What is the Marketing Mix?

In the late 1940’s a marketing professor, James Culliton of Harvard University developed a concept later known as the Marketing Mix. The Marketing Mix enables brands to more smoothly position a product or service into a market. Traditionally the marketing mix comprised of 4 main marketing objectives, Product, Place, Price and promotion. 

In recent times Marketing professionals have updated this model from the 4 P’s to the 7P’s of the Marketing Mix. For the purpose of the blog today I will cover 5 P’s of the marketing mix, including a new concept known as “the Purple Cow”.

The 6 P’s of the marketing mix

1. Product – The actual product or service you wish to exchange for currency.
2. Place – Can be physical location, store, set-up, warehouse, online portal, website, Social Media platforms, pretty much any touch point that your intended customers or target audiences interact with you.
3. Price – costs of product or services.
4. Promotion – All communication channels used to advertise to your intended customers (audience).
5. People – Employees or customers.
6. Purple Cow – Connection, standing out, being remarkable and being different in your market.

In contrary to the marketing mix I will analyse two types of restaurants, lower class restaurant in comparison with an upper class restaurant. Through this process, you will gain a greater understanding of the marketing mix and how it can be applied to any business.

1. Product

Low end restaurant

High end restaurant

How do these restaurants differ?

The low end restaurant is targeting different customer segments in comparison to the high end restaurant. Customer segmentation is the practice of dividing a customer base into groups of individuals that are similar in specific ways relevant to marketing. Segments will differ based on their age, gender, income, educational level and many other variables.

2. Place

Place is every touch point that your customer will have with your business, for that reason you need to make sure they have a good online and offline experience. Customers experience with your business will play a significant role into how they will perceive your product or service.

Considering the two restaurants above, both would want to be in a location where they can reach many potential customers. For example, let’s say it is Friday night and I am a food customer looking for a meal. I would begin by searching online for a restaurant near where I live, so that I would not have to drive too far. Through this micro research process I am more than likely to look for a restaurant close to my proximity. I definitely would not be in for a 20 to 30-minute drive unless the restaurant had a special kind of significants to me.

Considerations

• Is your business accessible and convenient in terms of where you are located.
• Will your customers find you on social media or via a directory.
• Have you considered online applications as a place in your marketing mix.

3. Price

You should set your price with consideration of the position you have chosen in your market. Try to understand that the low-end restaurant, in this case will be targeting customers that are willing to pay for a low-end priced meal. For the high-end restaurant owner they will set a high-end price, selling high end meals directly to customers who are willing to spend.

Key Takeaways

• Do your homework, find out what customers are willing to pay for your product or service, another way you can do this is through the use of surveys.
• Research your competitors or conduct a strategic swot analysis in order to find out what they are charging and how they are winning customers.
• Do not price too high and do not price too low.

4. Promotion

Promotion also known as marketing is a necessary approach for many businesses who wish to sell a product or service. Customers would not know you exist if you have not put in the marketing efforts to connect with them. There are many traditional and digital marketing channels that business owners can use in order to get their messages across to target customers.

Quick tips

• Marketing costs should be considered no matter what business you run, for that reason you should also use your budget wisely.
• Before you sign up with any Social Media platform, do your homework and find out if the platform is relevant to your kind of industry, product or service.
• Local newspaper, Tv advertising, magazines, brochures, flyers, business cards, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube are all communications channels.

 5. People

People in the Marketing Mix refers to employees and customers. The delivery of your employees performance will play a critical role in how customers perceive your business.

Quick tips

• Don’t settle for good customer service, aim for great customer service.
• Listen to your customers and understand that the customer is always right.

 6. Purple cow

 What is the Purple Cow?

The Purple Cow is a new concept developed by a well known entrepreneur by the name of Seth Godin. In essence, Seth describes the Purple Cow as a means to find or develop a product or service that stands out.

The remarkable purple cow story?

Seth and his family were on an overseas holiday trip driving through a scenic tour location which had rural farming road stretching out for miles. When Seth and his family first arrive to the location, they gazed in excitement at the cows that were in the paddocks. Exciting as these cows were, soon after he and his family lost the excitement and found themselves bored from seeing the same cows over and over again. Seth begins to wonder if only at this location what a spectacular, remarkable moment it would be if out of all these cows they notice one purple cow. That one purple cow he believes is what today’s consumers look for in markets in addition they are looking for new and exciting products or services.

Seth’s Words of advice

• Be unique;
• look to stand out, not follow;
• find your purple cow;
• being safe is risky, being risky is safe;
• be remarkable; and
• make your own path.

Click here to learn more about our services