What is the marketing mix and how do product and market distinctions affect marketing?

"To carry out the marketing strategy, firms create a marketing mix—a blend of products, distribution (place) systems, prices, promotion, and people. Marketing managers use this mix to satisfy target consumers. The mix can be applied to nonbusiness as well as business situations. Specialty products are items for which consumers search long and hard and for which they refuse to accept substitutes. Products that either are not planned as a purchase by a potential buyer or are known but the buyer does not actively seek them, such as funeral services, are unsought products. Volume segmentation is the differentiation of markets based on the amount of the product purchased."