The marketing Mix and the Product life circle

The concept is simple. Think about another common mix – a cake mix. All cakes contain
eggs, milk, flour, and sugar. However, you can alter the final cake by altering the amounts of
mix elements contained in it. So for a sweet cake add more sugar!

It is the same with the marketing mix. The offer you make to your customer can be altered by
varying the mix elements. So for a high profile brand, increase the focus on promotion and
desensitize the weight given to price.

Another way to think about the marketing mix is to use the image of an artist’s palette. The
marketer mixes the prime colours (mix elements) in different quantities to deliver a particular
final colour. Every hand painted picture is original in some way, as is every marketing mix.
Let’s look at the elements of the marketing mix in more detail. Click on the links to go to the
lesson on each element.

Price
Price is the amount the consumer must exchange to receive the offering .

Solomon et al (2009).

The company’s goal in terms of price is really to reduce costs through improving
manufacturing and efficiency, and most importantly the marketer needs to increase the
perceived value of the benefits of its products and services to the buyer or consumer.
There are many ways to price a product. Let’s have a look at some of them and try to
understand the best policy/strategy in various
situations.

Place
Place includes company activities that make the product available to target consumers.

Kotler and Armstrong (2010).

Place is also known as channel, distribution, or intermediary. It is the mechanism through

which goods and/or services are moved from the manufacturer/ service provider to the user or
consumer.
Product
Product means the goods-and-services combination the company offers to the target market.

Kotler and Armstrong (2010).

For many a product is simply the tangible, physical item that we buy or sell. You can also
think of the product as intangible i.e. a service.

In order to actively explore the nature of a product further, let’s consider it as three different
products – the CORE product, the ACTUAL product, and finally the AUGMENTED
product.

The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is based upon the biological life cycle. For example, a seed is
planted (introduction); it begins to sprout (growth); it shoots out leaves and puts down roots
as it becomes an adult (maturity); after a long period as an adult the plant begins to shrink and
die out (decline).

The Customer Life Cycle (CLC) has obvious similarities with the Product Life Cycle (PLC).
However, CLC focuses upon the creation and delivery of lifetime value to the customer i.e.
looks at the products or services that customers NEED throughout their lives.

Promotion
Promotion includes all of the activities marketers undertake to inform consumers about their
products and to encourage potential customers to buy these products.

Solomon et al (2009).

Promotion includes all of the tools available to the marketer for marketing communication.
As with Neil H. Borden’s marketing mix, marketing communications has its own promotions
mix. Whilst there is no absolute agreement on the specific content of a marketing
communications mix, there are many promotions elements that are often included such as
sales, advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, online communications
and personal selling.

Physical Evidence
(Physical evidence is) . . . The environment in which the service is delivered, and where the
firm and customer interact, and any tangible components that facilitate performance or
communication of the service.

Zeithaml et al (2008)

Physical Evidence is the material part of a service. Strictly speaking there are no physical
attributes to a service, so a consumer tends to rely on material cues. There are many examples
of physical evidence, including some of the following buildings, equipment, signs and logos,
annual accounts and business reports, brochures, your website, and even your business cards.

People
(People are) . . . All human actors who play a part in service delivery and thus influence the
buyers’ perceptions; namely, the firm’s personnel, the customer, and other customers in the
service environment.

Zeithaml et al (2008).

People are the most important element of any service or experience. Services tend to be
produced and consumed at the same moment, and aspects of the customer experience are
altered to meet the individual needs of the person consuming it.

Process
Process is) . . . The actual procedures, mechanisms, and flow of activities by which the
service is delivered – this service delivery and operating systems.

Zeithaml et al (2008).

There are a number of perceptions of the concept of process within the business and
marketing literature. Some see processes as a means to achieve an outcome, for example – to
achieve a 30% market share a company implements a marketing planning process. However
in reality it is more about the customer interface between the business and consumer and how
they deal with each other in a series of steps in stages, i.e. throughout the process.