four Ps of marketing mix

A brief description of the four elements of marketing mix is as follows:

1. Product: The first element of marketing mix is product. A Product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need.
Products include physical objects, services, events, persons, places, ideas or mixes of these.
This element involves decisions concerning product line, quality, design, brand name, label, after sales services, warranties, product range, etc.

Products and services are broadly classified into consumer products and industrial products.
Consumer products are bought for final consumption;
Industrial products are bought by individuals and organizations for further processing or for use in conducting business.

Other ways of classifying products are as follows:

a. Convenience products: These are consumer products that the customer buys very frequently, without much deliberation. They are low priced of low value and are widely available at many outlets. They may be further subdivided as:

Staple Products: Items like milk, bread, butter etc. which the family consumes regularly. Once in the beginning the decision is programmed and it is usually Carried on without change.
Impulse Products: Purchase of these is unplanned and impulsive. Usually when the consumer is buying other products, he buys these spontaneously for e.g. Magazines, toffees and chocolates. Usually these products are located where they can be easily noticed.
Emergency products: Purchase of these products is done in an emergency as a result of urgent and compelling needs. Often a consumer pays more for these. For example while traveling if someone has forgotten his toothbrush or shaving kit; he will buy it at the available price.

b. Shopping products: These are less frequently purchased and the customer carefully checks suitability, quality, price and style. He spends much more time and effort in gathering information and making comparisons. E.g. furniture, clothing and used cars.
c. Specialty products: These are consumer goods with unique characteristics / brand identification for which a significant group of buyers is willing to make a special purchase effort. For example, Mitsubishi Lancer, Ray ban glasses.
d. Unsought product: These are products that potential buyers do not know exist or do not yet want .For example Life Insurance, a Lawyers services in contesting a Will.
 
A product has both tangible and intangible components. While buying a product, the customer does not merely look for the physical product, but a bundle of satisfaction. Thus the impact that any product has upon a buyer goes well beyond its obvious characteristics. There is a psychological dimension to all customer purchases; what a customer thinks about a product is influenced by far more than the product itself.

2. Price:

The second element is the price, which affects the volume of sales. It is one of the most difficult tasks of the marketing manager to fix the right price. The variables that significantly influence the price of a product are: demand of the product, cost, competition and government regulation.

The pricing policies mainly followed by the small firms are:
a. Competitive pricing: This method is used when the market is highly competitive and the product is not differentiated significantly from the competitor’s products.
b. Skimming-the-cream pricing: Under this pricing policy, higher prices are charged during the initial stages of the introduction of a new product. The aim is to recover the initial investment quickly. This policy is quite effective when the demand for a product is likely to be more inelastic with respect to price in its early stages; to segment the market into segments that differ in price elasticity of demand and to restrict the demand to a level, which a firm can easily meet.
c. Penetration pricing: Under this policy, prices are fixed below the competitive level to obtain a larger share of the market. Penetration pricing is likely to be more successful when the product has a highly elastic demand; the production is carried out on a large scale to achieve low cost of production per unit; and there is strong competition in the market.

3. Promotion:

Promotion refers to the various activities undertaken by the enterprise to communicate and promote its products to the target market. The different methods of promoting a product are through
1. Advertisement,
2. Personal selling,
3. Sales promotion
4. Publicity.
5. Direct selling
6. Interactive marketing
 
4. Place or Physical Distribution:

Place mix or delivery mix is the physical distribution of products at the right time and at the right place. It refers to finding out the best means of selling, sources of selling (wholesaler, retailers, and agents), inventory control, storage facility, location, warehousing, transportation, etc.