Free Marketing Dissertations - As Far As Penske Logistics Are Concerned, The Company Used Geographic
As far as Penske Logistics are concerned, the company used geographic segmentation and income/revenue segmentation. Penske’s geographic segments comprise: Northern Europe including Scandinavia, Central Europe and Southern Europe. This segmentation has allowed the company to put together, people with similar attitudes towards buying logistics services. Another segmentation type the company has used is income or revenue segmentation. Penske has identified a minimum annual revenue a company should have, in order to be able to afford the specialised services that Penske Logistics provide. Penske Logistics’ target customer profiles can be described as follows:
Companies operating and shipping internationally
Specific industries where logistics costs are relatively high, e.g. the automotive industries, the pharmaceutical industry etc
Preferably, it should be stackable, palletised material to allow for better truck / space utilisation and optimisation
Companies which have a minimum annual revenue of €5 million.
Marketing mix
As stated by Palmer (2004), A marketing manager can be seen as somebody who mixes a set of ingredients to achieve a desired outcome. The classical marketing mix framework takes four major elements into account: products, pricing, place and promotion. A company has to constantly adapt these four elements to the needs of individual customers. For instance, a company operating in different geographic regions has to adapt the basic product to local needs, as consumers tastes differ.
Penske Logistics have to base their activities on their European customers’ needs. In terms of the service offer, Penske Logistics supply a wide range of service meant to target and serve various customer profiles. Customers can choose from : freight management services; dedicated transport; sea freight; airfreight etc. With regard to pricing, the company charges a management fee for its freight management services and transport rates based on weight for normal transportation A to B.
As far as the ‘place’ is concerned, the company is present in major European countries and subcontracts well-known agents to be part of their network. Promotional activities within Penske Logistics consist mainly of personal selling. The company hires sales managers in each European country covered in order to sell their services.
Recommendations
Penske Logistics’ marketing mix does not really require major changes.
As we have seen, the company has a very flexible service offer and its solutions are usually taylor-made to the customer’s specific needs. The pricing system adopted by the company is also the standard pricing methodology used within the industry, thus it is widely accepted.
For the future, my recommendation to Penske Logistics would be to grow it’s presence not only witching Europe but also on other continents, e.g.
