The marketing mix is something taught as a basic foundation for all business courses. However, if one is new to the business world - especially if one is starting a small company and has no formal training - then a brief overview of the marketing mix, brought to you by EFG Marketing Solutions, is essential. It was a term coined over fifty years ago that not only still has relevance today, but is one of the major pillars of all businesses and business decisions.

The marketing mix is simply these four elements: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. They are commonly known as the four P’s. Packaging is the debated fifth P. The product is what you sell. The price is how much you charge for it. The place is where you sell it. The promotion is how you let people find out about it.

One must start with the product. You’ve got to find something that no one else is selling and then figure out how to get started. Is there something you think would be useful that you can’t find anywhere? There is your product. Products are difficult because they’re always evolving and competition is stiff.

Price is far more complicated because it takes into account the cost of labor and supplies for the business, whether one wants to under-sell the competition, whether one wants to play with consumer expectations, and if the consumer will realistically pay what is needed to make a profit for the product. One must look closely at other options, because the customer will, too. If one can get a similar quality alternative for much less money, is your venture really worth it?

The placement of your product is important to the customer. If you’re selling something geared toward Senior Citizens, would you sell it at an arcade or at the mall? You must figure out first who you are selling it to and then figure out where they go and where they look when they’re shopping.

Promotion is quite literally how you promote the product. How are people supposed to learn of it? Some ways are better than others, based on the target market. You once again must figure out whom you’re selling it to and then figure out how they hear of things. Would pre-teens be likely to read about it in a newspaper? Or would a television ad on a pre-teen channel be a better method?

The new wave of business teachers is starting to use the four Cs: consume, cost, convenience, and communication. Cost and communication are not any better alternatives for price and promotion; they’re just alliterative with the other two Cs, which ARE better definitions. Consumer focuses more on who is buying and what you can give to them, rather than looking at the product alone.

Convenience is a revolutionary idea in the marketing mix in terms of creating a product, says EFG Marketing. Some will buy a more expensive item simply because it is more convenient to get than that of a competitor. Convenience refers to more than just where the product is and how easy it is to get. This is a large factor, of course, but one must also think about goods and services included with the product, if it can be shipped, if it can be assembled for you, how it is packaged, how it is ordered, how it can be paid for, and what the general thought is about the product.

EFG Marketing Solutions, Inc. is a locally owned marketing company for Fortune 500 clients. Since 2005, EFG Marketing Solutions, Inc. has provided professional and reliable results to their clients. Others may come and go, but for nearly five years their clients have counted on their presence every day to improve their bottom line.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Business and Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.