Marketing mix, anyone? 🤔

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering 🚚, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

In the past, marketing was defined within the narrow context of advertising or selling which was very myopic and non integrative enough to fulfill the challenges in the business environment today. The American Marketing Association (AMA) saw marketing in the 1930’s as “the performance of business activities that directs the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers” (American Marketing Association, 2008).

This definition focused on the traditional perspective of marketing where marketing was basically selling and distribution. This definition saw marketing as ‘sales oriented’ as the focus was on the sales and not the customer. Hence customers’ were persuaded through hard selling approach to buy product or service.

While the marketing mix is defined as controllable variables that the organization can manipulate to meet customer requirements profitably both in the short and long term (McCarthy,1964). The components of the marketing mix should be altered holistically in meeting changing needs of customers without specific emphasis on one or two element.

The marketing mix is considered one of the key 🔑 principles of marketing which holds the foundation of every marketing strategy ( Ziethaml et al, 2006). Akroush (2011) revealed that the traditional marketing mix theory is a fundamental requirement for creating and sustaining relationships with customers mostly in the marketing of product today.

The idea of the marketing mix is the same idea as when mixing a cake 🍰. A baker will alter the proportions of ingredients in a cake depending on the type of cake we wishes to bake. The proportions in the marketing mix can be altered in the same way.

Marketing mix used by a one organisation will differ from the other according to its resources, market conditions and changing needs of clients. The significance of each element in the marketing mix will vary at any one point in time.

---

References:

1. Ofosu Amofah Lecturer, & Isaac Gyamfi Lecturer, & Christine Osei Tutu Lecturer, European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol.8, No.11, 2016 European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol.8, No.11, 2016

2. Farzad Eavani and Kamran Nazari Department of Accounting, School of Social Science, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran, 7 August 2012