Home > Competitive Intelligence > The Importance of Marketing Mix in Your Growth Strategy

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
KIM KOSAKA

Kim is Director of
Marketing at Alexa. She
has 15 years experience
in demand generation,
content marketing, and
campaign management.

The Importance of Marketing Mix Her expertise has

helped grow user bases
in Your Growth Strategy by as much as 7x year
over year, and a startup
Slack reached $4 billion in revenue in under four years from nothing to $1.2
with a laser focus on its product, barely advertising at million in revenue in just

all. 3 years.

Chick-fil-A has risen to the top of its industry with an RECENT POSTS
extreme focus on location. 6 Customer Journey
Touchpoints to Help
Starbucks’ pricing enables growth even though it’s Build an Optimal User
hard to believe the company can still expand. Experience

And there’s no contesting the role of Lego’s promotion 6 Essential KPIs to

Track Through Your
strategy in reversing its decline to become the world’s
Chatbot Analytics
most valuable toy brand.
5 Experts Weigh in on
These examples underscore the importance of Conversational
marketing mix in the development of marketing Marketing Trends to
Watch
strategies. All of your marketing activities must be
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aligned to support your marketing objectives. But the 4 Conversational
COMPE T IT I VE
importance of marketing mix extends beyond that. By Writing Tips That Will
INT ELLIG ENC E

examining the mix, you may identify a lever — a single Transform Your
How to Do a
Customer Interactions
How to
standout Use Alexa
element — that
 Marketing
will Resources
fuel your growth. Log in START YOUR FREE TRIAL
Marketing
Content Gap
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The Most Effective,
What Is Marketing Mix? Boosts
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Efficient Relationship
Marketing Tactics in
Marketing mix refers to the combination of elements 2021
that shape how a business delivers value to its
customers. These elements are called the 7Ps:
Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Process, and
Physical evidence.
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The concept was originally introduced in 1960 as the

4Ps: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. But as the
marketing landscape evolved, the 4Ps expanded to
7Ps, adding People, Process, and Physical Evidence to
the mix. It’s thought that the additional elements
better address modern competitive environments
affected by the rise of technology and the changes in
how people communicate.

The Importance of Each Element

of the Marketing Mix in Fueling
Growth
The importance of marketing mix in achieving
business objectives cannot be overstated. As we
     
mentioned, you must make sure each element of the
marketing mix works with the others to support your
COMPE T IT I VE
objectives. For example, you need to support a INT ELLIG ENC E

premium product with premium pricing and location, How to Do a

How to
and your Use Alexa must
promotion  Marketing Resources
communicate Log in
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When even one element is “off,” you may find yourself Analysis
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forThat
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handicapped.

Some companies with standout growth are

experiencing the effects of leveraging individual
elements of the marketing mix. One element can even
help elevate the others, as we’ll see in some of these
examples.

1. Slack doubled down on “product” to grow to $4

billion in under four years.

“Product” refers to the goods or services that you offer

and how they meet your customers’ needs and
desires. This extends to quality, warranties, packaging,
features, variety of products or service levels, and so
on.

Product-led-growth is a go-to-market strategy

currently popular in the startup world. The basic idea
is to put the user experience at the forefront of every
aspect of strategy to create a product that satisfies
users more than any other solution. Instant-
messaging platform Slack famously used product-led
growth to reach $4 billion in revenue in under four
years.

Rather than relying on marketing or sales, this growth

strategy expects word of mouth to take care of the
“promotion” element of the marketing mix. And that’s
how it played out for Slack: they achieved growth      
without a sales team or elaborate marketing, relying
COMPE T IT I VE
on users to spread the word. INT ELLIG ENC E

How to Do a
2. Starbucks
How to Useuses
Alexa“price” to maximize
Marketing profitability.
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“Price” is how much customers pay — or are willing to Boosts
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pay — for your product or service. It encompasses
factors such as payment methods, financing/credit
terms, discounts, price-matching, referral bonuses,
affiliate payments, loyalty discounts, free trials,
subscription options, etc.

To make your business viable, your price must lead to

a profit. In fact, the price element offers a seemingly
straightforward way to fuel growth, since even a 1%
increase in price can increase profits 11%, on average.
Yet many companies still fail to price their product
optimally.

Not Starbucks, though. Its approach to pricing gives

us an insightful look into how the company continues
to grow and operate profitably. Knowing that its
customers are not price-sensitive lets Starbucks
increase prices in tiny increments. This means the
company can continually move its pricing upward,
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toward the highest amount customers are willing to
COMPE T IT I VE
pay, without causing them to stop buying. INT ELLIG ENC E

How to Do a
3. Lego
Howbecame the world’s
to Use Alexa most Resources
Marketing valuable toy brand
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Marketing
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with “Promotion.“ Analysis
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“Promotion” refers to the way you communicate with
potential customers. It includes what you say, who you
say it to, what channels you use to reach them, and
how often you do it. Activities in the promotional mix
fall within advertising, PR, direct marketing, and
personal selling and can encompass search engine
marketing, social media, billboards and signage, print
advertising, and much more.

Promotion plays a significant part in growth because

it makes it possible for potential customers to hear
about you. For Lego, it meant a spectacular
turnaround from deficits and layoffs, becoming the
“world’s most valuable toy brand,” valued at $7.57
billion.

The company had been facing decline until it turned to

branded entertainment to connect with customers. It
created movies in partnership with franchises like Star
Wars and Batman, and it created a YouTube channel
that became one of YouTube’s most popular, with 5
million subscribers. It also encouraged user-generated
content within its Lego Life online community and on
YouTube, allowing its own customers to market its
products. Large brands may consider embracing
promotion via its users a risky move, but it paid off for
Lego.

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4. Chick-fil-A uses “Place” to sell more than any
COMPE T IT I VE
other restaurant chain. INT ELLIG ENC E

How to Do a
“Place“
Howistowhere and how
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Marketing will make
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products available to its customers. It includes the Analysis
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channels a company uses to sell its products, such as Boosts
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local stores, ecommerce websites, personal networks,
direct sales, affiliates, and so on. It also includes
logistics such as distribution centers, product
transport, and warehouses and inventory.

Despite the fact that Chick-fil-A has fewer locations

than competitors and only operates six days a week,
the chain has become the third-largest restaurant
chain in America. Some experts think that is because
of Chick-fil-A’s great focus on selecting locations for
new stores. It has invested heavily in location
technology to help it evaluate sites, looking at
psychographic and demographic data to determine
potential. It also supports local communities by taking
great care that its locations do not put individual store
owners in competition with each other.

5. Bonjoro Focused on “People” to become one of

the fastest-growing apps.      
The “People” component of the marketing mix
COMPE T IT I VE
encompasses everyone who is on your team. This INT ELLIG ENC E

includes managers, customer service reps, product How to Do a

How to production
engineers, Use Alexa  workers,
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salespeople,  Log in START YOUR FREE TRIAL
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support staff. It also includes the hierarchy of Analysis
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relationships at an organization, which is meant to
help employees get things done efficiently and work
together smoothly.

Bonjoro, a video-sharing tool, has become one of the

fastest-growing apps on Zapier, very likely because of
its focus on people. The company capitalizes on the
people surrounding its brand to communicate what
the product does and why it’s useful. It features its
own staff — and its customers — in all its videos. The
CEO even appears in videos on its site wearing the
company’s mascot costume. This focus on people can
help a brand connect with its audience on a more
intimate, personal level.

6. Zara’s unique feedback “Process” lets it launch

designs ahead of other clothing retailers.

“Process” in the marketing mix refers to the flow that a

company uses to deliver its product or service to the
customer. This includes the logistics involved in
building and marketing a product, from R&D through
to the final production line. It can also extend to how
the marketing team works together to create
campaigns.

Thanks to automation and advanced technology,

companies can take advantage of software and tools
to create a competitive advantage stemming from
processes. Improving processes helps businesses      
improve productivity to increase profits. It can also
COMPE T IT I VE
increase a company’s speed to market, giving it first- INT ELLIG ENC E

mover advantage. How to Do a

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Take, for example, how retail fashion giant Zara gets

new clothing designs into its stores quickly. The
company has built its innovation process around
customer feedback, using its stores to gather input
and then communicate it to its designers. This
streamlined approach lets its designers quickly
incorporate new designs, so the company can fill its
shelves with the latest trends before its competitors
do.

The customer-feedback process has meant more than

just speed for Zara. It has reduced the company’s
reliance on promotion. Though the company spends
very little on advertising — just 0.3% of sales — it has
built an avid following, thanks to involving fans in the
innovation process. The company boasts over 30
million Instagram followers and 28 million Facebook
fans.

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7. By Chloe, the restaurant, raised $31 million in
COMPE T IT I VE
funding as it tapped into a new trend in “Physical INT ELLIG ENC E

Evidence.”
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“Physical evidence” includes tangible items that a Analysis
Analysis
forThat
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customer can see or touch, like documentation, Boosts
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receipts, product reviews, demos, packaging, your
website, and other materials that provide information
about your brand. It functions as proof for the
customer that the company or product lives up to its
promises.

For a restaurant, the components that make up

ambiance or dining atmosphere can function as
physical evidence: the colors and decor, menu
designs, even staff uniforms. While these things have
always been important to restaurants, some new
operators are blazing the way with a bold new angle
on physical evidence that, until recently, no one
thought to incorporate.

New vegan fast-food chain By Chloe, which raised $31

million to expand its concept, is optimizing the
physical evidence it provides patrons to grow a
thriving audience. The tangible aspects of its unique
dining experience — bright colors, modern interior
design, and visually appealing menu — are suited
perfectly for the sort of tantalizing photos that are
popular on Instagram. The Instagram hashtag
#bychloe has been used over 30,000 times. This sort
of viral exposure can capture new customers and help
reduce the need for company-led promotion.

The benefits of marketing mix elements that emerge

as fundamental to a company’s growth can spill over      
into the other elements. We saw this in Slack’s
COMPE T IT I VE
relentless focus on its product, which also provided INT ELLIG ENC E

the vehicle for its promotion. We can say the same for
How to Do a
How to strategy,
By Chloe’s Use Alexawhich
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uses physical evidence
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fuel promotion, for example. Analysis
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Importance of Marketing Mix:

7Ps in Your Growth Strategy
The benefits of a marketing mix analysis can make all
the difference when it comes to growing your
business. With the marketing mix model on hand, you
can start to think of ways to apply the 7Ps. Consider
each element — product, price, place, promotion,
people, processes, and physical evidence — and how
your firm approaches each. What about how your
competitors approach them? Can you spot
opportunities to apply any of the 7Ps differently to
capture a competitive advantage?

Read more about competitive analysis and explore

Alexa’s tools for competitor and market analysis with
a free 14-day trial of our Advanced Plan today.

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