Marketers undertake a number of stages during the marketing process. These are the planning stage, the implementation stage, and then the control and auditing stage. During the planning stage “a product must be invented or developed, assigned value and meaning, and made available to interested customers” (Solomon & Stuart 2000). How does a marketer go about doing this? The marketer has a number of strategy tools which he/she uses to help make decisions. These tools are collectively known as the marketer’s mix.

Product strategies are most important and they deal with issues such as product design, packaging, branding, warranty, product variations, and the product’s position in relation to its competitors. Pricing strategies look more at whether the product will be low-priced and affordable for everyone, or expensive and restricted to only those consumers who have higher incomes. This will obviously depend on the target market. Promotion strategies address issues such as the message the organisation wants portrayed about the product and how best to convey this message to potential customers. Advertising, sales promotions and personal selling are all examples of promotion strategies. Distribution strategies consider matters like whether to sell the product directly to customers versus selling through retailers and wholesalers, transport, location of distribution centres and even how the product should be displayed. It is important to note that each individual element’s strategy will affect other marketing mix tactics. For example, if the price of the product is expensive than the promotion would focus on promoting a high-quality, luxury image. In summary, marketing mix strategies help the marketers achieve their goals of raising customer awareness of the product and persuading them to buy it by fashioning each element of the mix to pacifically target the group of preselected customers.

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