{"id":4270146,"date":"2012-08-24T08:49:22","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T06:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/lessons-from-marketing-classics-what-is-the-marketing-mix\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T12:31:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T10:31:45","slug":"lessons-from-marketing-classics-what-is-the-marketing-mix","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-au\/insight\/lessons-from-marketing-classics-what-is-the-marketing-mix\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from marketing classics \u2013 what is the marketing mix?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/a>\n\t\tLessons from marketing classics \u2013 what is the marketing mix?\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\n\t<\/div>
\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t
\n\t\tStephanie Bissonnette\t\t
\n\t\t \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tDate\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t24 August 2012\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n
\n\t\t\u201cMarketing is still an art, and the marketing manager, as head chef, must creatively marshal all his marketing activities to advance the short and long-term interests of his firm.” –<\/em> Neil Borden,<\/em> The Concept of the Marketing Mix (Science in Marketing, 1964)<\/em> <\/a>

You can learn plenty from the classics.

More than an eloquent quote, the statement above introduces a foundational concept of marketing. Though the term is widely used and discussed, many marketers can\u2019t articulate the concept of the marketing mix even though they think about its effect every day. Understanding classic concepts, like the marketing mix, is the foundation marketers can use to build effective, compelling, and sustainable marketing programs. So now, let\u2019s dust off the cover and crack into the history books.

A Harvard professor and past president of the American Marketing Association, Neil H. Borden wrote and formalized the concept of the Marketing Mix in 1964 in a paper of the same name. The term appears in his teachings and writing for nearly 15 years previous, but he attributes the creation of the term to his colleague, James Culliton, who described a business executive as \u201ca mixer of ingredients, who sometimes follows a recipe prepared by others and sometimes prepares his recipe as he goes along.\u201d The Concept of the Marketing Mix<\/em> that concerns Borden is \u201chow can advertising, personal selling, pricing, packaging, channels, warehousing, and the other elements of a marketing program be manipulated and fitted together in a way that will give profitable operation?\u201d\t<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t