Meaning Marketing Mix: This concept was basically conceived by a professor of Harvard Business School', Mr. Nell Bordon, which refers to all kinds of marketing decisions that hat help encourage and foster the sales, can be termed as Marketing Mix. It is very, crucial in every area of of trade, be it an area of price, distribution or production. For instance, let us consider the 'Price Area'. Some of the manufactures or producers happen to determine the price of a merchandise in conformity with the price leader, and in the event of any yariation from it that depends on the kind of marketing strategy' being followed by a businessman. Such factors have led to the emergence of the concept of Marketing Mix', Sometimes the case may be so that the price which is to be determined may be relatively higher because the spending on advertising and marketing is more, then is it justifiable and profitable for the organisation, or if the price is to be reasonably restricted, in this case, not much is to be spent on advertising or other marketing pursuits leaving these circumstances to two options-either to determine the price at a higher level by spending more on advertising and operational costs, or to determine the price at a lower level by spending meagre on other related activities. In such circumstances, an entrepreneur is supposed to exploit the marketing mix which which would be more useful for the trade, It is worth-mentioning that the marketing mix ought to be customer-oriented.
Definitions of Marketing Mix :
Following are the important definitions of marketing mix:
(i) According to R. S. Davar, "The strategies to be exploited by the producers for ensuring success in market constitute the marketing- mix".
(ii) According to Philip Kotler, "Marketing mix is a sum of the controlling variables which are exploited by a firm to impress upon its commitment to customers."
(iii) According to William J. Stanton, "Marketing mix is the term used to describe the combination of the four inputs which constitute the core of a company's marketing system, the product, the, price structure, the promotional activities and the distribution system."
Elements or Components of Marketing Mix: The term marketing mix was coined by James Cullison and popularised by Neil H. Brown. All marketing decisions that stimulate of encourage sales are called marketing mix, There are four essential elements of the marketing mix, all of which begin with the letter P. Therefore, the famous American professor Jerome McCarty has called the marketing mix the four P's, which as follows:
(i) Product: Product means any physical object or service that satisfies the needs of the buyer.
(ii) Price: Price means the price charged from the customer for a product or service,
(iii) Place: Place means the place where goods and services are kept for sale at a reasonable price. Marketing place. is not possible without place.
(iv) Promotion: Promotion means all those activities which are done to inform the customers about the product or service and to encourage them to buy it. The objective of all these is to increase the sales of the product or service.
