The marketing mix as a term is created by Neil Borden in 1964, but the model as we use it now is created by Jerome McCarthy in the late 1960’s.
The marketing mix is a model which offers organizations a tool which they can use to create long-term strategic plans. When organizations first started to use this model it existed out of 4 different parts. These parts are:
Product:
The product is the thing an organization tries to sell. This can differ between tangible and intangible products.
Price:
The price is how much money a corporation asks for their products (tangible and intangible, sometimes it is a combination). When defining the price it is necessary to know what kind of quality an organization would like to present, as well as the target group they would like to reach.
Place:
This part of the model is best defined as the location of the organization. When defining the location of the business it is important to think about the target group and the logistics.
Promotion:
Within this section of the marketing mix the communication of the organization is described. Promotion is needed to get oneself known within the market the business wants to operate in. Possible ways of promotion are public relations, personal promotion and advertising.
Thanks to the development in customer needs and wishes over the last decades, the model was expanded with another P. This P is people.
People:
The quality of the staff is an important part within this subject. Next to that it is necessary to consider what kind of personnel an organization wants to hire. Another part of the “people” section is the target group.
Place
The Red Lobster restaurants is the world’s largest casual dining seafood restaurant company with nearly 700 restaurants in the United States and Canada and more than 63,000 employees.
On the image below is shown where all the Red Lobster restaurants in the USA are located.
Product
The Red Lobster company is a casual dining restaurant with as main topic seafood. A concept of freshly prepared seafood as lobster, shrimps and steamed crab legs. Depending on availability of the seafood will the menu be set. Every Red Lobster restaurant features up to eight species of fresh fish flown in from around the world.
With the concept of seafood restaurant Red Lobster also tries to reach families. This is made possible by offering kids menu’s. Those menus’s excise out of a choice of eight different menu’s for the children. For the adults Red Lobster offers a diverse menu with shrimps, lobster crab and fresh fish. In addition to favorites such as salmon, trout and tilapia, the menu may offer species such as grouper, snapper, arctic char and mahi mahi and may include regional species such as wall-eyed pike in the Midwest and Pacific red rockfish on the West Coast. In the year of 2004 the trend of diets was still continuing, for this reason Red Lobster choose to set up a Lighthouse Menu for health conscious consumers and people who are on a diet. All the items the menu contain fewer than 500 calories, 15g of fat, 5g of saturated fat, 750 mg of sodium and 75g of carbohydrates.
By developing the menu and take the needs and wishes of the consumer into account Red Lobster is and will be a successful concept for now and in the future.
Price
Red Lobster restaurants are famous about their price quality balance. The daily specials of the restaurants are depending on the season. With an average price of
$ 20,- for a main menu the Red Lobster restaurants are not expensive. The price combined with the experience and the exclusivity of seafood Red Lobster is a restaurant what everyone can afford.
Promotion
The Red Lobster has a very wide range of promoting their organization and products. One of the ways that the Red Lobster is promoting themselves is through the internet. When you search online for seafood or lobster restaurants, the Red Lobster is always in the top three of search results. Next to that the Red Lobster has his own website (www.redlobster.com) which features their menu, employment possibilities and all types of other information about the organization. The site is very interactive and easy to work with.
Besides the internet, the Red Lobster also promotes itself through television and billboards. Within these types of promotion, the organization wants to show that they only use fresh products at a cheap rate.
The promotion for the Red Lobster is organized by their own marketing team. This is a group of people within the organization, which deals with the public relations and communication assets of the business.
People
The organization tries to have a very diverse team. The Red Lobster sees diversity as a strength to enhance their customer service and to gain more insights in the different backgrounds. To ensure the diversity, the founder of the organization (Bill Darden) has set up a diversity policy.
To make sure that every employee of the Red Lobster can reach their full potential, the organization gives training to all their employees. Some subjects within these trainings are customer service and leadership. Thanks to the Red Lobster training program, it is possible for employees to grow within the organization.
Another aspect within People is the target group. The Red Lobster is a casual dining restaurant. This means that the organization focuses itself on families and couples of all ages. To expand their target group even more, the restaurant that is known for and has a core business within seafood, also serves a selection of steak and chicken dishes.
