CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions  and  process  for  creating,  communicating  delivering  and  exchanging  offerings  that  have  value for  should  anticipate  the  needs and  wants of potential consumers  and  satisfy them more  effectively  than  its competitors.  This concept originated from Adam Smith book the wealth of Nations.

Neil Borden popularized the idea or marketing and the concepts that would later be known primarily as the four Ps in the 1950s. Borden was an advertising professor at Harvard university. The term marketing mix is a foundation model for businesses, historically centered around product, price, place and promotion by Brainly. Ph

The four Ps  classification for developing an effective marketing strategy was first introduced in 1960 by marketing professor and author E. Jerome McCarthy in his book Basic Marketing. In 1964, Neil Borden published an article whose title was the concept of the marketing mix’’ from which the marketing mix started gaining popularity. Other historians suggest that the theory of marketing only emerged in the 20 century when the discipline began to offer courses at universities.

Marketing mix therefore represents the basic tools that marketers can use to bring their products or services to the market. Marketing mix are the foundation of managerial marketing and the marketing plan typically devotes a section to the marketing mix. The traditional marketing mix refers to four broad levels of marketing decision which are;

• Product: The product aspect of marketing mix deals with the specifications of the actual goods or services and how it relates to the end-user’s needs and wants. The product element consist of; product design, new product innovation, branding, packaging and labelling.
• Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for a product including discounts. The price need not to be monetary, it can simply be what is exchange for the product or services.
• Place: This refers to how the product gets to the consumer. It includes the distribution channels and intermediates such as wholesalers and retailers who enable customers to access the product or services in a convenient manner.
• Promotion: This include all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling.

The marketing mix proposed by Booms and Bitner in 1981, extended the marketing mix by 3 new Ps that directly relates to the service provision industry. These are;

• People: These are those involve in selling a product or service, designing it, marketing, managing teams, representing customers, recruiting and training.
• Process: This refers to the flow of activities or mechanism that takes place when there is an interaction between customers and the business.
• Physical evidence: This refers to everything your customers see when interaction with the business such as the physical environment where the business provides the product or service and the packaging of the product.

The addition of other 4Ps by Judd Marcello which are; Privacy, Permission, personality, and performance, are the way forward for marketers looking to earn consumer’s trust and loyalty.  However, the marketing landscape has been undergoing drastic changes. And today, marketers must shift to an even more permission-base date strategy to fuel their personalized marketing strategy.

A consumer is anyone who purchases goods and services for personal use. There are certain factors which influence the purchase decision of a consumer which are:

• Psychological Factors: Human psychology is a major determinant of consumer behavior.
• Social Factors: Human are social being and they live around many people and things which influence their buying behavior.

We also have other factors such as:

• Cultural factors.
• Personal factors.
• Economic factors

1.2 Problem Statement

Marketing mix plays a big role in the marketing, promotion, placement, and pricing of a product and it becomes a big problem when businesses do not take the marketing mix concept seriously. Some of the problems that can influence the buying decision of a consumer are:

• The identification of a need.
• The fear of scarcity.
• Low cost of goods and services.

1.3 Research Question

1.3.1 Main Question

How does marketing mix influence consumer purchase decision?

1.3.2 Specific Questions

1. What are the types of marketing mix?
2. How can products influence consumer purchase decisions?
3. How can place influence consumer purchase decisions?
4. How can price influence consumer purchase decisions?
5. How can price influence consumer purchase decisions?

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