Following are the four elements of marketing mix:
1. PRODUCT: Product means goods or services or ‘anything of value’, which is offered to the market for sale. The concept of product relates to not only the physical product but also the benefits offered by it from customer’s view point. It also includes the extended product or what is offered to the customers by way of after sales services, handling complaints, availability of spare parts etc.The important product decisions include deciding about the features, quality, packaging, labelling and branding of the products.
2. PRICE: Price is the amount of money customers have to pay to obtain the product. In the case of most of the products, the level of price affects the level of their demand. The marketers have not only to decide about the objectives of price setting but to analyse the factors determining the price and fix a price for the firm’s products. Decisions have also to be taken in respect of discounts to customers, traders and credit terms, etc., so that customers perceive the price to be in line with the value of the product.
3. PLACE: Place or Physical Distribution include activities that make a firm's products available to the target customers. Important decision areas in this respect include selection of dealers or intermediaries to reach the customers, providing support to the intermediaries (by way of discounts, promotional campaigns, etc.). The other decision areas relate to managing inventory, storage and warehousing and transportation of the goods from the place it is produced to the place it is required by the buyers.
4. PROMOTION: Promotion of products and services include activities that communicate availability, features, merits, etc., of the products to the target customers and persuade them to buy it. Most marketing organisations use a number of tools such as advertising, personal selling and sales promotion techniques like price discounts, free coupons etc.