MArketing Mix - Levers to influence demand and satisfaction of target market

Marketing mix refers to the set of variables (controllable by the organization) that managers and owners use to influence the target audience and satisfaction of customers. Marketing-mix provide the tools and methods used by marketers to achieve their marketing objectives through their marketing strategies. Marketing mix can be classified into two (2) categories: physical goods or services. By carefully integrating the elements of the marketing-mix, companies can ensure they have a visible, in-demand product or service that is competitively priced and promoted to their customers.

Marketing-mix for Physical Goods
The marketing-mix, when marketing physical goods, is intended to bridge the gap between production (producer) and consumption (consumer) of goods through values assigned to the marketing-mix variables of product, price, place, and promotion. 
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1. Product - Product means the goods or services combination that the company offers to the target market. Ask critical questions such as, "Is your current product or service, or mix of products and services, appropriate and suitable for the market and the customers of today?" Whenever you are having problems selling as much of your product or services as you would like, ask yourself "are these the right products or services for our customers today?"
2. Price - Continually examine and reexamine the prices of the products or services you sell to make sure they are still appropriate to the realities of the current market.
3. Place - Place is also known as channels, distribution, or intermediary. In is the mechanism through which goods and/or services are moved from the manufacturer or the service provider to the user or consumer. 
4. Promotion - Promotion includes all the ways you tell your customers about your products or services and how you then market and sell to them. It includes all of the activities marketers undertake to inform consumers about their products and to encourage potential customers to buy those products.   

Goods marketing is the marketing and selling of tangible products - goods.

Marketing-mix for Services
In the service marketing context there isn't a gap between producer and consumer (as in the goods-based case), since the service provisioning and production occurs right between producer and consumer. The marketing-mix used in service marketing is expanded to the 7Ps of marketing-mix variables, and is a combination of the goods-based factors described above, in addition to service specific  factors, such as:

1. Product - Product means the goods or services combination that the company offers to the target market. Ask critical questions such as, "Is your current product or service, or mix of products and services, appropriate and suitable for the market and the customers of today?" Whenever you are having problems selling as much of your product or services as you would like, ask yourself "are these the right products or services for our customers today?"
2. Price - Continually examine and reexamine the prices of the products or services you sell to make sure they are still appropriate to the realities of the current market.
3. Place - Place is also known as channels, distribution, or intermediary. In is the mechanism through which goods and/or services are moved from the manufacturer or the service provider to the user or consumer. 
4. Promotion - Promotion includes all the ways you tell your customers about your products or services and how you then market and sell to them. It includes all of the activities marketers undertake to inform consumers about their products and to encourage potential customers to buy those products.   
5. Physical Evidence - The physical evidence element of the service marketing mix refers to the physical environment experienced by the customer. This could include: the physical design and layout of the premises. the layout of the company website.
6. People - This refers to the service personnel whose presence and actions define the service that satisfies the wants and needs of the customer/consumer to whom the service is directed. People decisions are usually centered around customer service - how do you want your employees to be perceived by the customers? The People element of service marketing-mix includes anyone directly or indirectly involved in the business-side of the enterprise. These include employees who are involved in selling the product - service, designing it, managing teams, representing customers, recruitment, culture, etc. Employing and retaining the right people is imperative in both the long and short term success of the organization.
7. Process - The Process element describes a series of actions that are taken in delivering the service product to the customer. The process may comprise a number of parts such as: sales funnel, payment systems, distribution procedures, and managing customer relationships. Assessing, adjusting and optimizing the different parts of your process helps you streamline your business efforts while also ensuring your methods are up-to-date and in line with current trends.

Service marketing is the marketing and selling of intangible products. Service marketing is concerned with marketing intangible products - services, and is based on value and relationship. The purpose of service marketing is to utilize effective methods of communication, to create demand for service among customers, like advertisement, promotional deals or offers. 

Marketing Mix - Implementation
​Marketing mix development and implementation are guided by the chosen marketing strategy. The marketing mix decision are used to achieve the general marketing strategies by guiding the decisions within important marketing areas such as defined by the marketing mix elements:

1. Product/Services - How can we better develop our products or services?
2. Prices/Fees - How can we change our pricing model?
3. Place/Access - What new distribution options are there for customers to experience our product? e.g., online? in-store?, etc.
4. Promotion - How can we add to or substitute the combination within paid, owned, and earned media channels?
5. Physical Evidence - How can we reassure our customers, e.g., impressive buildings, clean facilities, well-trained staff, great website, etc.?
6. Processes - Are there internal process barriers in the way to delivering the best customer value?
7. People - Who are our people, and are there skill gaps?

Companies can use the marketing-mix model to set objectives, conduct a SWOT analysis, and undertake competitive analysis.
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