Marketing Mix Strategy

Launching a product in the market and winning consumers in the initial period is not enough. Sustaining market share even when competitors are on the rise is crucial for long-term profit. We all know consumers have short concentration spans. It doesn't take long for a competitor to come and dangle a similar product, thereby snatching away one's consumers. Thus, a company has no time to be complacent. In this world of 'survival of the fittest', one cannot afford to be happy with today's sales rates and relax. Instead one needs to analyze the product life cycle and the marketing mix strategy and come up with ways to keep consumers lured.

Marketing Mix Strategies

Marketing mix is a term used to identify the crucial ingredients in a business, which will conduce to long-term profits. To understand what a marketing mix and mix market is, let us look at an analogy. Consider watercolor painting! An artist uses three primary colors (red, blue and yellow) to derive required shades on the canvas. If he wants green, he simply mixes some blue and yellow together. If he wants dark green, he simply increases the amount of blue and vice versa. Moreover, he blends different shades of paints on the canvas to get a mesmerizing final painting.

Similarly, a marketing mix is the combination of factors such as the type of product, its price, place of distribution and promotional strategies used. These four factors are popularly called 4P's of marketing and were first introduced to the world in 1960 by McCarthy. Let's delve into each of them and see how they affect the life of a product.

Product
A 'Product' is anything that satisfies a customer's need. The product may be a tangible commodity like cars, accessories, gadgets, etc. or may be an intangible service like health care service, hotel service, etc. The product is the first P of the marketing mix and is by default the most important aspect of the marketing mix. This is because the product is the bait of the company, without which it cannot get the fish. A bad, stinky bait will not lead to hooking soda cans. So this explains how crucial a good, innovative and impressive the product has to be. A useless, unimpressive product can never succeed no matter how good the other three P's of the marketing mix are. Thus, companies need to conduct thorough market research, to check if consumers need this product and then need to come up with a product that has a cutting edge above other products sold by competitors.

Price
Second place in the marketing mix goes to 'Price'. According to the management stalwarts; Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, the concept of price refers to the amount of money a consumer has to pay to attain a product. Price determination is not child's play. It is a popular belief that low prices lure large number of customers, thereby resulting in high sales ratios. However, this is not true. Price alone will not attract consumers. Before arriving at a price, the company needs to consider the prices of similar products sold in the market. Moreover, depending on the features provided by the product they will have to raise or lower the price. It doesn't end here! Price administration is also required, wherein the company needs to consider factors like geographic location, times for special sales, distributors, etc. to determine the price at special situations. For example a product in the United States may vary in price from the one sold in India. Depending on the demand for a product at a particular place, price determination can vary.

Place
The third P in the marketing mix stands for 'Place'. This refers to the methods of distributing finished products from the manufacturing unit to the final consumer. This would involve transportation and storage of goods, till they are availed by the customer. It's all about 'providing the right product to the right place at the right time' with the help of an efficient distribution system. The type of distribution channel chosen by manufacturers will depend on whether they find it convenient to sell it to wholesalers or directly to retailers or consumers via specific dealers. The company will focus on making products available to the consumer as fast as they can.

Promotion
The fourth P in the marketing mix stands for 'Promotion', which refers to a company's communication line with the end consumer. Just like how, having talent is useless till one actually uses it and lets the world see it, same is the case with a product. No matter how good the product is, if it remains in the factory, it will never rope in profits. It needs to be publicized among people who need it, who will buy it and come back to make more purchases.

Various promotion methods can be used to advertise the product and generate awareness. Promotional costs are usually very high in the introduction stage of the product life cycle, however, as the product gains market share, the promotional costs reduce. Later when the product sale begins to decline, it again undergoes vigorous advertising using various marketing tools.

Thus, marketing strategy and marketing mix are interdependent concepts. Depending on the current situations, a marketing strategy is formulated using the appropriate proportions of the 4Ps. After analyzing the stage in the product life cycle, the company needs to formulate a marketing mix strategy.