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. Today the marketing mix increasingly includes several other Ps like Packaging, Positioning, People and even Politics as vital mix elements.
The importance of 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 can cost you time to recover. The marketing mix needs understanding and market research.
Marketing Mix 7P’s
Product
A product is an item that is built or produced to satisfy the needs of a certain group of people. The product can be intangible or tangible as it can be in the form of services or goods.
A product has a certain life cycle that includes the growth phase, the maturity phase, and the sales decline phase. Marketers must also create the right product mix and ask yourself these question:
What does the client want from the service or product?
How will the customer use it?
Where will the client use it?
What features must the product have to meet the client’s needs?
Are there any necessary features that you missed out?
Are you creating features that are not needed by the client?
What’s the name of the product?
Does it have a catchy name?
What are the sizes or colors available?
How is the product different from the products of your competitors?
What does the product look like?
Price
Price is also a very important component of a marketing plan as it determines your firm’s profit and survival. Adjusting the price of the product has a big impact on the entire marketing strategy as well as greatly affecting the sales and demand of the product.
If a company is new to the market and has not made a name for themselves yet, it is unlikely that your target market will be willing to pay a high price.
Pricing always help shape the perception of your product in consumers eyes. Always remember that a low price usually means an inferior good in the consumer’s eyes as they compare your good to a competitor.
Consequently, prices too high will make the costs outweigh the benefits in customer’s eyes, and they will therefore value their money over your product. Be sure to examine competitors pricing and price accordingly.
When setting the product price there are three major pricing strategies, and these are:
Market penetration pricing
Market skimming pricing
Neutral pricing
Here are some of the important questions that you should ask yourself when you are setting the product price:
How much did it cost you to produce the product?
What is the customers’ perceived product value?
Do you think that the slight price decrease could significantly increase your market share?
Can the current price of the product keep up with the price of the product’s competitors?
Place
Placement or distribution is a very important part of the product mix definition. You have to position and distribute the product in a place that is accessible to potential buyers.
This comes with a deep understanding of your target market. Understand them inside out and you will discover the most efficient positioning and distribution channels that directly speak with your market.
There are many distribution strategies, including:
- Intensive distribution
- Exclusive distribution
- Selective distribution
- Franchising
Here are some of the questions that you should answer in developing your distribution strategy:
- Where do your clients look for your service or product?
- What kind of stores do potential clients go to? Do they shop in a mall, in a regular brick and mortar store, in the supermarket, or online?
- How do you access the different distribution channels?
- How is your distribution strategy different from your competitors?
- Do you need a strong sales force?
- Do you need to attend trade fairs?
- Do you need tosell in an online store?
Promotion
Promotion is a very important component of marketing as it can boost brand recognition and sales. Promotion is comprised of various elements like:
- Sales Organization
- Public Relations
- Advertising
- Sales Promotion
Advertising typically covers communication methods that are paid for like television advertisements, radio commercials, print media, and internet advertisements. In contemporary times, there seems to be a shift in focus offline to the online world.
Public relations, on the other hand, are communications that are typically not paid for. This includes press releases, exhibitions, sponsorship deals, seminars, conferences, and events.
Word of mouth is also a type of product promotion. Word of mouth is an informal communication about the benefits of the product by satisfied customers and ordinary individuals. The sales staff plays a very important role in public relations and word of mouth.
It is important to not take this literally. Word of mouth can also circulate on the internet. Harnessed effectively and it has the potential to be one of the most valuable assets you have in boosting your profits online. An extremely good example of this is online social media and managing a firm’s online social media presence.
In creating an effective product promotion strategy, you need to answer the following questions:
- How can you send marketing messages to your potential buyers?
- When is the best time to promote your product?
- Will you reach your potential audience and buyers through television ads?
- Is it best to use the social media in promoting the product?
- What is the promotion strategy of your competitors?
People
Of both target market and people directly related to the business.
Thorough research is important to discover whether there are enough people in your target market that is in demand for certain types of products and services.
The company’s employees are important in marketing because they are the ones who deliver the service. It is important to hire and train the right people to deliver superior service to the clients, whether they run a support desk, customer service, copywriters, programmers…etc.
When a business finds people who genuinely believe in the products or services that the particular business creates, it’s is highly likely that the employees will perform the best they can.
Additionally, they’ll be more open to honest feedback about the business and input their own thoughts and passions which can scale and grow the business.
This is a secret, “internal” competitive advantage a business can have over other competitors which can inherently affect a business’s position in the marketplace.
Process
The systems and processes of the organization affect the execution of the service.
So, you have to make sure that you have a well-tailored process in place to minimize costs.
It could be your entire sales funnel, a pay system, distribution system and other systematic procedures and steps to ensure a working business that is running effectively.
Tweaking and enhancements can come later to “tighten up” a business to minimize costs and maximize profits.
Physical Evidence
In the service industries, there should be physical evidence that the service was delivered. Additionally, physical evidence pertains also to how a business and its products are perceived in the marketplace.
It is the physical evidence of a business’ presence and establishment. A concept of this is branding. For example, when you think of “fast food”, you think of McDonalds.
When you think of sports, the names Nike and Adidas come to mind.
You immediately know exactly what their presence is in the marketplace, as they are generally market leaders and have established a physical evidence as well as psychological evidence in their marketing.
They have manipulated their consumer perception so well to the point where their brands appear first in line when an individual is asked to broadly “name a brand” in their niche or industry.
Marketing Mix Strategies
Cultural Marketing
Database Marketing
Direct Mail Marketing
Direct Marketing
Direct Marketing
Diversity Marketing
Drip Marketing
Email Marketing
Evangelism Marketing
Event Marketing
Free Sample Marketing
Freebie Marketing
Guerrilla Marketing
Humanistic
Marketing
Inbound Marketing
Mass Marketing Mobile Marketing
Newsletter Marketing
Niche Marketing
Offline Marketing
Online Marketing
Outbound Marketing
Personalized Marketing
PR Marketing
Promotional Marketing
Relationship Marketing
Reverse Marketing
Scarcity Marketing
Seasonal Marketing
Search Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Telemarketing
Tradeshow Marketing
Transactional Marketing
Undercover Marketing
Viral Marketing
Word of Mouth Marketing
Alliance Marketing
Ambush Marketing
Article Marketing
B2B Marketing
B2C Marketing
Brand Lover Marketing
Call to Action (CTA) Marketing
Cause Marketing
Cloud Marketing
Content Marketing
Community Marketing
Cross-Media Marketing