What is the marketing mix and why is it important? | The 4 P’s of marketing

After you have identified your ideal customer, the next step is to go all-in with your customer value proposition.

That is, communicating to your customers what makes you truly better than the many other options available.

Doing your research to specificity who your ideal customer is, and then clearly defining your marketing position is literally half the job. And when you do it well, as your competitors usually won’t, you can almost guarantee yourself a winning position in the market.

So, before we dig into the nuts and bolts of developing your Marketing mix, be sure to review these two tutorials:

1. 8 Market Research Strategies used by Marketing Professionals
2. Unique Selling Proposition vs. Value Proposition (with examples)

Onward.

The marketing mix is an important foundation in marketing. 

What is the marketing mix and why is it important?
Once you have your target market identified, your next job is to decide upon the marketing mix. Also known as “the 4 P’s of marketing”, the marketing mix is no different than a recipe. Each ingredient is an important part of the marketing plan and is composed of these 4 elements:

1. Product
2. Promotion
3. Price
4. Place

Each of these simple ingredients is necessary to complete your marketing plan. But without a clear picture of who your ideal customer is, and the value you bring to the customer, your marketing mix will be off to a rocky start.

Let’s now walk through some examples and get you off to a winning start!

What is marketing mix in simple words?

Every marketing plan contains four key components that are combined into the overall sales and marketing program:

1. Your Product or Services - What exactly are you delivering to the marketplace?
2. Your Promotion - What are you communicating?
3. Your Pricing - What is the price you are selling your product or service for?
4. Your Location - Where will you deliver your promotions?

This is your formula.

If one is off the mark, your chances for success severely decline. If more than one is off the mark, your chances for success are virtually none.

But when all four ingredients in the marketing mix are on target, sales success can be yours.

Your job as a marketing professional is to continually tweak and adjust based on data driven marketing strategies, always looking for ways to improve conversions, boost sales, get more from your advertising, generate more customers from your marketing spend, and above all: keep more customers doing more business with you longer.

What are the elements of marketing mix (example)

For example, if you are a massage therapist (or any other service business) the service you provide is massage therapy. This is your product and it’s the first P in your marketing mix formula. And you provide a menu of product choices such as full-body massage, aromatherapy massage, sports massage, and more.

The second P in your marketing mix formula is promotion. This is how you will be communicating your value proposition to your ideal customer, and what you will be saying in your promotional message. You might decide to offer an introductory $20 off any massage for first time customers.

The third P in your marketing mix formula is price, which is how much do you charge your customers for this product. A very important question you need to ask yourself is: As part of your value proposition, how much is my ideal customer willing to pay me for my product? This is very important because if you charge too much, customers may look elsewhere for this product. And if you charge too little, you may not be able to make enough money to cover your costs.

The fourth P in your marketing mix formula is place, which is answering the question: where have I decided to promote my product at this price in order to gain a customer? For example, knowing there is a community 5K and 10K race coming up where there are a large number of participants, you might run a pay-per-click campaign geo-targeting your ideal customers (within a 3-mile radius) offering $20 off for a sports massage to new customers who just ran in the 5K or 10K.

The marketing mix is a simple foundation for you to build your marketing plan. Over time, as you innovate and do more campaigns the marketing mix will become second nature to you. If you need assistance along the way, we are happy to help!

About Your Strategic Marketing Partner
Sam Hirschberg, MBA, is Your Strategic Marketing Partner in Arizona. Always professional and a delight to work with, Sam is not your typical “marketing consultant”. Unlike most consultants who tell you there is a problem and say, “See you later and good luck!” Your Strategic Marketing Partner knows how to find solutions, execute programs, test and measure campaigns, and how-and-when it’s time to roll-out big! You are invited to call (602) 892-0777 to learn more about Sam’s background on his FREE 9-minute recorded message.  For more information about Sam, please visit https://strategicmarketingpartner.com.