Rationale for extending the marketing mix

Different mixes are required for different objectives. There are multiple marketing mix models, each with different ingredients. The most famous and popular mix of all has become known as the 4 P model, the key ingredients being product, price, promotion and place (or distribution), which was developed by E. Jerome McCarthy. Since its inception this model has been much debated and much contributed to. There are alternatives that talk of 6 Ps (to include politics and public relations). For example Booms and Bitner (1981) extended the 4Ps to 7Ps to include participants (now referred to in the literature as people), physical evidence (the physicality of the environment) and process. In their original article Booms and Bitner (1981) intended their additional 3Ps to be limited to service marketing. However, there are academics and writers, for example Levitt, who suggest that 'there are only industries whose service components are greater or lesser than those of other industries. Everybody is in service' (Levitt 1972).

Various academics have offered an alternative: the 4 Cs, which takes a buyer’s view of the market (in contrast to 4 Ps that take a seller’s view of the market).

These 4 Cs are: customer value (customer solution – to find a solution to a customer ‘problem’ by offering the right combination of products and services), cost (to consumer), convenience (to consumer) and communication with customers.

The 4 P model is now regarded as too simplistic for current marketing conditions, as well as being too focused on traditional consumer product marketing. The 4 P model of marketing mix can be described as follows:

• Price can include list pricing, discount pricing, special offer pricing, credit payments or credit terms.
• Product can include the quality, features, benefits, style, design, branding, packaging, services, warranties, guarantees, life cycles, investments and returns.
• Place can include direct or indirect channels to market, geographical distribution, territorial coverage, retail outlet, market location, catalogues, inventory, logistics and order fulfillment.
• Promotion can include advertising, external communications with the right level of resources, direct selling, and sales promotions.

Whatever mix is chosen, the important part of the process is to allocate the right level of resources and to find the balance appropriate to the target market.

(Jonathan Groucutt, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 155-164; Ch. Doyle, pp.228-229)

Questions and tasks to the text:

1. Discuss the origin of Marketing mix concept.
2. When did the concept come into being?
3. Why is it considered to be the “cornerstone of marketing”?
4. What is Neil Borden famous for?
5. What was Borden’s original vision of MM concept?
6. Comment upon Borden’s attitude to possible changes of his model of MM?
7. When was a 4-p concept developed and by whom?
8. What did McCarthy actually do with Borden’s original vision of MM concept?
9. Why do you think the 4-p concept is regarded as “most enduring and widely recognized concept in marketing”?
10. Comment upon the definitions of MM provided in the text. Why do you think there are such a variety of definitions of MM in marketing?
11. Comment upon the linkage between MM concept and target market.
12. What is the rationale for extending the MM concept?
13. Why is it possible to extend the 4-p model? Is it not completed?
14. How many models of MM can you find in the text?
15. What additional 3Ps were added to the 4-p model and why?
16. What was this extension meant for according to Booms and Bitner? Do you agree with Booms and Bitner? Or do you more agree with Th. Levitt?
17. Comment upon a 4-c model. What is the connection between 4-p and 4-c modelвы,
18. Why do you think the authors say that “the 4 P model is now regarded as too simplistic for current marketing conditions, as well as being too focused on traditional consumer product marketing”?
19. Pass your personal opinion on the number of necessary elements of MM. How many elements should the model contain? State your point of view.
20. Does the number of elements in MM model depend upon the type of the market/product? What do you think of this?
21. Find the equivalents in Text 1 and translate them into English:

1) развитие концепции комплекса маркетинга

2) происхождение концепции комплекса маркетинга

3) обоснование расширения комплекса

4) 12 компонентов комплекса маркетинга

5) продуктовые линии

6) политика разработки нового продукта

7) соответствующие уровни цен

8) ценовая политика

9) марочная политика

10) каналы между производством и конечным потребителем

11) добиться сотрудничества в отрасли

12) корпоративный имидж

13) продвижение для потребителей и В2В

14) упаковка и этикетка (ярлык)

15) создавать ми поддерживать продажи

16) склады

17) уровень запасов

18) характеристики и преимущества. которые создают удовлетворенность потребителей

19) затраты на производство

20) личные продажи,

21) связи с общественностью

22) продвижение и продвижение «из уст в уста» («сарафанное радио»)

23) добавлять к каждой модели комплекса маркетинга различные ингредиенты

24) существующие маркетинговые условия

1. Translate the elements of marketing mix model into English from chart 1:

 

For more information about marketing mix - see units 1, 2 “Professional English in Use”