Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Marketing Mix

Marketing mix is a major concept in modern marketing and involves practically everything that a marketing company can use to influence consumer perceptions favourably towards its products or services so that consumer and organisational objectives are attained. 

Marketing mix is a model of crafting and implementing marketing strategy. Prof. Neil H. Borden first used the term “marketing mix” in 1949 to include in the marketing process factors such as distribution, advertising, personal selling, and pricing. Borden claims that the phrase came to him while reading James Culliton’s description of the activities of a business executive: (An executive) “a mixer of ingredients, who sometimes follows a recipe as he goes along, sometimes adapts a recipe to the ingredients immediately available, and sometimes experiments with or invents ingredients no one else has tried.” [Wikipedia: James Culliton, The Management of Marketing Costs, Research Division, Harvard University (1948)]. 

There are virtually dozens of marketing mix tools. However, Prof. E. Jerome McCarthy classified the “Marketing Mix Variables” in terms of 4 Ps: Product, Price, Place (distribution) and Promotion. These 4 Ps represent the tactical  controllable factors and vary in case of different products and target markets. This classification is believed to  be quite popular in marketing circles across the world.