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The Concept of the Market ing Mix '

N E I L H . BORDENHarvard Business School

Marketing is still an art, and the marketing manager, as headchef must creatively marshal all his marketing activitiesto advance the short and long term interests of his firm.

HAVE always found it in tere sting to observe howan apt or colorful term may catch on, gain wide

usage, and help to further understanding of aconcept that has already been expressed in lessappealing and communicative terms. Such has beentrue of the phrase mark eting mix, which I beganto use in my teaching and writing some 15 yearsago. In a relatively short time it has come to havewide usage. This note tells of the evolution of themarketing mix concept.

NEIL H. BORDEN is professoremeritus of marketing and adver-tising at the Harvard BusinessSchool. He began teaching atHarvard as an assistant professorin 1922 became an associate pro-fessor in 1928 and since 1938 hasbeen a full professor. He has wonmany awards and received thisyear a special Advertising GoldMedal Award for Education. Heis a past president of the Amer-ican Marketing Association. Hebelongs to Phi Beta Kappa andthe American Economic Associa-tion and he is a public trustee of the Marketing ScienceInstitute. He has published widely and one of his books.The Economic Effects of Advertising published in 1942 wasbased on a study conducted under an ARF research grant.

The phrase was suggested to me hy a paragraphin a research bulletin on the management of mar-keting costs, written by my associate. ProfessorJames Cu lliton (1948). In this study of manufac-turers' marketing costs he described the businessexecutive as a

decider, an artist —a mixer of ingredients, whosometimes follows a recipe prepared by others, some-times prepares his own recipe as he goes along, some-times adapts a recipe to the ingredients immediatelyavailable, and sometimes experiments with or inventsingredients no one else has tried.

I liked his idea of calling a marketing executive a mixer of ingredients, one who is constantly en-

gaged in fashioning creatively a mix of marketingprocedures and policies in his efforts to producea profitable enterprise.

For many years previous to Culliton's cost studythe wide variations in the procedures and policiesemployed by managem ents of manu facturing firmsin their marketing programs and the correspond-ingly wide variation in the costs of these marketingfunctions, which Culliton aptly ascribed to the

This article will appear as a chapter in Science in Mar-keting George Schwartz (Ed.), New York: John Wiley, 1964.



Journal of Advertising Research

varied mixing of ingredients, had become in-creasingly evident as we had gathered marketingcases at the Harvard Business School. The markeddifferences in the patterns or formulae o£ the mar-

keting programs not only were evident throughfacts disclosed in case histories, but also were re-flected clearly in the figures of a cost study of foodmanufacturers made by the Harvard Bureau ofBusiness Research in 1929. The primary objectiveof this study was to determine common figures ofexpenses for various marketing functions amongfood manufacturing companies, similar to the com-mon cost figures which had been determined inprevious years for various kinds of retail and whole-sale businesses. In this manufacturer's study wewere unable, however, with the data gathered todetermine common expense figures that had muchsignificance as standards by which to guide man-agement, such as had been possihle in the studiesof retail and wholesale trades, where the methodsof operation tended toward uniformity. Instead,among food manufacturers the ratios of sales de-voted to the various functions of marketing such asadvertising, personal selling, packaging, and so on,were found to be widely divergent, no matter howwe grouped our respondents. Each respondent gavedata that tended to uniqueness.

Culliton's study of marketing costs in 1947-48was a second effort to find out, among o ther ob-

jectives, whether a bigger sample and a more care-ful classification of companies would produce evi-dence of operating uniformities that would givehelpful common expense figures. But the resultwas the same as in our early study: there was widediversity in cost ratios among any classifications offirms which were set up, and no common figureswere found that had much value. This was truewhether companies were grouped according tosimilarity in product lines, amount of sales, terri-torial extent of operations, or other bases of clas-sification.

Relatively early in my study of advertising, ithad become evident that understanding of advertis-ing usage by manufacturers in any case had tocome from an analysis of advertising's place as oneelement in the total marketing program o£ the firm.I came to realize that it is essential always to ask:what overall marketing strategy has been or mightbe employed to bring about a profitable operationin light of the circumstances faced by the manage-ment? What combination of marketing proceduresand policies has been or might be adopted to bringabout desired behavior of trade and consumers at

costs that will ptermit a profit? Specifically, how canadvertising, personal selling, pricing, packaging,channels, warehousing, and the other elements ofa marketing program be m anipulated and fitted to-

gether in a way that will give a profitable operation?In short, I saw that every advertising managementcase called for a consideration of the strategy to beadopted for the total marketing program, with ad-vertising recognized as only one element whoseform and extent depended on its careful adjust-ment to the other parts of the program.

The soundness of this viewpoint was supportedby case histories throughout my volume. The Economic Effects of A dvertising (Borden, 1942). In thechapters devoted to the utilization of advertisingby business, I had pointed out the innumerable

combinations of marketing methods and policiesthat might be adopted by a manager in arrivingat a marketing plan. For instance, in the area otbranding, he might elect to adopt an individualizedbrand or a family brand. Or he might decide tosell his product itnhranded or under private label.Any decision in the area of brand policy iu tviinhas immediate implications that bear on his selec-tion of channels of distribution, sale.*; force meth-ods, packaging, promotional procedure, and adver-tising. Throughout the volume the case materialscited show that the way in which any market-ing function is designed and the burden placedupon the function are determined largely by theoverall marketing strategy adopted by manage-ments to meet the market conditions under whichthey operate. The forces met by different firms varywidely. Accordingly, the programs fashioned differwidely.

Regarding advertising, which was the functionund er focus in the econom ic effects volum e, 1 saidat one point:

In ali the above illustrative situations it should be ret-ognized that advertising is not an operating method tobe considered as something apart, as something who.seprofit value is to be judged alone. An able managementdoes not ask, Shall we use or not use advertising,without consideiation of the product and of other man-agement procedures to be employed. Rather the ques-tion is always one of finding a management formulagiving advertising its due place in the combinationof manufacturing methods, product form, pricing, pro-motion and selling methods, and distribution methods.As previously poin ted o ut different formu lae, i.e., differ-ent combinations of methods, may be profitably employedby competing manufacturers.

From the above it can be seen why Culliton's de-scription of a marketing m anager as a mixer ofingredients immediately appealed to me as an aptand easily understandable phrase, far better than



Classics V olume II September 984

my previous references to the marketing man as anempiricist seeking in any situation to devise a profitable pa ttern or formula of marke ting opera-tions from among the many procedures and policies

that were open to him. If he was a mixer of in-gredients, what he designed was a ma rketingmix.

It was logical to proceed from a realization ofthe existence of a variety of ma rketin g mixes tothe development of a concept that would compre-hend no t only this variety, hut also the marketforces that cause managements to produce a varietyof mixes. It is the problems raised by these foreesthat lead marketing managers to exercise their witsin devising mixes or programs whieh they hope willgive a profitable business operation.

To portray this broadened concept in a visualpresentation requires merely:

1) a list of the im porta nt elem ents or ingredien ts thatmake up marketing programs;

2) a list of the forces that bear on the marketing opera-tion of a firm and to which the marketing managermust adjust in his search for a mix or program thatcan be successful.

The list of elements of the marketing mix insuch a visual presentation can be long or short,depending on how far one wishes to go in his clas-sification and subelassification of the marketing pro-cedures and policies with which marketing man-

agements deal when devising marketing programs.The list of elements which I have employed in myteaching and consulting work covers the principalareas of marketing activities whieh eall for man-agement decisions as revealed by ease histories. Irealize others migh t build a different list. Mine isas follows:

Elements of the Marketing Mix of Manufacturers1. Product Planning—policies and procedu res relat ing to:

a) Product l ines to be offered—quali t ies, design, etc.b) Markets to sel l : whom, where, when, and in what

q u a n t i t y.c) New product policy—research and development pro-

g r a m .2. Pricing—policies and procedure s relat i ng to:a) Price level to adopt.b) Specific prices to ad op t (odd- even, etc.) .c) Price policy, e.g., one- price o r varyin g price , price

maintenance, use of l is t prices, etc.d) Margins to adopt—for company; for the trade.

3 . Branding—policies and proced ures relat ing to:a) Selection of trade marks.b) Brand policy—individualized or family brand.c ) Sa le under pr iva te labe l o r unbranded .

4. Channels of Distribution—policies and proced ures relat-ing to:

a ) Channels to use be tween p lan t and consumer.b) Degree of selectivity amo ng who lesalers and re-

tai lers.c) Efforts to gain cooperation of the trade.

5. Personal Selling—policies and proced ures rela t ing to:a) Bu rden to be (placed on perso nal sel l ing and the

methods to be employed in :1 . Manufac turer ' s o rganiza t ion .2 . Wholesale segment of the trade.3. Retail segment of the trade.

6. Advertising—policies and proced ures rela t ing to:a ) Amount to spend—i.e . , the burden to be p laced on

adver t i s ing .b) Copy p la t form to adopt :

1. Product image desired.2. Corpora te image des i red .

c) Mix of advert i sing: to the trade ; throu gh thet rade ; to consumers .

7. Promotions—policies and proced ures relat ing to:a) Burden to place on special sel l ing plans or devices

d i rec ted a t o r th rough the t rade .b) Form of these devices for consum er prom otion s,

for t rade promot ions .8. Packaging—policies and proce dures rela t ing to:

a ) Formula t ion of package and labe l .9. Display—policies and procedures relat ing to:

a) Burden to be put on display to help effect sale.b) M ethods to ado pt to secure display.

10. Servicing—policies an d proced ures relat i ng to:

a) Providing service needed.11 . Physical Handling—policies and proced ures relat i ng to:a ) Warehous ing .b ) Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n .c) Inventories.

12 . Fact Finding and A nalysis—policies and procedures re-la t ing to :

a) Securing, analysis , and use of facts in ma rketi ngopera t ions .

Also if one were to make a list of all the forceswhich managements weigh at one time or anotherwhen formulating their marketing mixes, it wouldbe very long indeed, for the behavior of individualsand groups in all spheres of life have a bearing,first, on what goods an d services are produ ced andconsumed, and, second, on the procedures that maybe employed in bringing about exchange of thesegoods and services. However, the important forceswhich bear on marketers, all arising from the be-havior of individuals or groups, may readily belisted under four heads, namely the behavior ofconsumers, the trade, competitors, and government.

The outline below contains these four behavioralforces with notations of some of the important be-havioral determinants within each force. Thesemust be studied and understood by the marketer,if his marketing mix is to be successful. The greatquest of marketing management is to understandthe behavior of humans in response to the stimulito which they are subjected. Th e skillful marketeris one who is a perceptive and practical psycholo-gist and sociologist, who has keen insight into in-dividual and group behavior, who can foreseeehanges in behavior that develop in a dynamicworld, who has creative ability for building well-knit programs because he has the capacity to visual-ize the probable response of consumers, trade, andcompetitors to his moves. His skill in forecasting




response to his marketing moves should well besupplemented by a further skill in devising andusing tests and measurements to check consumeror trade response to his program or parts thereof

for no marketer has so much prescience that he canproceed without empirical check.

Below, then, is the suggested outline of forceswhich govern the mixing of marketing elements.This l ist and that of the elements taken togetherprovide a visual presentation of the coneept of themarket ing mix.

Market Forces earing on the Marketing Mix1. Consumers Buying Behavior, as determ ined by their:

a ) Mot iva t ion in purchas ing .b) Buying habits .c) Living habits .d) Envi ronm ent (present and fu ture, as revealed by

trends, for environment infiuences consumers ' at t i tudestoward produ cts and their use of them).

e) Buying power.f) Num ber ( i .e . , how man y).

2. The Trade s Behavior—wholesalers' and reta ilers ' be-havior, as influenced by:

a) The i r mot iva t ions .b) The ir structure , practices, and at t i tude s.c ) Trends in s t ruc ture and procedures tha t por tend

change.3. Competitors Position and Behavior, as influenced by:

a) Indu stry stru cture an d the f irm's relat ion thereto.1. Size and strength of competi tors.2. Nu mb er of comp eti tors and degree of in dustry

concent ra t ion .3. Indirect competi t ion—i.e. , from other products.

b) Relati on of supply to dem and— oversu pply or undersupply.

c) Pro duc t choices offered con sume rs by the indus trv—i.e., quali ty, price, service.

d) Degree to which competi tors compete on price vs.nonprice bases.

e) Competi tors ' motivations and att i tudes—their l ikelyresponse to the actions of other firms.

f) Tre nds technological an d social , porte ndin g chang ein supply and demand.

4. Governmental Behavior—Controls over Marketing:a) Regulations over products.b) Regulations over pricing.c) Regulations over competi t ive practices.d) Regula t ions over adver t i s ing and promot ion .

When building a marketing program to fi t theneeds of his firm, the marketing manager has toweigh the behavioral forces and then juggle mar-

keting elements in his mix with a keen eye on theresources with which he has to work. His firm isbut one small organism in a large universe of com-plex forces. His firm is only a part of an industrythat is com peting with many oth er industries.What does the firm have in terms of money, prod-uct l ine, organization, and reputation with whichto work? The manager must devise a mix of pro-cedures that fit these resources. If his firm is small,he must judge the response of consumers, trade,and competit ion in l ight of his posit ion and re-sources and the influence that he can exert in the

market He must look for special opportu nities inproduct or method of operation T he small firmcann ot employ the procedures of the big firmThough he may sell the same kind of product as

the big firm, his marketing strategy is likely to bewidely different in many respects. Innumerable in-stanees of this fact might be cited. For example, inthe industrial goods field, small firms often seekto build sales on a limited and highly specializedline, whereas industry leaders seek patronage forfull lines. Small firms often elect to go in forregional sales rather than attempt the national distribution practiced by larger companies. Again, thecompany of limited resources often eleets to limiti ts production and sales to products whose poten-tial is too small to attract the big fellows. Stillaga in, com pan ies w ith sma ll resources in the co,s-metic field not infrequently have set tip introduc-tory marketing programs employing aggre,ssiveperson al selling and a pu sh strategy with dis-tributio n l imited to leading dep artm ent stores.Their init ially small advertising funds have beendirected through these selected retail otitlets. withthe offering of the products and their story toldover the signattires of the stores. The strategy hasbeen to borrow kudos for their products from theleading stores ' reputations and to gain a gradualradiation of distribution to smaller stores in alltypes of channels, such as often comes from thetrade's follow-the-leader behavior. Only after resources have grown from mounting sales has adense retail distribution been aggressively sotightand a shift made to place the selling burden more:ind more on company-signed advertising.

Th e above strategy was employed for To ni prod-ucts and Stoppette deodorant in their early mar-keting stages when the resources of their producerswere limited (cf. case of Jules Montenier, Inc. inBorden and Marshall, 1959, pp. 498-518). In contrast, cosmetic manufacturers with large re.sourcesliave genera lly followed a pu ll strategy for the

introduction of new prodticts, relying on heavy(ampaigiLS of advertising in a rapid succes,sion ofarea introductions to induce a hoped-for, completeretail coverage from the start (cf. case of BristolMyers Company in Borden and Marshall, 1959,pp. 519-533). Th ese in troducto ry cam paigns havebeen undertaken only after careful programs ofprodtict development and test marketing havegiven assurance that product and sell ing plans hadhigh promise of success.

Many additional instances of the varying strategyemployed by small versus large enterprises might be



cited. But those given serve to illustrate the pointthat managements must fashion their mixes to fittheir resources. Their objectives must be realistic.

Long vs. Short Term Aspects of Marketing MixThe marketing mix of a firm in large part is the

product of the evolution that comes from day-to-day marketing. At any time the mix represents theprogram that a management has evolved to meetthe problems with which it is constantly faced inan ever changing, ever challenging market. Thereare continuous tactical maneuvers: a new product,aggressive promotion, or price change initiated by acompetitor must be considered and met; the failureof the trade to provide adequate market coverageor display must be remedied; a faltering sales forcemust be reorganized and stimulated; a decline insales share must be diagnosed and remedied; anadvertising approach that has lost effectivenessmust be replaced; a general business decline mustbe countered. All such problems call for a manage-ment's maintaining effective channels of informa-tion relative to its own operations and to the day-to-day behavior of consumers, competitors, and thetrade. Thus, we may observe that short range forcesplay a large part in the fashioning of the mix to beused at any time and in determining the allocationof expenditures among the various functional ac-counts of the operating statement.

But the overall strategy employed in a marketingmix is the product of longer range plans and pro-cedures dictated in part by past empiricism and inpart, if the management is a good one, by manage-ment foresight as to what needs to be done to keepthe firm successful in a changing world. As theworld has become more and more dynamic, blessedis that corporation which has managers who haveforesight, who can study trends of all kinds—natural, economic, social, and technological—and,guided by these, devise long-range plans that givepromise of keeping their corporations afloat andsuccessful in the turbulent sea of market change.Accordingly, when we think of the marketing mix,we need to give particular heed today to devisinga mix based on long-range planning that promisesto fit the world of five or ten or more years hence.Provision for effective long-range planning in cor-porate organization and procedure has becomemore and more recognized as the earmark of goodmanagement in a world that has become increas-ingly subject to rapid change.

To cite an instance among American marketingorganizations which has shown foresight in adjust-

Classics V olume II September 984

ing the marketing mix to meet social and economicchange, I look ujxin Sears Roebuck and Companyas an outstanding example. After building an un-usually successful mail order business to meet the

needs of a rural America, Sears management fore-saw the need to depart from its marketing patternas a mail order company catering primarily tofarmers. The trend from a rural to an urbanUnited States was going on apace. The automobileand good roads promised to make town and citystores increasingly available to those who continuedto be farmers. Relatively early, Sears launched achain of stores across the land, each easily accessibleby highway to both farmer and city resident, andwith adequate parking space for customers. Intime there followed the remarkable telephone andmail order plan directed at urban residents tomake buying easy for Americans when congestedcity streets and highways made shopping increas-ingly distasteful. Similarly, in the areas of planningproducts which would meet the desires of con-sumers in a fast changing world, of shaping itsservicing to meet the needs of a wide variety ofmechanical products, of pricing procedures to meetthe challenging competition that came with theadvent of discount retailers, the Sears organizationhas shown a foresight, adaptability, and creativeability worthy of emulation. The amazing growthand profitability of the company attest to the fore-

sight and skill of its management. Its history showsthe wisdom of careful attention to market forcesand their impending change in devising marketingmixes that may assure growth.

Use of the Marketing M ix Concept

Like many concepts, the marketing mix conceptseems relatively simple, once it has been expressed.I know that before they were ever tagged with thenom enclature of concept, the ideas involvedwere widely understood among marketers as a re-sult of the growing knowledge about marketing

and marketing procedures that came during thepreceding half century. But I have found for myselfthat once the ideas were reduced to a formal state-ment with an accompanying visual presentation,the concept of the mix has proved a helpful devisein teaching, in business problem solving, and, gen-erally, as an aid to thinking about marketing. Firstof all, it is helpful in giving an answer to thequestion often raised as to what is marketing ?A chart which shows the elements of the mix andthe forces that bear on the mix helps to bringunderstanding of what marketing is. It helps to

11




explain why in our dynamic world the thinkingof management in all its functional areas must heoriented to the market.

In recent years I have kept an. abhreviated chart

showing the elements and the forces of the mar-keting mix in front of my classes at all times. Incase discussion it has proved a handy device bywhich to raise queries as to whether the studenthas recognized the implications of any recommen-dation he might have made in the areas of theseveral elements of the mix. Or, referring to theforces, we can question whether all the pertinentmarket forces have been given due consideration.Continual reference to the mix chart leads me tofeel that the students' understanding of what mar-keting is is strengthened. The constant presence

an d use of the chart leaves a deeper understandingthat marketing is the devising of programs thatsuccessfully meet the forces of the market.

In problem solving the marketing mix chartis a constant rem inder of:

1) The fact that a problem seemingly lying in one segmentof the mix must be deliberated with constant thoughtregarding the effect of any change in that sector on theother areas of marketing operations. The necessity of in-tegration in marketing thinking is ever present.

2) The need of careful study of the market forces as theymight bear on problems in hand.

In short, the mix chart provides an ever readychecklist as to areas into which to guide thinking

when considering marketing questions or dealingwith marketing problems.

Marketing cience or Art?The quest for a science of marketing is hard

upon us. If science is in part a systematic formula-tion and arrangement of facts in a way to helpunderstanding, then the concept of the marketingmix may possibly be considered a small contribu-tion in the search for a science of m arketing. Ifwe think of a marketing science as involving theobservation and classification of facts and the es-

tablishment of verifiable laws th at can be used bythe marketer as a guide to action with assurancethat predicted results will ensue, then we cannotbe said to have gotten far toward establishing a

science. The concept of the mix lays out the areasin which facts should be assembled, these to serveas a guide to management judgment in buildingmarketing mixes. In the last few decades Americanmarketers have made substantial progress in adopt-ing the scientific method in assembling facts. Theyhave sharpened the tools of fact finding—boththose arising w ithin the business and those externalto it. Aided by these facts and by the skills de-veloped through careful observation and experi-ence, marketers are better fitted to practice the artof designing marketing mixes than would be the

case had not the techniques of gathering facts beenadvanced as they have been in recent decades.Moreover, marketers have made progress in theuse of the scientific method in designing testswhereby the results from mixes or parts of mixescan be measured. The reby marketers have beenlearning how to subject the hypotheses of theirmix artists to empirical check.

With continued improvement in the search forand the recording of facts pertin ent to marketing,with further application of the controlled experi-ment, and with an extension and careful recordingof case histories, we may hope for a gradual formu-lation of clearly defined and helpful marketinglaws. Until then, and even then, marketing andthe building of marketing mixes will largely lie inthe realm of art.

REFERENCES

BORDEN, NEIL H. The Economic Effects of AdvertisingHomewood, 111.: Richard D. Irwin, 1942.

BORDEN, NEIL H. AND M. V. MARSHALL. Advertising Manage

ment: Text and Cases Homewood, III,: Richard D. Ir-win, 1959.

CuLLiTON, JAMES W. The Management oj Marketing CostsBoston: Division of Research, Graduate School of Busi-ness Administration, Harvard University, 1948.

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