Name =Malik Waqas Anjum Awan

Class = M.com

The four Ps of the marketing mix

The Marketing Mix

What is Marketing Mix?The marketing mix comprises four basic marketing

strategies known as the four Ps: Product

Place

Price

Promotion

The marketing mix is the combination of marketing activities that an organization engages in so as to best meet the needs of its targeted market. Traditionally the marketing mix consisted of just 4 Ps.

Getting the mix of these elements right enables the organization to meet its marketing objectives and to satisfy the requirements of customers.

Price How you price your product or service so that your price remains

competitive but allows you to make a good profit.

Price strategies should reflect what customers are willing and able to pay. In commerce, price is determined by what (1) a buyer is willing to pay, (2) a seller is willing to accept, and (3) the competition is allowing to be charged. With product, promotion, and place of marketing mix.

It is one of the business variables over which organizations can exercise some degree of control. As the consideration given in exchange for transfer of ownership, price forms the essential basis of commercial transactions. It may be fixed by a contract, left to be determined by an agreed upon formula at a future date, or discovered or negotiated during the course of dealings between the parties involved

Place

(Also referred to as Distribution) – Where your business sells its products or services and how it gets those products or services to your customers. Place strategies deal with how and where a product will be distributed.

It Refers to providing the product at a place which is convenient for consumers to access. Various strategies such as intensive distribution, selective distribution, exclusive distribution and franchising can be used by the marketer to complement the other aspects of the marketing mix.

Product

The products or services offered to your customer: Their physical attributes, what they do, how they differ from your competitors and what benefits they provide. Product strategies include what product to make, how to package it, what brand name to use, and what image to project.

Every product is subject to a life-cycle including a growth phase followed by a maturity phase and finally an eventual period of decline as sales falls. Marketers must do careful research on how long the life cycle of the product they are marketing is likely to be and focus their attention on different challenges that arise as the product move. The marketer must also consider the product mix. Marketers can expand the current product mix by increasing a certain product line's depth or by increasing the number of product lines. Marketers should consider how to position the product, how to exploit the brand, how to exploit the company's resources and how to configure the product mix so that each product complements the other. The marketer must also consider product development strategies

Promotion

• The methods used to communicate the features and benefits of your products or services to your target customers. Promotion strategies deal with how potential customers will be told about the new product, what the message will be, when and where it will be delivered, and with what inducements to buy.

• Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and Internet advertisements through print media and billboards. Public relations is where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word-of-mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and public relations (see 'product' above)