The marketing mix-product, place, promotion and price-that a company selects both influences and is influenced by the strategic choices that the company makes. As companies encounter different environmental challenges such as a downturn in the economy or political unrest in overseas markets, they may make changes in their marketing mix that shift the strategic alternatives available to them. This research considers one of the largest American companies-Boeing-and the marketing mix that it uses. This marketing mix is analyzed against the strategic direction that the company is following. Particular emphasis is given to the company's largest business unit, commercial aircraft.
Boeing competes in the aerospace industry and its largest business unit is that of commercial aircraft. The company also manufactures military aircraft and some space and defense systems. Because the company's products sell for hundreds of millions of dollars, the company also has a financial unit that contributes to its revenues (Boeing Annual Report, 2008).
The American aerospace market, which includes civilian and military aircraft as well as missiles and space products, approached $200 billion in sales in 2007 (2007 Year-End, 2007). Boeing's contribution to that figure was more than $66 billion, indicating its dominant position in the industry (Boeing Annual Report, 2008). This is a global industry, with exports in 2007 totalling more than $92 billion. However, the global aspect of the market also includes significant competition for Boeing from a European competitor, Airbus. Supported by the French and German governments as well as by the European Union as a whole, Airbus sells to the same customers-leasing companies and airlines-as Boeing. The result is a highly competitive market with only two companies and intense competition for each sale ("Airbus Jets," 2008).
Boeing manufactures aircraft for civilian and...