MArketing Mix - Marketing Goods and Services

Marketing mix refers to the tools and methodologies used by marketers to achieve their marketing objectives for physical goods or services. The marketing-mix are variables that managers and owners control to satisfy customers in their target market, add value to the business while helping to differentiate their business from competitors. 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-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 product, price, place, and promotion. 
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• 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?"
• 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.
• 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. 
• 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.   

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

Service Marketing
In the service marketing context there isn't a gap between producer and consumer (as in the goods-based case), since the service provisioning (production) occurs right between producer and consumer. Service marketing is concerned with marketing intangible products - services, and is based on value and relationship. The marketing-mix used in service marketing is expanded to the 7Ps of marketing and is a combination of the goods-based factors described above, in addition to the following 

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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. 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 Model
​Marketing mix considerations focus on business opportunities and concerns such as: customer retention, diversification of the customer base, market share growth, market value growth, becoming the market leader, increasing purchase frequency, etc. The marketing mix decision are used to achieve the general marketing strategies by guiding the decisions within important marketing areas such as product, pricing, distribution/placement, and promotion for goods marketing; and  product, pricing, distribution/placement, promotion, physical evidence, people and process for service marketing.

​Consider using the '7Ps of marketing-mix model when reviewing competitive strategies - across product, customer service, and more.  . The 7Ps help companies to review and define key issues that affect the marketing of its products and services. 

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