The Marketing Mix (4 P's)

What is marketing?

Marketing is about providing benefits to customers including product, place price and promotion (The 4  P's).

Above The Line 

Using media that broadcasts a promotion to a mass audience e.g. X Factor Talk Talk Advert.

Below The Line

Using the media that broadcasts to a niche audience e.g. emailing existing customers and cookies.

Through The Line

This is a mixture of below and above the line marketing.

What is the Marking Mix?

The recipe for effective marketing: The 4 P's (price, product, place, promotion)
Decisions about these are based on the result of Market Research.

Product

A product is 'anything capable of satisfying customers needs', it is one thing created to please the audience.
Marketing is about providing the correct bundle of benefits to the audience.
Quality is key when creating a product; if the quality of a product is not great the product will not sell as well as maybe expected 


Price

When deciding a price for a product; organisations need to be able to make a profit from the product but not to over price the product.
There are five different terms of pricing which are:

Cost Plus Pricing

This is the simplest pricing strategy and is aimed at ensuring the business covers its costs and makes and acceptable profit; covering your costs and adding on the make of a product.
E.G. Water.

Competitive Pricing

Where the amount of competition in the market is so strong so customers have a wide range of suppliers to buy from so business match the competition or make their prices better.
E.G. Supermarkets.

Penetration Pricing

The products price is set significantly lower than any competitors prices, usually to capture a larger share of the market. The price is usually raised later.
E.G. Primark.

Price Skimming

A new product that is likely to generate a high volume of intake sales and a high price may be charged in order to maximise profits.
E.G. Apple Products.

Destroyer Pricing 

A destroyer pricer involves setting a price so low that competitors cannot match it. The price can then be raised without threat of competition.
E.G. Sky TV

Promotion 

Promotion is about informing the customers of the product and showing the benefits. it may also persuade customers to buy the product by making them think they need the product rather than just wanting it. it presents a good image of the product.

Place

This is about ensuring the product is in the right 'place' for the customer to consume.
There are two different ways of distributing a product 'Direct Distribution' and 'Indirect Distribution'.

Direct Distribution comes straight from the Manufacturer to the Consumer E.G buying directly from the company website.

Indirect Distribution comes from the Manufacturer to a Retailer and then on to the Consumer E.G the consumer buys the product from Amazon.