Station Road, 7.40 a.m.: A commuter has six minutes before her train. She wants a coffee and something to eat on the platform, and she will not queue for it.
Lena's Bakery Ltd built its fourth shop, opposite the station, around her. Every decision about that shop starts from those six minutes.
The earlier parts of this topic took the seven Ps one at a time: product, price, place and promotion, and for a service, people, process and physical evidence. Together they are the marketing mix: every decision a business makes about how it sells one product to one group of customers.
A mix is appropriate when all seven decisions suit the same customers, and when they agree with each other.
The four Ps every mix has, and the three more that matter wherever customers are served in person.
Interactive diagram
Explore the labelled diagram, charts and maps for this topic in full study mode.
| P | What Lena's does at Station Road | Why it suits a commuter |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Coffee, pastries, filled rolls, and the $3 loaf to take home | Breakfast to carry onto the train, and bread for the evening |
| Price | A morning deal: a coffee and any pastry for $3 | A price that works every day, 50 cents below Crumbline's $3.50 inside the station |
| Place | A shop opposite the station, open from 6.30 a.m. | On the walk to the train, at the hours commuters pass |
| Promotion | A tasting week at the opening, leaflets and a loyalty card | Brings a commuter in once, then brings her back |
| People | Counter staff who learn the regulars' orders | Recognition saves seconds and makes the stop feel personal |
| Process | Pay by card or phone; the bag is packed while the coffee pours | Served in under a minute, with a train to catch |
| Physical evidence | The green wheat-ear logo on the sign, the cups and the bags | Tells someone in a hurry that this is Lena's, the bakery they know |
Five tests of an appropriate mix
It suits the target market
Commuters have minutes, not hours. Speed, a price they can pay every day and a shop on their route matter more to them than a long menu.
It fits the product and what makes it different
Lena's bread is made from Valley Grain flour and slow-risen overnight at Mill Lane. A mix that shouted 'cheapest in town' would throw that difference away.
It answers the competition
Crumbline plc sells a coffee and a pastry for $3.50 at its kiosk inside the station. Lena's has to give a commuter a reason to cross the road instead.
The business can afford it
A national chain can advertise on television; a company with four shops cannot. The mix has to fit the budget, the staff and the ovens the business actually has.
The seven decisions agree
A slow-risen loaf in a scruffy shop, served by staff who never look up, sends two messages at once. Customers remember the worse one.
Appropriate for whom?: There is no best marketing mix, only a mix that suits one product and one group of customers. The same bread needs a different mix at the station, in a hotel kitchen and on a birthday table.
So judge a mix by first asking who it is for, then checking every P against them.
Free preview
This is the free notes preview
You're reading the free notes. Aimnova Pro unlocks the full study experience — and you can try it with your first topic free to keep:
- FlashcardsLock in vocabulary and key terms with spaced repetition.
- Practice questionsAnswer exam-style questions and get instant AI marking.
- Mock exams & past-paper vaultSit full mocks and see exactly how examiners award marks.
- Personalised study planA daily plan built around your exam date and weak areas.
Lena's Bakery Ltd sells the same bread to two very different customers. At Station Road a commuter buys one breakfast. Behind the scenes, a van leaves Mill Lane before six every morning with bread for cafés and hotels in town. Selling in bulk to other businesses (wholesale) earned Lena's $240,000 in 2025.
| A commuter at Station Road | A hotel kitchen (wholesale) | |
|---|---|---|
| Product | One breakfast, ready to carry | Forty loaves and 200 rolls, the same every day |
| Price | $3 for the morning deal, paid at the till | A price per loaf agreed for the year, paid monthly on an invoice |
| Place | The shop, opposite the station | Lena's own van to the kitchen door by 6.30 a.m., with no one in between |
| Promotion | Leaflets, a loyalty card and the shop sign | Marco visits the head chef with samples (personal selling) |
| People | Counter staff who know the regulars | One driver, and Marco on the phone when an order is wrong |
| Process | Served in under a minute | Orders changed by phone before 8 p.m. for the next morning |
| Physical evidence | The shop, the sign, the bag | Clean crates and a clear invoice; the chef rarely sees a Lena's shop |
The bread is the same. The mix around it is not, because the customers want different things.
The commuter buys an experience that lasts ninety seconds, so people, process and physical evidence do a lot of the work. The chef buys a product that arrives on time at a known price, so product, price and place carry most of it. A service needs all seven Ps; a good sold to another business often rests on four.
Describing a business's mix: When a case asks you to describe elements of a business's marketing mix, take them from what the case tells you.
Name the element, then say what this business does for it: 'Place: the bread goes from Mill Lane to each hotel kitchen in Lena's own van by 6.30 a.m.'
If the case says nothing about processes or physical evidence, leave them out. Pick the Ps the case actually shows.
Feeling unprepared for exams?
Get a clear study plan, practice with real questions, and know exactly where you stand before exam day. No more guessing.
Two hotels leave: In spring 2026 Goldcrust plc started delivering bread to cafés and hotels in town. Its loaves are cheaper, and its vans come seven days a week. Lena's van does not run on Sundays.
By the summer two hotels had moved to Goldcrust. Together they bought $36,000 of bread a year, 15% of Lena's wholesale sales.
A mix that suited its customers last year can stop suiting them. The usual reasons are a new competitor, customers who want something different, costs that rise, a product that reaches a later stage of its life, or a move into a new market.
Then the business changes one or more of its Ps (it modifies its marketing mix), and checks that the rest still agree.
Three ways Lena's could modify its wholesale mix
Place and process: deliver on Sundays too
The change: add a Sunday van run for hotels. Why it fits: hotels are busiest at weekends, and the missing Sunday is the gap Goldcrust used. It costs a driver's day, not a cut on every loaf.
Price: a lower price for a standing order
The change: a lower price per loaf for any café or hotel that orders every day for a year. Why it fits: it rewards loyal customers without matching Goldcrust loaf for loaf, so the bread is not sold as cheap.
Product: rolls sized for hotel breakfasts
The change: small breakfast rolls, and Lena's own crackers for the hotel bars. Why it fits: hotel kitchens want ready portions, and the crackers already sell to the cafés Lena's supplies.
Three parts to every change: Name the element. Say exactly what changes. Say why that change suits this business, with a fact from the case.
'Change the price' is only a start. 'Offer a lower price per loaf to hotels that sign a year's standing order, because two hotels left for Goldcrust's cheaper bread' is a full answer.
Change one P, then check the others. A Sunday run needs a driver who will work Sundays (people) and a way to take orders on Saturday evening (process). A mix is modified as a whole, even when one P starts the change.
November at Station Road: The shop was planned to serve 300 customers a day by January. In November it served 210, 70% of the target, even with the $3 morning deal that began at the end of October.
Marco stood outside on two mornings and asked 120 commuters who walked past without buying why they had not stopped.
| Reason given | Commuters | Share of the 120 |
|---|---|---|
| No time before my train | 54 | 45% |
| Did not notice the shop from the station exit | 36 | 30% |
| Already buy at Crumbline's kiosk in the station | 18 | 15% |
| Too expensive | 12 | 10% |
| Total | 120 | 100% |
Lena and Marco have two ideas.
Option 1 changes the price: cut the morning deal from $3 to $2.50.
Option 2 changes process, physical evidence and promotion together: an order-ahead service, where commuters order and pay on their phone and collect from a shelf by the door with their name on the bag, plus a green wheat-ear sign at the station exit pointing across the road.
Five questions that weigh any change to the mix
Does it fix the real problem?
Only 12 of the 120, 10%, named price. 54 had no time and 36 never saw the shop: 90 of 120, 75%, point at speed and visibility, which Option 2 answers.
Does it fit the brand and the other Ps?
Lena's sells quality bread, slow-risen overnight. A cheaper deal says 'cheap'; a named bag on a shelf says 'we saved you time'. Ask which fits the story the other Ps already tell.
What does it cost, against what it could bring?
About 150 of the 210 customers buy the deal. Fifty cents off each is $75 a day, about $1,650 over 22 weekdays, before one new customer arrives. Option 2 costs $4,000 to set up, $150 a month, and $1,200 for the sign.
How will rivals respond?
Crumbline plc is a fast-growing chain. If Lena's cuts to $2.50, Crumbline can cut too, and a price war favours the bigger business. Faster service is harder to answer from a kiosk.
How good is the evidence?
120 people on two mornings, and only people who walked past. They gave the reason they chose to give. Good enough to act on; not good enough to be sure.
Decide, then set a check: A judgement names one option, says why it wins, and says what would change the decision.
'Option 2, with customers counted in January against the target of 300. If the shop is still short and more commuters name price, try the cheaper deal then.'
Memorize terms 3x faster
Smart flashcards show you cards right before you forget them. Perfect for definitions and key concepts.
How this comes up: Describe two elements of a business's marketing mix, for four marks: name each element and describe what this business does for it, from the case.
Explain two ways a business could modify its marketing mix, for six: for each way, the element, the change, and why it suits this business.
And for ten, a recommend or discuss question in which a change to the mix is the decision, or one of the options.
The ten-mark pattern
- Diagnose first. What is wrong with the current mix, and what does the evidence say? 210 customers against 300; 75% of non-buyers name time or visibility.
- Option 1, for and against. Test it with the five questions: the real problem, the brand and the other Ps, cost, rivals, evidence.
- Option 2, for and against. The same questions, with the case's figures.
- Recommend. Choose one, give the reason that decides it, and add a condition or a check.
- Say what the evidence cannot show. A small survey, reasons people chose to give, costs that are estimates.
Two traps: Price as the reflex. Sales are low, so cut the price: it sounds sensible and ignores the evidence. Here only one commuter in ten named price.
One P at a time. Seven separate paragraphs, one per P, never say whether the Ps agree. Judge the mix as a whole: what the change does to the brand, the staff and the budget.
Using the information above, recommend whether Lena's Bakery Ltd should cut the price of its morning deal (Option 1) or introduce an order-ahead service with a sign at the station exit (Option 2) to reach its target at Station Road.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.