One of the most crucial decisions for a marketing function of any company is the mix of elements that will be used to achieve sales within a target market. This concept of “Marketing Mix” is a fundamental part of marketing theory. Given that marketing has a wide selection of techniques available to it, the problem is selecting the right combination of techniques to deliver the best possible results.

Until recently, the elements that comprise the marketing mix were summed up as 4-Ps (product, price, promotion and place), but it has been observed that these no longer seem adequate to cover the field. Services industries have suggested that the 4-Ps are too much focussed on products and make no allowance for the special circumstances that apply to the marketing of services. So more Ps have been added to the formulae.

As a rule of thumb, most marketing specialists now think in terms of 8-Ps framework. Yet, some even have created 15-Ps framework.




4-Ps
Let us briefly review at the old Marketing Mix which presented the 4-Ps.




Product
Is your current product or service, or the mix, appropriate for the market and the customers of today? How does it help your customer to achieve, avoid or preserve something important to him? Compared to your competitors, is your product or service superior in some significant way? If so, what is it? If not, could you develop an area of superiority?




Prices
Examine the prices of the products and services you sell to make sure they’re still appropriate to the realities of the changing market? Is your price correct based on your costs and of your competitors? Remember -many companies have found that the profitability of certain products or services doesn’t justify the amount of effort and resources that go into producing or importing them. By raising the prices, you may lose a percentage of your customers, but the remaining percentage generates a profit on every sale. Could this be appropriate for you?

Sometimes you need to change your terms and conditions of sale. Sometimes you can combine products and services together with special offers and special promotions. Sometimes you can include free additional items that cost you very little to produce but make your prices appear far more attractive to your customers.




Promotion
This includes every aspect of advertising, packaging, salespeople and sales methodology.

How are you going to promote, advertise and sell this product at this price at this location? Ask yourself. “What will be the process from the first contact with a prospect through to the completed sale?”

Small changes in the way you promote and sell your products can lead to dramatic changes in your results. Even small changes in your advertising can lead immediately to higher sales.

Remember the rule: Whatever method of marketing and sales you’re using today will, sooner or later, stop working. Sometimes it will stop working for reasons you know, and sometimes it will be for reasons you don’t know. In either case, your methods of marketing and sales will eventually stop working, and you’ll have to develop new sales, marketing and advertising approaches, offerings, and strategies.




Place
Develop the habit of reviewing and reflecting upon the exact location where the customer meets the salesperson. Sometimes a change in place can lead to a rapid increase in sales.

You can sell your product in many different places. Some companies use direct selling, sending their salespeople out to personally meet and talk with the prospect. Some sell by telemarketing. Some sell through catalogues or mail order. Some sell at trade shows or in retail establishments. Some sell in joint ventures with other similar products or services.

Many companies use a combination of one or more of these methods. In each case, you must make the right choice about the very best location or place for the customer to receive essential buying information on the product or service needed to make a buying decision.




8-Ps
The 4Ps were designed at a time where businesses sold products, rather than services and the role of customer service in helping brand development wasn’t so well known. Over time, three extended ‘service mix P’s’ were added: Participants, Physical evidence and Processes, and later Participants was renamed People. Today, it’s recommended that the full 7Ps of the marketing mix are considered when reviewing competitive strategies.




People
Your ability to select, recruit, hire and retain the proper people, with the skills and abilities to do the job you need to have done, is more important than everything else put together.

To be successful in business, you must develop the habit of thinking in terms of exactly who is going to carry out each task and responsibility. In many cases, it’s not possible to move forward until you can attract and put the right person into the right position. Many of the best business plans ever developed sit on shelves today because the [people who created them] could not find the key people who could execute those plans.




Process
The process is best viewed as something that your customer experiences at different points in time during the transaction. Variables which can affect a customer’s enjoyment of a service during a process may include; the greeting, the waiting periods, the booking system and the payment process. Hence, process is the intangible experience that also influences customers’ perception of your product or service.

The more ‘high contact’ your product, and the more intangible, the more important it is to get your processes right. Remember to look at this from your customers’ point of view. The process problems that are most annoying to a customer are those that are designed for the provider’s convenience, not the customer.




Physical evidence
The physical evidence refers to all the tangible, visible touch points that your customers will encounter before they buy, from your reception area and signage, to your staff’s clothing and they images you include in you corporate brochure.

When you see the Nike swoosh, or a McDonalds sign, you know immediately what their logos stand for. When you can create an image that is immediately noticeable, it’s definitely going to help you to stand out from the crowded noise that’s in the market. If you can create a strong brand image, it’s definitely going to help you to increase your sales, retain customers, and make you a force to be reckoned with in the online world!




Productivity and Quality
In what way is your offering a good deal for the customer? This is less about you as a business improving your own productivity for cost management, and more about how your company passes this onto its customers.

 Remember that this always needs to be tied with quality; you supply the best, and use the best products, procured fairly at the lowest cost.
A marketing mix must be consistent for any product. Pricing, for example, must be consistent with packaging and perceived product quality.
If one of these is not in line with others, then sales might suffer as a consequence.

There is no ‘one best way’ to mix the ingredients. Different combinations may be used depending upon the needs and objectives. The right marketing mix is important for any product to have a long life cycle.