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when Neil H. Borden redefined the role of the marketing manager by introducing the
marketing mix as an integrated set of tactics to realize organizational objectives and
create a closer, higher-value relationship with customers [
77
]. The term “marketing
mix” became popularized after Borden published his 1964 article,
The Concept of
the
Marketing Mix
. Borden began using the term in his teaching in the late 1940s,
although he credits another professor, James Culliton, for actually being the first to
describe the marketing manager as a “mixer of ingredients” [
77
].
The ingredients in Borden's marketing mix included product planning, pricing,
branding, distribution, personal selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display,
servicing, physical handling, fact finding, and analysis.
In the late 1950s, McCarthy [
78
] condensed the number of variables in the mar-
keting mix into four principal categories that today are known as the four P's of
marketing:
•
Product
: select the tangible and intangible benefits of the product.
•
Price
: determine an appropriate product pricing structure.
•
Promotion
: create awareness of the product among the target audience.
•
Place
: make the product available to the customer.
The overlay of the four P's, within a given context, provides a business with their tar-
get audience, as shown in
Figure 6.3
, with the targeted market and potential markets.
Where all four P's overlap is the target market, as these are the consumers who are
interested in your product, have the means to purchase the product, are in the right
location, and who respond to the promotion.
There are also potential markets where some but not all of the four P's fit a con-
sumer's criteria. For these consumers, they may represent potential buyers at given
times, such as discounts, sales, or alternate products.
Finally, the four P's operate with constraints inherent in the marketplace, such as
economic conditions, competitive factors, societal trends, technology, and political
regulations.
Since McCarthy [
78
], additional P's have been added to the marketing mix, along
with some C's. We focus on a set of seven P's (product, price, promotion, place,
packaging, positioning, and people) and three C's (customers, competition, and com-
pany). As products, markets, customers, and needs change rapidly, businesses must
continually revisit these seven P's and three C's to make sure they are on track and
achieving the maximum results possible.
The seven P's and three C's are as follows.
Product.
Product is a tangible object, an intangible service, or intangible digital
content that is produced or manufactured. Tangible products are something that you
can touch and feel, such as a topic or computer. Intangible services include book-
ing a vacation or reserving a hotel room. Intangible content is digital media (i.e.,
think bits instead of atoms) like ringtones or songs or software. So, we use the term
product
in a broad sense to include both products and services, both tangible and
intangible. Generally, products are subject to a life cycle involving a growth phase
followed by an eventual period of declining growth and eventual stabilization as the
