Discussion: Understanding the Four Ps of the Marketing Mix

Imagine if you started a small business, such as a music store or a coffee shop. Soon after opening your doors, you begin having the same concerns that many business owners share: How can you attract more customers, improve profitability, and keep customers coming back? You would have to make many decisions to address these challenges. For example, if you owned a music store, would you expand your product line, become known for higher price and higher quality, or be perceived as having low prices but good value? Would you sponsor students for music lessons at a local school or open more locations? The choices you would make in situations like these would be part of your business’s marketing mix.

In this Discussion, you will consider the impact of the four Ps on how a business markets a product or service by acting as a consultant for a business that is expanding its product or service offerings, resulting in a need to shift the marketing mix.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review this week’s Learning Resources, in particular The Marketing Mix – The Dynamic Nature of the 4 P’s video, and consider the scenario presented at the end of an air conditioning company that has a technology breakthrough that results in the company needing to adjust the current marketing mix for the new technology.
• Select a company that provides either products or services (or both, if you choose). This should be a company with which you are familiar—preferably one that is local to you so that you have a basic understanding of the four Ps for that company’s existing product(s) or service(s).
• Once you have selected the company, then consider what an additional product or service offering might be that, like the air conditioning company featured in the video, would necessitate a change in the marketing mix for that product or service.
• Review the Academic Writing Expectations for 2000/3000-Level Courses, provided in this week’s Learning Resources.

By Day 3

Post a 150- to 225-word (2- to 3-paragraph) illustration of your recommendations for how your selected business should adjust the marketing mix based on its new product or service offering. In your illustration, address the following:

• Briefly (in 1–2 sentences) describe your selected company and the new potential product or service offering you identified.
• For each of the four Ps, prepare a recommendation for whether the company should make adjustments to each of the four marketing mix variables. Consider the overall impact of the four Ps on the marketing mix.
• To support your response, be sure to reference at least one properly cited scholarly source. Note: You are not required to provide specific financial data or company information