Getting to know a few fashionable marketing theories is not enough to effectively promote the company. A marketing composition is needed. What is this? About it below.
The marketing composition, or the marketing mix, was first described in the 1960s by Harvard professor Neil Borden as actions taken by the trader that have an impact on consumer behavior. Importantly, they should all fit together. Borden coined this concept after reading another scholar's work in the 1940s. The marketing director was referred to as a cook who combines ingredients according to a recipe or on the basis of his own intuition.
Elements of the marketing composition
Marketing professor Jerome McCarthy believes that the marketing composition consists of price, product, promotion and point of sale, and these are broken down into smaller marketing activities. Philip Kotler added to this politics and public opinion. In his opinion, the smooth operation of the company is easiest in a favorable political reality. He meant activities such as lobbying. Hence, it is close to influencing public opinion by means of, inter alia, PR campaigns, which also makes it easier to attract customers. Overall it is about building a positive environment for products or company services.
It may seem that lobbying and aggressive PR are actions from the arsenal marketer operating in the most risky industries. In fact, however, they are also useful for food, cosmetics and electronics manufacturers, as well as service providers. A great example would be the trend on eco-marketing - customers would not be willing to pay extra for environmentally friendly packaging or composition, if not for previous campaigns that had an impact on the public. By following the classification McCarth and Kotler large enterprises have departments focused on each of the areas mentioned by them. Strategies implemented by the director of pricing policy, product, promotion and sales, as well as the PR department, must be consistent and make up the marketing composition.
Neil Borden himself claimed that the marketing composition is:
- product design,
- pricing policy,
- branding,
- sales channels,
- sales methods,
- advertisement,
- special offer,
- package,
- exposure,
- service,
- storage and distribution system,
- data analysis.
Importantly, the creator of the concept of the marketing composition, when publishing the above list, indicated that it is only his own mix, and each entrepreneur should be free to shape his set of techniques, tools and methods of sales support and the functioning of the company. Only then - and not referring to the well-known patterns from business textbooks - will it be able to realistically stand out on the market. This shows that practice and the help of experts can be more effective than cursory use of ready-made prescriptions.
How to prepare a marketing composition?
Neil Borden pointed to four factors that should have a key impact on the marketing composition. In his opinion, at the planning stage one cannot ignore:
- customer behavior and motivation,
- expectations of sellers and wholesalers,
- competition behavior and plans,
- government regulation.
First, it's worth assessing these four elements, and then building your marketing mix on their basis. Many marketers do the opposite - they start working first marketing planning, and then adjust the plan to the realities of the market or customer needs. Reversing the process allows you to plan more effectively. This can be done using available tools, such as SWAT analysis or Porter's five forces.
Marketing composition - advantages
Having a defined marketing mix has a number of advantages. First of all, you can easily react to new market trends or ideas related to promotion or marketing. Instead of putting the news into action right away, you will first look at your marketing composition coldly. Then just ask yourself the following questions if:
- a new idea supports your marketing goals?
- matches the other elements of the existing marketing composition?
- takes into account the current market situation, regulations, expectations of sellers and wholesalers, as well as customer needs?
In this way, you can plan your marketing communication strategy or channels of reaching customers much more consciously. It will not turn out that your actions do not match the plans of your competitors or customers.
Making changes to the marketing composition
Although the author of the concept of marketing composition defined it in the 1960s, many observations only become fully relevant today. For example, popular nowadays agile marketing it assumes flexibility and the possibility of modifying plans on an ongoing basis at every stage of planning. He urged exactly the same Borden. He sensitized not to treat the marketing composition as a closed set of rules. He advised to constantly evaluate the four factors described above.
When customer habits changed, he advised to introduce changes to the marketing composition. If the competition changed the pricing policy, he recommended that you have a look at yours as soon as possible and make a correction to your marketing mix. However, a change in each individual element of the marketing composition affects the content of the entire mix. Therefore, none of the company's departments can make decisions in isolation from other departments, and changes in the strategy must be introduced as a whole. Finally, check whether the modified marketing composition still aligns with the vision and goals of the company. Moving one piece of this puzzle can affect the whole picture.
All this shows that the recommendations of the creator of the concept of marketing composition still perfectly fit into the current reality. PR, lobbying and agile marketing have been used on a larger scale only in recent years, and the business world continues to convince themselves of them. If you want to start planning in line with the marketing mix theory, we'll advise you on where to start.