Marketing mix has been a hot topic of conversation lately, especially among young digital marketers. The digital era is indeed an opportunity for the younger generation to show their abilities, especially in the business sector. Business today is not only done offline, but also online, especially in terms of marketing. In the last decade, digital marketing has been increasingly being carried out, because basically it provides many benefits for its users.
Online marketing is carried out to support business progress, but it is also accompanied by conventional marketing. This time, we will discuss the types of effective marketing that utilize many business strategies.
Definition of Marketing Mix
We will introduce you to a simple and simple type of marketing, namely mix marketing. Marketing mix is a strategy to sell products and services using several integrated elements. Also known as the marketing mix, you could even say that this term is more popular than the Pak term. In this business strategy several main variables are prioritized to achieve goals, namely:
- Product, namely the product being sold must meet the target market.
- Price (Price), the price must be affordable by prospective buyers.
- Place, the product must be easily found by potential buyers.
- Promotion (Promotion), promotion must be done well.
Because it uses 4 main variables as a consideration for making a business strategy, the marketing mix is also often called the 4P’s. However, many also call it the 7P because of the addition of 3 important elements in its application.
The 7 Elements of the Marketing Mix
In the latest marketing mix, not only are there 4 main variables known, but there are also 3 other additional variables to complement this strategy. Therefore, young marketers are more familiar with the following 7 elements:
1. Products
Products are goods that you sell, namely goods to meet human needs, they can be physical or services, or virtual products. So, there must be a product that is sold to the market. The product is the result of market research, taking into account the wants and needs of today’s society. These four questions can be a benchmark in determining the goods to be sold:
- What problems are being faced by the community regarding an item?
- What products can you offer as a solution?
- How will consumers obtain and use the product?
- What is the uniqueness or characteristic of the product?
2. Price
In the marketing mix, the element of price or price, namely the amount of money from consumers to buy a product, is also very important. If it is too low, the business cannot run properly, if it is too high, there will be no buyers. Therefore, use the following formula: The total cost of the product is made + the cost of manufacture per unit = selling price to consumers, then add the amount of profit you want to get. Thus, can get a fair price for both parties.
3. Place
Generally, you should choose a location that can reach your target market easily. It can also be a place in the form of an online store on the internet or using social media as a place to sell.
4. Promotions
Next is promotion or promotion, which is an effort to market the goods produced. This effort also includes efforts to increase brand awareness , namely the positive value of your brand in the eyes of consumers. Promotion is a very important element because it will affect the number of sales. Currently promotions can be done in various ways, ranging from conventional to digital methods.
5. Physical Evidence
The next element in the marketing mix is physical evidence. This is manifested in the form of logos, brochures, souvenirs, or access in order to get in touch with consumers. This is proof to consumers that the business you are running does provide the best service. You can also create certain events as proof to consumers.
6. People
The sixth element is people or human resources in running a business, starting from the lowest staff to the director. In this case, you must choose the right employees so that they can become supporters of business development. Wrong in the employee recruitment process can have a negative impact on the business. Therefore, the employee recruitment process must be carried out properly, also provide guidance and a comfortable working atmosphere for your employees so they can remain productive.
7. Process
The last element is process, which is a procedure or mechanism from distribution to consumers being able to use your product/service. The process is simple, from the consumer getting to know, finding out, to buying a product/service.
Example of Marketing Mix
Using mixed marketing is not just a theory, but can actually be used as a business strategy. As an example we provide in the donut product business strategy:
1. Define Products
In determining the product you want to sell, you need to do market research which is part of the marketing mix. For example we make a product/service determination in a food business:
- What are the consumer problems? People like to eat donuts with various toppings, but donut brands from abroad are sold at too high a price.
- What solutions can be provided? You can provide a solution for selling donuts with various toppings that taste delicious and at affordable prices.
- How do consumers get these donuts? By buying directly at the store or using the delivery service.
- What is unique about the donut? It has various forms with delicious flavors and a choice of various toppings, especially offering lower prices.
2. In Pricing
A marketing mix strategy can also help you with pricing. For example, the total cost is 200,000 for 100 donuts, so the cost of making each is 2,000. From this value the break even price obtained is 200,000/100 + 2000 = 4000. If you sell at 4000 you will neither profit nor lose.
If you want to profit, add the desired profit percentage. For example, if you want a profit of 25%, then it is calculated as 4000 x 25% = 1000. The selling price is 5000 per donut.
Marketing Mix function
You already have a product to market that is of good quality and is needed by society. However, this is not enough to be able to invite buyers to buy your product. It takes an effort to get people to know the product and its benefits. The trick is to use an effective sales strategy so as to increase the positive assessment of the product.
This is where the marketing mix plays a role in helping to formulate a strategy to market your product. Thus, the product can be communicated to the right target market and can generate the best number of sales. Selling with a strategy will be much better than just making random sales. What’s more, you already have good product capital, so it must be accompanied by promotion that is right on target.
Without the use of a marketing mix strategy, the risk of the product not being able to sell is very high. If you cannot sell the product well, the costs incurred cannot be covered. Instead of making a profit, it will actually cause a lot of losses. In the end it can spend capital and end up bankrupt. Not a few examples of companies that went bankrupt because they could not implement a business strategy in their business.
Marketing Mix Goals
In its application, marketing mix focuses on products and target markets. Then make the right strategy to be able to sell products/services to the target market. Judging from this it can be concluded that the purpose of the marketing mix is to get a good number of sales in a certain target market. So, it will provide maximum benefit.
In addition, another purpose of the marketing mix is to help formulate an analysis of the company’s budget, share resources and help simplify marketing campaigns so as not to experience over budget . It can be seen that this marketing strategy can also help every element in your business so that its application is very good for any type of business. You can implement 4P or 7P marketing.