Marketing mix, sometimes referred to as the marketing ‘4Ps’, is often arranged and handled by sales, product, and marketing managers.
It’s important that the items for sale are differentiated from their competitors.
So, these activities often fall on the shoulders of these three departments who are particularly well-equipped and educated in all things product (sales) and process (marketing).
Some companies choose to outsource some or all of strategic business planning to industries other than their own.
Marketing is a really popular discipline. It’s made up of four basic components or Ps; Product, Pricing, Promotions and Place.
These days you will find this marketing model being referred to as the marketing mix.
Marketing Mix Theory:
Marketing theory emerged in the early 21st century as organizations searched for ways to reach new audiences and customers through modern technology while keeping track of their spending.
The first mention of a marketing mix occurred in 1936 by Kotler.
Today’s marketing mix is commonly referred to as the 4 P’s (product, price, promotion, and place).
But, some marketers choose to expand on the four Ps adding elements such as distribution, packaging, performance and so on depending on their circumstances or organizational goals.
During the 1980s, theorists kept calling for an expanded and modified framework for service marketing.
Because they realized that services were a category of products that needed to be marketed differently.
At the first AMA Conference dedicated entirely to service marketing, early on in 1981, many of the speakers were presenting their takes on this topic.
The papers all seemed to agree that there was a need for revised terminology that spoke to the specific nuances of servicing in contrast to selling.
In 1981, Booms & Bitner proposed 7 Ps (rather than 4 Ps) as being more applicable for services because they considered historical notions of “make” versus “do”.
(e.g., manufacturing versus supplying a service) too simplistic of a dichotomy.
The 80s and 90s have been considered a more consumer- centric time especially when it comes to marketing where products are being sold directly to the consumers for their consumption and commodities.
For advertising, print ads used to be the main form of promoting products; however, now search engine optimization (SEO) has been growing.
It’s about reaching local customers in local markets through digital channels such as websites or mobile devices.
Customers have different preferences when it comes to characteristics that are most important in their products.
For example, they may think the best product has a wide range of color choices, others may prefer a particular size or even a style.
The problem with all these different opinions is that first you have to find the right combination of specific characteristics that will make each customer happy throughout the whole stock of your business.
Then you will have to take into account what other companies are doing and how your new product would fit in on the market.
It’s impossible for computers to know what exactly everyone wants.
But, we’re sure this problem can at least be narrowed down by asking customers questions about which features in a product they consider most important, then sorting them according to category, importance, satisfaction and finally popularity so as to end up with the desired outcome!
