The essence of marketing relies on the notion that you just need to create a product for your specific audience, put it up for sale in places where this audience can be regularly found, and set that price at such a level that these people understand what they get for the money they pay. There is its own science that stands behind an understanding of the benefit from the purchase of a certain product; for all that, related services should also be provided, which will further stimulate people to make a purchase. If you managed to do all this, we can say that you correctly understood and used marketing for your own purposes.
However, all this requires and implies even more work to identify the needs that need to be met as well as certain places where consumers most often make their purchases. Next, you need to determine: how to produce a product at a price that is beneficial for both you and consumers, and how to do it all in the shortest possible time.
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If you miss even one of these points or do everything without full return, then make a mistake that can lead to the ultimate failure of your project. It can be considered wrong to promote a car that saves gasoline much better than other cars to a market with cheap fuel, as well as the publication of the textbook after the new school year has already begun. The same applies to the monetary aspect. Selling a product at a price inappropriate for the target consumers inevitably leads to failure one way or another.
Using the classic marketing mix repurposed for the modern context is a great starting point that offers you an unbiased view of your own product. You can tangibly evaluate whether your product is good for the market, at least in general. The marketing mix is a general term that offers various options for the qualitative analysis that organizations choose when promoting a product or service to the market. The 4P model, first proposed in 1960 by E.J. McCarthy, is one of the most famous ways to define marketing. 4Ps are:
- Product - product (goods or service);
- Place - place;
- Price - price;
- Promotion - promotion.
While being somewhat outdated, the 4Ps model is just one option you can use to analyze your product and develop a marketing strategy. Some experts appeal that the methodology is outdated, however, certain elements from it can still be used sufficiently. Generally, the main elements of the marketing mix remain the same, regardless of your business niche, model, or context.
Other marketing mix models include Bittner and Booms' 7P model, which is also sometimes referred to as the extended marketing mix model. This model, in addition to standard 4P elements, also includes:
- People are those who promote a product or service.
- Processes are the mechanisms and action algorithms that are necessary for the marketing strategy to be executed.
- Physical evidence is the external environment in which the service is provided.
Another approach is the 4C marketing mix proposed by Lauterborn in 1993. This model was an attempt to re-invent the original 4Ps model yet from the perspective of the customer rather than a business. The 4Cs model takes the following elements into consideration:
- Consumer needs - customer needs (product equivalent);
- Cost - cost (equivalent to price);
- Convenience - convenience (equivalent to location)
- Communication - connections and communications (equivalent to promotion).
To make your marketing mix more specific and effective, you can always involve factors you deem relevant or shuffle the factors offered by the researchers as you see fit. The marketing mix can help you define the marketing elements to successfully push your offering on the market. While the 4P or 4C models are quite common and are often recommended, it’s your flexibility that defines your success.