If you are in business, you already know that finding the right customers for your product is the key to making profits. That’s why entrepreneurs across all industries invest most of their resources in marketing strategies. But finding your target market requires knowledge of this process, especially the marketing mix.
So in this article, we will examine the concept of the marketing mix and outline six basic steps to identifying the right marketing mix for your business.
What Is the Marketing Mix?
The marketing mix simply defined, is the combination of the right product, in the right place, at the right price, and using the right promotion strategies. These four elements- product, place, price and promotion are known as the 4 P’s of the marketing mix, theorized by E Jerome McCarthy in 1960.
- Product: This involves finding a need in the market and designing a useful, tangible/intangible product to fill the need.
- Place: This covers the channels of distribution used to get the product to the market.
- Price: This entails finding a balance between how much the market is willing to pay for your product and making a profit.
- Promotion: This is the marketing platforms, tactics, and tools that will influence your target audience to buy your product.
Who Uses the Marketing Mix?
Because it encompasses almost all aspects of business, the marketing mix is useful not only to marketers but also to various stakeholders at every level of a company. These include entrepreneurs, product engineers, distributors, down to the customer service department.
Ways in Which the Marketing Mix Helps Your Company
As mentioned before, the right marketing mix will ensure that your business is profitable and that it survives all phases of growth. It helps entrepreneurs understand their target market and prioritize the allocation of resources to the 4P’s.
Ultimately, the marketing mix will guide you to achieving not just profitability, but also client satisfaction, product availability, and brand awareness.
6 Tips for Finding the Right Marketing Mix for Your Product
1. Pinpoint Your Ideal Customer
Whether your business is B2B or B2C oriented, you need to identify and understand your customers. Studying buyer personas in your market segment can help you define their demographics, motivations and behavior patterns. Profiling your target audience helps you determine appropriate marketing strategies. It ensures your products provide value to the specific audience and promotes brand loyalty.
Utilizing customer feedback tools on marketing platforms such as websites and social media also helps understand evolving needs in the market. It ensures your products remain relevant and adjust according to market trends.
2. Identify Your Product Goals
Your product must make sense before it makes cents. As obvious as that sounds, weak product value proposition is one of the main reasons businesses fail. Because products are created to solve problems, your product needs to meet certain criteria to be deemed useful. Your product needs to be relevant and bear the ability to resolve the problem the consumer has. It should deliver quantifiable value or specific benefits to the buyer. Lastly, it must have a clear edge over your competitors’ similar products.
Understanding your product goals means ensuring it is market ready before launching it. It also involves identifying any drawbacks or glitches in the product that can affect its positioning. Your product’s value proposition will ultimately determine its price and potential for profitability.
3. Allocate a Marketing Budget
It’s not enough to have a good product. Without adequate marketing processes, even the most innovative products may fail to reach the ideal audience. The size of your target market and the level of competition will influence how much you need to invest in marketing.
For example, a neighborhood bakery may only require investing in flyers and some online marketing. A consumer goods company would need to explore more marketing tools to compete effectively. Regularly reviewing marketing budgets based on targets and performance will ensure resources go towards well-performing campaigns.
4. Outline Your Sales Goals
Having clear sales goals helps you determine your marketing budget and strategies. Make sure the goals are measurable, for example, the number of units sold per month. It enables your sales team to track progress easily. It also provides sales data that allows you to adjust your marketing strategies as required.
Your sales goals should also be realistic. As much as maximum profits are ideal, your targets should not exceed your production capacity or market demand estimations. Progressively scaling your business is a better approach especially when working with limited budgets.
5. Study Your Competition
Other players in your market segment play a significant role in your product’s success. Your research efforts should include analyzing your competitor’s products.
- What differentiates them from yours?
- How can you improve on their weaknesses?
- Why are their customers loyal to their brand?
Such questions can inform your production and marketing processes to improve your product’s market position.
6. Explore Various Marketing Tools
A combination of traditional marketing tools with digital marketing could give your product a wider reach. Depending on your market segment, trade shows, flyers, direct mail, print media and TV/radio ads are some good advertising channels. Online and mobile marketing platforms also provide a less formal avenue to reach potential customers. Your budget will largely determine which tools you can leverage. The buyer personas/profiles you created will also influence the marketing tools you use.
To the Top
Consumers now interact with products and services on mulitple platforms. Businesses, therefore, have increased opportunities to connect and engage their target audiences. However, before promoting your product, ensure it is well developed, the price is right, and it is easily accessible.
What are some of your experiences with creating a suitable marketing mix? Does it play a role in whether a product fails or succeeds? We’d love to hear from you. Join the conversation and share your thoughts and experiences.
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