Marketing Mix

Marketing Mix History

Marketing mix is one of the important topics of marketing. The idea of this term is generated back in 1948 by James Culliton he said marketing decision should be the result of something like receipt. It analogues to the the restaurants offer same recipe but customer always go for the tasty one. The idea of recipe was further  refined by Neil Borden and coined the term ‘Marketing Mix’. In 1960’s E.Jerome McCarthy elaborate the term in more details by classifying the term into  4Ps concept are product,price,place and promotion.

Marketing Mix Definition

Marketing mix is the decision which came out as the result of blending the 4P’s to stimulate the demand of firm product and services. Marketing mix can be also defined as the tactical,strategic and controllable marketing tool contain product,price,place and promotion use by the firm to generate response from the target market.

Marketing Mix Variables

Product

Product are the goods and services offered by the company to the target market.Marketing mix use in a variety of ways by the firms to pursue the customer to buy and use their products. The variety of options that firm can adopt came out from only four variable product,price,place and promotion. Some firms like to focus on their product so they will spend more on product packaging,quality,design,features,brand name and service, to offer the high brand products and services to the target market. Such as Mercedes Benz is an expensive car  but have its own niche market people feel proud to buy and drive the car just because of the product is completely differentiated from their competitors having numerous features.

Price

Price is the amount which is paid by the customer to buy the product and service.Price can also attract customer towards firm products and services such as Southwest Airlines offer low price services to their customers by offering normal service. It means they want to capture the target market on cost differentiation not on product differentiation.The price variables encompassed the following factors such list price,discount,allowances,payment period and credit terms.

Place

Place are the set of activities which allow the firm to spread the availability of the products and services for the customers. Physical existence is not the only criteria of place but virtual firms like amazon,eBay is also the part of third P(place). Wal-Mart with the huge number of retail outlets around the world move them to the number one company in the world.

Promotion

Promotion is the way of communication to the customer about firms products and services. The other 3Ps (product,price and place) message is transferred via the 4th P(promotion), target market feel happy to know about the new product and services offered to them. Price factor in marketing mix encompassed the following factors channels,coverage,assortments,locations,inventory.transportation and logistics.

Marketing mix perspective

There are two perspective of marketing mix one is from buyer point of view and other is from customer point of view.

Seller marketing mix

The firm see themselves as the seller of the product the above discussion about the 4P’s tells the benefits of the seller not the customer.

Buyer marketing mix

Buyer looking toward the offering not as the 4P’s, buyer is searching a solution within the product if the needs and wants are meet then first P(product) match the customer first C(customer solution). Buyer always wish to get a good retail price for the product to increase his profit margin  but its not the thing most of the customers are not rarely bother about the price of the product,what they are looking for? is the cost of the product which they have to bare by acquiring,using,maintaining,storing and disposing the product. The second P(price) should take care of second C(customer cost) will lead the product towards the success, customer feel easy to buy the product at good market price.

Firm offer their product at many location does not means that their availability is high, deep analysis is required before selecting the location for firm product and services. Firm must look third customer C(convenience) for the buyer third P (place).Firms most of the time promote their product by spending huge amount on advertising,personal selling,sales promotion and public relation. Marketing budget is not the only thing to promote the product,what  matters is the communication message to the target market, seller should find out whether the message is quite clear to change the perception of the buyer,to make them understand about the product,to communicate the merits of the product,channels are appropriate or not. If the firm find the answers of these question then their promotion strategy will work otherwise its a waste of money.

Criticism on Marketing Mix

There are several criticism of marketing mix that why many versions of the marketing mix are available on different text books.Some critics feel that the four P’s omit the important activities such as service, the answer for this question is that service is considered in product it does mean that service start with S so it can’t be the part of the first P(Product). It’s not matter whether their are four P’s,six P’s or eight P’s the thing is marketing manager can take a better decision by properly blending the variables.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...