The marketing mix

Once you've done your market research, identified your USPs and figured out your target customers, you need to decide what channel you want to use to get people to hear about your business. You will then be able to complete your marketing strategy and start generating sales.

What is the marketing mix?

• Your 'marketing mix' is the combination of all the different things you need to consider and use to communicate with and sell to customers.
• It's best summed up by four P's: Product, Placing, Pricing, Promotion.

Product

• This is all about the benefits your product offers to the customer, its USPs and how it is positioned in the market.
• You should already have this information from your product, customers and market analyses (see our guide on developing a marketing strategy).

Place

• Place refers to where and how you are actually going to sell your product - your distribution channels.
• Read more in our guide on routes to market.

Price

• The price of your product is an integral part of your marketing strategy - it will depend on the spending habits of your target customer groups, your market, your overall objectives, how much exposure you currently have in your market, and a host of other factors.
• Read more in our guide on pricing your product.

Promotion

• Promotion means your how you will promote your product to customers - how you'll communicate with them.
• It involves your brand and corporate identity as well.
• You might choose any of the following channels to communicate the messages you want to your customers:
  • Advertising
  • PR
  • Word-of-mouth
  • Online
  • Direct (leaflets, cold calling)
  • On-site (have an enticing shop window, hand freebies out outside your office)

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