Will billboards work better than TV ads? What should be the discount for special offers? How will you generate positive PR? Should you out-source the creative work? Physical evidence This element of the marketing mix is mostly used to promote services. If you're not selling anything tangible, how will people know what they're getting? This is where physical evidence comes in. Examples of physical evidence include a brochure for a holiday tour, customer testimonials for a dentist, or a portfolio for a website design company. Segmentation, targeting & positioning When using the marketing mix, it is important to keep in mind the three generic stages of marketing - segmentation, targeting and positioning. Segmentation is the detailed breakdown of your customers into as much detail as practical, targeting then ensures all elements of the mix are tailored to your identified consumer group. Positioning the process of ensuring potential and current customers perceive your company in the way you would like them to. Stage 3: Actions, measurement and controls How will you monitor progress? Who will do which jobs? When will each element be completed? How will you adjust the plan? What will be the budget? This section discusses action plans, controls, measurements and reporting. Actions Developing an action plan An action plan is core to the marketing process -- a constantly evolving document which is cascaded to the relevant people and monitored regularly. Most action plans are relatively short term documents which focus on the coming year, but longer term implications