Anika Nashat Matin :
Marketing Mix (MM) is a group of variable which can be controlled and developed by the own strategy of any business, which helps to get the customers’ response. Variables of MM consists of 4Ps’ developed around 1940 by Prof. James Culliton (Professor of Marketing).Product, Price, Place and Promotion , the 4Ps’ is traditional and helps business to enable it to meet the needs and expectations of customers. Gradually, it has been developed to 7Ps’ to 13 Ps’ and 14th P is also in the pipeline. This Marketing Mix can strengthen the customer level of satisfaction.
Ø Product is the main element of MM. It is a pack of advantage thatis offered to customers through tangibly and intangibly.
Ø Price is the second most necessary element of MM. at any business, pricing of any product is very difficult, since it needs to relate with customers’ purchase power parity as well as it needs to keep up the company’s profit. Changing price in most cases depends on different changes in nature likewise, political tension, natural calamities, government restrictions, etc.
Ø Place should always be suitable for the customers. Placement is a big factor for any kind of business. Product should always be available to the nearest hand of the customers, channel of distribution (distributor, wholesaler and retailer) should be prompt in delivering product, and in case of direct selling the company must select the target customers in selected arena.
Ø Promotion is the biggest and strongest element of MM. Promotion through selling, advertising, publicity and so on, would be with the demand of time. Time befitting promotional activities make the customers close to the product. In these days, people are mostly familiar with social media, so promoting online basis would be the most effective way to bring the product in frontline of the customers.
However, Packaging, Positioning and People have been extended as 7Ps for the demand of time. First impression should always be stunning, this is the motto of the 5th element ‘Packaging’ of MM. It refers to the outlook of a product. How a product or service is being visualized t their target customers. Lucrative packaging makes the product or service more accepting and gives fast result for the company. In service giving company, tangibility is very much essential. Packaging of a product or service should always be done through the eyes of critical prospect. The next is Positioning. It is not only to keep the product/service in front of the customers but also to make a place in the heart and mind. It is the matter, how much the company survives in the brain of a customer. How much a customer first thinks that particular company for particular product. Customers’ thinking, positive view regarding the product is very essential. Position is a critical determination of success. In the competitive economy, company should always focus on how they can make habit of thinking making the positioning a better than before. Here, 3rd P, which is Promotion of MM brings an effective result for the company.
People are the most critical function of MM to accumulate. Hiring, the right choice for the product is critical. Ability to select ,recruit and retaining the proper people having the skills and abilities to do the right job at the right time, is more focused point, needed to determine by the entrepreneurs’. So, People is that helping hand, who actually interconnect all the Ps’ of M.M to make a product/service more time befitting to the company as well as brings out the best output for the company.
In this phenomenon, Product, Price, Promotion, Place, Packaging, Positioning, and People are interconnected with each other. In this modern world of economy, the business that evaluate, reevaluate these elements of Marketing Mix brings the real output. Time changes very fast and so do the customers attraction in product /service choosing. With this changing world of economy, marketing is becoming more challenging .Companyalways run to find more productive way to being inside the customers. Purpose, Planning, Prospecting, Point of difference, Programming, Performance has already been developed in the Marketing Mix to make the entrepreneurs more interrelated with the customers and already the 14th P ‘Persistence’ is in the pipeline. As the days pass, more authenticated developed and more focused strategy need to determine the customer each day, which brings new Ps in marketing era in the world economy.
(The writer is a part time Lecturer, Southeast University).
