repeated. In an effective organization this process is continuous: consumer needs trigger product concepts that are translated into actual products that stimulate further assessment of consumer needs.
A Marketing Program for Golden Valley Microwave Foods To see the specifics of a marketing program, let’s return to the earlier example of Jim Watkins, Golden Valley Microwave Foods, and their microwave popcorn.

Watkins knew that he and Golden Valley had a huge problem: finding ways to get their microwave popcorn onto shelves of retail stores. The company
didn’t have the money to hire its own sales force and establish its own distri¬bution system for sales to various types of retail outlets across the United States. So Watkins devised a marketing program for Golden Valley’s microwave pop¬corn with two key elements (Question 4, Figure 1-1). One element was a program in which the firm would market its popcorn under the brand name “Act II” to mass merchandisers such as K Mart and Target throughout the United States.
The second element was to gain space on supermarket and grocery store shelves across the country by granting an exclusive license to General Mills to market shelf-stable microwave popcorn using Golden Valley’s patented process and packaging technology. General Mills now sells microwave popcorn nation¬wide under the trademarked “Betty Crocker Pop Secret® brand name, using its own sales force and distribution system.
Watkins, working with General Mills, combined these two elements into two marketing programs for two different target markets: (1) mass merchan¬disers and (2) supermarkets. The two programs have these main features:

COMMISSION COMMANDO MARKETING PROGRAM FOR MASS MERCHANDISERS
COMMISSION COMMANDO MARKETING PROGRAM FOR SUPERMARKE TS

• Product 7>Vi ounccs of popcorn in an
Act II package that serves as the microwave cooking unit.
• Price 59# for a package, or S2.99 for
a “six-pack.”
• Promotion Sold direct to mass-merchan-
diser chain accounts. Ad-vertising in local newspa¬pers in ads run by mass merchandisers.
• Place Consumers can buy popcorn
on snack shelves of mass merchandisers throughout the United States.
3′/2 ounces of popcorn in a Betty Crocker Pop Secret package that serves as the microwave cooking unit.
$2.09 for a “three-pack.”
Sold by General Mills sales force to supermarkets. Ad-vertising in national TV commercials.
Consumers can buy popcorn on snack shelves of super-markets throughout the United States.

Current Golden Valley products are shown in Figure 1-5.
And how has the Golden Valley marketing program for its microwave popcorn turned out? So far, extremely well. By 1988, its regional brand—Act II — had 20 percent of all retail microwave popcorn sales throughout the United States. The Betty Crocker Pop Secret® brand of General Mills—which entered the market later than Act II—had another large share of the total U.S. market. Golden Valley’s “Microwave Morning” brand of microwave pancakes, which represented about 10 percent of its total sales revenue, was also doing well. So far, so good!
With things going so well, what concerns do Watkins and his firm have? Concerns center on both controllable marketing mix variables and uncontroll¬able environmental variables. Concerning the former, Golden Valley’s phenom¬enal growth—from annual sales of $8 million to S100 million in 4 years— possess serious challenges. For example, how do you grow from 20 to 400 employees in 4 years and ensure that high-quality products and on-time deliv-
erics are maintained? To continue growing, Watkins knows that he must broaden his product line. In 1988, after spending several million scarce dollars on research, Golden Valley introduced Act II microwave french fries (Question 5, Figure 1- 1)—an example of its company mission “of harnessing microwave energy to heat, brown, or crisp products using inexpensive, flexible packaging materials.”14
Although Watkins can’t anticipate all the uncontrollable factors facing his company, he has taken steps to minimize many threats. For example, Golden Valley has developed special hybrid popcorns that require 3 years of development to reach the consumer’s microwave. The company oversees all aspects of the popcorn growing process, even to contracting with Iowa and Nebraska farmers who use irrigated land to reduce the risk of drought. And Golden Valley has recently added highly automated production equipment—much of it designed by company engineers—to provide the large volume of packaged popcorn required by the market.
Jim Watkins remains optimistic and realistic. This is shown by his firm’s low overhead and lean operating style. “We make stuff and we sell stuff, and we don’t have a lot of nonsense in between. We focus on only one thing— microwave food—and we’re very competitive.”15 As a reminder of timing les¬sons from his past, Watkins still keeps a picture of his failed waterbike in his billfold.