Marketing Mix

The marketing elements center around four distinct functions, sometimes called the Four Ps: product, place, price, and promotion. These combinations of marketing elements are used in a selling a product. These functions are considered in planning a marketing strategy, and any one of these Ps enhanced, deducted, or changed in some degree in order to create the strategy, this are necessary to be efficiently and effectively to sell a product. The combination of the four controllable variables of Product, Price, Place, and Promotion those are essential to define and fulfill a target market.

One of the elements in the marketing mix is the product. A product can be a combination of goods and services offered to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers. These products are ether tangible or intangible that can be offered for purchase or use by consumers. A tangible product is one that consumers can actually touch, such as a computer. An intangible product is a service that cannot be touched, such as computer repair, or a service call. A product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need for the consumer. The product is much more than just a physical object. It is the complete package of benefits or satisfactions that the buyers perceive they will obtain if they buy the product. It is the sum of all physical, psychological, symbolic, and service attributes. Another way to categorize products is by their users, they can be classified as either consumer or industrial goods.

Final consumers are sometimes called end users. The shopping patterns of consumers are also used to classify products. The products sold to the final consumer are categorized as convenience, shopping, specialty, and unsought goods. Convenience goods are products and services the customer buy frequently and with little effort, for example grocery items, such as bread, milk, eggs and other similar items. Another one is shopping, those products that consumers compare during the selection and purchase process, for example comparing price, taste, quality and preferences such as Coke or Pepsi. With shopping goods, consumers usually take considerable time and effort in gathering information and making comparisons among products.

Specialty goods are products with distinctive characteristics or brand identification for which consumers expend exceptional buying effort. Specialty goods include specific brands and types of products. Typically, buyers do not compare specialty goods with other similar products because the products are unique.

Unsought goods are those products or services that consumers are not readily aware of or do not normally consider buying. Life insurance policies and burial plots are examples of unsought goods. Often, unsought goods require considerable promotional efforts on the part of the seller in order to attract the interest of consumers

The Second element of the marketing mix is place. Place refers to having the right product, in the right location, at the right time to be purchased by consumers. This proper placement of products is done through middle people called the channel of distribution. The channel of distribution is comprised of interdependent manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers.

Channels of distribution operate by one of two methods: conventional distribution or a vertical marketing system. In the conventional distribution channel, there can be one or more independent product manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers in a channel. The vertical marketing system requires that producers, wholesalers, and retailers to work together to avoid channel conflicts.

The third element in marketing mix is price. Price is simply the amount of money that consumers are willing to pay for a product or service. Pricing new products and pricing existing products require the use of different strategies. For example, when pricing a new product, businesses can use either market-penetration pricing or a price-skimming strategy. A market-penetration pricing strategy involves establishing a low product price to attract a large number of customers. By contrast, a price-skimming strategy is used when a high price is established in order to recover the cost of a new product development as quickly as possible. Manufacturers of computers, videocassette recorders, and other technical items with high development costs frequently use a price-skimming strategy.

Promotion is the fourth element in the marketing mix. Promotion is a communication process that takes place between a business and its various publics. Publics are those individuals and organizations that have an interest in what the business produces and offers for sale. Thus, in order to be effective, businesses need to plan promotional activities with the communication process in mind.

There are four basic promotion