Marketing Mix of 4P’S for Competitive Advantage

The Marketing Mix comprises of four decisions which should be considered before launching a product. Firms should plan targeted approach on these four different components and they are Product, Price, and Place & Promotion. All the four variables help the firm in formulating strategic decisions necessary for competitive advantage. The main objective of this article is to describe the importance of relationship of various components of marketing mix for attaining competitive advantage in market. Marketing Mix comprises of Product marketing mix and Service marketing mix. Generally the Product marketing mix consists of product, price, place and promotion and it is generally used for marketing mix of tangible goods. However Service marketing mix is related to three different variables for example people, process and physical evidence. The term marketing mix became popular when Neil H. Borden published his article on "The concept of Marketing Mix" in 1964. The marketing mix is characterised by four equally important variables. The first step is Product plan for articulating a marketing plan. There are three parts of product plan, i.e. core product, augmented product and the tertiary product. Not only product related decisions but also price related decisions like whether the uniform price will be charged or different prices will be charged for the same product in different markets. The third variable is "Place" and it is related to the decisions like where the product will be sold. "Promotion" decisions are related to increase the sales. The marketing mix involves the decisions related to which the products will be made available at a particular price, may be different price will be charged for the same product as per different market, the marketing manager has to take into account the impact of different factors which are categorised under the 4 P"s to decide marketing mix for a product.