The Marketing Mix
There are many items or situations that require a well-balanced mixture in order to be successful. For instance, a cake mix requires a specified amount of each item, otherwise the cake might be too sweet or just not good at all if the ingredients aren't mixed right. The same is true with marketing. Marketing requires a good mixture in order to be successful in the final sale of the product at a profit. The following will discuss what the marketing mix is and a brief history of the marketing mix. It will also discuss further in detail the four P's of the marketing mix, as well as, show the relation of the marketing mix to a product offered by Verizon Communications.
The History of the Marketing Mix and the Four P's
The term "marketing mix" has been dated to originate sometime in the late 1940's. Neil H. Borden, a teacher at the time, began using the term after James Culliton had described the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients". The term "marketing mix" gained its popularity in 1964 when Borden published his article, The Concept of the Marketing Mix. Borden's original marketing mix included product planning, pricing, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, and fact finding and analysis. The ingredients of Borden's original marketing mix were later regrouped by E. Jerome McCarthy into what is known today as the 4 P's of marketing: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion (NetMBA, 2006).
The product area is the emphasis in developing the right product or service for the target market. In the case of physical products, it also refers to any services or conveniences that are part of the offering (quickmba, 2004). In the product area of the marketing mix there are certain strategy decision areas that will need to be addressed. A company needs to decide what the physical good or service is. Once the general idea of the product is decided, the company will need to address other area such as: features, benefits, quality level, accessories, installation, instructions, warranty, product lines, packaging and branding (Perreault, 2004). These are all general areas that the company will need to address in order to meet the needs and expectations of the consumer.
The price of the product or service is the next P in the marketing mix.
Kotler and Keller (2014) develop on what product represents in the marketing mix, as the idea centers around its design, quality and packaging. Continuing with the Four P model, price should be considered when marketing a product. The price component asks one to determine the list price, discounts, allowances, and payment period of a product (Kotler & Keller, 2014). Finally, Kotler and Keller (2014) list promotion and place as the final two variables associated with the older Four Ps. Promotion deals with how a product is advertised and what type of sales force will be utilized, while place is associated with the channels and locations for which your product will be featured (Kotler & Keller,
According to Jobber et al (1998) the marketing mix is ` the tactical `toolkit' of product, place/distribution, promotion and price that an organisation can control in order to facilitate satisfying exchange'. The following is Sainsbury's current marketing mix strategy.
A. The marketing mix is the main tools that help out the company to be successful; there are the four ps of the marketing mix which are:
The marketing mix, which is basic to any organization, can be considered the ‘controllable’ variables that every business encounters. These controllable variables can be modified based on the uncontrollable variables (external factors found in Environmental Scan) that directly affect business operations. A company focuses on four elements in the marketing mix: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, which are managed and coordinated through marketing programs in efforts to appeal to their target market. Marketers strive to understand what motivates consumers to purchase certain products. The marketing mix helps to break down some of these questions: What will consumers buy? How much will they spend? Where will they buy? And will they buy again?
Marketing is a process of determining a consumer’s needs, devising a product or service to satisfy those needs, and trying to focus customers on the goods and services you are offering. Marketing is extremely important, and a fundamental building block for business growth. A marketing team is given the task of creating customer awareness through a variety of different marketing techniques. If a business does not pay close attention to their consumer demographic and needs, they will eventually fail over time. Two important aspects of marketing include acquiring new customers, and the preservation and growth of relationships with current customers. Marketing has always been viewed as a creative outlet, which encompassed advertising, distribution, and the selling of goods and services. Marketing staff will also try to anticipate what customers will want in the future, often being accomplished with market research. In summation, a good marketing plan should be able to create a favorable proposition or series of benefits that a customer can value through goods or services. The marketing mix is normally described as the strategic positioning of a product or service in the marketplace, using the specification of the four Ps. During the early 1960’s, Professor E. Jerome McCarthy of Harvard Business School stated that a marketing mix contains four elements. The four key points are product, pricing, promotion, and placement. It is recognized that all these aspects must be present to ensure a successful business model within a given industry. We will now take a thorough look at the four marketing mix points.
When a business aims to be as successful as possible in selling its products and services, it must examine in detail whether or not the products will be attractive and necessary; if the price is optimal; if the product is being distributed in the best locations; and finally, how interest and awareness can be created for the products. In order for a business to target all of these elements at the right people at the right time, it must employ the right type of marketing mix: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
The marketing mix is for the most part made up of four elements, and they are product, place, price, and promotion. These elements are time and again referred to as the four P’s. Countless sources will portray the marketing mix as a formula used in creating a feasible marketing strategy, with each component utilized in various ways and in different intervals supported depending upon the product or service the group or individual is attempting to market. The marketing mix will be described using three sources to illustrate the elements of the marketing mix. It will also express how each one of the four elements of the marketing mix impacts the expansion of an organization’s marketing strategy and tactics.
The 4 Ps of the marketing mix are: Product, Promotion, Price, and Place. The marketing mix puts the right products, at the right price point, in the right place, at the right time. The following examines how Claire’s Chocolates optimizes its marketing mix (Yoo, Donthu, & Lee, 2000, 195-196).
The marketing mix is a tool which is used by the organisations to develop and implement efficient and effective marketing strategies in the workplace. The marketing mix consists of a number of factors which are related to the organisation, its business model and its products. In this section of the report we will discuss the importance of the marketing mix in the marketing strategy implemented by McDonalds. Along with the significance of the marketing mix in the marketing strategy of McDonalds, we will also discuss a number of constituent factors of the marketing mix deployed by McDonalds (Bal, 2015).
Meanwhile, price strategies are important to be considered by every marketer before market a new product into a new market. Basically, the price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer’s perceived value of the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product.
A market research is described as the process of collecting valuable information to help find out if there is a market for a particular proposed product or service. Safe Paint Manufacturing conducted a survey and interview to determine if the idea of scented paints were feasible. The records revealed that 78% of the respondents stated that they are interested in the products. Marketing mix variables is a crucial tool to help understand what the product or service can offer and how to plan for a successful product offering. The marketing mix used is mainly executed through the 4 P 's of marketing: Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. The product refers to the service or tangible good that satisfies the target customer’s wants–it is obviously first essential that a real target market is identified, quantified and justified. The place refers to placement usually managed by sales or OEM, such as having the product available where and when targeted customers want to buy it. Promotion includes Advertising, PR, Event Marketing, Online Marketing, Direct Marketing, Personal Selling, Channel Marketing, and Alliances. Price consists of the policies regarding competitive upgrades, reseller pricing, discounts, list price, distributor and street price the actual selling
Also known as the 4 P's of marketing, the mix includes an assessment of the roles your product, place or distribution, price and promotion play in your overall approach to marketing.
In marketing there is a mix which consists of types and amounts of controllable variable that a company will use over time. (Wensveen, 2011) The four variables are known as the “Four P’s”, these variables are:
The factors that have a great influence on marketing management, marketers’ business decision-making, and their relationship with customers include macro- and micro-environment, and the latter in turn includes the concept of so-called “4 P’s” (i.e., product, place, promotion, and price). Micro-environment is also referred to as “immediate environment” and stands for the factors that are literally “close” to a certain company: its suppliers, customers, intermediaries (e.g., advertising agencies), and competitors (“Marketing environment,” n.d.) Four P’s are also called “the marketing mix,” and their most widely used interpretation belongs to McCarthy (Blythe, 2008). The marketing mix indicates the four aspects of how to make your business profitable and yourself proficient as a marketing specialist. As Cannon (1992) pointed out, “The marketing mix is the set of controllable variables that the firm can use to influence the buyer’s response.” First, the business person needs to understand what the product of consumer’s desire is. It is obvious that “an undesired product” will not be sold. Producers, however, may invent something that consumers even did not expect to have but really wanted, at least, unconscious...
A marketing mix is what businesses use to detail the main functions of business marketing and do into further explanation as of how those functions influence the success or failure of a business. There are several different marketing mix tools, the four P’s is a very useful tool explaining the main functions of a marketing mix. A basic way of describing the marketing mix is the four P’s: Product,Place, Price, Promotion. A very important part of understanding how to use this tool is asking yourself questions that will help you understand each individual part of the marketing mix. Many people use this process to check their existing business to see if there are improvements to be made. The four P’s marketing mix system could also be used before starting a new business or offering a new product to give yourself guidelines on how to run your new business.