marketing mix

Marketing Mix

The four elements- product , distribution , promotion and pricing- constitute the marketing mix of the firm . It was James Culliton , a noted marketing expert , who coined the expression `marketing mix . In fact he described the marketing manager as a mixer of ingredients . To quote him `The marketing man is a decider and an artist- a mixer of ingredients who sometime follows a recipe developed by others and sometimes prepares his own recipe (Culliton James W )2 It can be observed that all activities which a marketer plans and execute in to

gain more and more share of the market , relate to the one or the other of the above four elements- product , distribution , promotion and pricing

It is important to state here that Jerome McCarthy3 , the well-known American professor of marketing , who first described the marketing mix in terms of four Ps . He classified the marketing mix variables under four heads , each beginning with the alphabet `P , namely ,- Product Place (referring to distribution , Price , and Promotion

The traditional mind- set with the four Ps has since been overtaken by a new seven key system , namely , persuasion , selling , incentivising innovation , channel logistics and services , planning , and research with expanded market vision

Factors affecting the assembly of marketing mix

Any marketing manager achieves his marketing objectives through the marketing mix . In fact assembling and managing the marketing mix is the crux of any marketing venture . There are a variety of factors that put their clout on deciding the marketing mix . Few of those factors are described hereunder

Environmental variable of marketing

Competition , consumer , policies of the government of the land , and such other elements constitute the environmental variables of marketing that have a forcing impact in deciding the marketing mix . While marketing manager can choose , alter and control the marketing mix variables , he cannot choose or alter the environmental variables

b ) Infinite number of ways of mixing

Theoretically there are infinite numbers of ways marketing mix can be combined . As the marketing mix elements are substitutable by one another to some extent , the marketing manager considers several alternatives before arriving at an optimization

Selecting the optimum among the best possibilities

Depending upon the objectives and the context , relevant weightage has to be assigned to each of the elements . Moreover , there are different mix possibilities even with regard to sales level . The sales level is not a static or sacrosanct figure . One can fix higher or lower sales level achieving an overall optimization in the process

Linkage between Marketing effort , Marketing mix and Marketing budget

Marketing mix in effect signifies the manner in which the marketing effort or marketing budget of the firm is distributed over the different components of marketing job . The marketing effort required for achieving the targeted sales , translates itself into marketing budget and the distribution of this budget over the four Ps , indicates the mix position

e ) Assembling the marketing mix , the main task in marketing

Since marketing essentially is an interaction between marketing mix and...