The marketing mix is also called as the four Ps which are:
1. Product
2. Price
3. Promotion
4. Place
The first P which is the product is quite explanatory. It relates to the product that the company has developed (either physical goods or services). A company has to develop a product and assess parameters like the competition, the lifecycle of the product, the demand, any substitutes etc. A lot of companies usually develop a product mix which is a diversified portfolio of products that are designed in a way that can increase the profitability and hedge against fluctuations of the macroeconomic factors such as inflation.
The second P relates to the price. The price if very important and it’s something that a lot of companies get wrong. You don’t want to sell at low price since you shrink you margins and you make your customers believe that what they buy is not a high quality product. At the same time, you don’t want to have high prices since it will decrease your sales. It’s essential to understand what your target group is and analyze the elasticity they have.
The third P relates to the promotion and it basically describes the ways that the company has chosen to promote it’s goods. Promotion can include cross selling, online advertising, offline advertising, affiliate programmes etc.
Finally, the last P relates to the place and it describes the place where your product will be available. Every company needs to analyze how the consumers will be able to access and buy their goods and develop a strong distribution strategy that will not shrink the profit margins to levels that make the product not worth developing.