Marketing_Mix

Marketing Mix Nikki Doolittle MKT421 January 31, 2011 University of Phoenix Michael Gaither Marketing Mix Marketing is found all around us. Every time we turn around we see a product being marketing in one way or another. Marketing can be found in several different media formats. To effectively market a product, companies need to take into consideration the four P's of the marketing mix and to find the proper balance of these four p's. These four P's are product, place, promotion, and price. Lets first look at each of these four items and see how they affect the business world when it comes to marketing. Product is simply the service or good that is being sold to meet someone's needs. Place is how the target is being reached. Promotion relates to how companies are selling the product to the customers. Price is marketing the product to entice the target audience to purchase it (Perrault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2009). Businesses need to find the proper balance of these four p's to successfully reach their target audience and successfully market the product. In day to day shopping who products are displayed in the store and advertised is a perfect example of the company using a marketing mix. How many times have you been looking at getting a new movie in the electronics department when right behind you or over your shoulder you see the large TV's. Or you are looking for outdoor furniture and you see a shiny stainless steel barbecue just calling your name. Stores such as Target, Wal-mart, and Home Depot use strategic placing of products to entice the sale of other items. For this explanation, we will use Target as an example. When you walk into the store each department is laid out in front of you. While it may seem like there is no logic to it, they have set their product placement in a specific way. You will find the jewelry and handbag department near the women's clothes, because we all know that when women go shopping for clothes they will usually look for new jewelry or a new handbag to go with it. The same goes with children's clothes. If you have an infant or a toddler and are shopping for baby supplies, you will find clothes that fit them near the diapers and essentials. What does this all mean' In using the example of Target, they know that product placement is very important. In order for consumers to purchase their products they need to have it in a logical location. But before the consumer enters the store, the company has to promote the product. Product promotion comes in two main forms to entice a customer to shop at Target. The customer will have seen the product on either a T.V. commercial or seen a printed sales ad. By seeing these two types of advertising, the customer is enticed to shop at Target for their product. If Target is ineffective on their advertising then they risk consumers not seeing the product that they are looking for. Perfecting the marketing mix is not something that only retail stores have to deal with. The companies that send their products to these retail stores to sell have to perfect the marketing mix as well. Every year thousands of new products hit the shelves in every industry. If the company that produces these products do not market it correctly then they risk not selling the product. If would not be effective to market a new carpet shampooer in a teen music magazine, because most teenagers could care less about cleaning carpets. The same goes for teen products. A movie that is directed to a teenage crowd will not market well if there is a print ad for the movie in a magazine about financial investing or retirement. Companies need to ensure that their printed ads and commercials are marketed to their target audience. T.V. commercials are very important due to when the commercials air on T.V. If you are marketing a new surround sound system it will not make much sense to have that commercial play late at night or early morning when most people are asleep and there are mainly infomercials on T.V. Reference Perrault, W.D., Cannon, J. P., & McCarthy, E. J. (2009). Basic Marketing: A Marketing Strategy Planning and Approach (17th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.