Supporting theme: marketing mix
Within the economic approach, where the transaction exchange between the brand
and consumers is the core, the marketing mix offers a managerial approach to
facilitating these exchanges. Expressed by the American Marketing Association in
1985: ‘Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing,
promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that
satisfy individual and organisational objectives’ (Hultman and Shaw 2003, p. 37).
The aim with the marketing mix concept is to understand how transactions are
created and how these insights can be used to apply a more systematic
management of marketing strategy and activities. Furthermore the objective with
the marketing mix is, through analysis, to ensure profitable spending of marketing
resources adhering not only to marketing, but also to other functions that have an
influence on the effectiveness of the relation between the company and its
markets. The marketing mix hence describes the function of the marketer as:
the marketing man as an empiricist seeking in any situation to devise a prof-
itable ‘pattern’ or ‘formula’ of marketing operations from among the many
procedures and policies were open to him. If he was a ‘mixer of ingredients’,
what he designed was a ‘marketing mix’
(Borden 1984, p. 9).The line of thought is that the right marketing mix can ensure an efficient
connection between the company and the market place. The point of departure of
the marketing mix is, hence, that attributes related to the Four Ps (product, price,
place and promotion) are the main mechanisms behind the creation and
management of brand equity. The primary purpose for brand management is,
according to these premises, to produce, promote and distribute goods that are
attractive to consumers because they deliver the best deal measured by the utility
value the goods offer, compared with the utility value competitors offer, related to
the price consumers are willing to pay. Brand managers are assumed to be able to
control consumers’ brand choice behaviour by ensuring an optimum mix between
the four main elements of the marketing mix. The marketing mix is hence a key
instrument for understanding and facilitating transactions between the company
and the market. The logic is that a brand will succeed only if the manufacturer of
that brand is able to produce a product that delivers high utility benefits, then sells
it at the right price, in the right places, and promotes it to such an extent and in
such a way that spurs consumer awareness. The Four Ps – product, place, price and
promotion – are hence key denominators of a brand’s success.
The marketing mix quickly became an unchallenged basic model of marketing
and the Four Ps have gone their course of victory across the world of marketing:
‘since its introduction, McCarthy’s (1960) description of a marketing mix
comprised of product, price, promotion and place has widely become regarded as
an ‘infallible’ guide for the effective planning and implementation of marketing
strategy’ (Grönroos 1994, p. 4)
The economic approach 37