The Marketing Mix is used to market a product or service, this is done by using the Four P's to establish what the Product is, the Price, the Place and the Promotion. Marketing managers bring the elements of the Four P's together, combining them to achieve a greater result from their combination then each of the individual effects of the Four P's (Anderson, Vincze 2000). The Four P's consist of the following:

* Product - This is the good or service that the company provides. However it is more then the product or service itself, it is also the benefits that meet

* Place - This refers to how the product or service reaches the consumer. Products or services go through channels to reach consumers. Businesses look at this area to streamline, reduce costs and make it more efficient to bring the product/service to the consumer. This also an area that is seeing more growth in the direct marketing sector, with manufacturers developing outlet business, allowing manufactures to reach the consumer directly. This has passed saving on to consumers, increased profits for manufacturers, and allowed manufactures to recoup profit from items that were created less then perfect.

The business now must look at the pricing strategy, and create one that will coincide with the product strategy. With the Pricing Strategy the business must look at several issues, these issues are as follows:

* Product-Line Pricing - This is the practice of setting price differentials for each model or variation in a line of products.

* Determining the width and depth of the product line - This is where the business will make decisions on how much of each product line to carry, and the number of different lines the business will offer (Anderson 2000).

A business will begin by looking at their product strategy; some of the issues they will need to resolve are as follows:

Some of the other points that need considering in the product strategy are when to introduce and delete products, packaging, product safety, product liability, and warranty.

* Build Brand equity - This reinforces the value of the businesses brand.

The last strategy is Promotion, a very important strategy to setup. This strategy will be the communication between the business and the consumer. The business must create a strategy that shows the product fulfilling the need that is already present. This strategy will not create need, but bring awareness about a product or service that will fit needs that already exist. The business will need to look at what is the best way to promote their product/service. They need to look at whether they will have a sales staff, develop an advertising plan, or perhaps go with a direct marketing plan. Either case it will be created under the Promotion plan, or the Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy. This strategy will cover all marketing communications. The objectives of the Integrated Marketing Strategy, or IMC, is as follows:

The Marketing Mix is looked at after a business has created their Market Strategy. The business will decide which tactics will best fulfill the market goals that the market strategy identified. These tactics will consist of a mix of the four P's, setup to fulfill the consumer's needs. Businesses will create a strategy for each of the four P's, creating their overall market mix strategy. These strategies must not oppose each other, but work in harmony. If the strategies work against each other, the message will clash, and can be confusing for consumers. For example, I

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