What is the detail defination of Marketing Mix?How it works?

The marketing mix approach to marketing is a model of crafting and implementing marketing strategies. It stresses the "mixing" or blending of various factors in such a way that both organizational and consumer (target markets) objectives are attained. The model was developed by Neil Borden (Borden, N. 1964) who first started using the phrase in 1949. Borden claims the phrase came to him while reading James Culliton's description of the activities of a business executive:

(An executive is) "a mixer of ingredients, who sometimes follows a recipe as he goes along, sometimes adapts a recipe to the ingredients immediately available, and sometimes experiments with or invents ingredients no one else has tried." (Culliton, J. 1948)
When blending the mix elements, marketer(s) must consider their target market. They must understand the wants and needs (see Maslow) of the market (customer) then use these mix elements in constructing (formulating) appropriate marketing strategies and plans that will satisfy these wants. The mix must also meet or exceed the objectives of the organization. As Borden put it,"When building a marketing program to fit the needs of his firm, the marketing manager has to weigh the behavioral forces and then juggle marketing elements in his mix with a keen eye on the resources with which he has to work." (Borden, N. 1964 pg 365). A separate marketing mix is usually crafted for each product offering or for each market segment, depending on the organizational structure of the firm. Borden goes on to suggest a procedure for developing a marketing mix. He claims that you need two sets of information; a list of important elements that go into the mix, and a list of forces that influence these decision variables.

The most common variables used in constructing a marketing mix are price, promotion, product and place (also called distribution). First suggested by Jerome McCarthy (McCarthy, J. 1960), they are sometimes referred to as the four Ps. McCarthy said that marketers have essentially these four variables to use when crafting a marketing strategy and writing a marketing plan. In the long term, all four of the mix variables can be changed, but in the short term it is difficult to modify the product or the distribution channel. Therefore in the short term, marketers are limited to working with only half their tool kit. This limitation underscores the importance of long term strategic planning.

McCarthy's four P's look at marketing from the perspective of the marketer. It describes what variables marketers have to work with, and hence is sometimes referred to as a marketing management perspective. Robert Lauterborn (Lauterborn, R. 1990) claims that each of these variables should also be seen from a consumer's perspective. This transformation is accomplished by converting Product into "customer solution", Price into "cost to the customer", Place into "convenience", and Promotion into "communication". He calls these the four C's.

Marketing mix is the set of marketing tools that marketers elicit desired responses from their target markets.

McCarthy classified these tools into four broad groups that he called the four Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion, that was typically from the view of producers and marketers

However, the Four Ps aiming to the Four Cs, which was suggested by Robert Lauterborn aiming to achieve better customer and market orientation

Product components for Customer solution may include:
Product Variety/Quality/Design/Features/Brand Name/Packaging/Sizes/Services/Warranties/Returns

Price components for Customer cost may include:
List Price/Discounts/Allowances/Payment Period/Credit Terms

Place components for Convenience may include:
Channels/Coverage/Assortments/Locations/Inventory/Transport

Promotion components for Communication may include:
Sales Promotion/Advertising/Sales Force/Public Relations/Direct Marketing

To cope with intense competition of rivals in the internet era as markets now are very dynamic, and customers and competitors are very knowledgeable.
Traditionally, the strategy of above price and promotion is often adjusting for very short-run, of which product and place is being adopted for relative long-run, however the advancement of recent manufacturing technology also makes product and place strategy becoming short when a new product can be created in short time and its low level of inventory is being adopted for just fit to the demand and market need as a result of no over production, therefore heavy promtions and big discount sales for obsolete products are not often seen recently