Marketing Mix

Marketing Mix Paper

The term "marketing mix" became "popular after Neil H. Borden published his 1964 article, The Concept of the Marketing Mix." (www.netmba.com) Borden's marketing mix included "product planning, pricing, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertixing, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, and fact finding and analysis." (www.netmba.com) E. Jerome McCarthy grouped these items into the what is now known as the four P's - product, price, place, and promotion. (www.netmba.com) These four P's are the parameters that the marketing manager can control, depending on the internal and external limitations of the marketing environment. The goal is to make decisions that center the four P's on the customers in the target market in order to create perceived value and generate a positive response. (Perreault & McCarthy, 2005)

Product

The first element of the marketing mix is product. The term "product" refers to tangible, physical products as well as services. Some of the product decisions include "brand name, functionality, styling, quality, safety, packaging, warranty, and accessories or services." (www.netmba.com) An important thing to remember about this element is that you cannot develop products and then try to sell them to a mass market. You have to study the wants and needs of the consumers in your target market and then draw these consumers in with something they want. You have to find out what people want and produce that product.

Several months ago, I was looking for movie listings online. A friend had told me about Fandango.com and so I decided to try it out. Fandango.com is a web site that searches for movies based on the customers search criteria. Once you choose the movie, location, and time you wish to attend, you have the option of purchasing your movie ticket immediately. This saves time at the theater because you do not have to wait in line at the ticket counter. This is a good example of providing a product that the customers in the target market want.

Price

The second element in the marketing mix is price. There are many decisions regarding the price of a product. These decisions include "pricing strategy, suggested retail value, volume discounts, cash and early payment discounts, seasonal pricing, bundling, price flexibility, and price discrimination." (www.netmba.com) The price is what is "exchanged for the product." (Kerin et al, 2006) The marketing manager must consider things like the cost for customers to travel in order to purchase the company's products.

Fandango.com charges a fee for their service. The fee is $1 per ticket purchased. It does not cost the customer to travel to his or her den and surf the Internet so the marketing manager at Fandango.com probably considered and analyzed how much customers would be willing to pay for the convenience of not standing in line at the ticket counter. In a world of increasing pace and must-have convenience, I believe that $1 is a small amount to pay for the saved frustration from long lines. I also believe the price to be just right. The cost of seeing a movie is already high and it's not much to add $1, however, $2 would be too much and this could cause sales to fall for Fandango.com.

Place

The third element of the marketing mix is place. Place is about getting the products to the customer. Here again, the marketing manager must think of convenience for his or her customers. He or she must analyze how far customers are willing to travel to