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Formulation of a strong and successful marketing plan is of utmost importance for any marketing campaign to be a success. Marketing mix is a tool used to formulate such strategies that yield all-round, long term results.

Contents

  1. Marketing Mix: Definition and Importance
  2. The Four P's of Marketing
  3. The Marketing Process (How to use Marketing Mix to your advantage)
  4. Conclusion

Marketing Mix: Definition and Importance

Marketing Mix is a guide which can be used to form successful marketing strategies. It was developed to ensure an all-rounder approach before forming marketing tactics. The four Ps (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) cover all functioning areas of a business, hence this tool helps businesses take a more comprehensive marketing approach.

It can be defined as the culmination of the major forces of market, namely product, price, place, and promotion. It helps achieve your marketing targets, as marketing mix functions as a monitoring variable to such goals by defining a table of progress, divided under relevant heads. For example, place mix can be used to monitor how far the reach of your product is physically, and how the expansion of the same is going.

The Four Ps of Marketing

The 4 P's of marketing infographic
Products for sale

Product is any good that a business offers for sale, or any services it is ready, willing, and qualified to provide under such circumstances deemed contractual by expression or conduct. In other words, Product is anything, real or psychological, that a business is ready to provide for monetary gain. As a marketing Mix, Product is an essential element as it is necessary to understand the product, and therefore its market conditions for any business to go about a successful marketing campaign.

Competitive pricing

Pricing decisions affects a lot of variables, from directly affecting profit margins and gains, to indirectly affecting growth, promotion, and everything up to the survival of the business. Under oligopoly market however, there is only minimum pricing liberty. Any price fluctuations and a business is bound to lose or gain customers immediately, at the price of lower sales or lower profits (respectively). Therefore a concrete understanding of the type of market along with knowledge about the industry and competition is essential before making pricing decisions.

Placement of products

Physical availability of the product is also very important. It is basically following the concept of being ‘at the right place, at the right time’. Ideally Place Mix should define where your potential customers are most like to wander into; this includes online shopping portals such as Amazon.

Billboard advertisements

Through our previous articles we have always emphasised on the value of offering superior value as the key element of promotion. Promotion is basically a culmination of activities undertaken to acquire market share. Various methods such as advertisement, Public Relations, sales discounts, etc. are included under promotion. Promotion Mix looks to guide these activities, such that maximum ROI is obtained from the promotional efforts.

The Marketing Process (How to use Marketing Mix to your advantage)

To form an effective Marketing Mix that suits the requirements of your business and yields maximum results, we suggest taking the initiative for careful and constructive planning. This includes the process of industry analysis (click here), competitor analysis (click here), and advertisement analysis, as well as defining your marketing goals under the subheads of Marketing Mix and keeping a maintained checklist for the same. When implying Marketing Mix as a marketing basis, you should ask yourself the following questions:

  1. What are the products I will be dealing in? (Product Mix)
  2. What industry will I be working in? (Promotion/Product Mix)
  3. Who are my competitors? (Product Mix)
  4. What are competitors marketing strategies, and what strategies work best in my market? (Promotion Mix)
  5. How will I offer superior value to the customer in order to gain market share? (Product/promotion Mix)
  6. How will I make sure that my good are in stock according to demand?(Place Mix)
  7. Where should my goods be distributed so that they have maximum potential customer reach? (Place Mix)
  8. What will I charge for the products? How will it differ from others and what are the offers/discounts/possible loses that will be collateral to my pricing decisions? (Price Mix)

Upon answering the above questions, the best thing would be to lay down the respective goals in relevant headings and proceed with it.

Any market form is dynamic and ever changing, therefore a limitation of Marketing Mix is rigidity. You must be prepared for such changes, expected (in accordance to past changes in the industry) or unexpected.

Conclusion

While Marketing Mix is a comprehensive marketing tactic, it has some of its flaws that should be accounted for beforehand. It is a good approach for Startup businesses (click here to learn more about startup marketing). It should be used as a guide rather than as a rigid to-do list, describing your long term goals while dealing with variables as they come along.

We can help!

Symphysis believes in marketing from the ground up. With our team of dedicated experts we can help in locating your ideal market, segmentation, search engine optimization and create your own successful brand. For more information call or text @+1 (425) 390-4738 for a free initial consultation.   

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Symphysis Marketing Solutions, LLC 
A business development firm focused on growth strategies, branding strategies, and data-driven marketing for enterprise businesses, start-ups, and small businesses.
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