Marketing mix

Marketing
Key concepts
Product marketing · Pricing Distribution · Service · Retail Brand management Account-based marketing Ethics · Effectiveness · Research Segmentation · Strategy · Activation Management · Dominance
Promotional content
Advertising · Branding · Underwriting Direct marketing · Personal sales Product placement · Publicity Sales promotion · Sex in advertising Loyalty marketing · SMS marketing Premiums · Prizes
Promotional media
Printing · Publication · Broadcasting Out-of-home advertising · Internet Point of sale · Merchandise Digital marketing · In-game advertising In-store demonstration · Word-of-mouth Brand ambassador · Drip marketing · Visual merchandising
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The term "marketing mix" was coined in 1953 by Neil Borden in his American Marketing Association presidential address. However, this was actually a reformulation of an earlier idea by his associate, James Culliton, who in 1948 described the role of the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients", who sometimes follows recipes prepared by others, sometimes prepares his own recipe as he goes along, sometimes adapts a recipe from immediately available ingredients, and at other times invents new ingredients no one else has tried. The marketing mix (price, product, distribution, promotion) forms the entire promotional campaign. As stated in “Management of a Sales Force” by Rosann L. Spiro, Gregory A. Rich, and William J. Stanton, “when these are effectively blended, they form a marketing program that provides want-satisfying goods and services for the company’s market." The term became popular in the article written by Niel Borden called “The Concept of the Marketing Mix.” He started teaching the term to many after he himself learned about it with an associate. The marketing mix is a broad concept which includes several aspects of marketing which all inquire to obtain a similar goal of creating awareness and customer loyalty. The marketing mix is not only an important concept, but a guideline to reference back to when implementing the price, promotion, product, and distribution. Those are the four main ingredients of the marketing mix, but there are other components not already mentioned on the Wikipedia site, including, planning, branding, packaging, display, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, servicing, and physical handling. All in all the current description of the marketing mix is accurate, but missing some vital pieces of information which will allow individuals to gain a better understanding and implement a more effective marketing mix.^[1] A prominent marketer, E. Jerome McCarthy, proposed a Four P classification in 1960, which has seen wide use.

Four 'P's

Elements of the marketing mix are often referred to as the "Four 'P's", a phrase used since the 1960's

• Product - It is a tangible good or an intangible service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. Intangible products are service based like the tourism industry & the hotel industry or codes-based products like cellphone load and credits. Typical examples of a mass produced tangible object are the motor car and the disposable razor. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass produced service is a computer operating system. Packaging also needs to be taken into consideration. Every product is subject to a life-cycle including a growth phase followed by an eventual period of decline as the product approaches market saturation. To retain its competitiveness in the market, product differentiation is required and is one of the strategies to differentiate a product from its competitors.

• Price – The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product.
• Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketeer may use in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements: advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion. A certain amount of crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principal elements together, which is common in film promotion. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and Internet adverts through print media and billboards. Public relations are where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations (see Product above).
• Place – A way of getting the product to the consumer and/or how easily accessible it is to consumers.

Any organization, before introducing its products or services into the market, conducts a market survey. The sequence of all 'P's as above is very much important in every stage of product life cycle Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline.

In recent years the 4 P's have been updated to include several more factors. Some people even go up to as many as 27 P's.^{[citation needed]}

Four 'C's

Robert F. Lauterborn proposed a four Cs classification in 1993.^[2] The Four Cs model is more consumer-oriented and attempts to better fit the movement from mass marketing to niche marketing.

• Product part of the Four Ps model is replaced by Consumer or Consumer Models, shifting the focus to satisfying the consumer needs. Another C replacement for Product is Capable. By defining offerings as individual capabilities that when combined and focused to a specific industry, creates a custom solution rather than pigeon-holing a customer into a product.
• Pricing is replaced by Cost reflecting the total cost of ownership. Many factors affect Cost, including but not limited to the customer's cost to change or implement the new product or service and the customer's cost for not selecting a competitor's product or service.
• Promotions feature is replaced by Communication which represents a broader focus than simply Promotions. Communications can include advertising, public relations, personal selling, viral advertising, and any form of communication between the firm and the consumer.
• Placement is replaced by Convenience. With the rise of internet and hybrid models of purchasing, Place is becoming less relevant. Convenience takes into account the ease of buying the product, finding the product, finding information about the product, and several other factors.

See also

• Marketing activation
• Real-time marketing

References

1. ^ Banting, Peter; Ross, Randolph E.. "SpringerLink - Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Volume 1, Number 1". SpringerLink. http://www.springerlink.com/content/mn58860185200184/. Retrieved 2010-11-12. 
2. ^ Don E. Schullz, Stanley I. Tannenbaum, Robert F. Lauterborn(1993)“Integrated Marketing Communications,”NTC Business Books, a division of NTC Publishing Group.

"Marketing, The Core". 4th Edition. Kerin, Hartley and Rudelius. McGraw Hill Publishing 2001.

External links

• Marketing Mix (bitesize 4P's) British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Schools.
• [1] The Marketing Mix of IMC.
• [2] Four P’s, Four C’s And The Consumer Revolution.
• Marketing Mix Theory The Times 100 Business Case Studies.