Marketing Mix

The marketing mix principles (also known as the 4 p’s.) are used by business as tools to assist them in pursuing their objectives it was given by Jerome McCarthy in 1960. The marketing mix principles are controllable variables, which have to be carefully managed and must meet the needs of the defined target group. Four P’s of marketing mix are Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Aim of marketing mix is putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time. A description of each is given below:

1.     Products: Products refers to the goods which are offered by the company to the customers. Decisions regarding products includes questions like

What should be the features of the product?

How it should look like?

How it should be branded and packaged?

What should be its quality? And the like

2.     Price: Price is the amount the customer pays for the product. Pricing decisions includes pricing policy, pricing objective and pricing strategy. It answers the question that what should be the best price of the product? taking into consideration firm’s objectives, competition, etc.

3.     Place: Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.

4.     Promotion: Promotion refers to all the communication regarding the product to the customers. Different elements of promotion are Advertising, Personal Selling, publicity and sales promotion. There are various tools of promotion and company has to decide upon the best suitable way of promotion which can yield maximum returns or fulfill promotional objectives.