Marketing mix
Encyclopedia
The term "marketing mix" was coined in 1953 by Neil Borden in his American Marketing Association
presidential address. However, this was actually a reformulation of an earlier idea by his associate, James Culliton, who in 1948 described the role of the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients", who sometimes follows recipes prepared by others, sometimes prepares his own recipe as he goes along, sometimes adapts a recipe from immediately available ingredients, and at other times invents new ingredients no one else has tried. The marketing mix (price, product, distribution, promotion) forms the entire promotional campaign. As stated in “Management of a Sales Force” by Rosann L. Spiro, Gregory A. Rich, and William J. Stanton, “when these are effectively blended, they form a marketing program that provides want-satisfying goods and services for the company’s market." The term became popular in the article written by Niel Borden called “The Concept of the Marketing Mix.” He started teaching the term to many after he himself learned about it with an associate. The marketing mix is a broad concept which includes several aspects of marketing which all inquire to obtain a similar goal of creating awareness and customer loyalty. The marketing mix is not only an important concept, but a guideline to reference back to when implementing the price, promotion, product, and distribution. Those are the four main ingredients of the marketing mix, but there are other components not already mentioned on the Wikipedia site, including, planning, branding, packaging, display, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, servicing, and physical handling. All in all the current description of the marketing mix is accurate, but missing some vital pieces of information which will allow individuals to gain a better understanding and implement a more effective marketing mix. A prominent marketer, E. Jerome McCarthy
, proposed a Four P classification in 1960, which has seen wide use.
Any organization, before introducing its products or services into the market, conducts a market survey. The sequence of all 'P's as above is very much important in every stage of product life cycle Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline.
In recent years the 4 P's have been updated to include several more factors. Some people even go up to as many as 27 P's.
American Marketing Association
The American Marketing Association is a professional association for marketers. As of 2008 it had approximately 40,000 members. There are 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States....
presidential address. However, this was actually a reformulation of an earlier idea by his associate, James Culliton, who in 1948 described the role of the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients", who sometimes follows recipes prepared by others, sometimes prepares his own recipe as he goes along, sometimes adapts a recipe from immediately available ingredients, and at other times invents new ingredients no one else has tried. The marketing mix (price, product, distribution, promotion) forms the entire promotional campaign. As stated in “Management of a Sales Force” by Rosann L. Spiro, Gregory A. Rich, and William J. Stanton, “when these are effectively blended, they form a marketing program that provides want-satisfying goods and services for the company’s market." The term became popular in the article written by Niel Borden called “The Concept of the Marketing Mix.” He started teaching the term to many after he himself learned about it with an associate. The marketing mix is a broad concept which includes several aspects of marketing which all inquire to obtain a similar goal of creating awareness and customer loyalty. The marketing mix is not only an important concept, but a guideline to reference back to when implementing the price, promotion, product, and distribution. Those are the four main ingredients of the marketing mix, but there are other components not already mentioned on the Wikipedia site, including, planning, branding, packaging, display, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, servicing, and physical handling. All in all the current description of the marketing mix is accurate, but missing some vital pieces of information which will allow individuals to gain a better understanding and implement a more effective marketing mix. A prominent marketer, E. Jerome McCarthy
E. Jerome McCarthy
Edmund Jerome McCarthy was an American marketing professor at Michigan State University and others such as the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of the influential book Basic Marketing. A Managerial Approach . Professor E...
, proposed a Four P classification in 1960, which has seen wide use.
Four 'P's
Elements of the marketing mix are often referred to as the "Four 'P's", a phrase used since the 1960's- ProductProduct (business)In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...
- It is a tangible good or an intangible service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. Intangible products are service based like the tourism industry & the hotel industry or codes-based products like cellphone load and credits. Typical examples of a mass produced tangible object are the motor car and the disposable razorRazorA razor is a bladed tool primarily used in the removal of unwanted body hair through the act of shaving. Kinds of razors include straight razors, disposable razors and electric razors....
. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass produced service is a computer operating system. Packaging also needs to be taken into consideration. Every product is subject to a life-cycleProduct life-cycle theoryThe product life-cycle theory is an economic theory that was developed by Raymond Vernon in response to the failure of the Heckscher-Ohlin model to explain the observed pattern of international trade. The theory suggests that early in a product's life-cycle all the parts and labor associated with...
including a growth phase followed by an eventual period of decline as the product approaches market saturationMarket saturationIn economics, "market saturation" is a term used to describe a situation in which a product has become diffused within a market; the actual level of saturation can depend on consumer purchasing power; as well as competition, prices, and technology....
. To retain its competitiveness in the market, product differentiationProduct differentiationIn economics and marketing, product differentiation is the process of distinguishing a product or offering from others, to make it more attractive to a particular target market. This involves differentiating it from competitors' products as well as a firm's own product offerings...
is required and is one of the strategies to differentiate a product from its competitors.
- PricePricingPricing is the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products. Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition, market condition, and quality of product. Pricing is also a key variable in microeconomic price allocation theory. Pricing is a...
– The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product. - PromotionPromotion (marketing)Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix . It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer's purchasing decision....
represents all of the communications that a marketeer may use in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements: advertisingAdvertisingAdvertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, public relationsPublic relationsPublic relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
, personal selling and sales promotionSales promotionSales promotion is one of the four aspects of promotional mix. Media and non-media marketing communication are employed for a pre-determined, limited time to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand or improve product availability...
. A certain amount of crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principal elements together, which is common in film promotion. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and Internet adverts through print media and billboards. Public relations are where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations (see Product above). - PlacePlace-Geography:* Place , an area with definite or indefinite boundaries or a portion of space in which has a name in a area* Place , defined as any concentration of population...
– A way of getting the product to the consumer and/or how easily accessible it is to consumers.
Any organization, before introducing its products or services into the market, conducts a market survey. The sequence of all 'P's as above is very much important in every stage of product life cycle Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline.
In recent years the 4 P's have been updated to include several more factors. Some people even go up to as many as 27 P's.
Four 'C's
Robert F. Lauterborn proposed a four Cs classification in 1993. The Four Cs model is more consumer-oriented and attempts to better fit the movement from mass marketing to niche marketing.- Product part of the Four Ps model is replaced by Consumer or Consumer Models, shifting the focus to satisfying the consumer needs. Another C replacement for Product is Capable. By defining offerings as individual capabilities that when combined and focused to a specific industry, creates a custom solution rather than pigeon-holing a customer into a product.
- Pricing is replaced by Cost reflecting the total cost of ownership. Many factors affect Cost, including but not limited to the customer's cost to change or implement the new product or service and the customer's cost for not selecting a competitor's product or service.
- Promotions feature is replaced by Communication which represents a broader focus than simply Promotions. Communications can include advertising, public relations, personal selling, viral advertisingViral marketingViral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
, and any form of communication between the firm and the consumer. - Placement is replaced by Convenience. With the rise of internet and hybrid models of purchasing, Place is becoming less relevant. Convenience takes into account the ease of buying the product, finding the product, finding information about the product, and several other factors.
External links
- Marketing Mix (bitesize 4P's) British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Schools.
- http://www.scs.unr.edu/~khalilah/eMarketing.pdf The Marketing Mix of IMC.
- http://www.ppbmag.com/Article.aspx?id=1981 Four P’s, Four C’s And The Consumer Revolution.
- Marketing Mix Theory The Times 100 Business Case Studies.