The Marketing Mix: A Brief Overview

The Marketing Mix Breakdown

Product

The product is the actual tangible or intagible item or service being sold. Creating a good product includes several factors such as design, features, and quality. One also has to consider the overall product life cycle (introduction, growth, maturity, and decline). If you wanted an more in-depth version of the marketing mix, it can include additional 'Ps' such as physical evidence, processes, and people

Price

Customers decide with their wallets. Pricing will vary depending on the type of good/service and additional factors such as labor costs, equipment costs, software, hours worked, etc. However, price must also be considered as a motivating factor when entering into a space with moderate to heavy competition.

Place

Did you know that brands pay for optimal shelving in grocery stores? It's known as "slotting fees" and food manufacturers can pay up to millions for it. Why? It can effectively allow them to buy up enough space to have one or several of their options appear as the preferred option. Placement is crucial in marketing, whether your on billboards or appearing in your customer's social media feeds. It's important to determine which platforms are able to reach your audience.

Promotion

If placement is about proper strategy for channel distribution, then promotion is the content that goes along with it. In broad context, promotion includes advertising, public relations, sales, and personalization. If you choose to focus on social media as a form of promotion, then the content you create should be native to each platform. For example, Instagram optimizes 1:1 or 9:16 content vs Twitter which optimizes 16:9 content. The same can be said of print advertising, whether it's a full-page, half-page, or column ad. Promotion, along with placement, price, and product are the first things to consider when developing your marketing strategy .

My name is Taylor Durham and I’m the Director of Marketing at Venture Lab, the University of Pennsylvania’s entrepreneurship hub for student venture development and the co-founder and chief creative officer at HoneyBlossom, a digital marketing company that works with small business owners to provide comprehensive creative and marketing services. In writing this series of articles, I’m hoping for one particular reason - to provide a set of accessible information on branding, digital marketing, and creative design. In this series, you’ll find various articles that provide tips, tricks, and best practices that any startup can apply with little to no cost.