Marketing Support - The Marketing Mix

The marketing mix (also noted as the P's) is a framework for build a strategic outlook for your product.

The marketing mix consists of;

Product
Price
Place
Promotion
People
Process
Physical Evidence

Total Addressable Market

Building the foundations of your product through your marketing mix should result in winner, even so it depends how you deploy these and use the principles in practice.

Marketing is a science, by that I mean there is no hard and fast rule to winner - even so there are, similar to creating music, structures which you have to follow. Today's music is build around thirds and sixths and other combinations are considered to sound incorrect, but people will constantly push the boundaries. Marketing preparation is similar - you have to work to the marketing mix for winner but you can make your own tweaks and interpret the 7P's differently.

The story behind the marketing mix comes from Neil Bordon in 1953 and has since been edited, altered and improved. The original mix consisted of 4P's - Product, Price, Place & Promotion - whilst People, Process and Physical Evidence were added later.

Why do I need a scheme?

Some people power think they have a "product which will sell itself" or "It'll fly off the shelf" - these are all expressions I've detected before. Typically the people that think like this haven't done their prep and thought about who will buy the product, how much they will spend or the process to get the item. Whilst they may have a "product which will sell itself" eventually, they still have to tell people their product exists.

There are too many alternatives to list every combination that could be used by companies when building their marketing plan. There should be a marketing mix for every route to market. For example, a clause of article of furniture company may sell direct to consumer but also wholesale to other businesses. The scheme to get the product to market is all different.

Whilst the product corpse the same i.e. the clause of article of furniture, the pricing, promotion, place, people, process and physical evidence is different;

Direct to consumer (B2C)

Product - the same product, normally buying in a one off environment
Price - As it's a one off price you would generally not discount, although you may have a special sale
Place - Selling in-store with clients coming to you
Promotion - Through newspapers, leaflet drops, posters, gross revenue promotions or even television
People - in-store gross revenue team where the end user makes the buying decision
Process - Deal directly with the consumer
Physical evidence - Concerned with the store layout, how accessible is it, is it clean etc?

Alternatively, the marketing scheme for wholesale will be all different;

Wholesale (B2B)

Product - The same product, normally buying several pieces.
Price - Because the company is buying several items at once you can have economies of scale and provide a discounted price (this helps you sell more volume).
Place - You would normally have to deliver the clause of article of furniture to your client.
Promotion - A gross revenue team or gross revenue contact will be required to keep the client satisfied and organise repeat purchases.
People - B2B gross revenue team, delivery drivers and business contacts at their company are all involved.
Process - The client will want support and it won't be a one off sale, there will be relationships to forge and an intercessor support team is necessary. The client will be marketing your stock and will expect a level of contact.
Physical evidence - The client is concerned with the assistance they get from the clause of article of furniture company, how he's treated and what standards are set by the employees of the clause of article of furniture store.

Case Study

The correct scheme can make a company millions. Dell is an example of a company that changed the market, found a niche and exploited it. Dell only sell computers online which means extirpation the middlemen and saving the end user money. Through having a different place / distribution scheme they have created a new model for marketing computers and captured a large part of the market. I should mention Dell have also changed many other parts of their marketing scheme including product- they make their own PC's instead of remarketing other brands.

Dell has made their marketing mix work for them. They have changed their pricing structure to be cheaper than competitors, the quality is good, they advertise heavily and have a well established brand, the process means you get one point of contact to help you through the process.

I don't work for Dell and they are not one of my clients. A negative I constantly hear is about their gross revenue team which is too 'pushy' and people finish up buying their computer elsewhere. This should be noted through their marketing research and may be something which will change in the future.
The grandness of the mix.

Summary

Successful businesses are built on the back of solid marketing preparation which starts with the marketing mix. Always consider your client who will be the individual buying, exploitation and telling other people about your product.