Marketing mix is a term that was invented by James Culliton in 1948, who described the role of marketing as a ‘mixer of ingredients’ depending on the type of product to be sold to which market and the target audience.

When it comes to presenting a brand or deciding on a product, the marketing mix is important to use. The marketing mix is often identical to the use of the four P’s: Price, place, promotion and product.

Instead of the use of the four P’s it is the four C’s that is used after it was introduced as a replacement.

The four C’s which include: Consumer, Cost, Convenience and Communication was a suggestion from Robert F. Lauterborn as he believed that it was an appropriate fitting from the movement of mass marketing to niche marketing.

Price is replaced by cost.The cost is a vital area that needs to be assessed by the retailer. The reason being is that the customer will need to be content to pay the price that the retailer has chosen to sell it at. When it comes to pricing a product, retailers will take into account what their competitors are pricing their products at.  Pricing is one of the main aspects that can affect a business’s ability to whether they can sell a product.

Product is replaced by consumer. This looks at how to satisfy the needs of the consumers’ needs by offering them the product that they are want.  By focusing on the consumer’s needs, it is likely that the consumer will be pleased if their requirements are met.

Place is replaced convenience. It is more about how conveniently a product or service is found since the help of the Internet has risen. Convenience is taken into account on how the product is found, information about the product as well as how it can be bought.

Promotion is replaced by communication. Communication is about how a business connects with their customers in order to fulfil their wants and needs. Communications can be through any form including commercials adverts, newspaper and magazines, radio and even social networking sites.

The benefit of direct marketing is a positive method that a majority of marketers like to use because of how results can be reached and measured very quickly. For instance, if a marketer sends out 1,000 solicitations by mail and receives 250 responds to the promotion, the marketer can say that the marketing led to a 25% response.

Email Marketing Email marketing is one method that has become widely used to reach out to those close and long distant. The popularity of email marketing is that it is relatively inexpensive. It also allows marketers to send messages anytime during the day.

Display Ads Display Ads are another way to communicate through as they appear on web pages next to content on a website. Display ads are designed in formats of static banners, pop up’s, floating units or videos. These different types of display ads allow customers to respond by clicking on the ads directly.

Social Media Sites Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are also opportunities that can be used to communicate with customers directly by responding anytime. Social media sites also help to create brand and product/service awareness.

Telemarketing Another form of direct marketing is telemarketing which allows marketers to contact their customers by phone. The benefit of this is to increase a business’s sales and brand.

Insert Media Using insert media such as a catalog, magazine, newspaper or bill help to spread the marketing as the marketing reaches out to potential customers in different regions.

In this time, now more than ever, it is vital to sustain, if not increase your marketing mediums.  Recession can provide excellent opportunities for marketers. Many companies will reduce or cut back their budget. In the short term this will will temporarily increase their profit margins. In the long term however, it can lead to a significant decrease in revenue.

You must think strategically, take advantage and maintain or increase your efforts and see advertising as the ultimate way to get ahead and become the number one in marketing mediums, above all your competitors. Increased visibility leads to a companies increased profitability. It’s the best way to ensure brand recognition growth, and if used correctly,will attract customer interest outside of your normal target audience.

It is known that companies who increase their investment for strategic iniatives retain or grow market share and turnover. This makes your business more attractive to potential long term investors.

During the 1980’s McGraw-Hill did a research study of over 600 businesses during the recession. By 1985 the businesses that had increased their advertising,  had achieved a 256% growth in sales, over other companies that had cut back on their marketing.

There are many reasons why marketing is so influential. It’s the best way to promote your product/service as it convinces the new customer that your product/service is much more preferable to other competitors.  This is also a way to strengthen the bond of an existing customer and reminds them as to why there using your product/service in the first place.

In the last post, we talked about Market Research and it’s invaluable effect on the success of a business or company.

Market research works in synchronization with target audience, they are both incredibly effective methods, when used together it can have a massive impact on a companies growth and stability.

The reason why it is important to know your target audience is because without knowing this vital information, it may cost you a lot more than you think. It helps to know how you can promote your product or service.

It’s like trying to promote a product or service to a group of people who are varied in ages, income level and even gender but the product or service only appeals to one group of people.

The reason I say this is because if you try to promote a product like perfume, then you need to know what gender and age you will need to advertise it to. Sometimes income level can also come into consideration; because the higher it is priced it is likely that a customer will think whether they should purchase the item. But depending on the quality of your product then you may be able to make a profit.

There are many ways to know who your target audience is for each of your products or services. Below I have four more approaches to getting to know your target audience.

Customer Behavior – to identify the target audience, you will need to look into customer behavior  This could be that young customers like teenagers may be into buying a certain type of fashion than those that are older than them. To be able to understand customer behavior  you can use primary and secondary research.

Lifestyle – by determining the lifestyle of your target audience helps you to design your product or service. You need to think about what your target audience values the most the most and how they find the knowledge to know how good your product and service is. This could be that they are researching the internet, newspapers, or television.

Market Segmentation – by focusing on the right target audience, it helps for it to be the foundation of any marketing strategy. Using market segmentation, it allows you to concentrate on the response to what you are promoting.

There are four areas that you should consider when using market segmentation  to find your target audience.

Geographic –where your customers live; city, state, country etc. and climate, population and density.

Demographic – customer’s marital status, children/no children, age, gender, education level, income level and religion.

Psycho graphic: Values, lifestyle, hobbies, opinions, interests.

Behavioral: How customers approach to buying products; this could be the brand, reputation, price of product or ready to purchase.

Motivations – understanding the reasons why people consider to buy certain products helps you to question their needs and wants. For instance:

Needing a product or service is motivation in knowing that we have to have products like food, shelter and clothing to survive.

When wanting a product it is something that we would like to have but depending on financial incomes whether it is possible to purchase them.