Episode 33: Creating a Marketing Mix | Developing a Marketing Concept Series, Part 2

0:00 Do you have a favorite salad bar? When I go to a salad bar, I like to make the perfect salad. For me, I had that spring mix. I'll get my veggies in there, a little egg, a little meat. You get to add all the things that you want to make the perfect salad for you. Well that's what a company does when they're making the right marketing mix for their brand or their company. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. This is part two of a series, talking about the marketing concept for the company. And remember, the marketing concept is the strategy that a company uses to provide the right product or service that meets the needs of their customer, their specific identified customer. So let's get into talking about that marketing mix, that salad that that company comes up with, for the target customer.

1:04 You're listening to marketing adventure, the hub for business, fashion, marketing, and other CTE educators who integrate marketing into the learning experience. I'm your host, Jackie Walker. Each week, I'll cover marketing, education concepts, strategies, tips, trends, frameworks, and other information to equip you to connect your classroom to digital natives while cultivating an engaged learning environment. So come on into the room, where your favorite beverage snacks and even your cell phone are all welcome.

1:42 Your marketing mix is going to consist of four parts. These four parts, combined together, make up the perfect marketing for your product or service, you cannot have any one of these components not exist for a successful product or service to be marketed to the right customer. So what are those four parts, we're going to be talking about the product or service, that's one part, the place, that's another part, the price and the promotion. So let's get on in here and break those down.

2:26 So of course, we have to have a product or service in it for our business to exist, right. If we don't have a product or service, we don't have anything to market. So when we're looking at the product that we're offering, that a company is offering, they are going to be looking at the attributes of this product or service to meet the needs or the ones of their identified market. Other things that they will look at when they are creating a product or service is the competition, who is already doing this out here, and maybe can differentiate themselves from that competitor. Also, they want to look at the lifecycle, because it depends on where that product is in the lifecycle of the product, as to whether what they produce will come in at maybe the high part of the life cycle. When a lot of people are buying it, there's demand and supplies available. And because they don't want to come in and create a product when the lifecycle is phasing out, that means that they want to get with their sales. And they probably have to come in at a very, very low cost as far as our low pricing as far as their product is concerned. All right. And so the things they may want to consider when they're creating a product or service is like what variations would be needed? Is it something that they can offer different attributes in determining factors about it. So those are things that will play into the creation of the product or service that a company is offering. So you have to have a solid product.

4:17 The second part of your marketing mix is pricing. We must talk about this second because once you create the product or service next you're looking at how am I going to price this, the company is looking to price their product, they look at various things they consider a lot of things so quantity that they're going to release will determine the pricing of the product. If they're not going to have a lot of quantity of a product then you're looking at a higher price but if you're returning is going to be pretty large then you could be looking at a lower price or moderate priced product. Also the quality of the materials will determine pricing. If we're using natural fibers, leather things of that nature, that's probably going to be a higher priced product than a product made of synthetic fibers. All right, and then you're also looking at the demand. So they have to look at “Is the product really in high demand for this particular product or service?” The availability of supplies also determines pricing. So if you have products that are being created that don't have a large quantity, quantity of supplies, or rare item or material, then you're looking at a higher priced item. But if it's a material that's in abundance, then your product is not going to necessarily be highly priced. Unless some other factors determine that the price needs to be higher, you're also going to be looking at your influential connections. So when a company comes out with a brand, nowadays, they like to connect that brand to influencers, which could in fact, increase the price of the product. Other things are the uniqueness of the product, the perceived value, and just the anticipated sales and promotion, those are all the things that are going to go into determining the pricing of a product.

6:17 The third ingredient of this marketing mix is promotion. Promotion is how we let everyone know our target market, know about our product, or our service is very key, it brings attention to your product or service. Now your promotion could be seasonal, just depending on what your product or service is. But you also want to think about launching. So your promotion could be for a new launch of a product, it could be for, you know, to increase sales, because you have a large inventory of a product, it could be that you're competing against others, we have to consider what those things are, that you want to include in your promotional activities. So your promotion is simply getting the word out about your product or service to the right market of people at the right time. So it's all of those activities that are going to help everyone know what the product or service is where to get it. All of those good things about your product or service.

7:31 The fourth ingredient is place place has to deal with where the customer can access that product or service, how can they get their hands on that product or service? So place has to do with? It could be the location? Like where is the store located? Or is it on a website? How will they access and be able to attain that product? Place also could be if the product is in a store where it's located in the store. Companies pay a lot of money to be at eye level on the shelf. Because what are we doing when we look for things? And where we are most often looking, we're looking at eye level, we're not necessarily looking down to the bottom shelf, we're not necessarily looking at the top shelf, we are looking at eye level when we're walking down the aisle and things catch our attention. So unless we're looking for a very specific product, will we go dig in and look in high and low. So that's why companies pay a lot of money to be eye level. So placement is key. But it's also about where they're located as far as a mall, or in an independent store, or if they're only can be purchased online. So those are things to consider. How will the product get to the locations how we get to the consumer distribution channels, all of those things play into placing and having the product at the right place at the right time for the right person.

9:10 No salad is complete without the right dressing or the toppings right. So I said four things. However, I'm going to put a fifth one in here and that's going to be my sauce, my dressing on top of my marketing mix salad here, that is going to be people if we don't have the right people to send the message out or carry the message forward about our product or service, then this thing can fall to the wayside. You have to have people out there marketing for you getting the right message out to the market, about your product or service. That word of mouth is so key to a company's success. That it's just like that secret sauce to us, that doesn't necessarily get a lot of attention. But it's very key. Nowadays, influencers are very big for companies and brands. So people are going to be the fifth element in your marketing mix that often is like the silent pee, but we're gonna make it the big P now. It is this dressing on our salad that is going to take this thing to the top and make it the best. So don't forget about the people that you use to get the word of mouth out about your product. It could be influencers, it could be your employees, it could be the people who are working in your stores, who knows who it could be. That's for your company to determine, but do not overlook people in your marketing mix.

10:51 Join me next week when we go over the functions, the marketing functions, there are seven of them. You will want to hear about these because this is going to wrap up our marketing concept and give you a complete picture of how a company should develop strategy to gain their target customer. I do thank you for joining me here, Marketing EdVenture with Jacque and I hope you have a wonderfully blessed day.

11:26 Thanks for listening to Marketing EdVenture. Remember to subscribe, rate, review and share this episode with someone you think could benefit from the information shared here today. If you have any questions or want to connect with me, find me on Instagram at marketing and venture. All links and resources discussed this episode can be found in the show notes on marketingedventure.com