Markets and customers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Markets and customers - Essay Example mportance of the four P’s, followed by the definition and relevance of marketing mix and then finally go on to understanding (with the help of examples) how the 4 Ps are interdependent on each other and a change in one directly impacts the success of the rest. ‘People think that a product is a tangible offering, but a product can be more than that. A product can be anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or need. Products that are marketed include physical goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organizations, information and ideas.’ (Kotler et al, 2007: 316). Services also form an important part of products. ‘It is wrong to imply that services are just like products â€Å"except† for intangibility.’ (Shostack, 1977: 73). With the changing trends all across the globe, services have become a very important section which contributes towards a country’s GDP. How much services sector has grown can be seen from the fact that this sector contributes more than 75% in the GDPs of countries like The United States and The United Kingdom. Price is the monetary equivalent that we pay in return for services and products which we consume. According to me, price plays the most important role out of the four P’s of study. ‘Some examples of pricing decisions to be made include: pricing strategy, suggested retail price, etc.’ (The Marketing Mix (The 4 P’s of Marketing) NetMBA, 2007) Place talks about the location from where we want to sell the products and services. It refers to the distribution channel involved in the supply chain. This gives us the information about how many channels a product passes through before it finally reaches the customer. ‘Some examples of place decisions to be made include: distribution channel, market coverage, etc.’ (The Marketing Mix (The 4 P’s of Marketing) NetMBA, 2007) Promotion includes the activities undertaken by the seller to make the customer aware of the products and