A General Discussion
Logic: Marketers have four tools to use to develop an offering to meet the needs of their targeted customers.
Collectively they are called the marketing mix.
Marketing Mix: You may have heard of the "four Ps" of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion. Collectively these are called the marketing mix. More comprehensively they are viewed as: • product, service, or program - something of value you are offering the customer, client, or park visitor • price - what the customer, client, or park visitor pays (direct costs are financial, indirect or alternative costs are such things as time it takes and the things people give up if they choose your offering) • place, distribution, location, or accessibility - where the transaction takes place, perhaps in a park • promotion or communication - this is how you inform the target market about the benefits in your marketing mix
Collectively these are the tools organizations uses to develop offerings to satisfy their target market(s) ... the only tools at their disposal. Remember: If your marketing mix doesn't meet their needs they will not be satisfied - and if they aren't satisfied you are unlikely to meet your objectives.
The marketing mix should be viewed as an integrated and coordinated package of benefits that reflect the characteristics of customers and various targeted publics and satisfy their needs, wants, and expectations. Note that the elements of the marketing mix should be integrated because each element of the mix usually has some impact, direct or indirect, on the other three. For example, if you improve the product or service you probably have to change the price because it costs more to produce. Although you may not have to change where the product is delivered to the customer, you will almost certainly have to change the promotion or communication with the customer because you need to tell the customer about the changes you have made