What is the marketing mix? What are its main elements? Explain.
Meaning of Marketing Mix: Marketing mix is a combination of four elements- product, price, promotion, and place. Marketing mix refers to the
tools or ingredients, which the marketer mixes in order to interact with a particular market.
Elements of Marketing Mix: The marketing mix consists of various elements, which are classified into four categories, also known as '4 Ps of marketing'. They are:
Product means goods or services or 'anything of value' which is offered to the market for sale. It is a mixture of tangible and intangible attributes, which are capable of being exchanged for a value.
From the customer's point of view, a product is a bundle of utility as it provides three types of benefits to the consumers, viz
(i) Functional benefits
(ii) Psychological benefits
(iii) Social benefits
It also includes the extended product or what is offered to the customer as after-sales services, handling complaints, credit services, etc.
The product mix refers to important decisions related to the product such as the quality of a product, design of product, packaging, etc.
Price of a product refers to the amount of money that the customer has to pay in the market to obtain the product. The marketers have to take a number of decisions regarding price level, pricing strategy, pricing objectives, discounts, etc, together known as price mix.
Place or physical distribution covers all the activities required to physically move the goods from manufacturers to customers. The two major decision areas under this function are:
(i) A decision regarding channels of distribution.
(ii) Physical movement of goods from the place where it is produced to the place of consumption.
Thus, place mix involves a number of decisions relating to inventory control, intermediaries, negotiation, storage, warehousing, transportation, etc.
Promotion refers to the process of informing the customers about the product and then persuading them to buy it. Most marketing firms use a combination of advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and public relations to promote their products.
Therefore, the combination of any of these techniques to attain the marketing objectives is called promotion mix.