The marketing mix concept is the first thing I learned in Foundations of Marketing and helped me to understand the rest of the concepts in the book. Throughout the class I learned about product, promotion, price and place (the four Ps) strategies that marketers must combine successfully to gain consumers attention, market share and/or to accomplish the desire marketing goal (to satisfy the consumers’ needs). All successes start with a plan and there is no exception when it comes to marketing; therefore, an organization develops a marketing plan to use as a tool during the marketing process, which involve different aspects of the four Ps.
The marketing plan describes the marketing environment and market position of a business, outlines marketing objectives and strategies (such as identifying the product and the target customers, reaching customers, and retaining customers), and identifies how the company will implement and control the strategies. I understand now that creating and strategically implementing a marketing plan is crucial to the success of a business (along with a business plan first). Some start-up companies create good products and expect every consumer to buy them, but after the hype of the product is over many of these companies disappear, why? Perhaps creating and executing a well written marketing plan would help these start-ups to focus its marketing efforts on a target market, resulting in long-term consumer loyalty and business growth.
Developing marketing strategies is a very important step in the process of marketing planning. In order to develop strong marketing strategies, the company selects target markets and positioning, and outlines product, pricing, distribution (place) and promotional strategies. As you can see, the four Ps is clearly a part of this process and work interpedently of each other to meet the market’s needs. Selecting a