Read the text .Pay attention to the four Ps.

I. MARKETING.

Marketing Mix.

Read the text.Pay attention to the four Ps.

'We must be smarter at devising packages of services that our customers want and pricing them attractively. Set the marketing department free to shape new packages. Don't confine it to coming up with cute names for offerings designed by engineers and accountants.'*

This sums*tip the position of marketing in many companies, where it is often seen as a fancy name for selling or advertising. But, as the quote shows, marketing people should be involved not just in promoting sales but in all aspects of the marketing mix:

• product: deciding what products or services to sell in the first place;

• prices: setting prices that are attractive to particular groups of customers (segments) and that are profitable for the company;

• place: finding suitable distribution channels to reach these customer groups;

• promotion: all the activities, not just advertising, used to support the product - everything from pre-sales information to after-sales service.

These are the four Ps of the marketing mix, the 'levers' of a company's marketing machine, levers that it can adjust in different ways for different products and different buyers.

Another way of looking at this is from the point of view of customers, with the four Cs. From this perspective, the marketing mix is expressed in terms of:

• customer solution: offering the right product to satisfy particular customer needs;

• customer cost: the price paid directly by the customer to buy the product, including the 'price' involved in not buying another product of the same or another type;

• convenience: distributing the product in the way most suitable for each type of customer;

• communication: exchanging information with the customer. Customers are informed about products through advertising, sales literature and so on, but customers also communicate with the seller, for example through customer helplines. This is a good way for sellers to find out more about customers and their requirements and to change or improve their offer.

Thinking of the marketing mix in these terms helps sellers maintain a customer orientation - a focus on customer needs.