With the world shifting to the digital realm, marketing techniques are also taking up a digitalized face. As a matter of fact, the number of digital marketing gurus is more than the number of people who actually use digital marketing. But old is gold, and so, it is important to learn about traditional marketing concepts as well. The marketing mix is one of the most important concepts in that light.
What Is Marketing Mix?
As the name suggests, the marketing mix is a set or a blend of marketing strategies and tactics to promote a product, a service, or/and brand. These strategies and tactics may differ depending on the firm, the product/service, and the organizational goals.
A typical marketing mix has 4Ps. These include price, product, promotion, and place.
The meaning of these can have different meanings as per the product or the service.
The 4Ps of Marketing Mix
Product
Product doesn’t simply mean an object these days. Rather, it involves a service that comes with it. Be it the installation part or the service or warranty, the service accompanying the product is equally important.
The product part is omitted and the focus is entirely on the core service. Speaking in technical terms, services are a form of product that involves activities, benefits, or satisfactions offered for sale. These are intangible (cannot be touched or felt) and do not involve ownership. For example, if you stay in a hotel room, you simply avail the services, and the ownership isn’t passed on to you.
Price
Price is basically the amount that the customer must exchange to receive the offerings. The offering can be a product, a service, or both simultaneously. For the manufacturers, usually, the aim is to decrease the production cost and to increase the efficiency of production to keep a price that generates profit for them.
The other important aspect of price is to increase the perceived value of the products or services that are being offered. Perceived value is the customers’ evaluation of the merits of a product or service and its ability to meet their needs and expectations, especially in comparison to its competitors. So, if marketers manage to increase the perceived value, the customers often feel that they are being benefitted. The best way to do this is to scale up the quality through an efficient production method that cuts down production costs while keeping the quality decent.
Promotion
Promotions include all the strategies that firms opt to inform the customers about their product or services and to encourage potential buyers to buy the product or avail of the services. Promotions have their own ‘mix’ of strategies and techniques that are often blended to achieve the desired results and to capture the hearts of the target groups.
Promotion activities mainly include sales organization, public relations, advertising, sales promotions. In broader terms, it clubs all the tools available for marketers to communicate with the customers under one umbrella.
The use of each of the tools depends on both the product/service and the target group. For example, when targeting millennials, the focus should be on advertising using various social media platforms. The strategies to be adopted really come down to the target group. So, marketing professionals should take good time and specify a target group after thorough observation.
Place
Place is the company activities that make the products or services available to the customers. In the case of products, it can be any place they are sold like retail stores, brand outlets, e-commerce stores, etc. In the case of services, it might be the firm’s office or subsidiary unit, or even the website or app of the firm.
The place also incorporates the channel, the intermediaries, and the entire mechanism involved in the delivery process. The ultimate aim is to reach the target customers in a hassle-free and cost-efficient manner.
The Expandable Approach
Since the customers are always evolving and looking for something that best suits their requirements, marketing strategies also need to be refreshed every now and then. So, the marketing mix is a rather expandable and flexible approach. It now includes 3 more elements, viz process, people, and physical evidence to create the 7Ps or the 7 most important marketing tools.
The process includes all the activities, mechanisms, and channels involved in delivering the product or service.
People are all human factors that play a role in the delivery.
Physical evidence in the environment where the firm and the customers interact.
This is how typically traditional marketing works. If you wish to know more about the latest version of marketing, check out this amazing article on tips for digital marketing
Conclusion
In the fast-moving world, where change is the only constant, constant revamping of the marketing strategies is a must. No doubt that digitalization and opened a whole new door to countless possibilities, but the old-school methods are evergreen and still very effective. However, it is important to tweak these up to meet the current requirements. This way one can ensure that they’re always a step ahead of the competitors.
If you want to read more, check out this article on digital marketing v/s traditional marketing
Written By - Neha Kundu
Edited By - Kashish Chadha
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