Page 0
Description: The main goal of a business is to increase its market share. Market share is increased by the prominent usage of an organization’s products by customers. There are many tools and procedures that are deployed by marketers to achieve greater market share. There are number of marketing management decisions that need to be taken. The four major reasons for marketing management broadly come in the following categories:
Product Price Place Distribution
The above four variables are called as marketing mix or the 4Ps of marketing. The marketing managers make use of the above factors in different ways and ratio in order to achieve a strategy that bests satisfies their target market. The marketing mix can be understood by the following figure:
The goal of marketers is to make use of the resources with the above factors and blend them in a way that generates positive results for the organization.
Page 1
Product: It is the tangible product itself or a service being provided by the organization. In case of a tangible product, it also includes the services attached with it. The product category involves many factors such as the physical appearance of the product (size, shape, aesthetics, color etc), the features of the product (purpose, quality, characteristics) and the warranties or extra values that it delivers. Price: Pricing is done by the marketers after a thorough research of the market. The price trends, inflation and economy’s progress is observed before using any price strategies. It takes in consideration the profit margins of a company and rivals’ pricing strategies as well. An organization can go for four main pricing strategies, which are penetration, skimming, premium and economy pricing. Besides this, it also incorporates discounts, financing etc. Place: After managing the product and price, the stress is on the placing of the product. Placing (also called as placement) is the process in which a strategy is derived to keep a product at a place that is most accessible by the customers. It focuses on the distribution channels that will be used to get the product to the target market, which includes transactions, transportation and facilitation functions. It also includes on what channels the product would be available, for instance, traditional retail stores, specialized boutiques, online etc. Promotion: It is the process that is best suited for marketers and in which there is a lot of creativity and brainstorming. It is the process of coming up with strategies and techniques to promote and sell the product to the target market. The cost of promotion is often high and so a budget is given to carry out the promotional activities. The promotional strategies are made, keeping the customers in mind. These four factors are combined and are optimized to the best to deliver a product or service that satisfies the consumers to the best.
Reference: http://www.researchomatic.com/Marketing-Mix-35747.html
Page 2