Concepts of Marketing Mix

Marketing Mix: The marketing mix refers to the set of actions, or tactics, that a company uses to promote its brand or product in
the market. The 4Ps make up a typical marketing mix - Price, Product, Promotion and Place. However, nowadays, the marketing mix
increasingly includes several other Ps like Packaging, Positioning, People and even Politics as vital mix elements.

Description: What are the 4Ps of marketing?

Product: refers to the item actually being sold. The product must deliver a minimum level of performance; otherwise even the best
work on the other elements of the marketing mix won't do any good.
Price: refers to the value that is put for a product. It depends on costs of production, segment targeted, ability of the market to pay,
supply - demand and a host of other direct and indirect factors. There can be several types of pricing strategies, each tied in with an
overall business plan. Pricing can also be used a demarcation, to differentiate and enhance the image of a product.
Place: refers to the point of sale. In every industry, catching the eye of the consumer and making it easy for her to buy it is the main
aim of a good distribution or 'place' strategy. Retailers pay a premium for the right location. In fact, the mantra of a successful retail
business is 'location, location, location'.
Promotion: this refers to all the activities undertaken to make the product or service known to the user and trade. This can include
advertising, word of mouth, press reports, incentives, commissions and awards to the trade. It can also include consumer schemes,
direct marketing, contests and prizes.
What is the importance of the marketing mix?
All the elements of the marketing mix influence each other. They make up the business plan for a company and handled right, can
give it great success. But handled wrong and the business could take years to recover. The marketing mix needs a lot of
understanding, market research and consultation with several people, from users to trade to manufacturing and several others.
The following points explain the importance of marketing mix.
1) It helps in a clean mix creation
Your marketing mix should have all the P’s compatible with each other. The price should be compatible with the
placement of the product. The product should be compatible with the promotion. In general, all the P’s are
intrinsically linked to each other.
As a result, when you are making a marketing mix, it becomes a chain of strong bonds. And these bonds then guide
you forward in making the chain longer. Whenever you are considering adding a new feature or changing existing
things, you have to look at the overall picture, which helps in creating a clean marketing mix for the product.
2) Marketing mix helps in New product development
 Concepts of Marketing Mix

While designing an existing product, there are any number of ideas which can come up for a related product that can
be designed by the company. The pricing, place and promotions might be different for such a product. Nonetheless,
it can be classified as a new product and hence while designing the marketing mix, the company can come up with
good ideas for NPD as well
3) Marketing mix helps increase the product portfolio
Whenever you want to increase the product depth or product line and length, you have to make minor changes to the
product. In essence, you are making minor changes in the marketing mix itself. You are making changes to the
product features, to its pricing and possible to its promotions. As a result, by altering the marketing mix and certain
features within it, you can end up with an enlarged product portfolio.
4) It is a guide to improve a business
Physical evidence was an important P in the service marketing mix. If a restaurant or an interior design business
realizes its important, then naturally they can act on it and improve the physical evidence of their business thereby
bringing in more business.
The importance of marketing mix is evident in more then a single P. People and process are important to the
organization too and optimizing both can improve the overall working of the organization. Hence, marketing mix is
an excellent guide if someone wants to improve their business and is doing gap analysis.
5) It helps in differentiation
When you analyses the marketing mix of Competitors, there are many different ways that you can differentiate
yourself from the competitor. The competitor might have poor promotions and by analyzing them, you can create
better promotions of your own product.
The competitor might have poor placement of products or he might have the wrong process or the wrong people in
place. All this can be improved upon giving you a better marketing mix and therefore a competitive advantage in
the market.
6) Finally, it helps you in being dynamic
A company which is well prepared is also prepared when disaster strikes. During recession or during a poor
business environment, a company should be ready to respond. At such times, the company needs to be dynamic in
nature. Such a company needs to understand its product, processes, people, promotions and all other P’s better. If it
understands them, it will respond with a better agility.
What Is a Digital Marketing Mix?
A digital marketing mix is how a business achieves its marketing goals using digital technologies. As more business
is done online, digital marketing tools become important to all types of businesses, not only those in the tech
industry.
A digital marketing mix follows the same principles of a traditional marketing mix. However, those elements are
adapted to the way the Internet influences new technologies and consumer behavior.
How to Identify Your Marketing Mix
To bring in early sales and build a customer base, any business must begin by identifying its marketing mix. The
first step in this process is identifying your target customer.
Once you know who your customer is, you can start to understand their relationship with your business.
 What problem does your target customer have?
 What is getting in the way of solving that problem?
 How does your product or service address that need?
 How does your target customer feel about your competitors? About you?
 What motivates your target customer to buy?
Next, identify your goals for sales and growth, as well as your budget for marketing initiatives. Then, choose a
marketing tactic that will help you reach your target audience and achieve those goals.
For example, if you need 25 leads to sell one product, and you want to sell 1,000 products this month, then you need
25,000 new leads. You know your target customer reads and trusts two different websites, one with 25,000 visitors a
month and one with one million visitors a month. The website with only 25,000 visitors a month is much less
expensive to advertise on, but it is unlikely that all 25,000 visitors will become new leads. Therefore, the website
with one million monthly visitors is a better use of your advertising budget, even if it is more expensive.By working
through the elements of your business' individual marketing mix, you'll be able to create a strategy that effectively
reaches consumers, make sales, and grows your business.
Concepts of Marketing Mix