Marketing Management and the Marketing Mix

Marketing mix stands for four P's of the marketing management--Product, Price, Place and Promotion. The term marketing mix came from a book published in 1964 by Neil H. Borden titled 'The concept Of the Marketing Mix'. Though with the passage of time there have been attempts to increase these P’s to include three more P’s –Personal, Physical Evidence and Package but mostly these four are still considered to be the main ingredients of the marketing. The premise of these four P's is that all marketing decisions generally falls under one of these broadly defined categories.

The product refers to actual tangible things like computer, books etc or services like tourism etc .The decisions related to products generally comprise of product's brand name, its functionality, styling, quality, safety, packaging etc.

The price is the money the customer pays for the product .One of the major factor while deciding the price is to know how much the customer is willing to pay for the product. There are lots of factors which effect the final price of the product like is the price comparative enough compared to other similar product in the market, how much profit margin can be kept on the product .Pricing also takes into consideration how much discounts can be offered to different customers, and what should be the rate for wholesalers and retailers and how much leeway can be given to the buying customer while bargaining.

Place represents the actual points from which the product is reachable to its end customers. Place can be an actual physical location or it can be a virtual online market. Some of the factors controlling the decisions related to place are warehousing, market coverage, distribution centres, transportation and other logistics and financial decisions. Many businesses do not survive if the place chosen for business is not conductive for the product.

Promotion is about reaching to the people. It is about communicating with the prospective customer about the use and benefits associated with the product. Promotion is generally done by advertising, word of mouth, public relations or point of sale. Since promoting a product requires lots of money and has great impact on the psyche of customers, it has to be a balanced mix of the above four factors. Off lately promotion has become most important factor out of these four P's .This is because with the right promotion the customer base of the product can change dramatically.

The right mix of the above four variables is what marketing management is all about!