Class 12 Business Studies - Chapter Marketing NCERT Solutions | What is marketing mix? What are its main

Marketing management decisions are based on a number of controllable and non-controllable factors.

Controllable factors are those which can be influenced at the level of the firm. E.g. price of the product, packaging decision, physical distribution, etc. However, there are certain factors which are beyond the control of the firm.

These are called non-controllable factors or environmental factors. E.g. rate of inflation, credit policy of banks, competition, etc.

Therefore, controllable variables become marketing tools, which are constantly shaped and reshaped by marketing managers to achieve marketing objectives.

The combination of variables chosen by a firm to prepare its market offering, is called marketing mix. The main components of marketing mix consist of the four P’s, viz product, price, place and promotion.

Elements of Marketing Mix are:

1. Product: Product means goods or services or ‘anything of value’ which is offered to the market for sale. It is a mixture of tangible and intangible attributes, which are capable of being exchanged for value.
   From the customer’s point of view, a product is a bundle of utility as it provides three types of benefits to the consumers that are Functional benefits, Psychological benefits and social benefits. It also includes the extended product or what is offered to the customer as after sales services, handling complaints, credit services, etc.
   The product mix refers to important decisions related to the product such as quality of product, design of product, packaging, etc.

2. Price: Price of a product refers to the amount of money that the customer has to pay in the market to obtain the product. The marketers have to take a number of decisions regarding price level, pricing strategy, pricing objectives, discounts, etc, together known as price mix.

3. Place: Place or physical distribution covers all the activities required to physically move the goods from manufactures to customers.
   The two major decision areas under this function are:

i. Decision regarding channels of distribution.
ii. Physical movement of goods from the place where it is produced to the place of consumption.

4. Promotion: Promotion refers to the process of informing the customers about the product and then persuading them to buy it. Most marketing firms use a combination of advertising sales promotion, personal selling, and public relations to promote their products.
   Therefore, the combination of any of these techniques to attain the marketing objectives is called promotion mix.