CONCEPT OF MARKETING MIX - MARKETING MANAGEMENT

CONCEPT OF MARKETING MIX

BY

SMART LEARNING WAY

CONTENTS 

Introduction

Meaning

Concept of marketing mix

7p of marketing mix

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

                  JEROME MCARTHY an American professor in marketing popularized the marketing mix in the terms of 4ps – products, price, promotion, and place. 

               The marketing concept that we have discussed is valid for both products and services. The marketing mix is one of the most importance universal concept , which has been developed in marketing. All the variable are inter – related and inter-dependent on each other.   

                   It is appropriate to reconsider the traditional marketing mix in the concept of services. Several authors have agreed that a different marketing mix is needed for service, while some have expanded the traditional 4pc of the marketing mix to make it more appropriate recognizing  the diversity of service marketing.

                   The strategies for the 4pc require some modification when applied to services due to the special features of the services.   

 

                  The challenges encountered by the service marketer – like heterogeneity – the requirement of customers, interaction with customer while delivering service and perishability  or absence of inventory, intangibility of offer and absence of protection etc. necessitate the extension of the  marketing mix to include people ,process ,and physical evidence. 

The additional prescribed Pc refers to the activities that are essential to meet the challenges posed by three unique characteristics of services:

1.  Simultaneity or inseparability of service    provider  from customer (people)
2.  The inability to hold inventory of service marking it critical for the service process to flow smoothly to match demand and supply(process)
3. The need to make highly intangible service offering appear tangible(physical evidence )

Meaning of marketing mix 

                    “The combination of these marketing methods or devices is known as the marketing mix”

                 Marketing manager is a mixer of all marketing ingredients and he creates a mix of all the marketing element and resources. the marketing mix will naturally be changing environmental factors ( technical, social, economic, and political) affecting each market.  

7P of marketing mix

1.  Products
2. Price
3. Promotion
4. Place
5. People
6. Process
7. Physical evidence

(1)   Product:

                      Product is the thing possessing utility. It has four components.1product 2.service after sales 3. brand and 4. package. The product management evolves products mix in consultation with  marketing manager,  

  (2) Price:

                    Price is the valuation placed upon  the product by the offerer. It has to cover pricing, discounts, allowances and terms of credit. It deals with price competition.  

                  

 (3) Place(distribution):

                   Distribution  is the delivery of the product and right to consume it. It include channels of distribution, transportation, warehousing and inventory control.

          

(4) Promotion:

                       Promotion is the persuasive communication about the product by the offer er to the prospect. It covers advertising, personnel selling, sales promotion, publicity, public relations, exhibition and demonstrations used in promotion. Largely it deals with non –price competition.    

 (5) People

  

             An essential ingredient to any service provision is the use of appropriate staff and people. Recruiting the right staff and training them appropriately in the delivery of their service is essential if the organisation wants to obtain a form of competitive advantage. Consumers make judgments and deliver perceptions of the service based on the employees they interact with.

         

           Staff should have the appropriate interpersonal skills, attitude, and service knowledge to provide the service that consumers are paying for. Many British organizations aim to apply for the Investors In People accreditation, which tells consumers that staff are taken care off by the company and they are trained to certain standards.

(6) Process:

        

The process element of the service marketing mix is concerned with the way in which the service delivered to the customer. This has two points of interest to the service marketer.

    

 First, the inseparability characteristic of services has an important implication for how the service company’s personnel deliver the service to the customer and how the customer participates in the service delivery process.

 

 Secondly, the ‘auxiliary’ aspect of the service that is the added valve of the service, becomes an important competitive weapon in differentiating the service from competitors when the service is experience by customers.

  

 Example: how process can be used to competitive advantage is through the marketing of financial service. 

(7) Physical evidence :

                     The relative intangibility  of many services makes it important to pay attention to tangibles. Sometimes, the tangibility of intangible services may help to market them better. ( for example, brochures of a vacation destination can create images about the place, and may end in a desire to visit the place.)  Physical evidence are those tangible clues which the customer may receive during the process of receiving the service, which ‘verify either the existence or the completion of a service’.

Further physical evidence can be categorized into- two peripheral evidence and essential.     

Peripheral evidence : 

Is usually ‘possessed as part of the purchase of a service, but it has little or no independent value’. E.g. a check book which is not of any use without the funds transfer and storage service that it represent.

Essential evidence : 

Unlike peripheral evidence it cannot be possessed by the consumer. However, essential evidence may be ‘so dominant in it’s

 The physical evidence that a service provider presents is not limited to building, but to the appearance of people, stationary, bills sent to customers, visiting cards and any tangible evidence that may result in an impression being formed about the service brand. Of course, there may be cultural factor at play too.    

 Impact on service purchase and use that it must be consider virtually an element in its own right.

Summary

           

 The controllable variables of the firm product, price, place, place, promotion of the product marketing are inadequate for marketing services. 

The special features of the service marketing have brought about the need for the extended marketing mix – people, process, and physical evidence. 

Because of the inseparability of the service production and consumption, the customer is subjected to direct experience of the production process, this also include the interaction with the front line staff, services being intangible needs to be tangibilized through  the physical evidence. 

Bibliography

(1)   Services marketing

- Rajendra nargundkar

    

  (2) Marketing management

            - S.A . Sherlekar

          Publish by Himalaya publishing house