|
1. History
The term \"marketing mix\" became popularized after Neil H. Borden published his 1964 article, The Concept of the Marketing Mix.
The ingredients in Borden\'s marketing mix included product planning, pricing, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, and fact finding and analysis.
E. Jerome McCarthy later grouped these ingredients into the four categories that today are known as the 4 P\'s of marketing.
2. The 4 P's
The marketing decisions generally fall into the following four controllable categories:
Product
Price
Place (distribution)
Promotion
Target Market
Product
Price
Promotion
Place
These four P\'s are the parameters that the marketing manager can control, subject to the internal and external constraints of the marketing environment. The goal is to make decisions that center the four P\'s on the customers in the target market in order to create perceived value and generate a positive response.
2.1 Product Decisions
You firstly need to identify who will be interested in buying your products and services, this should be identified once you have analysed the results of the market research. Your market research data will be able to look more closely at what your market wants and then look at your products to see if they are satisfying your customer\'s needs. Examine your packaging design, materials used, size and quantity. By analysing the market and its requirements, you will be able to change the product or develop the product in order to match the requirements of the people you are aiming at.
You also need to remember that your customer\'s needs are likely to change and therefore your products should constantly change to reflect each market change, if you ignore these changes your products will no longer be needed or desired by your target customers. The only way you will be able to do this is to track your products and track how your customers are still receiving your products and services, balancing the subtle changes as they occur.
Product Phases are:
· Introductory Phase
· Growth Phase
· Maturity Phase
· Decline Phase
2.2 Price Decisions
Changing the product to reflect the product\'s life cycle is only part of the essence of a well balanced marketing mix, and so PRICE enters the second important consideration of the marketing mix. When setting a price on a range for your products, you need to ensure that you can recoup any overheads, compete with rival companies and charge a price your customers are willing to pay. To do this you need to fine tune your pricing policy and you could achieve this in a number of ways:
· Loss Leader Pricing
· Penetration Pricing
· Price Skimming
· Differential Pricing
2.3. Place (Distribution) Decisions
Place simply refers to how you will sell your products to your customers. Depending on what it is you are selling will directly influence how you distribute it, and it affects mainly those businesses that are in production.
If for example you own a small retail outlet or offer a service to your local community then you are at the end of the distribution chain and will be directly supplying a variety of products directly to the customer.
However, if you are a producer, the method of distribution is extremely important as it could affect how your product is received and how it sells.
Ways of distribution:
· Direct Supply / Direct Sale
· Direct to retailer
· Wholesaler, merchant or agent supplier
2.4. Promotion Decisions
The fourth part of the marketing mix refers to the process of informing your customers of your company\'s products.
To make your customers aware that your products exist, there are a number of methods you may choose to use, they include:
Media Advertising (television, magazines, Internet, radio)
Personal selling (involving a sales person)
Non-personal communication (persuasion advertising - competitions, free samples.
Other promotional types include public relation exercises and free publicity.
Promotion needs to be carefully planned, and it is usual to decide on a new promotional plan each year. There should be one main objective to the promotion campaign and that particular emphasis should be projected during a certain time to a certain market segment.
3. The Summary
The target of every marketing oriented company has to be the optimizing of the marketing mix. The firm has to coordinate the single Marketing instruments so that they support the company by the main targets like making money.
|
