A product can be any good, service, or idea. The job seeker is the "product" in terms of the marketing mix, because the person will be providing a service to the company. The product is composed of all the individual qualities of the job seeker including their employment history, personal attributes, and education.
The other concepts involved in the marketing mix are price, promotion , and place can each be applied in someway to this scenario. Price is ultimately the value gained in some form of exchange, in respect to seeking a job, "price" is a key component. Employers are looking to establish whether the potential employee is valuable enough in terms of skills, personality, and experience to be compensated for the available job position. Benefits, are also a key component to price because employers need to determine how many days off, insurances, and additional compensation will be needed.
The promotional aspect of the marketing mix focuses on informing individuals or groups about an organization, as well as its product, service, or idea it offers. While searching for a job, "promotion" would involve what approaches they take to finding a job and letting companies know they are out looking for jobs and what skills they have to offer. This could range from face-to face, online applications, phones calls, or a combination of different approaches.
Place involves being available at the needed time and place. In job seeking "place" should be used in geographical terms, and would involve the extent of the commute necessary, also price could be related due to possible mileage or transit reimbursement. Also, places includes the types of companies one would like to work for, more likely larger corporations would be in big cities, versus smaller businesses in more suburban or smaller cities.
The 4Ps of the Marketing Mix, product, price, promotion, and place can all be applied to a potential employee seeking a job. Using the combined efforts of all these concepts a target market of what employers would be interested in a job applicant can be determined.
