How to Master the Art
of your Marketing Mix Strategy
A marketing mix strategy is the most powerful ingredient your business needs for a successful marketing campaign. It’s made up of the 4Ps: Product, Price, Promotion and Place (Distribution) Strategies.
Now, first thing first; when designing your marketing plan, your marketing strategies should always cover each of these 4Ps even if the plan is developed into phases.
Think of it as building a house, it wouldn’t be sturdy and resilient if its foundation is weak. You have to ensure that the foundation is built properly in order to successfully complete the entire building process and secure a sturdy house in the long run.
Let’s take a look at each of these 4Ps and discuss how to successfully design your marketing mix.
What Makes a Marketing
Mix Strategy Successful?
1. Product Strategies
A well aligned and thorough product/service strategy will definitely set your business up for SUCCESS!
Now, let that sink in for a moment.
Your product strategy includes creating, marketing and selling your products/services with the aim of achieving your business goals. When developing your product strategy, identify and learn everything you need to know about your target market.
Trust me, this is one of the key pieces you’ll ever need to really stir things up competitively. Try to spend as much time as possible to observe and understand your target market wants, needs and preferences and how your product/service can cater to these areas.
The product/service element is a very important ingredient of a marketing mix strategy. Ensure that you design and develop your product/service offering to meet the needs and preferences of your target customers.
Also, position your products/services as unique and valuable among your competitors.
How to Design the Best Product Strategies:
1. Identify and define your target customers/audience by creating 3 customer personas and you can even go as far as to assign names to each persona. This is where you outline their age, gender, locations, preferences, values, beliefs and behavioural patterns.
Always keep in mind that your target customers/audience will shape your entire marketing mix strategy.
2. Research your niche market to the core! Gather as much information as you can on the common problems faced by your target customers and identify any gaps in your niche.
Conducting marketing research will provide insights relating to marketing trends and help you with identifying any opportunities that you can capitalize on.
3. Determine the ideal brand image and vision you’re seeking to develop with regards to your product. Define and design all elements and features that will enable value and quality for your target customers. After all, value and quality will help to set you apart from your competitors.
Additionally, set a timeline for the development of your product/service. For example: 6 months of idea generation, screening to selecting the best idea, concept creation and testing, analysis, product/service development, testing and launching.
4. A product/service plan is a very important part of your marketing mix strategy. It comprises of your brand message as it relates to your product/service, the appropriate marketing channels to use (online and offline) and the supporting marketing activities designed to reach your target market.
5. Think about how you’re going to sell your product/service. What is the ideal sales strategy for your product/service and which sales channels are you going to explore. Your sales channels can be online (web, email, social media and mobile apps for example) and/or offline (for example, retail, wholesale and distributors and face to face).
6. Decide on how you’re going to measure the progress of your product/service strategy. Review how your target customers are responding and even seek feedback on how you can improve your product/service with the aim of enhancing the customer experience.
Always keep in mind that the customer experience is a true indication of how successful your marketing mix strategy is.
2. Pricing Strategies
The pricing strategies are another important area as it measures the value of your product/service and determines your gross, operating, pre-tax and net profits.
Here are some pricing strategies you can explore:
- Adding a markup to the cost of developing the product/service where the markup is a percentage of the cost that covers the overhead costs of your business.
- Setting the price based on the value perceived by your customers. This strategy can be implemented once there’s a concrete understanding of the needs, wants and preferences of your customers.
Not to mention, the value of time, effort and expertise when crafting and launching your product/service. Value will surely determine how effective your marketing mix strategy will be.
- You can set a premium price to position your product/service as high value and premium based to attract customers who are willing to pay a premium price.
- If your product/service is subscription based, why not offer a basic version of it for free and charge for any upgraded features and additional services.
3. Promotional Strategies
Promotional strategies are like the juicy part of your marketing mix strategy.
They can be made up of:
- Online and offline advertising using channels such as social media, website, email marketing, videos, television, radio, brochures, billboards, magazines and newspapers. The channels you select should be the ideal ones that will capture the attention of your target customers.
- Discounts, special offers, coupons, loyalty cards, buy 1 get 1 free or half off are some great exciting incentives to encourage purchases of your product/service.
- Sponsorships consisting of supporting events, various causes or organisations that are aligned with your brand values, message and target market.
- Content marketing which is one of my favourite marketing strategies! It’s the true essence of a marketing mix strategy and it’s the perfect opportunity to connect and engage with your target audience.
This strategy involves creating high value and engaging content that relates to your product/service niche. Content can be created in the form of blogs, websites, audio and video podcasts, videos and social media stories and posts.
The ideal promotional strategies for your product/service depends on the niche or industry you’re in, your budget and which channels your target audience can be reached.
4. Place/Distribution Strategies
Place/distribution strategies contribute to the overall success of a marketing mix strategy. These strategies determine how your products/services will be available to your target customers.
Some of these strategies are:
- Selling directly to your customers through a retail outlet or website.
- Using intermediaries such as wholesalers, distributors and retail outlets to sell your product or service to the end customers.
- Giving authorisation to a limited number of distributors and retailers to sell in a geographic area where your target customers are located.
- Granting exclusive rights to a particular distributor or retailer to sell in a geographic area where your target customers are located.
- Creating e-commerce platforms by developing an online store to sell your products/services.
- Forming a partnership with another brand by using the partner’s distribution channels to sell your products/services.
The distribution channels you select for your marketing mix strategy will depend: on the type of product/service you’re selling, your budget, the size of your business as well as its resources and most importantly, your target market.
Your marketing mix strategy is the key your business needs to grow and dominate. The 4Ps: product, pricing, promotional and place/distribution strategies are what makes your marketing mix so powerful.
Once these strategies are well-designed and aligned with your target customers’ wants and needs, your business will certainly thrive!
- Marketing
- Implementation
- Marketing Mix Strategy