What is Marketing Mix?

Marketing Mix is an important concept in modern marketing and includes almost everything that a firm uses to affect consumer's perceptions favorably towards its products or services so that the consumer and organizational objectives can be achieved.

Three other marketing mix classifications by (1) Albert Frey, (2) William Lazer and Eugene J Kelly and (3) Mary Bitner and Bernard Booms are worth noting. Frey's

Two-factor classification includes

1. The offering product, packaging, brand, price and service.

2. Methods and tools includes distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, sales promotion and publicity.

The second classification proposed by Lazer and Kelly includes three factors

1. Goods and service mix

2. Distribution mix

3. Communication mix

However, the 4Ps remain the most popular classification in terms of marketing mix. A more recent marketing mix classification proposed by Robert Lauterborn focuses on customer's point of view and includes

1. Customer benefit

2. Customer cost

 Characteristics of Marketing Mix

• Marketing mix is the crux of marketing process.
• Marketing mix has to be reviewed constantly in order to meet the changing requirements.
• Changes in external environment necessitate alterations in the mix.
• Changes taking place within the firm necessitate changes in marketing mix.

Elements of Marketing Mix

The elements or components of marketing mix may be grouped broadly under the following four heads

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion

1. Product

A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition user or consumption. It includes physical objects, services, personalities, place, organization and ideas.