What is Marketing mix?
Marketing Mix is the combination of different marketing decision that the firm use to market its goods
and services. After identifying the market and gathering the basic information about it, the next step is
to decide upon the strategies to meet the needs of the customers and the challenge of the
competitors. The marketing mix is a set of controllable variables that the company can use to
influence the buyer’s responses. It offers combination of all marketing ingredients so that companies
can realize goals for example sales volume, profit, market share etc. The marketing mix is grouped
under four elements i.e., Product, Price, Place, Promotion. But we will do the comparative study of 2
P’S marketing mix i.e Price and Promotion.
Comparative study of 2P’S marketing mix (price and promotion)
Price Price is the amount of money charged for the product or service. It is sum of all the
values that consumer give up in order to gain the benefit of having or using the
product or services. It includes various factors like cost of material, product
differentiation, competition, market share and the customer's perceived value of
product. The decisions related to the price are as follows:
Penetration pricing means fixing the price of the product comparatively low to
similar goods assuming that it will capture wide market and this will allow the
company to raise the price of its product.
Psychological pricing is used all over the world therefore marketers believe certain
prices are more appealing than others to buyers this kind of image pricing are often
envisioned. The psychological pricing is done by the retailers by using price tag like
29.99 or 9.99.
Strategies pricing involves important decisions for a firm as there can be an option
to fix the price of the product on competitive basis, in this a marketer selects a
competitive pricing strategy as he actually seeks to compete on the basis of superior
distribution, appealing advertisements and several other factors.
Cost-plus is a concept in which some companies try to maximize their profits by
pricing their offerings very high. Every firm has different pricing objectives. It is the
process of cost-based pricing where by adding all costs associated with offering a
commodity in the market by including the expenses related to the production,
transportation, distribution as well as marketing also an amount is added to cover
profit.
Loss leader means use of low prices to attract new business. A marketer who
selects a competitive pricing strategy is attempting to use non price competition.
Skimming means pricing the product relatively high in comparison to the similar
commodities and then gradually reducing the price. The strategy of skimming allows
the firm to recover its cost rapidly by maximizing its sales revenue thus skimming
strategy has been used effectively on gadgets like LCD’s, calculators, laptops and
DVD players.
Promotio Promotion is one of the most powerful tool of marketing mix. It helps us to promote
n our product to increase sales. Promotion means to persuade and communicate the
target market to buy the company’s products. The firm chooses the product to meet
the need of the target segment. The right distribution channel is used to make the
product available and the firm undertakes attention-getting promotion. The decisions
related to promotion are as follow:
Direct mailing is very highly focused upon targeting consumers based upon a
database. As with all types of marketing, the potential consumer is targeted based
upon a series of attributes. Different agencies work to design a highly focused
communication in the form of mails. The mail is marked to the potential customers
and responses are cautiously monitored.
Special offers are like buy one and get one free of cost or may be coupons,
discounts, free accessories (such as free blades with a new razor), introductory
offers (such as buy LCD and get free set top box), and so on.
Advertising is an important way of communication hence it is used to create
awareness, and transmit information in order to gain customers from the target
market. There are many advertising mode and media for example magazines,
journals, movies television, Ad labs, outdoor advertisements (such as posters) and
newspapers
Free gifts should be offered with the product because consumers look for additional
benefits apart from a good product
Joint ventures with suppliers and distributors bring more customers because the
suppliers and distributors become stake holders and they show interest in promoting
the product.
Endorsements are important for promotion because consumers follow their role
models, celebrities and thus endorsement brings change in the mindset of the
consumers
User trials convince customers about the features of the product. It is important as
any customer would like to have a trial before buying it.
Posters are the mode of direct communication through with the information of the
product is conveyed to the customer and it is very effective.
Competitions create innovation and hence this spirit keeps alive the invention of
new and creativity in existing products in an organization
