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The Marketing Mix

Value analysis

Each product expresses a series of values that may be desired by customers, who will then be willing to pay for the product. For example, the hand-made Belgian chocolates have a number of features that make them highly desirable to people who like chocolates, albeit at a higher price. The quality of the chocolate, their shapes, the fillings, the wrappings and box all express values that together form the unique experience of buying Belgian chocolates. Each of these features, together with other features such as price, go together to define the product, and are known as the marketing mix.

Marketing mix

Marketing mix means the set of distinctive properties that characterise a product.
1 Features of the product can include — quality, extra features, colour, guarantees, after sales service, size, packaging and brand name.
2 Price, including discounts and credit facilities.
3 Place — that is, the method of distribution and availability of the product.
4 Promotion — they way in which the product features are communicated to the client.

Promotion

Promotion is the general term for informing, influencing and persuading customers. The promotional mix refers to the variety of promotional activities associated with a product. These will be modified by the nature of the product, the nature of the market and its customers, and the position of the product in the product life cycle. Additionally, promotion will be constrained by financial considerations. Specific objectives of promotion could be: (1) to increase awareness of the product; (2) to target particular market segments; (3) to assist in the positioning of the product — that is, to inform or alter customer perceptions of the use value and cost of the product.

Advertising

Advertising — (above-the-line promotion) purchased, non-personal communication, through the media.
The American Marketing Association has adopted the following as a definition: “Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor.” As advertising is paid for it is a commercial transaction. It is non-personal, which means that advertising messages are directed at a mass audience and not directly at individuals.
Sales promotion is made up of those marketing activities, other than personal selling, such as advertising and publicity that stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness. This includes displays, shows and exhibitions, demonstrations, and various non-recurrent selling efforts not in the ordinary routine.
One might want to say that the ultimate purpose of advertising is to increase sales and profits; however, you cannot increase sales unless the market is more aware of the product. So it would appear that increasing awareness is the overall aim of marketing.
Hence, the overall aim of advertising is to increase awareness, and through that sales, but awareness of what? and how does one increase sales specifically? The specific objectives listed by Matthews, Buzzell, Levitt and Frank are:
1To build primary demand.
2To introduce a price deal.
3To inform about a product's availability.
4To build brand recognition or brand preference or brand insistence.
5To inform about a new product's availability or features or price.
6To help salesmen by building an awareness of a product among retailers.
7To create a reputation for service, reliability or research strength.
8To increase market share.
9To modify existing product appeals and buying motives.
10To increase frequency of use of a product.
11To inform about new uses of a product.
12To increase the number or quality of retail outlets
13To build the overall company image
14To effect immediate buying action.
15To reach new areas or new segments of population within existing areas.
16To develop overseas markets.
Generally advertising will be more effective if the external environment is favourable: the product is a superior good, and incomes are rising; there is a boom in the economy; i.e. in general, if there is an expanding market.