Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

Good question! My recollection is that the marketing mix consists of what the firm offers the customer and thus what the customer experiences , i.e. product and price (value proposition), place (where it is sold) and promotion (how it is communicated). Marketing research should inform all four components, but is not visible to the customer.

This would be a good question to ask Phil Kotler, who pioneered the concept in the 60s and 70s. The idea was to look at marketing from the firm/customer perpective instead of from a market/institution perspective (as was the case before, from the orgins of marketing in the 1910s with articles as 'the marketing of Winconsin cheese')

Hope this helps

Koen

I would like nothing better than to agree with you, as I have seen hundreds of marketing activities succeed thanks to the use of research and just as many disappointments when for one reason or another research was not conducted or was done incorrectly.

However try to think about the 4 Ps as necessary ingredients in a recipe for a cake. You can use 3 instead of 4 eggs, brown sugar as a substitute for white, margarine instead of butter, and decide to use gluten free flour.
You do need all four ingredients to make a cake, but you have the control over them and therefore control over to whom the final cake will appeal.
Research allows you to make informed decisions instead of guessing on the type, quality, and quantity of each ingredient for your cake. Hoverer you have no control over the outcome of research – the facts can only be examined but never changed.
I would also argue that the reason for marketing research not being part of a marketing mix is that it needs to occur before the marketing activity, not during or after. It is a foundation on which to build you marketing activities.

Note: There have been other Ps suggested for addition to the marketing mix: people (for service industry that is kind of important), packaging (ever tried to sell something wrapped in a newspaper?) they where rejected, now imagine trying to include a word starting with an`R`!!!

Luke Zukowski