Marketing Mix

This book has been inspired by the many textbooks, classes and student work about marketing mix, which simply present or teach marketing mix as 4Ps - very often not even acknowledging where those 4Ps came from. Such an approach is simply unacceptable academic work - having no discussion of the extensive research from the 1920s onwards, about what is needed for effective marketing and marketing mix. In several ways, this is a thoroughly radical book pushing against the common approach of simply teaching about simplistic 4Ps. Many students produce a marketing mix for a company; they shouldn’t. A marketing mix should be produced only for a product, service, or idea; it makes no sense to talk about the marketing mix of the company. The book provides a solid example of what academics often call ’critical thinking’. Other ways in which the book is radical, is that it shows that marketing mix is not only for products and services; it is also for ideas. The book discusses the idea that marketing can be seen as a branch of information warfare because both are concerned with affecting minds of others.. Positioning should be included in marketing mix considerations. Marketing mix should not only be considered for legitimate products, services, and ideas; it is relevant also for those who trade in legal or mixed legal and illegal products and services. Examples are explored in the book. The original four piece are important and should not be ignored. However, a marketing mix should consist of words, whatever their starting letter, which clarify the characteristics of a product, service, or idea in the minds of customers or users. Issues of sustainability and CSR are increasingly important these days and the book includes a chapter about green marketing mix. There is a comprehensive set of references along with comprehensive index to make this book useful tool for those who wish to explore marketing mix in greater detail. The book sketches and evolution of marketing from its early start of being production oriented, through being customer oriented, to today’s situation when so much literature about marketing is competition oriented. What is the origin of the term 'marketing'? The book includes a facsimile of a very early use of the word 'marketing' in 1561. Detecting the use of the word in 1561 leads to the interesting research question of possible earlier uses of the word. Hopefully, this book will challenge the way a reader thinks about marketing and marketing mix and provide new, radical thoughts.