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What makes a successful marketer?
One who succeeds in determining the right product and positioning, setting the right price, and using the right method for promoting it.
Unfortunately, these achievements are not an easy feat and require a lot of research and effort to make work. If you aren’t able to achieve even one of the four elements mentioned above, a promising service or product can fail and lead to substantial losses.
This is why the marketing mix concept is important. It takes a product and puts it in front of the right people at the right time, shaping a successful product offering.
Businesses have always used a variety of marketing tools and methods to sell and promote their products.
However, the marketing mix concept goes as far back as 1948. Professor James Culliton of Harvard University published an article, “The Management of Marketing Costs,” describing marketers as the “mixers of ingredients.”
Later, his colleague, Professor Neil Borden, published a reflective article that was influenced by Culliton’s idea of “mixers,” popularizing the concept of “marketing mix.”
Some of the detailed ingredients of the marketing mix within Borden’s article included:
Eventually, these several items were classified as the 4 Ps of marketing.
The marketing mix, or “4 Ps,” was developed and formalized over the years by experts to safeguard the creation and execution of an effective and successful marketing strategy. Using this marketing model, both customer and seller should be satisfied and expect a win-win result.
With the marketing mix approach, organizations can make strategic decisions when revising existing products or launching new products.
The four unique variables that the marketing mix consists of are interdependent. Thus, the need to be planned in conjunction with each variable ensures that the marketing and action plans within all four are aligned and complementary.
Using the interdependent variables, an organization can achieve its marketing targets such as profits, sales, and customer satisfaction and retention.
The marketing mix is subject to continuous evolution. It is crucial to stay updated on the changing requirements and trends within the market to ensure that the elements used in your marketing mix are updated and relevant.
This marketing model is a flexible and fluid concept. If you focus more on a single variable, it can decrease or increase various contributing factors or unique marketing conditions.
A crucial feature of the marketing mix is that customers will always be its focal point. The value of your product and services is determined by your customer perceptions. Also, your main goal is to ensure that your customers are satisfied.
To better understand how to utilize the marketing mix effectively, it’s important to break down what the marketing mix consists of: the 4 Ps of marketing.
Product refers to any item that satisfies the wants and needs of a targeted customer. This can be tangible goods like apparel or appliances, or intangible goods like services or digital products.
Marketers need to have a clear idea of what their product stands for and what makes them different from the competition.
Price refers to the actual amount that a customer is expected to pay for the product. How the product is priced can affect how it sells. This is connected to what the supposed value of the product is to the customer instead of the objective price of the product offered.
Place refers to how the product will be provided or sold to the customer. This focuses on how your target customers can access your product in the most convenient way possible. You need to pick a location where most of your customers are. Never expect them to come to you; you need to go to them.
Transactions with your company can take place online or in-store. However, customers are more likely to interact with your products if you showcase them in a variety of places.
Once you have the right product, the perfect price, and the best spot, how do you raise awareness of your product? Through promotion!
This may include sales emails, digital advertising, content marketing, public relations, special offers or promotions, and drip campaigns. Basically, it’s everything that can help disseminate product awareness to your target customers.
Ok, now it’s time to put the wheels in motion. Understanding concepts just gets you up to speed, but actually utilizing this approach requires knowing what actions to take and how to take them.
First off, you need to identify the unique selling proposition of your product. What does your product have to offer? Customers need to be intrigued by your offering, thus, you need to clearly determine its key benefits and features and whether they can help ensure sales.
Next, you need to understand your consumer and who the ideal buyer is. From here, all other elements of the marketing mix will come together.
By knowing and understanding your customer, you can ensure that your product is targeted and relevant to them.
This is a crucial step in implementing your marketing mix approach. By keeping tabs on your competitors, you’ll have a better idea of how to improve your own products and strategies.
Evaluating your placement options allows you to understand where your customer is more likely to purchase and the associated costs of using such a channel.
Utilizing several channels can help target a broader customer base and ensure ease of access. However, if the product serves a specific niche, then it makes sense that you concentrate on a particular channel or area.
Based on the target customer and established price points, your marketing strategies can now be developed. There are several ways to do so, including social media marketing, email marketing, advertising, and PR strategies.
Regardless of the promotion methods you use, you need to ensure that it reaches and appeals to the intended customers while ensuring that the key benefits and features of the product are highlighted.
At this point, you need to take a step back and check how each element planned relates to the other. Remember, variables are interdependent and rely on each other.
Once you ensure that all elements are in harmony and there are no conflicting messages, then you’re ready for finalizing and launching your product.
With every strategy comes a fair share of obstacles or hurdles to overcome. Here are a few to be on the lookout for when using this approach.
The traditional marketing mix is usually applicable to tangible goods. To make it suitable for use with intangible goods or services, certain changes have to be made.
Here are four additional elements to consider when using the marketing mix approach:
Although a focus on customers and what they want are the objectives of the 4 P model, this is often overlooked by most marketing teams. In order to deal with this problem, the customer-centric 4 Cs classification was developed.
The 4 C model converts the 4 Ps into a more customer-oriented strategy:
Let’s take a look at the marketing mix model of one of the most popular fast-food chains in the world—McDonald’s.
McDonald’s specialty is burgers. However, over the years, it has added a lot of other food offerings to its menu. As a result, it now has a broad range of drinks and food that caters to all kinds of people.
Also, to capture the kids’ market, Mcdonald’s introduced their “Happy Meal” category, consisting of fries and burgers with a little toy hidden in the box. And to cater to non-meat eaters, McDonald also created veggie sandwiches and burgers.
McDonald’s utilizes two main pricing strategies:
McDonald’s distributes its products in their physical restaurants, mobile apps for pick-up or delivery, kiosks, and other partner apps.
This variety of offerings supports the vision and mission of Mcdonald’s to serve more customers around the world.
McDonald’s uses several tactics for promoting its products, including television and print advertising, PR, sales promotions, direct marketing, and co-branded partnerships. The result? A profitable digital marketing funnel.
By now, you should have a better understanding of how the marketing mix concept works and how it can help you develop a successful marketing strategy.
Always remember that the 4 Ps are constrained by external and internal factors in your overall business environment and that they are always dependent on one another.
Allan Borch is the founder of Dotcom Dollar. With almost ten years of digital marketing experience, he wants to help entrepreneurs and business owners build and monetize their own successful online businesses. Connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Youtube.
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