Effective strategies are what any business needs in order to see success. As a marketer, one important thing to know about is the marketing mix. The marketing mix is an in-depth marketing plan that incorporates the four P’s. The four P’s stand for product, price, placement, and promotion. Why is this so important to learn? Well, how do you get to the treasure chest without a map? The marketing mix helps set a path to ultimately generate higher sales for your business.
What are the four P’s of a marketing mix?
Product: If you are starting a business, it is safe to assume you know what product or service you are offering. However, this means more than just knowing that. During this step, you want to know what makes this product unique and what will make it stand out from similar ones from your competitors.
This helps you really think about what you are offering. For example, if you are in the water industry, are you selling regular water, or are you selling clean, purified water sourced from the cleanest region in Norway? See the difference? One sounds normal, while the other one captures interest and says something about the product you are selling. During this step, you are identifying the product that will help you create that brand identity later on. Personally, I feel like building brand resonance would fit within this step.
Price: Pricing is a strategic decision. Businesses employ various pricing strategies to remain competitive. Understanding price elasticity and consumer perception is important to set prices that your audience is happy with.
Place: The place emphasizes the importance of making products easily accessible to consumers. How is it that your customers will purchase your products? Nowadays, you can sell a product online and have it delivered to someone in two days. However, not all businesses can sell a product or service online. This is why the first step of the marketing mix is a great foundation for the rest of the steps. Good distribution channels and geographic reach help a brand's market penetration.
Promotion: Promotion involves more than just advertising, it's knowing the best way to do it for your specific business. This step is about building awareness of your company. Sure, you can throw some ads on Google and get some sales. But what if you could’ve generated three times the amount of sales by strategizing a different type of campaign through partnerships? Once you know all the information about your product, it’s important to know the best way to get people talking and buying it.
Let's compare two companies in different industries and see how much of an impact the right type of promotion could have. Company A is a construction supply company while Company B is a Gym clothing company. Imagine what would happen if company A decided to do visual ads on Instagram. While you could optimize those ads, it is highly unlikely they would pop up on people who would take immediate action on the ad. These are not products you can add to a shopping cart and purchase instantly. Meanwhile, company B would probably see a lot of success since the majority of their target audience is probably on that platform.
Figuring out where to promote is one but you have to follow that with great promotional content. This should deliver your message to its audience and make it an easier decision to shop for your product and not your competitors. Effective promotional strategies not only create awareness but also a lasting brand image.
Marketing Mix Example
Now let's put the market mix example into play and do a complete rundown of what it could look like in a very simplistic way. For this example, let's assume you own an e-commerce store where you sell silicone products. We’ll call it Simply Sili.
Product: Silicone products including bathroom, kitchen, pet accessories and much more. When creating the brand identity, Simply Sili will focus on creating a fun and energetic brand that offers simple gadgets and accessories for everyday use. The purpose of these products is to create a simple product that is durable and of good quality. To stand out from the competition, they will target these products to appeal to kids by using bright, vibrant colors. Meanwhile, they will still offer a different collection for adults looking for something more simplistic and modern.
Price: By sourcing the product straight from the manufacturer overseas and partnering with a logistics company to handle all your liabilities and international costs, you are able to keep all the intermediary costs down. This means they can price your products similarly to their competitors and still keep a nice profit margin while satisfying the consumers.
Place: Due to the business being e-commerce, they will most likely focus on selling online. However, since they purchase directly from the manufacturer, there is a possibility of wholesaling to other companies or going into retail. It’s important to know if this is something they want to approach in the future in order to create a good strategy based on that. These would be two types of businesses, one focused on selling to consumers and the other focused on selling to businesses.
Promotion: Assuming Simply Sili focuses on B2C (Business to consumer), they will most likely want to do a variation of online advertisement. Advertising on billboards or banners wouldn’t make sense in this case. You want to target the people looking to buy your product and not spend money on an ad that may not even reach your target audience even though more people are technically seeing it. This is about quality, not quantity. Targeted ads will reach the people who are searching for the product. Social media ads would give the brand more awareness and share of voice.
Normally in a brand's deck on the marketing mix, you would include data, images, and more information to fully create the strategy. This example is very simple to just give you an understanding of some of the thought processes during each step.
Why use the marketing mix?
Understanding these four elements of the marketing mix can help create a great starting strategy for a brand. Every element should work together. Think of it like cooking your favorite meal. You have to make sure the ingredients are balanced and go well together in order for the dish to come out as delicious as you’d expect. This mix helps identify your market, strategize your course of action for the company, create a good brand identity, and ultimately generate more revenue.
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