Marketing Mix

Marketing mix is important to business. Marketing mix was coined by Neil Borden, author of an article entitled "The Concept of the Marketing Mix. " Marketing mix is utilized by marketing professionals. Marketing mix is important and often crucial in the determination of a product or brand's offering (Needham, 1996). Marketing mix is synonymous with the Four Ps which are: price, product, promotion, and place. In recent years, the concept of four Cs has been introduced in an effort to cater to a more customer-driven marketing strategy. The four Cs are: consumer, cost, convenience, and communication (Needham, 1996). Wal-Mart marketing managers have strategically mastered a marketing strategy that encompasses the four Ps and the four Cs.

A product is a particular item that has the ability to satisfy consumer needs and wants. A product can be a tangible good or a service. Intangible goods are services like tourism industry, hotel industry, and the financial industry (Needham, 1996). Tangible products have an independent physical existence. Each product has a life-cycle. Marketers must be careful to identify the life-cycle of a product and pay close attention to the different challenges that may arise as product moves through each stage. A marketer must understand product mix. In order to expand product mix, a marketer must increase a product line's depth or increase the number of product lines (Needham, 1996). Marketers must take into consideration ways to position the product, ways to exploit the brand, and ways to configure the product mix so that products complement each other (Needham, 1996). Wal-Mart has been able to provide every product and brand that a person will see day to day. Wal-Mart has a very wide range of product categories which include movies, gifts, essentials, appliances, grocery, toys, games, outdoor living, etc (Pride, 2006).

The price a customer pays for a product is important to the marketing mix. Price assists in the determination of a company's profitability and survival. Price adjustments have a direct impact on a marketing strategy, which is dependent upon the price elasticity of a product, can affect sales and demand (Needham, 1996). A marketer must be sure to set prices that are complementary to the other elements of the marketing mix. A marketer has to be aware of customer perceived value for a product when determining price (Jyoti, 2010). The three basic pricing strategies are market skimming, neutral pricing, and market penetration pricing (Needham, 1996). The reference value and the differential value must be taken into consideration. Reference value is when the consumer makes a reference to the prices of competing products, while the differential value is the consumer's idea of a product's attributes in contrast to the attributes of other products (Needham, 1996). Wal-Mart's business model does not include manufacturing any products. Wal-Mart's business model includes the procurement of products from different places around the globe in large quantities in an effort to benefit from economies of scale. For this reason, Wal-Mart is able to offer products 15% lower than competing retailers (Pride, 2006). Wal-Mart uses discount strategies in order to focus on consumers and spark purchasing behavior. Products are offered at different discount prices based on demand. Consumers are offered electronics at extremely low prices in comparison to other retailers (Pride, 2006).

Promotion is representative of methods of communication marketers utilize in order to provide information to different consumers about product. Promotion is made of several elements which include: advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and personal selling (Needham, 1996). Advertising is any communications that are paid for such as cinema commercials, radio and internet advertisements, print media,