Understanding 'Marketing' and 'Marketing Mix or 4Ps of Marketing


Understanding 'Marketing' 
Marketing is ‘putting the right product, in the right place, at the right price, and at the right time’.

Very simple!

a. Create a product that a group of people want,
b. Place it on sale at a place where people of that group visits  regularly,
c. Price it at such a level that matches the value those people feel they get out of it;
d. Promote the product at a time that the group would buy.

Understanding the Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is useful when you are thinking through your plans for a product or service.

The marketing mix and the 4 Ps of marketing are often used as synonyms for each other. In fact, they are not necessarily the same thing.

"Marketing mix" is a general phrase used to describe the different kinds of choices organizations have to make in the whole process of bringing a product or service to market. 

The 4 Ps is one way – probably the best-known way of defining the marketing mix, and was first expressed in 1960 by E.J. McCarthy.

The 4 P’s are:
• Product
• Place
• Price
• Promotion

Here are some questions that will help you understand and define each of the four elements:

Product:

• What does the customer want from the product?
• What needs does it satisfy?
• What features does it have to meet these needs? Are there any features missed out?
• How and where will the customer use it?
• What does it look like?
• How will customers experience it?
• What size(s), colour (s), and so on, should it be?
• What is it to be called?
• How is it branded?
• How is it differentiated from the competitors?

PLACE:

• Where do buyers look for that product?
• If they look in a store, what kind? A specialist boutique or in a supermarket, or both? Or online? Or direct, via a catalogue?
• How to access the right distribution channels?
• Need to use a sales force? Or attend trade fairs? Or make online submissions? Or send samples to catalogue companies?
• What do the competitors do, and how one can learn from that?

Price:

• What is the value of the product to the buyer?
• Are there established price points for the product?
• Is the customer price sensitive?
• Will a small decrease in price gain extra market share? Or will a small increase be imperceptible, and so gain extra profit margin?
• What discounts should be offered to trade customers, or to other specific segments of the market?
• How product price is to be compared with its competitors?

Promotion:

• Where and when to get across the marketing messages to the target market?
• How to reach to the target audience? Either advertising in the press, or on TV, or radio, or on billboards? Or By using direct marketing? Through PR? On the Internet?
• What is the right time to promote?
• Is there seasonality in the market? Are there any wider environmental issues that suggest or dictate the timing of market launch, or the timing of subsequent promotions?
• How do the competitors do their promotions? And how does that influence our promotional activity?

The marketing mix model can be used to decide how to take a new offer to market. It can also be used to test the existing marketing strategy. With a well-defined marketing mix, test the product from the customer's perspective, by asking customer focused questions: 
1. Does it meet their needs? (product)
2. Will they find it where they shop? (place)
3. Will they consider it's priced favourably? (price)
4. And will the marketing communications reach them? (promotion)

Keep asking questions and keep changing the marketing mix unless and until optimising the marketing mix; given the available information and facts and figures.

Keep reviewing the marketing mix regularly, as some elements will need to change as the product, and its market, grow, mature and adapt in an ever-changing competitive environment.

Points to ponder:

Product <> Functionality, Quality, Appearance, Packaging, Brand Service, Support, Warranty.

Place <> Locations, Logistics, Channel members, Channel motivation, Market coverage, Service levels, Internet, Mobile.

Price <> List price, Discounts, Financing, Leasing, Options, Allowances.

Promotion <> Advertising,  Public Relations, Message, Direct Sales, Sales, Media, Budget

                                                                          
                                                                           +++++++

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