Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is a business tool used in marketing and by marketers. The
marketing mix is often crucial when determining a product or brand's offer, and is
often associated with the four P's: price, product, promotion, and place. In
service marketing, however, the four Ps are expanded to the seven P's or Seven
P's to address the different nature of services.

McCarthy's four P’s

The marketer E. Jerome McCarthy proposed a four Ps classification in 1960,
which has since been used by marketers throughout the world.

Category Definition

A product is seen as an item that satisfies what a

consumer demands. It is a tangible good or an intangible
service.Tangible products are those that have an
independent physical existence. Typical examples of
mass-produced, tangible objects are the motor car and the
disposable razor. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass-
produced service is a computer operating system.

Every product is subject to a life-cycle including a growth

phase followed by a maturity phase and finally an eventual
period of decline as sales fall. Marketers must do careful
Product research on how long the life cycle of the product they are
marketing is likely to be and focus their attention on
different challenges that arise as the product moves.
The marketer must also consider the product mix.
Marketers can expand the current product mix by
increasing a certain product line's depth or by increasing
the number of product lines. Marketers should consider
how to position the product, how to exploit the brand, how
to exploit the company's resources and how to configure
the product mix so that each product complements the
other. The marketer must also consider product
development strategies.

The amount a customer pays for the product. The price is

very important as it determines the company's profit and
hence, survival. Adjusting the price has a profound impact
Price on the marketing strategy, and depending on the price
elasticity of the product, often it will affect the demand and
sales as well. The marketer should set a price that
 complements the other elements of the marketing mix.[3]
When setting a price, the marketer must be aware of
the customer perceived value for the product. Three basic
pricing strategies are: market skimming pricing,
market penetration pricing and neutral pricing. The
'reference value' (where the consumer refers to the prices
of competing products) and the 'differential value' (the
consumer's view of this product's attributes versus the
attributes of other products) must be taken into account.

All of the methods of communication that a marketer may

use to provide information to different parties about the
product. Promotion comprises elements such
as: advertising, public relations, sales
organisation and sales promotion.
Advertising covers any communication that is paid for,
from cinema commercials, radio and Internet
advertisements through print media and billboards. Public
Promotion relations is 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.

Refers to providing the product at a place which is

convenient for consumers to access.
Various strategiessuch as intensive distribution, selective
Distribution(Place) distribution, exclusive distribution and franchising can be
used by the marketer to complement the other aspects of
the marketing mix.
The "seven Ps" is a marketing model that adds to the aforementioned four Ps,
including "physical evidence", "people", and "process": It is used when the
relevant product is a service, not merely a physical good.

Category Definition

Physical The evidence which shows that a service was performed, such as
evidence the delivery packaging for the item delivered by a delivery service,
or a scar left by a surgeon. This reminds or reassures the
 consumer that the service took place, positively or negatively.

The employees that execute the service, chiefly concerning the

People manner and skill in which they do so.

The processes and systems within the organization that affect the
Process execution of its service, such as job queuing or query handling.

Marketing mix:- Product: Product Mix , New Product Development , level of

product, type of product , Product life cycle Branding and packaging .
Distribution: Concept , importance , different types of distribution channels etc.

Marketing Mix:- The term “Marketing Mix” was first used in 1953 when Neil
Borden , in his American Marketing Association presidential address; took the
recipe idea one step further and coined the term “marketing mix”. A prominent
marketer , E. Jerome McCarthy, proposed a 4 P’s classification in 1960 , which
has seen wide use.

1- Product:- A tangible object 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 and the
hotel industry or codes- based products like cell phone load and credits.
2- Price:- The price is the amount a customer pays for the product , It is
determined by a number of factors including market share, competition,
material cost product identity and the customer’s perceived value of the
product
3- Place:- Place represents the location where a product can be purchased.
It is often referred to as the distribution channel. Places nothing but how
the product takes place or create image in the mind of customers.
4- Promotion:- It represents all of the communications that a marketer
may use in the market place . Promotion has four distinct elements:
advertising , public relations , personal selling and sales promotion. Sales
staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relation
(see Product above diagram).