Understanding The Difference Between Marketing Mix and Marketing Strategy

You need to be well-honed and prepared for the next norm to give yourself the competitive edge.

What this actually means is that you need to focus on what your competitors are doing, research and identify their strategies and see what results they’re yielding

So, how do you enlist all the above-mentioned researches once you’re done uncovering the strategies that your competitors are using?

Well, the best way to list them all down is by including them in your marketing mix and marketing strategy.

When I’m speaking of a marketing mix or marketing strategy, I’m seeing two interconnected yet different plans that are all set to help an organization gain a competitive edge in the market.

However, most of the general audience or even entrepreneurs, sometimes get confused in between a marketing mix and marketing strategy.

Hence a lot of them experience a hard time separating the two from each other because although both are interconnected but are designed for different purposes.

Today, I’m going to explain the difference between the marketing mix and marketing strategy so that the next time you’re designing a plan for your organization, you’ll have a clear vision of what needs to be done.

So, without any further ado – let’s start discussing the difference between a marketing mix and strategy starting with their importance.

The Importance of a Marketing Strategy and Marketing Mix

Let’s start by saying if your business doesn’t have a way forward or your marketing team doesn’t know which direction they have to follow to succeed, the efforts that you’re currently doing are useless.

There are times when small businesses, say for example app development companies or software development companies, impressively scale to new heights in a very short time span.

This leaves several struggling entrepreneurs in shock or even demotivated as they wish to replicate the success of these startups or SMBs but unfortunately are not able to simply because there’s something missing.

This something is a marketing strategy followed by a marketing mix.

These brands that are doing exceptionally well have created marketing strategies that are well-coordinated.

Hence, their efforts are effective, collective and that’s the reason why their success in their respective domain is the one you’re aspiring to achieve.

A great marketing strategy or mix sets a business apart from its competition; it leads to more sales and conversion, enables businesses to understand their target audience, addresses their pain points, and makes entrepreneurs sleep well at night.

However, there’s the difference between a good marketing strategy and a bad one, and I believe now is not the time to get into that so, let’s uncover the difference between the two aspects ‘marketing strategy and mix.’

And just when you were thinking that marketing strategy is all you ever needed to succeed, there’s a little something called the marketing mix, which, by the way, is just as important as a marketing strategy.

The best way to understand both of them instantly would be that a marketing strategy tells you the what, why, where, and how of marketing.

On the other hand, a marketing mix would tell you how much effort or emphasis/efforts you need to put into each objective mentioned in the marketing strategy.

So, with a simple and precise overview out of the way, let’s dive into the details of the two of them and see how they’re integral to business success, starting with the marketing mix.

 

The Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is more like a guide to what you actually need to focus on in your marketing strategy.

It significantly reduces the number of efforts wasted while following a marketing strategy.

For example, your marketing strategy entails that you need to follow certain pillars to create a credible online presence.

Now, the time you have to give to these certain pillars that will eventually result in you achieving your ultimate goal of building a credible presence will be defined by a marketing mix.

Now, what is the marketing mix composed of?

Well, it’s a mix of the 4 Ps; product, price, place, and promotion.

For each one of the Ps included in the marketing mix, you need to create a clear direction that you can follow to align your marketing strategy with the components included in the market mix.

For instance, for the product pillar, you can create buyer personas of the people who are actually interested in your product keeping the price and place of your product in mind.

Let’s say your product costs around somewhere between $25,000 to $70,000. This is a pretty big amount, right, and only top investors would be able to get such a product for their business.

Hence, you need to market this product to a community that has amazing purchasing power, right?

All of these aspects can be defined in your marketing strategy, while a marketing mix will tell you the following aspects:

• Where you can find them?
• What initiatives you need to take in order to attract these people?
• What terms would best define the type of people that you’re looking to work with i.e., entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, CMO, CIO, or CTO?

In a nutshell, a marketing mix is designed with the purpose of enabling marketers to identify the where, what, how and when of the product.

This significantly increases the chances of the product becoming a market success.

Related: What is Marketing Communication Mix?

 

The Marketing Strategy

Literally every professional would’ve heard about the word marketing strategy and what it does.

However, very few people know why a marketing strategy is important nor how it is related to the marketing mix.

Now that you know how it’s related, let’s explore how a marketing strategy enables businesses to pivot to a whole new level when, ofcourse, aided by a marketing mix.

The marketing strategy is all about looking at the big picture, providing the marketing team and the organization details about the profitability, scalability, and growth ratio of a product or the organization itself.

It entails all the essentials that an organization has to focus on to actively promote themselves and their products while disclosing strategies or initiatives that their direct competitors are using.

Furthermore, the marketing strategy also enables you to strategize your current work order for maximum efficiency, productivity, and results.

The aligning of the vision of the company with the marketing efforts is perhaps the best thing that a marketing strategy allows you to do.

Let’s say your company’s vision is to create a world of business aided by emerging technologies resulting in industry leadership status, growth, and scalability.

To promote such a revolutionary vision, your messaging, designs, customer experience, and other collaterals need to reflect this, and a marketing strategy would give you all the insights into what needs to be done to align your marketing processes with the vision/objective of the company.

Once you’ve aligned your marketing processes with the company’s vision, the next challenge is learning as much as possible about the customers.

Know that you’re competing against strong competition and making winning-decision are critical to your success.

A great example of making a winning decision would be a hypothetical scenario where you have to decide whether your company would be better off selling a remarkable product at a higher price or you need to lower your price in order to compete?

You’ll get an answer to the question mentioned above from the marketing mix, and this is what interconnects the both of them a ‘marketing strategy and mix.’

In the fewest possible words, think of the marketing strategy as the big picture and the marketing mix as the steps that you have to take to achieve something great.

 

Surpassing The Conventional Marketing Mix & Strategy Clutter

We all know that marketing today is not just limited to distributing pamphlets, brochures, flyers or creating a digital presence, or regularly posting on social domains.

It has evolved into something much more than that!

Your customers are well-aware of the brand that they’re looking for; they know what they want, how they want it, and the abundance of businesses have contributed vastly to creating a highly competitive landscape.

Therefore, it’s essential to surpass the conventional marketing mix and strategy clutter and design something impactful and exclusive to your brand.

For example, if you’re marketing your product, in addition to the conventional 4 Ps, you can include some other critical factors that will help in pivoting your product. You can add the appearance of your in-house production and marketing team to your marketing strategy and mix to better reflect what your stand for.

In the fewest possible words, think of the marketing strategy as the big picture and the marketing mix as the steps that you have to take to achieve something great.

 

Designing KPIs For Optimal Performance Monitoring

KPIs are the most integral part of your marketing strategy.

Having robust KPIs in action will enable you to determine the effectiveness of the work being delivered by your marketing team.

Secondly, building KPIs based on your marketing strategy would start with research.

So, in a way, research is yet another important part that you need to make sure is completed with accuracy.

There are other aspects involved in creating KPIs, but research may be the most influential one when it comes to developing a sound marketing strategy.

Furthermore, once the KPIs are established, you will be continuously monitoring your competitor’s moves to make sure your marketing strategy and practices are up to date.

 

To Conclude

Although both marketing mix and marketing strategy are different concepts yet they’re interconnected with each other.

Therefore, a combination of two is critical to ensure business model success. Plus, a well-organized and functional marketing plan would, as mentioned earlier, enable you to move your organization in a direction rather than operating in a vacuum.

So, here’s all you need to know about the two different components of a marketing plan.

I’m sure after getting all the details regarding the two, you’ll be able to build a diverse marketing plan that is perfectly aligned with each other and enables you to excel in the marketing domain.