Marketing Mix
Before launching any new product or brand a series of 4 decisions need to be made. Making decisions in the 4 variables of the marketing mix will help the company make strategic decisions necessary for successfully launching the new product or brand.
The 4 variables are:
Product
Product – the item(s) the company is manufacturing. Before deciding on a product, you should ask yourself these questions:
What are you going to be selling? What features of your product are different from products currently on the market? What will the quality of the product be? The answers to these questions will affect the remaining 3 variables of the marketing mix.
Price
Price – pricing strategy used. Product pricing has a number of variables however the major aspect in product pricing the is cost to manufacture the product. Advertising and marketing expenses will also come into play in determining the product price.
Place
Place – location where the company is selling their product; the distribution channel of the product. Premium consumer products may be limited to only a few select stores while more common products will need to be available over a larger geographical area. Distribution costs can have a large affect on the profit generated by the product therefore distribution locations need to be established which will be the most cost effective.
Promotion
Place – location where the company is selling their product; the distribution channel of the product. Premium consumer products may be limited to only a few select stores while more common products will need to be available over a larger geographical area. Distribution costs can have a large affect on the profit generated by the product therefore distribution locations need to be established which will be the most cost effective.
As the diagram shows, all 4 variables of the marketing mix are intermixed and thus affect each other.
