Marketing Fundamentals - The marketing mix and relationship marketing
by
axelrose123 (student)
Marketing Fundamentals
Introduction
In 1964 Neil H. Borden published the article: The Concept of the Marketing Mix. The marketing mix in Borden's concept originally included "product planning; pricing; branding; channels of distribution or place; personal selling; promotions; advertising; packaging; display; servicing; physical handling; and fact finding and analysis," (Zineldin and Philipson, 2007, p231). According to this concept, the list of twelve ingredients of the marketing mix is adjustable. It could depend on what kind of elements or areas researchers want to focus on or emphasize to change more, but in The Concept of Marketing Mix, Borden (1964) already explained explicitly why he chose the twelve elements as the marketing mix.
However, even though the idea of the marketing mix is derived from Borden, the 4Ps marketing mix which is known to the public was introduced by Jerome McCarthy: Product, Price, Promotion, Place (Constantinides, 2006; Gummesson, 2008). As Anderson and Taylor (1995, p2) claim: "The major step in popularizing the marketing mix was the publication of Jerome McCarthy's, Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach in 1960."
The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether the marketing mix is still a suitable approach to modern day marketing. For instance, with new technology and subsequent changes in people's lifestyles, new marketing concepts are springing up, such as relationship marketing and service marketing. Therefore, is the marketing mix still useful today, or should it be improved or even replaced by other new themes; this is a controversial area.
The marketing mix and relationship marketing
A lot of criticisms are fined at McCarthy's 4Ps model because researchers generally think that 4Ps are too simplified. Those who attack the paradigm have suggested that the model should have more factors added into it (Traynor, 1985; Magrath, 1986; and Doyle, 1994) or even use other factors, such as 4Cs to substitute 4Ps (Lauterborn, 1990). Gr�nroos (1994) even stated that it is time for the marketing mix to step down and let a new paradigm shift emerge.
Moreover, during the past few decades, the debate that the marketing mix needs to be replaced by other new paradigm shift marketing concepts is going on (Constantinides, 2006; Gummesson, 2008). As discussed by Gr�nroos (2006), relationship marketing is one of the strongest candidates among so many competitors who are eager to substitute the marketing mix. Furthermore, as Gr�nroos (1994, p5) states:
In marketing education, teaching students how to use a toolbox had become the totally dominating task instead of discussing the meaning and consequences of the marketing concept and the process nature of market relationships.
This indicates that the marketing mix is a good model and memorable for students to understand the general marketing strategy concept. It may, nonetheless, limit students' creativity idea in order to fit the framework at the same time.
In fact, the marketing mix is still adopted by many scholars and is published in the majority of textbooks, but some have argued that customer relationship is an emerging trend in recent years (Gr�nroos, 1994). With time change, the pattern and relationship between sellers and buyers have a significant difference now than before (Coviello and Brodie, 2001). Take hospital industry in Taiwan for example: over the last few decades doctors have played a vital role in this industry. They are the kings and they are independent, because hospitals rely on them to make profits. In addition, the qualifications required to enter this industry are relatively high compared to other fields, so during that era the supply (hospitals) was much less than the demand (patients). This also results in hospitals not needing a good manager or a proper marketer to run the business, and yet they still can make money. It is common that, if patients are ill, they have to put their name on a long waiting list. Sometimes even if they have already made an appointment, due to too many patients in the same time period, they still need to wait. Moreover, after a long waiting time, when it is finally their time to see doctors, most of the time doctors are not so friendly. However, this kind of situation is totally different now. Health care industry is no longer a monopoly. As more hospitals are established, the competitions become more intense. As a result, owners of health care organizations start to emphasize the relationship between doctors and patients. In addition, managers also think that employees who may contact with customers are all "part-time marketers" (Gummesson, 1990). The main factor to cause this kind of change is that buyers (patients) have more choices nowadays. For instance, if there are two sellers (doctors) equipped with the same conditions, but one provides more support on intangible service and has good relationships with buyers, then buyers will definitely go to the one who shows more concern for them. Consequently, managers of health care organizations have to value patients and doctors' relationships or they may keep losing customers. This also shows that relationship marketing is a new trend now.
