The marketing mix

Introduction:
 A good marketing strategy (plan) is one that meets customers’ needs.
 This means that a business must
o Design and produce high quality products
o Charge a price that is acceptable to consumers
o Let consumers know about products through promotion
o Make products available in the right place at the right time.
 This is known as marketing mix and usually referred to as the four Ps
(product, price, place and promotion)
 Thus to achieve the marketing objectives (target set by the marketing
department) a business must find a right balance between product, price,
promotion and place.

Product:
 Products have to fulfill or exceed customer expectation.
 Products have certain features that businesses must get right
o Functional: the products must perform the function for which that
were bought
o Appearance or aesthetics: products should look good. The shape,
size and color of product must be appealing
o Unique selling point (USP): USP is the particular characteristic that
makes the product different from those of its competitors. A
product will be more successful if it has a USP.
o Product life cycle: every product has a life cycle, and many have a
limited life. During that life sales will rise and fall. A business will
therefore need to modify product or bring changes from time to
time to reflect the age of the product.
Price:
 Consumers want value for money
 This means that the price charged is important
 The price charged by businesses depends on a number of factor and they
are:
o The quality of the product
o The costs of production
o The prices charged by the competitors
o How much customers are prepared to pay
o The stage of life cycle the product is in.

Promotion:
 Businesses have to make sure that consumers know about their products.
 So they have to provide consumers with information such as
o Details about the nature and range of products
o The price being charged
o Where the products can be purchased
 Businesses might also need to persuade people to buy their products.
  Both informing and persuading consumers can be done through various
promotional methods.
Place:
 The products must be distributed to the customers
 Must be made available in convenient locations at times when
consumers want to buy them.
 Businesses can use a number of distribution channels to distribute
their products
o Using retailers of various types
o Using wholesalers
o Using own outlets or even websites

Choosing the right marketing mix:

 The first step in choosing the right marketing mix is to understand the
target market (the consumers the firm want to serve).
 Then a right balance between product, price, promotion and place have to
be decided as per the need of the target market.
 The marketing mix may be influenced by the following
o Nature of the product
o Competition
o Marketing budget
o Competitors’ mix
o Technology
o Market research

Therefore to conclude, marketing mix is the elements of a firm’s marketing that

are designed to meet the needs of customers. Often called the 4Ps, they include
product, price, place and promotion.

The role of the customer- the four Cs:

 Some business analysts believe that the 4Ps approach is rather old
fashioned and too much centered on the firm and its product rather than
the consumers
 The 4Cs have been proposed as an alternative view of the key elements of
successful marketing.
 The 4Cs can be linked to the 4Ps
o Product - Customer solution (what the firm will produce to meet
customer’s needs and wants)
o Price- cost to customers (the total cost of the product for the
customer, includes extended guarantees, delivery charges and
financing costs)
o Promotion- communication with the customer (providing up to
date and easily accessible two way communication links with the
customers to both promote the product and gain back important
consumer market research information)
o Place-Convenience to customers (providing easily accessible
presales information and demonstrations and convenient location
for buying the product)
  Therefore by putting customers first in the marketing decisions a firm
embarks on Customer relationship Marketing.

Customer Relationship marketing:

 Customer relationship marketing (CRM) involves using marketing

activities to establish successful customer relationships so that existing
customer loyalty can be maintained
o The key aim of CRM is not necessarily to win new customers rather
to keep the existing ones happy
o This is because it is tougher and expensive to gain new consumer
than to retain the existing loyal ones
o At the root of CRM is customer information. Gain as much
customer information as possible about each existing customer
 Income, product preferences, buying habits and so on
 Adapt the 4Ps to meet these needs as closely as possible
o Since, technology made customer data collection easier this is
becoming a widely adopted marketing strategy