The 7 P’s of the Retail Marketing Mix
Retail marketing mix refers to the variables that a retailer can
use in variable methods to arrive at an effective marketing
strategy to attract his prospects (Customer).
The
variables are the varieties of merchandise and assortment along with the
services that are offered, including advertising, pricing, layout and
promotion and also store location design and visual merchandising.
Retailers
of an employ a variety of combinations to promote their business and to ensure
proper reach to their prospective customers. The use of multiple methods
depending on their objectives to promote themselves and create a market
profile.
The
choice of methods of promotion varies and is dependent on the nature of the
business, the goods that are kept in the retail store, and other such
multiple factors.
The
credibility, control, and flexibility along with the cost that is associated
with the retail promotion methods determine the choice of method of promotion.
There
are 7 Ps of the retail mix, which is as follows:
Product,
Price, Place, Promotion, Process, People & Physical Evidence.
1) Product
Product
is the basic element of any and every organization. Some people go to the extent to comment that an
organization is nothing but a collection of products.
The product line is defined as the varieties of the
products that are produced by a company, or that is stocked by a retailer.
Collection
of all the products and offering the company is known as product mix.
The same products that are produced by the company are the ones that are sold
by the retailer and kept in the retail store. Product mix refers to the
length, breadth and depth of the products.
Result
of the product is the total number of products that are present in the product
line while the breadth of the product refers to the number of product lines
that are offered by the company and finally the depth of the product means the
various varieties of a particular product in that particular product line.
The
retail product mix is also called as a product assortment (classification). Making sure that the
availability of the product and inventory levels are according to the demands of
the customer is very crucial for a retail store manager. Maintaining adequate
inventory levels of product to meet the demands of the customer is very
important.
Multiple
strategies can be used in case of retail product mix such as
1.
New product launches
2.
Modification
of existing product lines
3.
Trading down
or trading up
4.
Assortment
reduction or line elimination
5.
Management
of PLC
Multiple
combinations are used by retailers to achieve their business and promotional
objectives.
Dimensions of
a Product Mix
1 Width
Width, also
known as breadth, refers to the number of product lines offered by a company.
For example, Kellogg’s product lines consist of: (1) Ready-to-eat
cereal, (2) Pastries and breakfast snacks, (3) Crackers and cookies, and (4)
Frozen/Organic/Natural goods.
2 Length
Length refers
to the total number of products in a firm’s product mix. For example, consider
a car company with two car product lines (3-series and 5-series). Within each
product line series are three types of cars. In this example, the product
length of the company would be 6.
3 Depth
Depth refers
to the number of variations within a product line. For example, continuing with
the car company example above, a 3-series product line may offer several
variations such as coupe, sedan, truck, and convertible. In such a case, the
depth of the 3-series product line would be 4.
4 Consistency
Consistency
refers to how closely related product lines are to each other. It is in
reference to their use, production, and distribution channels. The consistency of a product mix is advantageous
for firms attempting to position themselves as a niche producer or distributor.
In addition, consistency aids with ensuring a firm’s brand image is synonymous
with the product or service itself.
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