Abstract
Firm incubation and marketing mix are not new concepts in the business world. They have been existing for decades and their meaning has been explained in real business sense. Despite being in existence for long, little is known about how marketing mix elements (popularly referred to as the “Seven P’s”) are used by business start-ups during incubation. Data were collected from owners of start-up businesses in the incubation centres at Makerere University, Kampala Uganda. The study adopted a qualitative research method because owners of start-ups see the application of marketing mix elements as paramount. Data were analysed with Nvivo 10 software. The findings show that the critical marketing mixes used for start-ups are people, price, product, and place. However, it was revealed that the way the marketing mixes were applied in start-ups is not clear. The majority did not know how to apply the marketing mix in running their businesses. It is recommended that incubation centres should put more emphasis on applying the marketing mix during the mentoring and coaching processes. This should become a policy in all incubation centres for start-ups to be successful. Key words: Business, incubation centre, marketing mix, start-ups.  
Highlights
In the recent years, several academic and business practitioners have switched to the use of business incubation model to develop and stimulate the growth of their businesses (M‟Chirgui, 2012)
Data were collected from owners of start-up businesses in the incubation centres at Makerere University, Kampala Uganda
The study explored the application of marketing mix by start-ups in incubation centres
Summary
In the recent years, several academic and business practitioners have switched to the use of business incubation model to develop and stimulate the growth of their businesses (M‟Chirgui, 2012) This dramatic change in the model has been brought about by the emergence of the Silicon Valley and the Boston Route 128 in the USA and Cambridge‟s Silicon Fen in the UK (Mian, 2011). In Uganda, the majority (78%) of the population are young below 30 years and are employed in small businesses due to lack of jobs (Kristensen et al, 2016) As a result, they start businesses with limited and sometimes without skills to run them (Gough et al, 2013). Start-up firms are given skills that are important to enable them to succeed in business venturing in order to limit the failure rate of incubation (Mamabolo et al, 2017)
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