What is Marketing Mix Model?

The marketing mix model encompasses the various tools that drive the business metrics of a product.  The model comprises 4 elements: product, price, place, and promotion. These 4 elements are key components for marketing. Let’s consider each of them:

• Product: This is a tangible or intangible element developed to meet the needs of a target market. You’ll need to conduct research, study the needs of your target audience, and create a product. For the right product mix, you’ll have to prioritize branding and packaging.
• Price: This is the cost of your product and service. Do you want to break into the market? Are you following marketing strategies? Consider this before placing a price on your product. Analyze competitors’ pricing methods and gather data from customers through surveys. This will enable you to make better financial decisions.
• Place: How will your product reach the target market? Ponder on this. In the marketing mix model, place denotes the distribution channel of products and services to reach a specific audience. Tangible products are sold in stores or online. To discover the right distribution medium, you’ll need to understand your target market.
• Promotion: This refers to the marketing strategies utilized in promoting your product and service. Promotional activities include advertising, word of mouth marketing, public relations, among others. The strategies implemented depend on your budget and target audience.

Other components of marketing mix

Though marketing mix consists mainly of the 4P’s: price, product, place, and promotion, it’s been expanded recently. Other elements include:

• Process: This refers to the steps or initiatives involved in a product launch. It include a sales funnel, payment system, etc.
• People: Your target audience, buyers, and team are the people who will help scale up and grow your business.
• Partners: These are your business associates or people working with you. You’ll need to collaborate with distributors for efficient marketing.
• Physical evidence: This denotes tangible results that prove the existence of your business. Physical evidence shows that a service or product has been purchased. Packaging, invoices, receipts, among others, count as physical evidence.

Price, people, product, promotion, physical evidence, process, and partners are termed the 7P’s of marketing mix.

What is the importance of the marketing mix model?

It’s pretty difficult to focus on a specific goal when there are several business activities to handle. With marketing mix, you have a clear vision of your business goals and objectives. It will help you make profitable marketing decisions for your business. Furthermore, this will enable you to offer the right service or product to a target market at the right pricing and time.

How to build a marketing mix model for your business

Now that we’ve explained the marketing mix model and what it entails. Next is how to build a successful marketing mix for your brand. Let’s walk you through the marketing process:

Define your goals and objectives

Do you want to create the best marketing mix for your business? Outline what you want to achieve within a specified period. Your goals may be to get more customers, boost your brand or increase sales.

Know your budget

What’s your budget? How much do you want to spend on product promotion, product research, and the likes? It’s expedient you allocate a certain amount of money for business activities.

What’s your unique selling proposition (USP)?

With increased competition, it’s essential you have a unique selling point or benefit attached to your product or service. This will make your business stand out from others.

Who is your target market?

You can’t possibly sell to everyone. Thus you should know your target market. What does your target audience want? How do they want to be reached? Find out. You can create buyer personas or research-based profiles that describe your customer. Use factors like gender, age, marital status, religion, country, hobbies, events, etc., to gather information about your prospective clients.

Knowing your target market boosts effective marketing.

Ask for customer feedback

Customers’ feedback enables you to make necessary improvements in your product and service. You can create questionnaires or surveys to gather information about your brand.  Ask them what they think about your product, the quality, and the benefits they derive from it.

Give detailed product description

For the best marketing mix, you need to have an in-depth understanding of your product and service. Outline the features that make it distinct from your competitors. What’s your product quality and worth? Find out.

Choose your distribution channels

Your distribution channels are just as crucial as your promotion and marketing strategies. Know your distribution channels since this affects pricing and marketing. Based on the product you’re selling and your target market, you can decide to sell to wholesalers who will, in turn, sell to retailers. The retailers will now sell to the consumers. You can choose to sell to the retailers or consumers as well.

Develop a pricing strategy

Research your competitors’ pricing model and speak to customers to create the ideal pricing system. It would help if you consider working with a product team to manufacture cost-effective products for maximum profitability.

Select your promotion techniques

You can create awareness about your product through several promotional channels like direct marketing, public relations, word of mouth, advertising, among others. Choose a promotional tactic that suits your product, target audience, and price.

Adopt inbound marketing

Consider incorporating inbound marketing techniques in your marketing mix model. Inbound marketing entails website optimization, SEO, email marketing, blogging, and social media promotion. 

Conclusion

Whether you’re new in business or an entrepreneur, the marketing mix model is a vital tool that will promote your business growth. Follow the steps mentioned above to integrate marketing initiatives into your business. Hope you enjoyed our post? What step did we miss out? Let us know in the comments box. If you need help with your marketing mix plan, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.