Marketing Mix is a rather general term that encompasses the actions implemented to improve sales and brand promotion, as it is composed of crucial factors known collectively as the 4Ps of the marketing mix: Price, Product, Promotion and Place
The marketing mix is vital to interpret the product or service that helps to prepare powerful marketing strategies.
Every company needs its own marketing mix to attract its customers so, in this article, we will discuss the definition of marketing mix, its importance, the elements of marketing mix and how to develop an effective marketing mix for your product or service
What is Marketing Mix?
The marketing mix refers to the set of actions, or tactics, that a company uses to promote its brand or product in the marketplace. It serves to ensure that it is able to offer its customers the right product, at the right time, in the right place and at the right price.
The 4Ps make up a typical marketing mix: Price, Product, Promotion and Place. However, nowadays, the marketing mix includes other P’s such as packaging, positioning, people and even politics as vital elements of the mix, making up the 7P’s. Companies use a mix of these elements in their marketing mix.
Companies use a mix of these elements of the marketing mix to generate the response they want from their audience.
Importance of the marketing mix
There are several benefits of the marketing mix that make it important to companies:
- It helps to understand what your product or service can offer your customers
- Helps plan a successful product offering
- Helps plan, develop and execute effective marketing strategies
- Helps companies leverage their strengths and avoid unnecessary costs
- Helps you to be proactive in the face of risk
- Helps determine if your product or service is right for your customers
- Helps you identify and understand customer requirements
- Helps you know when and how to promote your product or service to your customers
What are the 4Ps of marketing?
Price: refers to the value placed on a product. It depends on production costs, the target segment, the market’s ability to pay, supply and demand and many other direct and indirect factors. There can be several types of pricing strategies, each linked to an overall business plan. Pricing can also be used as demarcation, to differentiate and enhance a product’s image.
Product: refers to the item that is actually sold. The product must offer a minimum level of performance; otherwise, even the best work on the other elements of the marketing mix will not help.
Place: refers to the point of sale. In all industries, capturing the consumer’s attention and making it easy for them to buy is the main objective of a good distribution or “place” strategy. Retailers pay a premium for the right location. In fact, the mantra of a successful retail business is “location, location, location”.
Promotion: refers to all activities undertaken to make the product or service known to the user and the trade. It can include advertising, word of mouth, press reports, incentives, commissions and trade awards. It can also include consumer plans, direct marketing, contests and prizes.
What is the importance of the marketing mix?
All the elements of the marketing mix influence each other. They make up a company’s business plan and, if handled well, can make it a great success. But if handled poorly, it can take years for the company to recover. The Marketing Mix requires a lot of understanding, market research and consultation with various people, from users to trade and manufacturing, among others.
Marketing Mix vs. Product Mix
The Marketing Mix is a general term that encompasses all actions implemented to improve sales and brand promotion. It is a “mix” of factors that affect product marketing.
Whereas, Product Mix is a sales term that refers to a product line as a whole. A product line is a group of products in a category that are marketed together to increase sales volume.
Scope and Scope
Marketing Mix is a broad term that encompasses product, price, promotion, place, product development and product life cycle.
In contrast, Product Mix is a much narrower term that defines individual product lines. Product mix is a subset of the marketing mix that contains a product line within the control of the marketing department.
Nature
The marketing mix can change over time. This concept evolves according to changing circumstances, the market and customer needs.
In contrast, the Product Mix is static. The product mix is limited to the company’s product line. Therefore, variability is much lower in this case.
Importance
The Marketing Mix has multiple components. Therefore, it has a more strategic point of view.
Marketing Products , on the other hand, has a much smaller impact than the marketing mix in terms of importance and exposure. This is due to its limited scope, as it only deals with a single component.
How to identify your Marketing Mix?
Here is a short guide to the steps to follow to identify your Marketing Mix.
Step 1: Identify who your target customers are. Once you have identified your target audience and competition, next on your to-do list should be to develop a marketing mix.
Step 2: Understand your customers’ problems, needs and demands.
Step 3: Establish a way to solve their problems or satisfy their needs.
Step 4: Determine how the designed product or service solves the problem.
Step 5: Carefully study customers to understand their buying motivation.
Step 6: Identify sales targets and budget marketing expenditures accordingly.
Step 7: Finally, choose the most appropriate marketing tactic for the target customers.
how to develop your Marketing Mix?
Define your objective and set a budget
Developing an effective marketing mix starts with setting the right objectives. Establish what you want to achieve with your marketing plan: Grow sales? Acquire more customers? Build brand awareness?
Once you have set realistic and measurable goals, determine how much you are willing to spend to achieve your objectives.
Study your target customer
We reiterate this aspect because it is really important, as well as being the basis of an effective Marketing Mix. To create a product or service that your customers want to buy, you have to know who they are.
Look for different segments of your target audience and create distinct customer profiles for each of them. Consult them when developing your strategies.
Identify your unique selling proposition
Clarify what your unique selling proposition is through customer surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.
Here you will identify the benefits your product or service will bring to your customer, and how you are better at solving their problems than anyone else.
Know your competition
Conduct a competitor analysis to understand the different strategies and tactics used by your competitors. This knowledge will be especially useful when creating your pricing strategy
Record important information about your competitors in a competitor profile. Learn how to conduct an effective competitor analysis.
Identify the unique characteristics of your product
Write down the unique qualities and value of your product. You can build on these when marketing it to your customers.
You can use the following mind map to identify the unique features of your product.
Create a pricing strategy
Using the competitor research you have done, create a pricing strategy. Make sure you have not overpriced or underpriced your product.
Choose your distribution channels and promotion methods
Choose the channels through which you will distribute your product based on the type of product or service and your target customer. Also select the promotional techniques you want to choose based on your budget and, again, your customer and your product.
what do you think about the development of the Marketing Mix and would you use it?