The Marketing Mix – A Tool To Help You Frame Your Offering To Customers

I am often asked “What is meant by the Marketing Mix?”.   Well the marketing mix is quite simply the mix of tools, or levers as I like to call them, that you use to market your business.  Typically these fall into several key areas, the product itself, the price you charge for it, where you can by it (called place), how you advertise and promote it, what does the packaging do, who sells it or promotes it, and finally what are the processes someone has to go through to buy your product and use it.

Each one of these elements needs to be considered from the customers perspective and then benchmarked against what the competition offers.  When you have done this you can identify where there is room for improvement within your marketing mix.

So, we can start by listing the core elements of a typical marketing mix.  Remember this is just a typical list, you can add or subtract considerations if you think it particularly relevant to your business.

The core elements

Product – is the product right for your target customer and is it better that what everybody else offers the same customer for the same purpose?

Price – is the price good value for the customer and how competitive is it in the market?

Place – can people easily get hold of your product in places where they would expect to find it?

Promotion – how to do you talk to your customers?  Are you sending out the right messages and are they compelling and exciting to the customer?  How is your dialogue different to that of your competitors?

The Physical Evidence – when customers look at your product what do they see?  Is the packaging beautiful?  Is the product itself attractive?  Do people remember using your product?  What is left behind when people have used your product and what do they do with this?  Are you better or worse at this than competitors?

People – who sells your product?  Who are your ambassadors?  Think about everyone who comes into contact with your product?  Are they the right people?  Do they add value for your customers and enrich the experience?  Do you have better people than your competitors?

To help people see the marketing mix through the eyes of a customer sometimes it is helpful to switch the language from internal product or marketing language to the customer’s language and perspective, so

Price becomes Cost

Product becomes Usability and Functionality

Place becomes the Convenience associated with using the product

Promotion becomes the  Communication between the seller and buyer

Process become Ease of Use and Ease of Purchase

Physical Evidence becomes Memento’s from the use of the product

People stays as People because it is self explanatory from either perspective.

So to understand the marketing mix, you can use the following process.

1 – define your marketing mix and the strategy behind it

2 – consider how compelling that is to the customer

3 – benchmark against competitors

4 – review areas for improvement and action

Get In touch if you would like to help you develop your marketing mix!