The marketing mix is critical to determine a product or brand’s offering and is synonymous with the 4 P’s of marketing. The 4 P’s of marketing have been altered or changed in recent times to reflect the huge shift towards satisfying the needs of customers. The new system is called the 4 C’s and includes customer, cost, communication, and convenience. Neil Borden coined the term marketing mix in an article titled “The Concept of the Marketing Mix.” The idea of a mix came from one of his coworkers, James Culliton, who said that the marketing manager “Can be described as a mixer of ingredients; one who 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."¹
The 4 P's are:
Product: an item or service that satisfies the needs or requests of customers. Products are tangible and can be seen and touched while services are intangible and can include things like tourism and finance.²
Price: the amount of money that a customer pays for the product or service being provided. The price is very important as it determines who can and cannot afford the product or service and overall relates to the profit that a company can make.
Place: refers to where a product or service is available. Place is essential in order to attract customers that can afford and will want to buy a product. Placement could include the decision to sell a product at a department store or just in one of the company’s own franchised stores.
Promotion: the method of communication that a company uses to make their product more known. Promotion comprises of: advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion.² Promotion is the part of marketing that most people mistakenly encapsulate as being the only part of marketing.
References:
1. Banting, P., & Ross, R. E. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Retrieved from: http://www.springerlink.com/content/mn58860185200184
2. Needham, D. (1996). Business for Higher Awards. Oxford, England: Heinemann.