THE MARKETING MIX: CONTROLLABLE MARKETING VARIABLES

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p style=”line-height: 124%; margin-bottom: 5pt;”>The second set of forces that make
marketing an endlessly changing activity is put in motion by individual enterprises when
they make continual adjustments in the control able marketing factors. These forces are known as the
marketing mix.

Though there are a
multitude of these controllable variables, Jerome McCarthy has popularised
a four-factor classification, now commonly known as the 4Ps: Product, Place, Promotion, and Price.

Definitionally, marketing mix is the
mixture of controllable marketing variables that the firm uses to pursue the sought levels of sales in
the target market.

The 4Ps give the marketing manager a
framework within which he can operate on a cost­effective manner. His eventual
success will be determined by the wisdom of his choices, his ability to modify
his mix in the face of uncertainty and change, and his determination to make his strategy work.

Product

Under the first P, which stands for the product, the company takes care of all the problems of developing the product or service which it plans to offer to the target market.

Such problems include:

(i)    selecting a product or product lines;

(ii)    adding or dropping items in the
product line;

( i i i ) branding ;

( iv)packaging; and

(i)              
Standardising
and grading

In a nutshell, the product area is
concerned with developing the right product to the target market.

A product (or a service) is not of
any use to the consumer if it is not available when and where he wants it.
Therefore, the company must consider where, when, how and by whom the goods and
services are to be offered for sale. Sometimes, for example, complicated
channels of distribution are necessary, while at the times, very simple methods
can be used effectively. Wholesaling, retailing, transportation, and storage
play a part in the distribution of most goods and services. 

Place

The second P
(for place) is concerned with
all problems, functions and institutions involved in getting the right product
to the target market.

Promotion

The third P (for promotion) has to
do with the methods of communicating to the target market, the “right
product” that will be sold in the “right place” and the “price”. Here, all the
problems of sales promotion, advertising and the development, training,
and utilization of a sales force are usual y covered. Advertising, sales
promotion and personal selling are to be considered as complementary methods of
communicating with customers.

While the marketing manager is
developing the “right” product, place, and promotion, he must also
decide on the “right” price, i.e the one which will make his total
marketing mix attractive. Before setting the price, the marketing manager
considers the nature of competition in his target market, as well as the
existing practices on mark-ups, discounts, and terms of trade. In some
instances, he must also consider legal restrictions affecting prices. In
summary, price is concerned with determining the “right price” to move
the “right product” to the “right place” with the
“right promotion” for the target market.

By varying each of these controllable
marketing variables, a marketing mi can be selected from a great number
of possibilities. Though this framework may appear simple, the task of making
choices within it is fairly cumbersome. For instance, each of these four
control able marketing variables has man–, potential variations, thereby making the number of
possible marketing mixes very large. Let us assume that there are five (5)
variations of each of the variables (i.e 5 products, 5 places, 5 promotions and
5 different prices), there would be 625 possible different marketing mixes!.
And, it could be more. Hence, as the number of variations increases the number
of possible mixes which must be considered by the marketing manager increases
geometrically.

We must stress
here that no human mind is quite capable of currently evaluating all the
possible marketing mixes. What is practicable is a progressive elimination of the
least desirable, such that the problem can be reduced to manageable
proportions.

Generally, there is
only one “best” strategy at any given time. However, since conditions, often change in the
market situations; there may be many good ones. Even then, a good
strategy will need to be altered as consumer behaviour, competitors’ behaviour, and other non-controlable
variable change.

CONCLUSION

You have learned in this unit that
environmental forces influence an organisational marketing. The marketing
environment presents an unending series of opportunities and threats.
The major responsibility for identifying changes in the macro-environment falls
to a company’s marketer.
Environmental scanning and analysis are particularly important here.