The marketing mix—sometimes referred to as the four Ps of marketing—is intended to describe the strategic elements that must come together in some combination to produce a successful marketing strategy. These are the initial P factors:
- Product: Selling the right product to the right market at the right time.
- Price: The act of selecting the pricing strategy that both fits the market conditions and the costs of doing business in the market.
- Place: A determination of the best way of getting the product to the customer.
- Promotion: Selection of the most effective means of making the customer aware of the value of the product.
In global business, there are other P factors that should be considered. The following examples round out the list to ten P factors, although the number of strategic elements to be defined by the marketing plan could be much higher depending on the business the company is in and the unique aspects of the target market.
- Planning (business, market, account, sales and calls, etc.)
- Personnel (identifying the skills required to design, develop and deliver)
- Practices (business practices within the culture of the target market)
- Partnerships (potential partners that may strengthen the opportunity)
- Positioning (how the company wants to be perceived by clients and customers)
- Protection (an assessment of the potential risks in all aspects of the transaction)
The concept of the marketing mix is a generally accepted rudimentary principle. However, there is debate on its current real-world applicability. In some cases, the marketing mix is interpreted as being too biased toward consumer markets, and could be an unsuitable approach toward industrial markets. In recent years, the marketing mix has been subject to new interpretations in order to address the unique attributes of service export modalities.
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