Marketing Mix – 7P’s That Defines The Meaning Of The Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is a set of decision that needs to be considered prior to introducing a new product. These variables are also called the P's of marketing. They help an industry in making strategic decisions required for the smooth running of an organization. These variables are.

• Marketing Mix – Product:

This is the 1st p which is the unit that an organization wants to supply in the market. It might be a tangible object or an intangible service. Tangible products are items such as consumer goods (soaps, toothpaste, and spoons) while intangible can be services like tourism. This is the most crucial thing in an organization.

A tangible product should have certain characteristics such as direction of usage, warranty, service, ingredients or contents, manufactured date and the expiry date. In addition, a product should have distinguishing characteristics that is, Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This will assist you to differentiate a product from another. Moreover, the packaging concept and the phenomena of originality play a very crucial role.

It is as very essential to understand the nature and dynamics of the product in question. Each item that the marketing strategist considers consists of levels of products. There are just three levels of products. They include augmented product, actual product and core product.

• Marketing Mix – Price:

This is the 2nd p which is simply the amount paid by a consumer for the product. It is the amount that a firm will charge a customer for offering the product to him. This is another very crucial step whereby if the pricing of certain item is too low, the general trend of the consumers that the item is of sub-standard quality, shows on the sale. Alternatively, if the pricing of an item is too high, very few people would be interested with the product since the price tag shocks them off. However, it is also hard to decide on the pricing strategy as at times some of the consumers tends to believe that if a product charges high it has to be good.

• Marketing Mix – Place:

This is the 3rd p that also contributes very much to the marketing mix. Place is the location where an item can be bought and it focuses more on the availability of an item at the desired place and time. This strategy becomes an obligation as the items have to be available to the consumers when they want them. These places might be virtual stores such as e-malls and e-market, online while physical stores are like departmental stores and supermarkets. This encourages the consumer to pay heed to the item and this offers the place utility to the customer.

• Marketing Mix – Promotion:

This is the 4th p that involves publicizing of the product. This characterizes of all the communications that a promoter can use in the marketplace to raise the awareness of the product along with its benefits to the aimed segment. Promotion has four different elements: public relation, advertising, sales promotion and personal selling. Another effective and cheap way of promoting a product is internet. Promotion is better started before the product is introduced in the market since it increases the interest of the customers and gets him eager to find out what the item is.

Promotion also determines the positioning of the item as well as the segmentation targeting. The right way of promoting affects all the above three variables, the product, price and place. If there are effective promotions the distribution points might go up, the price might increase due to increasing brand equity of the item and get the support to introduce other products. Nevertheless, the amount of cash required for broad promotions are high.

• Marketing Mix – People or Personnel:

 

To incorporate people as the part of the marketing mix is also very essential. They are the ones who make the products and services a success along with that they are the ones who have the strength to tarnish the product's image. This is mostly applied if the product offered is a service.

• Marketing Mix – Performance:

This is another very crucial factor as it entails the performance of the business. Here the financial and strategic goals are being dealt with. Additionally, it is seen whether these goals are realistic and achievable or not. The financial performance metrics are seen and appropriated in this section too.

• Marketing Mix – Process:

This is refers to the process and methods of offering a service. For instance, the method of handling sales, processing of orders and after-sale service can be very important elements of the marketing mix. It is good to have a detailed knowledge of whether the services are useful to the consumers.

Hence the 7Ps explain the meaning of marketing mix in a detailed manner. They give you the overall appearance of a product.