Assessing the Role of Marketing Mix in International Shipping Services: 8 P's in Ethiopian Context

The concept of the marketing mix has attracted attention from both academics and managers and has been widely used in the marketing discipline. Traditionally, marketing mix for 'product' (4P's) has been widely accepted in literature and practice. This paper presents the tools of the marketing mix of shipping companies (service) active in merchant shipping along with focus on the basic fundamentals of service marketing. It argues that the marketing strategies are the means by which a company achieves its marketing objectives and are related to the tools of the marketing mix. Further, it also brings the trends set up the strategies adopted by the leading shipping companies of the world in order to confirm that the companies understand the importance of marketing and apply improved marketing strategies. Some of the data, which were gathered in an empirical research (by Evi Plomaritou, Institute of Chartered Ship Broker's-Greek Branch) carried out for the top 10 tanker shipping companies and for the top 10 liner operators of container ships used in this paper to exemplify the strategies related to the tools of the shipping marketing mix. The article concludes that the shipping company must organize its resources in such a manner as to be able to apply improved strategies of effective marketing in order to achieve a long-lasting and more effective commercial operation of its vessels.