Developing the Marketing Mix

Next, the elements of the marketing mix must be combined effectively and be consistent with one another. The elements of the marketing mix influence one another and they interact with promotional variables significantly.

Product Decisions—any offerings of the firm that satisfy customer needs. Product decisions include branding and packaging, which are particularly important from a promotional perspective because of the role the brand name and package play in communicating attributes, information, and meaning to the consumer. An important role of advertising is creating and maintaining brand equity—an intangible asset of added value or goodwill that results from the favorable image, impressions of differentiation, and/or the strength of consumer attachment to a brand name.

Price Decisions—what the consumer must give up in exchange for a product or service. Setting a price level, developing pricing policies, and monitoring consumers’ and competitors’ reactions to price in the marketplace are part of these decisions. Usually a number of factors, such as costs, demand, image, and competition, etc. influence pricing decisions.

Distribution Channel Decisions (Place)—the set of interdependent organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available to customers. Marketers need to decide if they will distribute their products directly or used middlemen. The use of middlemen is important decision in marketing and promotional strategy. The Internet has become a new channel for a number of companies, and has had a demonstrable impact on the distribution system. The success of Amazon.com is an example.

Developing Promotional Strategies: Push or Pull? – Marketers can use a push promotional strategy to persuade the resellers to sell a company’s products. The sales representatives are important in this process  as they can call resellers and offer special programs such as promotional allowances and cooperative advertising. Trade advertising in publications that serve the industry may also be used as part of a push strategy. When a promotional pull strategy is used, the goal is to create demand among end users which will in turn encourage retailers to carry a brand. Heavy spending on consumer advertising and sales promotion is an important part of a pull strategy.