Marketing Mix: The Formula to Bind a Marketing Campaign!

What is ‘marketing’ in the first place?

To state it simply, marketing is – putting the right product, at the correct price, in the right place, at the correct time – for the right consumer. Yes! It’s that simple!

However, there’re a lot of things that go into this simple process. Let’s address a few of the queries:

1. How to find the right product?
2. How to understand consumer behavior or what’s the market expectation at the moment?
3. What price will represent the product’s value?
4. Which is the right place to launch that product? Or where do customers search for it mostly?

Problem is – one wrong choice and the whole chain breaks!

This is where the concept of ‘marketing mix’ comes in, to streamline your planning and lead you towards a well-strategized marketing plan.

Marketing mix – Elaborating the idea:

As The Economics Times has defined it, marketing mix is a set of actions that companies use for promoting their brand, product or service in the market.

Again, it is also the set of tools (the P’s) that a company binds together for generating the expected response from its niche market. You can alter the mix elements to get the desired result or introduce a product as a new offer.

P’s of Marketing mix:

Marketing mix has a predominant association with these P’s –

• 4P’s of marketing
• 7P’s of service marketing
• 4C’s of theories (1990)

4P’s of marketing –

1. Jerome McCarthy was the first to propose this tool (in 1960) which is extensively used as a framework for marketing decisions today. The 4P’s include –         

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion

However, being a traditional method, many theorists suggested the need for a modification in this framework. This was especially for service marketers.

However, being a traditional method, many theorists suggested the need for a modification in this framework. This was especially for service marketers.

7P’s of service marketing –

Before understanding 7 elements, here’s what service marketer or service marketing is.

Nowadays, the world economy is progressively referred to as a service economy due to the contribution of service sectors. According to the American Marketing Association, “Activities, benefits and satisfaction either offered to customers for sale or are provided along with the sale of goods and services.”

Defining it more simply, service marketing is selling an intangible product; i.e., something which has no physical existence. Some common examples are vehicle rental services, medical treatment, physics lessons, assignment help services, etc.

Now, coming to the elements of service marketing, these are the 7 P’s (traditional 4 + 3 more):

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion
• Process
• People
• Physical Evidence

4Cs of marketing mix: 

Developed in 1990 by Robert F. Lauterborn, it’s nothing but a modification of 4P’s of the mix and you can consider it as an extended part of this cycle. So, what are the components?

• Cost (Price) – This includes all the costs including cost of time, cost of conscience and cost of guilt – everything that is included in the cost of product ownership.
• Consumer Needs (Product) – The concept is that, the product should be such that consumers want or need.
• Communication (Promotion) – While ‘promotion’ is manipulative; communication is something ‘cooperative’. According to Lauterborn, businesses should initiate an open forum for directly talking with potential consumers regarding their demands.
• Convenience (Place) – This signifies that the product should be placed at different visible distribution points. Marketers should understand the convenient places where buyers wish to purchase.

Note:

Several essential factors come into convenience including –

Finding a particular product, finding its information, ease of purchasing, consumer’s preference of channels to make a purchase, possible hurdles that consumers face, ways to eradicate the barriers, your available customer support.

All of these simply mean how you can make it easier for the customers to avail your product or service.

What other reasons signify the importance of marketing mix?

1. Helps in new product development
2. Enhance the product portfolio in case of modifications
3. Works as a guide for a business’ improvement
4. Initiates a successful marketing campaign
5. Most importantly, helps in creating a clean mix
6. Finally, prepares a business to be dynamic and ready for crisis management

Remember that, all the elements in the marketing highly influence each other. Therefore, the concept demands a lot of understanding, in-depth marketing research and an extensive consultation with everyone in the cycle.