Understanding the Marketing Mix: 4Ps and Implementation

Posted on Feb 24, 2025 in Business Administration and Management (BAM)

Marketing Mix Concept

The marketing mix is the organization of all the variable elements controlled by a company or other institution in order to maximize its trade value with the environment.

Marketing-Mix Variables: The 4Ps

Although the number of variables that make up the market supply is quite large, they are commonly classified into the 4 Ps:

  • Product: This includes sub-variables such as the tangible product, useful product, brand, packaging, and labeling.
  • Price: This includes sub-variables such as price, delayed payment terms, temporary price changes, discounts, and margins.
  • Place (Distribution): This includes sub-variables such as inventory, packaging in storage, transport, and distribution channels.
  • Promotion (Reinforcement of Supply): This includes sub-variables such as advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and public relations.

Coordination of Marketing-Mix Variables

Integrating mix variables and their coordination present serious difficulties. Kotler identified six factors:

  1. Multiple Objectives: Companies establish a multiplicity of objectives to accomplish, but not all can be met fully. It will be necessary to establish a hierarchy and guidance in that regard for the marketing mix.
  2. Interacting Variables: Depending on the type of variable interactions between two or more variables may be jointly higher, lower, or the same.
  3. Competitive Environment: Market response is not only to variables in the marketing-mix of our business, but also those of competitors. There will always be a response.
  4. Delayed Effects: The effects of marketing-mix do not usually find an immediate reply in demand, as not all people perceive the message at the same time.
  5. Market Response: This is often ignored, although the experience of the company on the market and the different elements involved in it can establish qualitative and quantitative predictions possible.
  6. Environmental Uncertainty: Planning is done on the current reality and future prospects. But there is no security on these future prospects; the more comprehensive the planning horizon, the greater the uncertainty.

Implementation of Marketing-Mix

Once the planning stages are covered, we proceed to the implementation of the marketing mix. For this, several points must be considered:

  1. All managers and implementers of sub-variables have to be convinced that the choice is optimal to satisfy the market segment and to achieve business objectives.
  2. The people mentioned above must know the whole marketing mix plan, since it is the only way to join forces.
  3. The marketing-mix plan must contain elements of control, so that from the beginning, the results obtained are known.

Marketing-Mix Strategies

Product

  • Changes in existing products (design, selection, packaging)
  • New applications for existing products (Swatch)
  • Launching new products
  • Elimination of existing products

Price

  • Differential (offers 3×2)
  • Competitive (price equal, lower, or higher)
  • New Products (High or low)
  • Psychological (Normal price or price of prestige)

Distribution

  • According to the product (perishable or non-perishable)
  • According to the market (direct or indirect sale)
  • As competition (analyze their performances)
  • According to the company (experience)

Promotion

  • Personal selling (Direct, Phone, Internet, etc.)
  • Advertising (radio, TV, cinema, press, etc.)
  • Public relations (sponsorship of activities, social activities, etc.)
  • Sales Promotion (sweepstakes, contests, rebates, samples, tastings, etc.)