As you already know, there are four elements in the marketing mix of any product [and seven in case of services]. They are product place, price, and promotion and all of the four play an important and valuable role in the marketing of that brand. While the marketing of a brand begins with its product, the other three elements too are equally important and getting them right is essential to make your marketing strategy win. A good quality product outshines its competitors easily. However, a good product also needs to be complemented with a good price and great promotions. Sometimes, having one of the four elements right makes up for any weakness in the other areas. Like you offer great quality and people are willing to pay higher prices. Your quality or your prices and marketing become the talk of the town and you automatically reap its benefits and do not have to struggle with the promotions part. So, a deep understanding of these elements helps you achieve the best thing — sales and revenue because after all, you want to earn profits from your product and brand. Here, I will discuss the role these elements play in your marketing strategy.
Product: This is the central element in your marketing strategy. Not just the success of your marketing strategy but the image of your brand too depends on the success of your product. In the 21st century where competition has become only all the more intense, you need to have a great quality product to shine on the shelf. Otherwise, your product gets lost in the crowd of brands every customer comes across in the market. So, you do not want your product to lose. You must fill it with quality. Consider the example of Apple. It is its product range that has made the brand a celebrity. The case of Starbucks also proves that good quality products are easier to sell.
Place: Placement also serves an important role in the marketing of a brand. If you want your product to sell, you must place it where your customer segment is. If your product is made for the metropolitan crowd then no use trying to sell it in rural areas. If you have a product for the millennials, then you must sell it online because that’s where you will find the largest crowd of millennials. Moreover, you would not like your product to be inaccessible and so you have to place it where it is easily accessible to your target audience. Brands like IKEA have their stores in strategic locations where they attract the highest number of footfalls.
Price: Pricing is also an important part of a brand’s marketing strategy. Many times your pricing strategy is the most effective part of your marketing strategy. Take for example Walmart. It is the most favorite retailer of the majority of Americans because it sells at the lowest prices. Apple has priced its products higher because it is marketing its products to the higher-end segment. IKEA has a smart pricing strategy that has helped it target middle-class customers effectively. If it was not for its pricing strategy, its customer base would shrink to less than half of its current customer segment. So, you must keep your target market and your competition in mind before pricing your products. This does not just help you attract the right customers but also helps you build a distinct image.
Promotion: After pricing, it is the promotional part. Despite getting the rest elements of your marketing mix right, you might need to do some marketing to let your customers have a better glimpse of your product and its features and quality. You have a great product and a smart pricing strategy but still, you need to reach your target market and help it know and understand your brand and its value proposition. It is because there is a lot of competition and you have to reach your customers before others do. This is the importance of your promotional strategy and promotion mix. Being smart at it means achieving higher sales and penetrating your target market deeper than the competitors.
Marketers must focus on all these aspects of their marketing mix to get the desired results from their marketing campaigns. It is not all about promotion because without a great product all the promotion will return no results. So, focus on making all these aspects strong and if you can truly outshine your competitors in a few areas, it might lead to a need for less investment in the others. Even an average product can sell given your pricing, placement and promotional strategies are right.
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Product mix, also known as product assortment, refers to the total number of product lines a company offers to its customers. For example, your company may sell multiple lines of products. Your product lines may be fairly similar, such as dish washing liquid and bar soap, which are both used for cleaning and use similar technologies. Or your product lines may be vastly different, such as diapers and razors.
The four dimensions to a company's product mix include width, length, depth and consistency.
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Product mix, also known as product assortment, refers to the total number of product lines a company offers to its customers. The four dimensions to a company's product mix include width, length, depth and consistency.
Width: Number of Product Lines
The width, or breadth, of a company's product mix pertains to the number of product lines the company sells. For example, if you own EZ Tool Company and have two product lines – hammers and wrenches – your product mix width is two.
Small and upstart businesses will usually not have a wide product mix. It is more practical to start with some basic products and build market share. Later on, the company's technology may allow the company to diversify into other industries and build the width of the product mix.
Length: Total Products
The product mix length is the total number of products or items in your company's product mix. For example, EZ Tool has two product lines, hammers and wrenches. In the hammer product line are claw hammers, ball peen hammers, sledge hammers, roofing hammers and mallet hammers. The wrench line contains Allen wrenches, pipe wrenches, ratchet wrenches, combination wrenches and adjustable wrenches.
Thus, EZ Tool's product mix length would be 10. Companies that have multiple product lines will sometimes keep track of their average length per product line. In this case, the average length of your company's product line is five.
Depth: Product Variations
Depth of a product mix pertains to the total number of variations for each product. Variations can include size, flavor and any other distinguishing characteristic. For example, if your company sells three sizes and two flavors of toothpaste, that particular line of toothpaste has a depth of six. Just like length, companies sometimes report the average depth of their product lines; or the depth of a specific product line.
If the company also has another line of toothpaste, and that line comes in two flavors and two sizes, its depth is four. Since one line has a depth of six and the second line has a depth of four, your company's average depth of product lines is five [6+4=10, 10/2=5].
Consistency is Relationship
Product mix consistency describes how closely related product lines are to one another – in terms of use, production and distribution. Your company's product mix may be consistent in distribution but vastly different in use. For example, your company may sell health bars and a health magazine in retail stores. However, one product is edible and the other is not.
The production consistency of these products would vary as well, so your product mix is not consistent. Your toothpaste company's product lines, however, are both toothpaste. They have the same use and are produced and distributed the same way. So, your toothpaste company's product lines are consistent.
Product Market Mix Strategy
Small companies usually start out with a product mix limited in width, depth and length; and have a high level of consistency. However, over time, the company may want to differentiate products or acquire new ones to enter new markets. They may also add to their lines similar products that are of higher or lower quality to offer different choices and price points.
This is called stretching the product line. When you add higher quality, more expensive products, it's called upward stretching. If you add lesser quality, lower priced items, it's called downward stretching.