Marketing Mix Essay Example for Free

Marketing Mix Essay Abstract In this paper I will define what a good marketing mix requires and describe how a company uses this process to market their product. I have chosen Anytime Fitness as my company to do my paper on. Anytime Fitness is a unique style of fitness club that is in a very competitive market place. Their marketing mix focuses on all of the four Ps to attract customers. They locate small neighborhood clubs close to where people live and work. They are a no frills workout center that offers weights and cardio equipment. This allows people with busy lifestyles to workout whenever they have time. Anytime Fitness also offers a very good pricing plan for individuals and families. Marketing Mix Even with the economy that appears to be slowing down some business are still growing. With people wanting to lose weight and get in shape some fitness clubs are still expanding. The low cost approach that Anytime Fitness has may be a big reason for their continuing growth. With a good marketing mix Anytime Fitness is a fast growing business. They have tailor made their fitness clubs with the busy person in mind. Anytime Fitness offers small workout centers within three miles of most of their customers homes or work. I will show in this paper what different type of marketing mix Anytime Fitness uses to be a leader in market. Definition A good marketing mix includes four main points. These are considered the four Ps of marketing. Product is the first item; this can be an actual product or a service. Other things that are considered part of the product are the quality, style, and even packaging. The next item is price decision. This includes pricing strategy, suggested retail price, volume discounting and wholesale price. There could be other items included in pricing but not limited to seasonal and bundling pricing (The Marketing Mix, 2007). Place is the next of the items that make up a good marketing mix. This is also considered the distribution of the product or lets just says getting the product to the customer. This could be the location you plan to provide your service or product. Generally speaking distribution includes warehousing, distribution centers, order processing and transportation. The  final stage of a good marketing mix is promotion. This stage includes promotional strategy, advertising, personal sales and sales promotions (The Marketing Mix, 2007). Product The term product refers to tangible, physical products as well as services (The Marketing Mix, 2007). I believe the product that Anytime Fitness offers is a great product which is a basic workout center. They have free weights, weight lifting machines and cardiovascular equipment. They also offer free unlimited tanning with most memberships. All the workout centers are open twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. This is possible by allowing members in the gym when it is not staffed. This also helps to reduce the cost of operating the facilities as well. To allow this to happen, each member receives an electronic key that opens the door. They have a monitor that sounds an alarm if two people try to walk in at the same time. The also have several security cameras that can be monitor at any location a manager or owner may want to use. Place Place is concerned with all the decisions involved in getting the right product to the target markets Place. A product isnt much good to a customer if it isnt available when and where its wanted (McCarthy and Perreault, 2005 P 39). Anytime Fitness lives and breathes this statement. This is one of the items that made me change from the mega gym that I was previously a member of. Anytime Fitness locates all their workout centers in small shopping centers close to their members home or places of work. The average distance a member travels to reach a workout center is three miles. They are also opening new clubs at rate of more than one a day. They also are one of a few fitness franchises to succeed in smaller population centers traditionally ignored by larger clubs (Anytime Fitness, 2008). Price You might think that lowest price is always going to win. This statement could not be farther from the truth. The best price for the product or service is a more accurate statement. I have one fitness club that charges eighty dollars a month per member. They offer a product that is more than just a workout center. I do not know all what they offer but it appears they offer activities for the kids, rock climbing classes and basically just a  place to relax. So for some people the eighty-dollar price tag is a good deal. The gym I was formally a member of offered all different types of group workout type classes and individual trainers. They also had a smoothie bar, a large locker area with a sauna. The price there was forty-five dollars a month. This was a good price point for what was offered. Anytime Fitness price is only thirty-five dollars per month but as I have described earlier this club just offers a basic workout facility. Promotion When planning a promotion you have to also have planned a budget for your promotions. Publicity and public relations are also part of the promotions part of a good marketing mix. Anytime Fitness is not only the largest fitness club but also the fastest growing, fitness club franchise in the world. They nearly doubled in size from 308 to 604 clubs in 2007. They plan to open their 1000th club in 2008 (Anytime Fitness, 2008). One of their promotions that I took advantage of was a pricing promotion. This was a grand opening pricing promotion. When my son signed up for thirty-five dollars a month he was told that his whole family could sign up for a monthly rate of fifty-five dollars. I was currently paying forty-five dollars a month for just myself. I now have my wife and daughter signed up with my son and myself for only fifty-five dollars. Good promotions will usually draw in new customers but you also have to weigh the cost of every promotion. Conclusion There are many different factors involved in a good marketing mix. Even though there are only four main categories, these points are broken down into many different points. This is all a part of a good marketing plan. The market place is very competitive all going after the same customers. The companies that succeed find ways to attract a large portion of these customers. As you can see different people have different opinions on what a good deal is. Anytime Fitness is marketing their product to the busy person who is looking for more of a convenience style club than a club with many different options for exercising or in some cases even entertainment. I personally prefer this style club to the mega clubs. I was a member of a small club very similar to Anytime Fitness when it built a mega club and closed all the smaller clubs in the surrounding area. I  constantly had trouble finding open equipment to use and when I was finally done workout and needed to shower to go to work there was never a shower open. Anytime Fitness found a market they had a chance to succeed in. Their marketing program has help to make them a very successful company. References: (2008). The Anytime Fitness Story. Retrieved April 5, 2008, from Anytime Fitness Web site: http://www.anytimefitness.com/corporate/about(2007). The Marketing Mix. Retrieved April 6, 2008, from Net MBA Business Knowledge Center Web site: http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/McCarthy, E, Perreault, W (2005). Basic Marketing.New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.