Internal Marketing Environment
The internal, controllable variable of a company- known as 4ps of marketing or marketing mix are variables which marketers used to achieve business corporate goals. They are referred to as controllable variables.
This is so because, marketing managers can manipulate them to suit the situational demands of their products or services offered. These marketing mixes or the 4ps are briefly discussed below.
1) Product
A product can be an item, an idea or service. Marketing does not engage in production activities, but it aids production through market research- to find out consumers’ needs and wants.
Managing the product ingredient includes planning and developing the right products and /or services to be marketed by the company. In order to have a product-set that would satisfy consumers, marketing executives should be able to develop new products, modify existing ones, eliminate unprofitable products, and add or subtract from existing product-lines.
The work of marketing executives, then, is to get the right combination of attributes that a product must have to satisfy the consumers in the target market.
2) Price
Fixing prices for products is not, solely, the task of marketing executives. They, however, supply all the necessary information to the management committee that would decide on the change in price.
Consumers are interested in the price change, because they use it to determine the value of the item bought. Price is often used as the barometer for measuring the quality of an item, and for comparing different items/goods. It is a competitive weapon used by companies to create favorable image for their products.
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Thus, price is often regarded as one of the companies’ offering which can stimulate purchases. While pricing, management should be able to determine the right base price for their products and services. They should be able to establish policies concerning discounts, freights payments, and other related price policies.
3) Promotion
Promotion is, usually, the communication tool employed by marketers to inform people or the market about availability of products/services offered into the markets or existence of a particular company.
It is a tool through which companies stimulate or arouse consumers’ demand for the products to be sold; it also helps to educate consumers on how to use or obtain maximum benefit from the product offered into the markets.
Therefore, promotion is a management strategy used to inform and persuade the market regarding a company’s products. Advertising, personal selling and sales promotion are the promotional activities or tools used by companies.
4) Distribution/Place
The distribution variable relates to the location of the products in the markets. Marketing professionals usually has some control or total control over this variable. Marketing is often responsible for the selection and management of the company’s intermediaries.
The intermediaries include- wholesalers, retailers, dealers, and agents. It is the responsibility of the marketing department to develop the most potent marketing mix strategies to achieve the company’s objectives.
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