The Right Marketing Mix for the Company
By using a good marketing mix, a company covers the most important marketing strategies to increase its market value. To reach this goal, the marketing mix method looks at any possible decision that can increase the demand for their product. Which decisions are these, and how do you use this marketing tool to your advantage?
What Is a Marketing Mix?
The marketing mix is a collection of marketing tools that influence a company’s market value. It consists of four categories that can be used to increase the demand for their product. These are divided into the four Ps: Price, Product, Promotion & Place. With the right strategies in these categories, you become a successful creator of a desirable product and increase customer interest.
Why Is the Marketing Mix Important?
The right use of a marketing mix provides you with a roadmap of important marketing decisions. It helps you keep an eye on the strategies you are using and the goals you want to reach. If you use the marketing mix correctly, you can continuously reevaluate whether you are offering the right products to the right audience over the best channels and at the right price.
It’s All About Creating Customer Loyalty
The marketing mix is a tool to increase customer demand for your product. When you offer the goods your customers need, at a good price and in convenient locations, you are guaranteed to reach a high customer loyalty. Additionally, many of the tools used are specifically aimed at satisfying the customer. These include Loyalty Programs, High Quality, Great Customer Service, and Contests.
The Four Ps of Marketing Mix
Price: How Much Customers Pay
By considering your competition and the cost of developing the product, you need to find the best price for the value you offer. For this P, you can work with pricing incentives that counter higher prices by making better service offers.
Product: How the Product Looks and Works
You need to develop a product that is the answer to your target audience’s demand. This category includes the features and the appearance of the product, it’s branding, and packaging.
Promotion: How the Company Informs Customers About the Product
The Promotion P decides over the way a company communicates with its customers. With social media, the importance of two-way interaction is increasing.
Place: Where Customers Can Buy the Product
The Place decides over the distribution channels and where the product is available to customers. Part of this P is the decision between online and offline stores and a store’s layout.
Marketing Tools
The marketing tools are the specific strategies you can use to influence one of the Ps:
|
Price |
Payment methods, listing price, discounts, credit terms… |
| Product | Brand name, design, materials, quality, variety, services… |
| Promotion | Advertising strategies like flyers, banners, pop-ups, newsletters, public relations… |
| Place | Offline/Online presence, channels, locations, accessibility, logistics… |
Marketing Strategy
Most marketing tools are either useless or weak if they aren’t used with purpose. To create this agenda, you’ll need to develop a solid marketing strategy. The best strategies are tailored to your company’s individual needs. Start with nailing down your goal.
What do you want to reach by using marketing tools?
- Do you want to gain customers?
- Do you want to increase customer loyalty?
- Do you want to increase sales?
- Do you want to solidify your brand and image?
If you know which objectives you want to reach, it is easier to pick the right marketing tools and to gauge if they are working or whether they need to be tweaked.
Weaknesses of the Marketing Mix
The classification of the P categories and their content is very broad. Important marketing tools are not specifically mentioned but can be sorted into categories. Services or Packaging can be placed in the Product category, but many people would not necessarily think to include them by themselves. One could also argue that Packaging can be a medium to promote the company by using branded items and therefore belongs to the Promotion P. A tighter, more detailed classification system would help to find solutions.
By focusing on the four Ps, the marketing mix looks at the market and the changes they can perform through the seller’s view and how they benefit him. Additions to the strategy have replaced the Ps with Cs, which look at the same topics but through the customer’s eyes, leading to changes that benefit them.
The Four Ps as the Four Cs of Marketing Mix
The customer-focused variation of the four Ps replaces them with four Cs
| Price | turns to | Cost |
| The monetary cost is not the only value customers check before buying a product. Other factors are the “cost” of time and effort in acquiring a product or the “cost” of conscience when ordering and using the product. | ||
| Product | turns to | Customer Value |
| Customers are looking to buy a solution to a problem or an item that adds value to their life. | ||
| Promotion | turns to | Communication |
| One way advertising is seen as annoying or aggressive. Customers prefer two-way communication rather than one-sided information. | ||
| Place | turns to | Convenience |
| Remove all barriers, physical or digital, that keep customers from buying (e.g., registration for a loyalty card or website before the first purchase). The experience needs to be convenient and tailored to the target audience’s preferences. | ||