Product. Price. Place. Promotion.
These 4 words not only sums up “what is marketing mix” for any marketer but also becomes the building blocks to conduct a marketing plan.
Marketing mix is not only just confined to these 4P’s of marketing, sometimes these 4P’s have been expanded to become 7P’s (people, physical evidence, process) which also tend to have strong influence on the buying behavior of the customers and are very much part of Marketing mix
In simple words, marketing mix is a combination of factors (PRODUCT, PRICE, PLACE, PROMOTION, PEOPLE, PHYSICAL EVIDENCE, PROCESS ) that strong influence on the market/people.
Marketing Mix = PRODUCT + PRICE +PLACE + PROMOTION + PEOPLE + PHYSICAL EVIDENCE + PROCESS
Its these 7P’s which form the base for all the future marketing strategies that businesses make. Check out what is marketing concept and how is it different from Marketing mix
Let’s have a look what is marketing mix (what these 7P’s of marketing really stand for) and why is marketing mix important for businesses to succeed.
Product:
Developing and providing a product to the customer that fulfill their needs and wants is the foremost thing that the marketers need to think about. There are 4 different stages of product development (Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline) that marketers need to think through clearly.
Marketers need to think about developing the products and the features from the customer’s point of view and not what they want the customers to use.
Example: Nokia, once a market leader in mobile phone category, saw its sales plummet by a whopping 60% in just one year and the main reason that attributed this fall was the Nokia’s refusal to adapt to changing customers’ needs and wants.
At the time when iPhone and Samsung came up with touch screens and more advanced & user-friendly operating systems, Nokia was still fixated with its qwerty keypads and Symbian Operating system, which was no longer needed by the customers and was outright rejected by them.
Price:
Devising a proper pricing strategy for the product is of crucial importance for the success of the product and the brand. In marketing mix, price plays an important role as it has a direct impact on the customer’s psychology, brand image, and the product quality.
Different factors that marketers consider while devising pricing strategy for the products are: Competitors product pricing, price which generates profit
Example: In years, iphone has managed to create an image of a premium brand in the minds of its customers, basis which it has successfully demanded a premium price for the products from its customers.
Place:
Offering a good product at a good price is just not enough, making the product available to the customer at the right place is also of utmost importance. Products need to be there where customers are likely to buy it. Choosing the right channel to reach out to the customer is important for products success and growth
Example: If you are a soft drink manufacturer and the products are not available at the grocery stores, restaurants, supermarkets, then having the first two elements of marketing mix is of no use.
Promotion:
In today’s digital age, any promotion is a good promotion. Promotion is all about communication, as a marketer, it becomes your duty to make sure that the brand/products attributes and features are communicated well to the customers.
Depending on the target audience there are different communication channels (online as well as offline) which can be used to communicate with them.
The above four are the main pillars of marketing mix and the remaining below 3 can be considered as add-ons and ancillary points which become important in-service companies which offer service as a product
The above 4 points or the 4P’s of the marketing mix are more customer-centric and gives a view as to which factors contribute to the success of a product or a brand.
The below 3 points or the 3P’s are oriented more towards the organization and discuss the internal factors which directly affects the working of the company, which in turn contributes to the success of the services or products provided to the customers. All these points add up to form the 7p’s of marketing and give you a glimpse of what is marketing mix all about
People:
Employee’s of an organization as the biggest asset that it can have. All organizations are dependent on the general population who run them from bleeding edge Sales staff to the Managing Director. Having the opportune individuals is fundamental since they are as much a piece of your business offering as the items/administrations you are putting forth.
Processes:
It has been seen that the success and the failure of the company/organization are mainly attributed to the processes that are being run in it. Having a streamlined process not only help the companies minimize their operational costs but also helps different departments in the company like sales, accounts, distribution etc to run effectively and in complete tandem.
Physical Evidence :
Almost all administrations incorporate some physical components regardless of whether the main part of what the customer is paying for is immaterial. For instance, a hair salon would give their customer a finished haircut and an insurance agency would give their clients some type of written word. Regardless of whether the material isn’t physically printed (on account of PDFs) they are as yet getting a “physical item” by this definition.
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