What is Marketing Mix and the important components of mix Marketing

Marketing Mix can be defined as the set of marketing variables that a business implements for the purpose of evincing a desired response in the target market. In other words, marketing mix can be said to be a very important marketing tool that consists of all the elements that impact the demand for the products that a firm offers. To elaborate on the idea, we can say that marketing mix denotes the set of actions or strategies that a firm uses for the sake of promoting its brand or product in the market.

The important components of Marketing Mix (4Ps of marketing)

Traditionally speaking, the four important components of a typical marketing mix include Price, Product, Promotion and Place. Nevertheless, these days, the concept of marketing mix has greatly evolved to include some other ‘Ps’ as well like people, positioning, packaging and politics.

Overview of the 4Ps of marketing

Price

An important component of marketing mix, ‘Price’ refers to the value placed on a product. Price of a product will highly depend on many factors including the costs incurred in production, the target buyers, the purchasing ability of the market, supply and demand and many other direct as well as indirect factors. There are several types of pricing strategies and each of them is tied closely to a comprehensive business plan. In some cases, pricing is also used as a demarcating element for the purpose of differentiating and enhancing the image of a given product.

Product

Product is the central element of the marketing mix. The term product stands for the item that is sold. To show up a high sales, the product must be able to deliver at least a minimum level of performance. If this does not happen, the other elements can do little good to the entire mission in front of the marketing mix.

Place

By the term ‘place’ we refer to the point of sale. In any given industry segment, a good distribution strategy (place strategy) consists of capturing the attention of the customer and influencing their buying decision in a profound way. Location or place can be called as the mantra of a successful retail business. Retailers are seen willing to pay a high price for the right location.

Promotion

Promotion refers to the set of efforts and activities that a business undertakes for reaching out the product or service to the user and trade. The activities forming part of promotion can include spreading the product awareness by word of mouth, advertising, incentives, press reports, awards and commissions for the trade. The other popular elements of promotion refers to consumer schemes, contest, prizes and direct marketing.

Take home

Marketing mix is a very important topic in business since the different elements of marketing mix can work in coordination with each other in promoting the business. Marketing mix makes up the business plan of the company and if planned and executed well, it can contribute to the success of a business. The successful development and implementation of marketing mix calls for a deep understanding, market research and learning from a number of people ranging from users to trade.