What is marketing? The Concept of the Marketing Mix by Neil H. Borden

The Concept of the Marketing Mix written by Neil H. Borden. Borden is a marketing and advertisement professor at the Harvard Business School and he is also a Former President of the American Marketing Association. In his concept of Marketing Mix, Borden puts advertising as the central element of the total marketing program in a corporation (Borden 1984). In other words, advertising which is the fundamental element of the marketing program is really important to the company in order for them to gain a profitable business position.

Moreover, since the market is really competitive these days, the way the company market the product or its brand shows what the differences are between the company itself and its competitors.

Contents

What is the marketing mix?

In his article, Borden appreciates the way his companion, James Culliton, put the business executive as the “Mixer of the ingredients”, and business executive also have a responsibility to create a creative mix of creating and put a lot of effort to produce a profitable corporation (Culliton 1984).

The objective of Borden’s article is to respecified the marketing mix elements which help the businesses to have a profitable position as well as defined the strategy of marketing have been used by the manager to bring profit into the corporation in any conditions and what is the combination of marketing procedures and policies has been adopted at such cost that will bring profit.

Furthermore, Borden also highlighted specifically, how advertising, personal selling, pricing, warehousing, and other elements of marketing program can be mixed together and can bring profit into the company. Borden thinks that every company should consider using promotion and advertising management as their strategy of the total marketing program.

This thinking is supported by the case histories which written in his other journal, which described how business should utilise advertising (Borden 1942). He also mentioned that there are lots of combinations of marketing strategies and methods to be adopted by the marketing management of a company in order to put the company in the profitable position. For example, while using branding.

To brand or not to brand?

There are two options that the management may adopt, first they can use individualised brand/ family brand or the second one the management may launch the product unbranded/ private brand. Both of the options have its own advantages and disadvantages for the company. The decisions of using either of the branding will directly bring influence on their channels of distribution, packaging methods, marketing program and advertising. Moreover, Borden (1984) also said that advertising is not an operating method to be considered as something separately without considering the combinations of manufacturing methods, product form, pricing, promotion, selling and distribution methods.

What makes up the marketing mix?

Borden utilises that the phrase “mixer of ingredients” which the ingredient is the marketing mix. Borden argues that the elements of the marketing mix of manufacturers are:

product planning (related to product lines to be offered, markets to sell and new product policy),
pricing (price level to adopt, specific prices to adopt, price policy), branding (selection of trademarks, branding policy),
channels of distribution (channels to use between plant and consumer, degree of selectivity among wholesalers and retailers, efforts to gain the cooperation of the trade),
personal selling which related to the method employed in the manufacturer’s organisation,
the wholesale and retail segment of the trade,
advertising,
promotions,
packaging,
display,
servicing,
physical handling,
fact finding,
and analysis.

Moreover, there are four market’s forces that govern the mixing of marketing elements, which are the behaviour of consumers, traders, competitors and the government.

These marketing mix elements and the market forces need to be understood well by the marketer in order for them to establish a successful marketing mix program. The marketer also needs to be able to predict any changes in the market and have a creative ability to develop a program in response to the customers, traders, and competitors.

Link to article:

http://www.commerce.uct.ac.za/managementstudies/Courses/bus2010s/2007/Nicole%20Frey/Assignments /Borden,%201984_The%20concept%20of%20marketing.pdf

Reference list:

Borden, Neil H., The Economic Effects of Advertising. Homewood,III,: Richard D. Irwin, 1942

Borden, Neil H., and M. V. Marshall. Advertising Management: Text and Cases. Homewood, III: Richard D. Irwin, 1959.

Culliton, James W. The Management of Marketing Costs. Boston: Division Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, 1948.