Marketing Mix and Strategy

What Marketing Mix and Strategy covers

Marketing mix and strategy is the third section of Theme 1. It covers the design mix, the promotion and branding a business uses to be noticed, the pricing strategies open to it, how the product reaches the customer, and the strategy that ties the four together across a product's life.

The 5 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Product/service designFunction, aesthetics and cost as the three elements of the design mix, and the social and environmental pressures that change the balance between them.Open →
• Branding and promotionAbove-the-line, below-the-line and through-the-line promotion, sales promotion, personal selling and public relations, manufacturer, own-label and generic branding, the added value of a strong brand, ways of building a brand, and the social trends behind viral and emotional branding.Open →
• Pricing strategiesCost-plus, penetration, skimming, predatory, competitive and psychological pricing, and how elasticity, competition and the product life cycle decide which fits.Open →
• DistributionDirect and indirect distribution, wholesalers, retailers and agents, the effect of channel length, online distribution and the social trends behind it, the shift from product to service, and multi-channel distribution.Open →
• Marketing strategyThe stages of the product life cycle and the extension strategies that prolong it, the Boston Matrix and a balanced portfolio, mass against niche marketing, business-to-business against business-to-consumer marketing, and building customer loyalty.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Marketing Mix and Strategy further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Price skimming vs Penetration pricing

  Price skimming: launching at a high price to recover development costs from early adopters. Penetration pricing: launching at a low price to win market share quickly.

• Niche marketing vs Mass marketing

  Niche marketing: targeting a small, specific segment with distinct needs. Mass marketing: targeting the whole market with a single undifferentiated offer.

• Product differentiation vs Product differentiation

  Product differentiation: making an offer distinct from rivals in the customer's eyes. Product differentiation: making an offer distinct from rivals in the customer's eyes.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Name the three elements that make up the design mix.

   Model answer

   Function, aesthetics, and cost.

2. 2

   Which element of the design mix relates to how effectively a product performs its intended task?

   Model answer

   Function.

3. 3

   What does function mean in the context of the design mix?

   Model answer

   Function refers to how well a product or service works and performs its intended purpose.

4. 4

   Which element of the design mix is concerned with the visual appeal and sensory characteristics of a product?

   Model answer

   Aesthetics.

5. 5

   Define aesthetics as an element of the design mix.

   Model answer

   Aesthetics refers to the visual appeal and sensory characteristics of a product or service.

6. 6

   Which element of the design mix focuses on the expense of manufacturing or delivering a product or service?

   Model answer

   Cost.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Marketing Mix and Strategy revision questions

What does Marketing Mix and Strategy cover in Edexcel A-Level Business?

5 subtopics: product/service design, branding and promotion, pricing strategies, distribution and marketing strategy. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Marketing Mix and Strategy organised?

By the Edexcel 9BS0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.