4 Signs of a great marketing mix

Firstly, what is a ‘marketing mix’? This is simply the 7 key areas that a marketer thinks about when planning marketing strategy and activity, otherwise known as the 7 P’s of marketing: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical Presence.

There are generally 4 key signs that you have developed a marketing mix that is built for success…

MATCHES CUSTOMER NEEDS

Once the decision has been made to target a customer type, it is key to fully understand how that customer makes the decision between products/services on the market. What criteria and feature are they using to inform that decision? They will have certain criteria based around cost, availability, reliability, brand appeal or performance. If you manage to meet and exceed these needs better than your competitors, this leads to…

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

With the right marketing mix, your product/service will have a competitive advantage whether it is in performance, desirability or cost.

COHESIVE

The elements of your marketing mix should be really well blended, to provide a cohesive, consistent theme. So, ensuring that your social media echoes what your customer sees on your website and receives from you in their inbox.

MATCH RESOURCES

Of course all this activity comes at a cost in terms of time and money and whilst big brands have large teams and big budgets to play with, not all businesses are that lucky! It’s essential to match your planned activity to the resource you have available – that may mean being selective with your spend in key areas, or using an external resource in the form of a freelancer who can help you on a project basis or on an ongoing basis for a few hours a week.