4 Ps of Marketing – An Understanding of Marketing Mix

The 4 Ps of Marketing, often referred to as the marketing mix, are the key factors in the marketing of goods and services. The 4 Ps are used by many companies to identify the key factors that will help them in their business.

They are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion of goods and services. The 4 Ps of marketing were first popularized in the 1950s by Neil Borden.

For the marketing of goods or services, one must be aware of the 4 Ps of the marketing world.

The 4 Ps of marketing is essential to understand for all companies (Mostly for smaller ones) to run their business smoothly.

Over the years, the 4 Ps are developed by the experts for creating and executing a successful marketing strategy and to satisfy both the customer and seller.

So, the marketing of goods or services is based on the 4 Ps of marketing which are – Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

An Introduction to 4 Ps of Marketing

• What do consumers want from your service?
• How does your product meets or fails the requirements of consumers?
• How do your products interact with your customers?
• Where can you promote your product or service?
• How much can you charge for your product?

Below we have elaborated on each Ps from where you can understand them in a much better way.

Product

The product is a good or service (like clothes, soft drinks, electric devices, software, study material, counseling, online lectures, business guide, etc.) which the companies sell.

Before selling any kind of product, a marketer must have complete knowledge about it, like what kind of plus factors do they have in their product compared to competitors’. So, you need to have a clear grasp of exactly what your product is.

Your product must create new demand to become successful. The consumer must be satisfied with your product so that they could believe that they need to have it.

A marketer also needs to get prepared to face the challenges that may occur due to the life cycle of their product. You have to make a proper plan and strategy to develop your product as per the current demand of customers.

One more strategy that can be helpful to understand your product in a much better way is to collect the feedback of your product once it is launched.

Check the review of customers and understand their demand to develop your product to adjust all the requirements. This will help you improvise your product so that you can meet your customer’s needs and eventually increase your sales. 

Price

The cost of your product that consumers pay is known as Price in the market. 

After creating the product, the immediate task is to evaluate your product.  

Pricing your product can be a difficult task as it requires complete market data, the balance between low and high cost, market value, customer demand, and many more calculations.

So, it is really hard to come up with the right price for the product.

The price of your product will directly affect the sales.  The product should have a positive customer value to become successful in the market.

If the product price is relatively high than the competitor’s product the customer may not be satisfied with it and they may buy the other company’s product. On other hand, if you set the low price of your product the customer may think that the product quality is cheap.

Marketers should also know when to provide the discount on the product to impress more customers and when to raise the price. Knowing about the trend and then setting up the price can be a very clever step to increase the sales of the product.

Place

The Place is another word for “Location” where you find your targeted customers to sell the product.

You must have the answers to the following questions before selecting the perfect location for your product –

• Where will potential customers find your product?
• Do the customers have their preferred place where they usually buy?
• What are the channels for distribution?
• What are your competitors doing in market coverage?

In marketing, it is said that selling a product is the game of deciding the location. Choosing the right location can be a hectic task for all companies but anyhow you have to do it to get the best sales with less effort.

You cannot expect that your customers will come to you and buy the product; rather you have to go to them to sell the product.

While choosing the location, you also need to consider the other Ps as marketing a product is about putting the right thing in the right place, at the right price, at the right time, to the right customer.

It is examined that customers likely interact with your product when they find it in a variety of places. So it becomes important for a marketer to find the targeted customers at various places.

Promotion

Your product is ready, you fixed its price, and you decided the location to sell it. All seems good! But what if the customers don’t’ even know your brand; they don’t even know what your product is?  So how you are going to attract your customers?

The fourth P “Promotion” is going to help you to market and to spread the awareness of your product.

After all three Ps that we discussed, it is time to promote your product. 

For promoting the product, you have to examine the activities of your targeted customers like:

Which kind of channels are they using to get the information?

When do they often search about the product that you are selling?

How are your competitors carrying out their promotions?

There are various platforms to promote your product in public including advertising, public relations, email marketing, social media marketing, direct marketing, etc.  

Conclusion

The “4 Ps” seem easy to implement but hard work and proper research are required to make it successful. If a marketer doesn’t use the concept of 4Ps then it will be hard to differentiate between you and your competitors.

So, these 4 Ps are the basic understanding of how you should market your product or service. If you build your strategy according to these Ps of marketing, then you will surely get good results.

If you want to do something different from your competitors then these elements – Product, Price, Promotion, and Place are very crucial to be used in your business strategy.