Marketing Mix

Marketing mix is a business term that refers to the tool used in marketing. Utilizing marketing mix when determining a product or brand goes hand-in-hand with the 4P 's price, product, promotion, and place. Marketing mix is required for organizations when planning or implementing new marketing strategies. When planning an effective market strategy it is essential to utilize these elements to develop an effective plan..

The Marketing Mix provides an excellent framework for developing marketing plan. They are generally accepted as being made up of four parts which are:

Marketing Mix – four marketing activities; Price, Product, Distribution, Promotion that a firm can control to meet the needs of customers within its target markets.

According to an article from ‘Supply & Demand Chain Executive’ written by (DelMonte, 2007) states what is the marketing mix: “is putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.’ The marketing mix is an implement which is needed and it is much utilized in today’s working industries for managers to evaluate business targets such as sales and company’s profits, and also to assist in order to meet consumer needs effectively. It purposes is to satisfy the customer as well as the seller by using the marketing mix tool. The marketing is known as the ‘4Ps’, and it is made up of: place, product, promotion and price.

The marketing mix is made up of seven Ps, these known as, Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Packaging, People and Processes. Each element of the

Marketing mix -The marketing mix is commonly used marketing term. Its elements are basic, strategic components of a marketing plan. Which is mentioned as the four p’s, which include Price, place, product and promotion. More recently 3 more P’S have been added to the marketing mix which are people, process and physical evidence this is known as the extended marketing mix.

As per Ian Ruskin Brown and Greg Clark “ Marketing mix is the term used explaining the different elements comprising the offer that the different companies makes to their customers”. (Brown and Clarke, 2000:44). E.Jerome McCarthy in early 1960s came up with the four Ps in the marketing mix. According to him these 4ps are “ Product, price, place and promotion”.( McCarthy and Shapiro 1975: 35). Refer Appendix I for the pictorial representation. But the view of Richard Sandhusen is that the four marketing mixes should be ‘price, product, promotion and distribution’ (Sadhusen, 2000:319). According to Steven Stralser ‘in order to create a marketing strategy and plan that touch all the areas of marketing to position a product, maximise revenue etc a few more components have to be considered which are, Marketing segmentation, Marketing Strategy, Marketing research , Pricing, placement and value chain.’(Stralser,

Marketing mix is the set of controllable tactical marketing tools which that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market.

The marketing mix is a combination of 4 P’s (product, price, place and promotion) that should be used in conjunction with each other to ensure a competitive edge over other companies. ‘The marketing mix is designed to produce mutually satisfying exchanges with a target market’.

Marketing mix can be describes as "the use and specification of the 4 Ps describing the strategic position of a product in the marketplace… A prominent person to take centre stage was E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960; he proposed a four-P classification which was popularized. (wikipedia.com)" The marketing mix approach to marketing is a model of creating and implementing market strategies. The marketing mix stresses the mixing of different factors in a way that both organizational and consumer or target markets objectives are attained. The 4 Ps of marketing are Product, Place, Promotion and Price. Each plays a key factor in the overall successful marketing of a product or service.

Setting the right marketing mix for the product or service means that it including all of the important bases in marketing strategy. The marketing mix is generally established as the use and requirement of the 4P’s which is describing the strategic position of a product in the marketplace. One version of the beginning of the marketing mix starts in 1948 when James Culliton said that a marketing decision should be a result of something related to a methods and he described the marketing manager as a “mixer of ingredients”.

Marketing mix is also called 4P’s of marketing .It can also be used to find existing market strategy. 4P of marketing represents:

Marketing mix is nothing but a critical mix of right amount of efforts and mechanism that is made up of the product that an organisation offers, market segmentation and the marketing strategy, selling the product at the right price and to the right customers through right people.

Marketing mix refers to the enterprise for their target market needs, control various marketing factors (product, price, place and promotion) to optimize the combination and comprehensive utilization, in order to accomplish better economic and social benefits (Chai, 2009, p.4). Place and product will be attached more importance in this section.

Marketing mix is one of the basic and the very important part of marketing plan. It includes all the elements that are important for an organization from manufacturing to sale of the product. It can be considered as the set of marketing tools that blends together to generate a marketing response in the market. Every organization uses this tool to make its marketing plan. Primarily it consists of 4P’s, but now it is extended to 7P’s of marketing. (Jain, 2013)