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The 4 P’s of Marketing Mix and how to master it in today's world (updated with example and template)

This article addresses how to use one of the oldest marketing concepts in today's online world: "The Marketing Mix," which is based on the 4 P's: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

If you’re ready to take your marketing seriously, you’ll need to start with a marketing plan. A classic marketing concept called “The Marketing Mix” or “The 4 P’s” of Marketing is a perfect place to start.

The original concept of the 4 P's marketing mix

The original marketing mix, or 4 P's, as originally proposed by marketer and academic Jerome E. McCarthy , provides a framework for marketing decision-making. Effectively summing up the 4 pillars of the business cycle, McCarthy's marketing mix has since become one of the most enduring and widely accepted frameworks in business.

The essential base ingredients of the 4 P’s are: Product , Price , Place and Promotion . While this combination doesn’t appear to be rocket science, a company’s ability or lack thereof to embrace and implement the 4 P’s can make all the difference between thriving and failing as a business.

Each of the 4 P’s build upon and interact with one another, and are governed by both internal and external factors within the business itself, and our ever-changing marketplace. The 4 P’s of marketing primary purpose is to help us take into consideration potential roadblocks to widespread product adaptation and ongoing success.

So let’s get to them, shall we?

4 P's of marketing in simple and familiar terms:

A PRODUCT is a service or good offered to meet consumer interest or demand. It could come in the form of occupational therapy or a fidget spinner - choices are only limited to the imagination, BUT, are highly dependent on marketplace curiosity or need.

PRICE is the cost people pay for a product. This includes base costs (materials, manufacturing, and shipping) plus expenses (rent, office supplies, healthcare, etc.). While you should always look to the competition, a smart business will tap into what people will actually pay for it. That's the only thing that counts. If you can't rise above your bottom line and make your target profit, then it’s a losing proposition.

PLACE is the “home” where the product resides, and that “home” can live in many different channels, such as a physical store display, a newspaper, radio or TV ad, or a website or blog spotlight. Really, a place is anywhere you can get your product in front of your target customers that compliments your budget, including the price point.

PROMOTION is product exposure and public relations efforts via advertising (through the channels mentioned above) as well as word of mouth, direct mail, email marketing and social media. Promotion is a communication tool that encapsulates the first 3 P’s by putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time, with the goal of it being irresistible to customers.

The 4 P's example and template for a service business

The Marketing Mix of “HVAC Plumber” reflects a real life example of how a service company covers the 4 P’s (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) in their marketing strategy.

“HVAC plumber” (a fictitious company) provides heating and cooling services in the Chicago Metropolitan Area.

HVAC Plumber marketing mix elements strategy and example:

HVAC Plumber offers industry standard services, but also innovates to provide more value to our customers and captures more of the market. We are insured, licensed and provide warranties for our work. Our high quality services and focus on a pleasant customer experience helps us get repeat clients, referrals, and builds our reputation. Also, our motto is: “Leave the place cleaner than we found it” - so you’ll always see us with a broom in our hands before we leave.

At present, the following are the main categories of HVAC Plumber products:

• Furnace installation and repair
• Water heater maintenance, installation and repair
• Air conditioning installation, maintenance and repair
• Complete plumbing system design and installation
• Drain, sink and toilet unclogging and jet rodding and repairs

Our extra value added products:

• Emergency services
• Indoor air quality testing services
• Air duct and dryer vent cleaning services
• Warranty services
• Equipment sales

Our reputation and successful marketing generates more demand than we can handle, so it allows us to charge premium for our services. We train our service technicians to upsell our other services. We also have a customer loyalty program in place to reward our long-term clients with better rates and provide coupons to first time clients. We also seek partnerships with organizations such as: homeowner associations, insurance companies, builders and general contractors, and offer exclusive pricing options based on quantity.

The company has offices in downtown Chicago, but walk-in customers are unusual. We are physically represented by our company vans, uniforms and warranty stickers. We consistently attend industry trade shows, and belong to the Chicago Chamber of Commerce.

We nurture partnerships with our equipment vendors, participate in their trainings, and have certifications, which allow us to be listed “licensed technicians” on their websites. We serve the Chicagoland Area, which is about a 30 mile radius from our warehouse, but we do make travel exceptions for long-term clients and bigger projects.

Our company website is the most important communication tool, and is a place where our clients learn about our services and make initial contact. We invest a great deal of money and time to keep it updated and useful to our audience. We plan to expand our website to include ecommerce and make some of the package services, equipment and accessories available for purchase online. None of our competitors are doing this at the moment, so we’ll take advantage of being pioneers in this regard.

Most new business comes through our website and we focus all of our promotion efforts to drive more traffic to it. Our promotional mix is as follows:

• Search engine optimization
• Paid traffic
• Social media marketing
• Content marketing
• Email marketing

Our value proposition statement

HVAC Plumber is an industry-leading HVAC and plumbing service provider serving the Chicago area since 1999. We specialize in new installations, repairs, and 24 hour emergency services.

Start with 4 P's of marketing template

Check out our 4 P's of marketing template to help you work through your first few ideas.

But why stop there?

The 7 P’s of marketing mix

Since the inception of the original 4 P’s of marketing, marketing experts have expounded upon the mix to include three additional P’s to enhance brand exposure and sales performance.

These additional P’s include: People , Process and Physical evidence .

PEOPLE have always been at the epicenter of the business world. Whether it’s the company visionaries, the movers and shakers, or the daily doers, unless (or until) commerce is fully automated, you’re only as good as the people who keep the business operational and flowing. And believe you me, customers are quick to notice when there’s a glitch in the matrix.

PROCESSES ensure consistent service delivery to every customer, at any time of day, on any given day. And, a successful business incorporates scenarios where customer preferences can be accommodated to provide them a unique experience.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE – Almost all services include physical proof of a transaction, even if the bulk of what the consumer bought isn’t tangible. It’s something the customer can hold onto and recall about working with you. Physical evidence also describes consistent branding across communication channels.

How can you actually use this?

How the 4 P’s apply in today’s online marketing

The how’s and why’s of how we approach marketing have become much more dynamic since the inception of the internet. However, the driving factor is still and should always remain: PEOPLE. Actually, it’s more about people than ever before. Having an honest marketing approach has never been more important and is both emotionally and financially rewarding if you do it right.

PRODUCT and how it lives online versus the shelf

It seems like not much has changed as far as the product or services goes, right? Wrong. No matter what type of product you offer, the landscape shifted majorly to the consumer benefit. The majority of customers now prefer to shop online, and perform in-depth research before making their buying decisions.

Besides the original, product-related marketing factors such as: product quality and design, branding, packaging, returns and guarantees, in your marketing plan, you should also consider NEW factors.

User-centric customer support - your product now has a digital voice. And it must talk to your audience and be both personalized and timely. Not only across all the common channels such as phone or email, but also should be proactively involved in social media. Resource: Social media customer service 101: the beginner's guide

New PRICING models to consider

Pricing your product or service is never an easy task. It sure helps if you can find a unique product positioning on the market, otherwise you fall into price comparison wars with your competition. And, to compare prices has never been easier than today. The original Marketing Mix suggests considering pricing strategy and tactics, discount structure, payment terms and options for both customers and distributors.

Competition pricing research - this is an in-depth review of the pricing models of your direct competitors. In comparing products, you should focus worldwide. With local services, of course, should compare within your own service area. Remember that you don’t have to anchor your pricing based on competition, but it helps to know the market.

Shipping and handling strategy - it’s not an obvious, but very important factor in online sales conversions no matter the item price. Offering free shipping is one of the most effective purchase incentives. Resource: How to offer free shipping and still make money

"9 out of 10 online shoppers consider free shipping as one of the main reasons why they shop at a particular online store. To offer free shipping is not a new thing, thanks to Amazon it became essential running an online store. The main question now is how to make it profitable. It looks impossible, but with the right approach - offering it most, not all, of the time, setting a flat shipping or order threshold, it is possible."

Diana Bukevicius - Scube Marketing

Product positioning - I know I’m repeating myself, but I have to. Positioning is strongly engraved into each pillar of The Marketing Mix. As far as pricing goes, having strong niche positioning eliminates the number of competitors that your product or service can be compared with and it opens up an opportunity to go for value pricing . Resource: Everything you need to know about pricing

Upsell strategy - this is an underestimated source of cash flow. It’s always easier to sell to the people that already bought something from you and were happy with the product. It can be an additional items or warranties, maintenance or a product upgrade.

PLACE for marketing is now on the mobile screens

Back in the 1940’s “place” was all about brick and mortar. Location, distribution, and logistics are still part of the process, but it heavily shifted from the marketing department to operations. No doubt you’ll boost sales if your product gets featured in physical Walmart stores, but you also can sell at Walmart Marketplace online with way less effort for the approval process. Same goes for Amazon. Online selling has undoubtedly taken over as the place to peddle your wares. Resource: How to sell on Walmart marketplace in 7 easy steps

Website - this is by far your most important marketing piece. It’s your 24/7 storefront and your sales rep that never sleeps. Any marketing efforts that you take will end up on your website. I mentioned 3rd party sources like Walmart Marketplace or Amazon, but I still highly recommend you focus on your own website first and use other sources as secondary. Why? Because you own it and you control it.

Any 3rd party retailer could change their policies tomorrow and you might be out of business. Plus, websites grow more powerful over time if supported by thoughtful and consistent marketing decisions. When you build your website, the decisions on design, structure and content should be made based on your promotional strategies.

3rd party platforms - Your audience is on or a few of these platforms already. Identify those platforms and utilize them. It can take the form of direct eCommerce platforms like Amazon, or it can be social channels like LinkedIn or Facebook etc.

PROMOTION is in your inbox

Search engine optimization (SEO), social media, email marketing and paid search. I hear that Super Bowl ads are worth their weight in gold, but if you can afford a Superbowl ad, you are on the wrong blog!

Jokes aside, make sure your marketing strategy is built around driving traffic to your website and converting it to leads or sales.

Traffic generation - getting targeted visitors to come to your website is the ultimate #1 goal. There are numerous ways you can achieve that, and they’re all worth considering:

Search engine optimization (SEO) - is the practice driving traffic to your website through organic search engine results by optimizing (making relevant) your website for targeted keyphrases. SEO is an ongoing process that requires patience and consistent efforts.

Paid search - in other words - “bought traffic.” Platforms like Google AdWords, Bing Ads or Facebook Ads allows you to buy highly targeted traffic in an auction-type of fashion. It’s typically based on “per click” pricing, where each visitors cost you x amount of dollars.

Social media marketing - is the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites. If you sell to people then it’s a great idea to invest time and effort (and sometimes money) into one or several social media sites. That’s where the people hang-out these days. Resource: Welcome to the beginner's guide to social media!

Email marketing - is the modern equivalent of oldschool direct mail, I believe. Even if one more email in our inbox is the last thing we want or need - email is still one of the best performing marketing tools. Resource: A beginner’s guide to successful email marketing Resource: A comprehensive guide to email marketing platforms

Conversion rate optimization - converting website visitors into leads is the ultimate goal #2 to achieve. Firstly, to be able to calculate conversions you need to have Google Analytics or other tracking system integrated to your website. Conversion rate optimization are an ongoing process where you optimize your website and measure the outcome looking for the optimal version of each page. Resource: Conversion optimization made simple: a step-by-step guide Resource: Learn Google Analytics with free online courses

2 extra P’s from Angle180

The team at Angle180 takes the “4 P's of marketing (Plus 3)” two steps further, to include Positioning and Positive Reviews.

Positioning - again and again. Positioning is a fundamental piece of your marketing plan and your overall business success. Essentially, if you answer all the questions related to each P you’ll arrive to your business positioning statement.

Positioning is how you differentiate your product or service from your competitors in your niche market.

A good positioning statement is the first thing people read when they visit your website. Typically, it’s a 7-10 word sentence on your Home Page that succinctly answers:

There’s a science behind positioning, and it’s wise to research how others in your field describe themselves.

Positive reviews - positive online reviews are pretty self explanatory, but I recommend creating a strategy for collecting positive reviews, as well as dealing with negative ones.

Unfortunately, it’s human nature to take positive experiences for granted and feel revengeful about the negative ones.

Reviews definitely affect local search rankings and customer buying decisions.

Local consumer review survey by BrightLocal reveals the importance of reviews:

97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2017

85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations

49% of consumers need at least a four-star rating before they choose to use a business

Responding to reviews is more important than ever, with 30% naming this as key when judging local businesses

4 P's of Marketing Mix in a slideshow presentation (PPT) and downloadable PDF

Here is a PDF version of 4 P's of marketing presentation.

Our conclusion? The original 4 P’s of the marketing mix withstand the test of time

There is one common trait to all classic things - they never get old or obsolete. So, even with all the changes that technology has brought us, the 80 year concept of The 4 P’s of marketing mix are still relevant and applicable today. Marketing platforms and tools have certainly changed, but the foundation is rock solid. And, let’s hope it always remains personalized and people-driven.

I'm Sarunas Budrikas, CEO of Angle180, a B2B marketing company delivering results through high performance web design and traffic generation.

You can also find me on LinkedIn and Twitter .

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What Are the 4 Ps of Marketing? The Marketing Mix Explained [Example]

Published: October 03, 2023

If you've been a marketing professional for years now, learning about the four Ps of marketing might seem like a throwback to you.

However, for those of us who work in the industry but didn't study marketing in college, it's entirely possible you haven't heard of the marketing mix.

Below, let's learn about the four Ps of marketing and how they're still relevant in today's marketing landscape.

What are the 4 Ps of marketing?

The four Ps of marketing are product, price, place, and promotion. These are the key factors that are involved in marketing a product or service. You take the four Ps into account when creating strategies for marketing, promoting, advertising, and positioning your product or brand.

The four Ps are meant to help marketers consider everything about a product or service when they're deciding how to market it for their business. Framing your marketing around the four Ps will help you learn what the competition is doing and what customers want from you.

How to Use the 4 Ps of Marketing

You can use the four Ps to answer questions about the product, price, place, and promotion of your product or service.

For example, you can ask yourself:

• Product : How does your product meet your customer's needs? What problem(s) does it solve? What unique value or features does it offer?
• Price : What is the value of your product? What are my competitors charging?
• Place : Where are customers looking for your product?
• Promotion : How can you differentiate your product from competitors? Where can you reach your audience?

Always consider the needs and preferences of your target audience. Ultimately, your product, its price, its place of distribution, and its promotional strategies should appeal to your customers the most.

Thinking about your marketing in terms of the four Ps will help you strategize how to reach your customers. The 4 Ps of Marketing are also known as your marketing mix — more on that below.

What is the marketing mix?

The marketing mix is also known as the four Ps of marketing. It refers to the four key elements of a marketing strategy: product, price, place, and promotion. These elements guide the marketing initiatives, wording, and positioning for a product or brand.

Free Marketing Mix Templates

Map out your marketing mix with these free templates

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

To develop a marketing mix, you'll need to think about how you can uniquely position your brand amongst the competition. The most important part of thinking about the marketing mix — or the four Ps of marketing — is to understand the customer, the competition, and your company. You'll evaluate your product and how to promote it.

But getting started isn’t easy. That’s why we’ve created the ultimate collection of marketing mix templates you can use to visualize your marketing mix and share it with your employees or investors. Use the templates to organize your initiatives and activities by the right section.

Featured Resource: Marketing Mix Templates

Click here to download the templates for free .

Use the template to follow along with the 4 Ps of marketing below.

The 4 Ps of Marketing (Example)

1. the first p of marketing: product.

When you think about your product, consider exactly what you're selling. Is it a specific product? Or is it a service? Your product can be a physical product, an online app, or a service such as house cleaning. Really, anything that you're selling is the product.

Then, think of your brand messaging, the services you offer, and even packaging. When you define your product, think about what problem your product solves for your customers. Consider how your product is different from competing products. What features are unique to your product?

It's important to know your product intimately so you can market it.

Product Example

We’ll use Marketing Hub as an example.

What is it? “Marketing automation software to help you attract the right audience, convert more visitors into customers, and run complete inbound marketing campaigns at scale — all on one powerful, easy-to-use platform.”

Who is it for? Modern marketers who juggle too much data and who are stuck with impossible-to-use software solutions that make their job harder, not easier.

Which features does it have? Marketing Hub offers blogging, SEO, social media management, email marketing, and ad tracking tools in a single, intuitive platform.

What problem does it solve? Marketing Hub simplifies the marketing automation process for busy marketers by bringing all data and tools under one roof.

2. The Second P of Marketing: Price

When it comes to price, you have to consider how much you're going to charge customers for your products or services. Of course, you need to make a profit.

When coming up with your pricing strategy , you also need to think about what competitors are charging for the same product or service and how much customers are willing to pay. You can also think about what discounts or offers you can use in your marketing.

When you decide on a price, you want to think about perception. Do you want to be known as a cost-effective option in your industry? Or perhaps you're a luxury brand and the price is slightly higher than competition on the market. Keep in mind that pricing SaaS products is a little different than pricing physical products.

Either way, the language you use to market your product will be greatly impacted by the price of your product.

Download a sales pricing calculator for free .

Price Example

Marketing Hub is priced to grow with you as you grow.

We offer the following subscription tiers:

• $0/month (Free)
• $45/month (Starter)
• $800/month (Professional)
• $3,200/month (Enterprise)

3. The Third P of Marketing: Place

When it comes to place, this might mean the physical location of your company, but it could also be defined as anywhere you sell your product, which might be online.

The place is where you market and distribute your product.

Remember that not every place makes sense for every product. For example, if your target market is seniors, then it won't make sense to market on TikTok. It's important to choose the right places to market your product and meet your customers where they're at.

Think about possible distribution channels and outlets you could use to sell your product. Be sure to take into account whether your business is B2B or B2C .

At this point, you'll need to think about how to market your product on all the various channels that make sense for your company.

Place Example

As a provider of a SaaS product, we offer Marketing Hub directly on our website.

Marketers can sign up for Marketing Hub by creating an account directly on our platform. We’ve created a convenient sign-up page for free subscriptions — or they can request a demo from our friendly sales team.

4. The Fourth P of Marketing: Promotion

Promotion is the bread and butter of marketing. This is when you'll think about how to publicize and advertise your product.

Additionally, you'll discuss brand messaging, brand awareness, and lead generation strategies .

When it comes to promotion, keeping communication in mind is of the utmost importance. What messages will resonate with your target market? How can you best promote your product to them?

Think about where, when, and how you'll promote your brand.

Promotion Example

We want to be where marketers are. Most importantly, we want to help them grow in their careers — as well as grow their businesses.

Our inbound marketing strategy will focus primarily on organic acquisition. We’ll promote Marketing Hub over the following channels:

• The HubSpot Marketing Blog
• HubSpot Academy

The 4 Ps of Marketing Examples: Apple and e.l.f. Cosmetics

Let's break down the 4 Ps of marketing for Apple and e.l.f. Cosmetics.

( Image Source )

• Product: iPhones, Macs, iPads, Apple Watch, AirPods, Software, and Services (i.e., Apple Music, Apple TV, iTunes, etc.).
• Price: Apple products are often priced at the higher end of the market. The brand commands premium pricing due to its reputation for innovation, quality, and design.
• Place: Consumers can purchase products online and in retail stores. Apple products are sold worldwide and have a significant global market presence.
• Promotion: Apple places a strong emphasis on cultivating a dedicated and loyal consumer base. Their marketing campaigns reinforce the idea of being part of an "Apple ecosystem." Once users buy one product — like an iPhone – they're more likely to choose other Apple products like MacBooks, iPads, Apple Watches, and more. This ecosystem fosters a deep brand loyalty. This sense of loyalty is evident in their product launches, which are a must-see event in the tech industry.

e.l.f. Cosmetics

• Product: e.l.f. offers a comprehensive range of makeup and skincare products, brushes, and beauty tools.
• Price: One of e.l.f.'s main value propositions is its affordability. Many of their products have a low price point, making the brand accessible to a wide range of consumers. Its lower price point sets it apart from other brands in the beauty space.
• Place: e.l.f. products are widely available in drugstores and big-box retailers like Target and Walmart. It also has a a strong online presence, selling products directly through their website and other online retailers.
• Promotion: As a challenger brand in the beauty space, e.l.f. seeks to establish itself as a recognizable and reliable option at the drugstore and beyond. The brand is proactive across social media, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, to engage with younger demographics. In addition, their campaigns often involve user-generated content to foster a sense of community with their audience. 

Back to You

Even though marketing has changed since the four Ps were developed, the foundational elements of the industry haven't. You can apply the concepts of the marketing mix to create winning marketing strategies that help you profitably launch and promote your company’s products.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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What is the 4P Marketing Matrix?

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The principle of the 4P Matrix is that marketing decisions usually fall into four controllable categories: product, place, price and promotion. Carefully positioning your product in each category will generate the greatest response from your target market.

The 4P Matrix dates back to the 1960s, and is arguably the most frequently used marketing mix matrix because it’s simple and it works. This marketing mix matrix can help you define your options and identify marketing strategies , whether you’re planning to launch a new product or you’re evaluating an existing one.

As a small business owner, learning to use the 4Ps successfully gives you an advantage over the competition—and that’s good for your bottom line.

Considerations include: benefits, features, and product interaction From the most basic to extremely detailed, there are a number of questions to ask when making product marketing decisions. Here are a few of the most important:

• What need does your product satisfy? What problem does it solve, or what challenge does it help the customer overcome? In other words, what will the customer gain by using your product? How will it benefit him or her?
• What features does the product have that help it meet the needs of your customer?
• What is your product’s competitive advantage? How is your product different from your competitors? Why should the customer buy your product instead of your competition’s?
• Let others interact with your product, and then ask if it includes any features that aren’t really useful. Also, ask if there are features the product should offer, but doesn’t.

Under what circumstances do you anticipate the customer with interact with the product? How and where will they engage with it?

Real life example: In Coca Cola's case, they have a wide product range, and many of them have been invented due to the needs of their audience (caffeine-free, zero-sugar, etc). They have adapted well to the concerns of the public regarding their original sugary drinks and continue to be a very valuable brand.

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Considerations include: location, how to get product into the market , and distribution Questions to ask about place range from how it will be distributed to what market it will be found in. Here are a few questions to get you started thinking about place:

• Where will your potential buyer look for your product? Will it be found in a brick and mortar store, in a catalog, only on the web or a combination of one or more locations?
• If your product will be sold in a brick and mortar store, what characteristic will the store have? For example will it be sold in a boutique, or sold through a discount store? Will it be found in a house wares store, grocery store, children’s store, etc?
• What is your plan for getting your product into the market.
• Will you sell directly to your customers or use a distributor or a sales team?

How will you manage inventory?

Real life example: With Coca Cola, they have a wide network of distributors that sell their products across the world. This includes in grocery stores, gift shops, cafes, and restaurants. 

Considerations include: price strategy, discounts, and profit margin When considering what price to set your product at, remember that your customer must perceive value in your product and that means you won’t win customers on price alone. Consider these questions when trying to set your product price:

• What amount does your competition sell the product for? Are you able to set and maintain a competitive market price? How will your price compare to your competitors?
• Will you offer discounts or buying advantages? Will you offer a loyalty program or rewards program?
• Will your product be offered at more than one price point? If so, why?
• What is the lowest price you can set for your product and still maintain the profit margin you need?

What part or process is the biggest contributor to the product’s retail price? Can you do anything to lower the cost of that part or process?

Real life example: Coca Cola is known for it's competitor pricing, meaning it prices its products according to its competitors (Pepsi). They also offer different price points based on location.

4. Promotion

Considerations include: marketing channels, marketing strategy , and seasonality Even the best products won’t sell if your customer doesn’t know about them. When considering how you will promote your product, ask yourself these important questions:

• By what means will you get your marketing message to your potential customer? For example, will you use direct mail, billboards, the web, social media, etc?
• When will you start promoting your product and what is your reason for promoting it at that time? Will you promote the product two months before its release? Six months prior?
• Is the product seasonal? If so, how will that impact when, where and how you promote it?

If you’re using a social media platform to promote your product , when (what day/s of the week and what time/s) does your target engage with that social media outlet? For example, moms who work outside the home interact with social media at different times of the day than college students.

Real life example: There are numerous strategies Coca Cola uses to promote its global brand—from different types of media advertising campaigns to sponsorships and partnerships.

Use the 4P Matrix to analyze your current products as well as any new products you're developing. Make sure to follow up with products periodically to make sure it's still on target with your demographic. The 4Ps model is just one of several marketing mix matrixes that have emerged over the last several decades, but it’s simple yet comprehensive framework makes it one of the very best.

Related reading

• 4Cs Marketing Model & Why It’s Good for Business
• 5 Steps to Improve Your Marketing Strategy
• 9 Top Marketing Strategies for Startups
• 6 Effective Ways to Engage Your Customers With Social Media Marketing
• Digital Marketing 101

4Ps of Marketing FAQ

The 4P framework is used to help marketers make decisions regarding their target audience using 4 different variables in the marketing mix.

The 4Ps are product, place, price, and promotion. The 4Cs consist of customer, cost, communication, and convenience.

The 4Ps take a producer-oriented approach to marketing, while the 4Cs take a customer-oriented approach.

First, identity the product or service you're working with. Then, go through each variable and answer the relevant questions. Keep asking questions until you feel you've satisfied your marketing mix. 

Jerome McCarthy invented the framework (also referred to as the producer-oriented model) in 1960.

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• Marketing |
• 4 P's of marketing: How to achieve the ...

4 P's of marketing: How to achieve the perfect marketing mix

The 4 P’s of marketing are price, promotion, place, and product—the four key factors every marketer should use to guide their campaign strategy. Our guide covers the 4 P’s of marketing and gives a breakdown of each step involved.

The 4 P's approach works for any industry, and can be applied to any business, from solopreneurs to enterprise organizations. In our guide, we'll cover what the 4 P’s of marketing are, then break down exactly how to incorporate them in your next marketing campaign.

What are the 4 P’s of marketing?

The 4 P's stand for product, price, place, and promotion, the four primary factors that marketers need to consider when designing a campaign strategy.

A marketing strategy should:

Communicate what the product will provide the customer

Demonstrate why the product's value fits its price

Appear in the places the company's target audience will encounter them

Use effective promotion strategies to reach potential customers

Keep these four objectives in mind as you craft your marketing strategy. The 4 P's should influence your product positioning, marketing channel selection, advertising decisions, promotional strategy, and copy choices throughout the campaign.

How do the 4 P’s work?

Knowing what the 4 P’s are isn't very helpful unless you also know how to implement them in your marketing strategy . Below, we'll break down each P to help you better understand what they are, why they're important to your marketing efforts, and how you can incorporate them into future campaigns.

The first P: Product

In the marketing mix, "product" is shorthand for whatever it is that you're selling, whether it's a physical product or a service. A strong marketing campaign starts with a clear and detailed understanding of the product and how it appeals to the target customer.

For example, a car advertisement that only highlights details like what the car looks like and how much it costs isn't very compelling. Guided by a complete understanding of the product they're selling, a more skilled marketer might pitch an SUV crossover advertisement that emphasizes unique safety features in order to specifically target parents of small children. 

Example product questions

What problem is your product solving? Consider what challenges your target customers encounter and what impacts those challenges have.

Who is your target customer? Think about what type of person is most likely to find value in your product.

How does your product address your target customer’s needs? Home in on how specific features of your product address specific customer demands.

What does your product offer that competitors' products do not? Determine how your product solves customers' needs more quickly, effectively, or affordably than competing products.

Put yourself in your target customer's shoes to more thoroughly understand what your product has to offer. With a better understanding of the specific ways in which your product offers value to the customer, you'll be able to market that product more effectively.

The second P: Price

The second P of marketing stands for “price.” This is how much you should charge for your product in order to make a profit. When creating your pricing strategy, a good place to start is by looking at your competitors. 

Checking how much your competitors charge gives you a good sense of how much potential customers are willing to pay for similar products. Combine that with the perceived value of your product—in other words, what you want your price to imply about your product. Are you a luxury, standard, or budget option?

You can use your marketing messaging to focus on these different price points. Don’t forget to also think about coupons, discounts, offers, and bundles that are popular in your marketplace.

Example price questions

What do competing products cost? This is a great starting point for market research and gauging your product’s price range.

How much are your customers willing to spend? Thinking about how much your potential customers are willing to spend will help give you a price cap.

Can your product have multiple price points? Looking at the potential to have several price points for different levels of subscriptions or products can open you up to a larger demographic.

What does your product cost to create? Understanding how much it will cost you to make a product or provide a service will help you determine your profit margins.

If you've priced your product correctly, you should be selling it at a cost that's affordable for your target customer and still brings in a profit.

The third P: Place

The third P of marketing stands for “place.” This encompasses where you are in relation to where your customer is, as well as where you need to place your advertising in order to reach your target audience.

It doesn't take a master strategist to know that a physical product or service needs to be available where potential customers live, shop, and work. However, place will impact your marketing strategy, too.

If you operate a physical store, it's unlikely that customers will come from far away to buy your product. Generalized marketing methods will always be effective, but you may get a greater return on investments in local SEO, advertising in town newspapers, and co-sponsoring community events.

The same principle applies to locating your target audience online. For example, if you're targeting Gen Z social media influencers, you'll probably be wasting valuable budget by advertising on platforms that cater to older audiences like Facebook or LinkedIn.

Example place questions

Where does your target customer purchase similar products? Think about whether your potential buyers will purchase your product in a store, conference, online, etc., in order to determine the best place to sell your product.

Where is your customer located? Knowing where your customer lives or spends their time shopping is an important aspect of developing a marketing strategy.

Are you business or consumer-focused? Deciding whether you are selling directly to individuals or businesses will help you determine where to sell your new product.

Where are your competitors selling their products or services? Use your successful competitors as a guide on where to sell your products. They are great indicators of which place(s) will be most successful.

The fourth P: Promotion

The last P of marketing stands for “promotion.” If product is what you're selling, price is how much you're selling it for, and place is where you're selling it, then promotion is how you're promoting the sale. 

In designing your promotion strategy , think through how you want your messaging to be received. Is your brand fun and clever, upscale and luxurious, or serious and intellectual? Nail down your brand voice and then keep it consistent across all of your marketing.

It's also important to determine what messages will perform well on different platforms. A multiple-paragraph post will be ignored on Facebook or Instagram, but might make an excellent SEO opportunity for your blog. You might be targeting audiences that use both LinkedIn and TikTok, and you may even be promoting the same message across channels, but you'll need to tailor the format of your content to match each platform.

Example promotion questions

Who is your target audience? Understand who you're speaking to so you can decide what voice and tone will resonate the most.

How do you want your brand to be perceived? Think about what brand personality makes sense for your product and industry.

What distribution channels does our target audience use to consume information? Don't sabotage your message by promoting it in the wrong place.

How are competitors promoting their products? Using your competitors as your guinea pigs for promotion experiments is a great way to find out what works and learn from their mistakes.

Can you capitalize on seasonality? If your target audience's behavior changes drastically from summer to winter, create different marketing strategies for different times of the year.

4 P’s vs. 7 P’s of marketing: What’s the difference?

The 4 P's first appeared in a book called Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach that was published in 1960. Though the 4 P's are still just as applicable today, the original marketing mix didn't account for modern factors like the specific challenges of online marketing or the massive variety of products available today. 

That's why some marketers like to use an expanded list that contains an additional three P's: people, physical evidence, and process.

The 7 P's of marketing

The 7 P's of marketing include the original four (product, price, place, and promotion) plus three people, physical evidence, and process.

People represent a company’s internal team and staff members that provide a service or sell the product. Impressing potential clients with great customer service is important because many people can’t separate their feelings toward a  product from their buying experience.

Physical evidence is "proof" that the claims and statements you're making in your marketing and advertising materials are true. This proof can include customer reviews, case studies, and testimonials that show your target audience that your existing customers are satisfied with your product.

Process pertains to the transportation and delivery of your product. Word-of-mouth is one of the most effective forms of advertising there is, so investments in safe and speedy delivery, pleasant purchasing interactions, and effective customer support are really investments in marketing.

Use the 4 P's to start your marketing campaigns on the right foot

The 4 P's aren't something you can implement as an afterthought. To utilize the 4 P's effectively, incorporate them into every step of your marketing campaign. 

From your initial organizing stages all the way through to campaign launch, the presence of the 4 P's should be evident in your marketing strategy every step of the way.

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The 4 Ps of Marketing: Effective Strategy For Businesses

The 4Ps of marketing model has been popular among businesses as it positively supports them to identify your marketing options regarding price, product, promotion, and place. Accordingly, you can provide an offer to meet a specific need or demand of customers. 

More than 90% of businesses focus their resources on implementing 4P marketing strategies to build a strong brand in the digital age. So what are the 4Ps in marketing? What role does the 4P marketing strategy play in developing the business?

What Are The 4Ps In Marketing?

The 4Ps in Marketing are the first four letters to develop a core business strategy. The 4P model in Marketing includes Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

The first P is Product - the first foundation in all marketing strategies. This is the core point in meeting the needs and wants of customers.

If the product is not good, all business marketing efforts will fail. Products in marketing can be tangible goods or intangible services such as hotels, tourism, and telecommunications.

Product is the core foundation of every business's marketing strategy

The following P refers to Price that you offer to your customers. The business owner needs to carefully determine the costs, product finishing, raw materials, labor, design, and transportation when determining the price. After deducting all costs, the business needs to profit from 15 to 20%.

Place is the 3rd P in the 4Ps of marketing. This is the address where customers can buy the product. Stores and agents are also known as distribution channels of businesses.

Distribution plays an extremely important role in the 4Ps. It is the circulation that helps the product reach the customer. Policy for distribution intermediaries directly affects the profitability of enterprises.

For goods to be consumed, it is necessary to have components, including the manufacturer, distribution intermediaries, and customers. The distribution channel structure shows the length of the channel and the width of the channel.

The length of the intermediate-level digital ceramic channel. The process from the manufacturer directly to the customer without intermediaries has the shortest channel. The channel with three intermediate levels, including agents, wholesalers, and retailers, is the longest.

The channel width includes the number of intermediaries in each level. For example, channel B has ten retailers at the retailer level, while channel C has 100 retailers. Thus, channel C has a wider width compared to channel B and channel C.

Through the above two aspects, when building a distribution channel structure, it is necessary to establish a channel length and width strategy.

3.1. Channel Length Strategy

In the distribution channel length strategy, channel A from the manufacturer to the customer is the direct distribution channel. This is a channel without intermediaries. Direct distribution channels help businesses control the quality of products distributed to the market.  With fast turnaround time, businesses have full discretion in how to build brand image and user experience. 

Indirect distribution channels in the 4Ps of marketing include intermediate levels such as agents, wholesalers, retailers, to consumers. For indirect distribution channels, manufacturers do not need to invest large budgets for distribution while taking advantage of the available experience of the intermediary level to launch products to the market.

Distribution channel length strategy in Marketing model 4P

3.2. Channel Width Strategy

Mass distribution applies to general consumer products. Manufacturers prioritize the development of many intermediaries, especially looking to increase the number of retailers that reach customers.

Exclusive distribution limits the number of intermediaries. Accordingly, the manufacturer chooses only one distribution intermediary for each market area to exclusively sell the product. This method is applied to high-end, reputable, limited-edition products.

Selective distribution often chooses distributors between mass and exclusive. The manufacturer sets clear criteria for selecting several intermediaries with good distribution in the region.

4. Promotions

The fourth P is Promotion, which is a communication and marketing campaign to promote the company's products to consumers. The tools used in Promotion include advertising, marketing, public relations, and sales organization.

Promotion - the fourth P in the 4Ps of marketing

The 4Ps Of Marketing Importance

4P strategy currently plays a crucial role in business marketing. Many apply this approach to improve their brand identity while attracting more audience to their business. Some of the roles of the 4Ps of marketing include:

1. Promoting Enterprises to Create New Products

The 4Ps model promotes businesses to create new and better quality products. This strategy helps businesses to research and understand the market and customer needs.

Through research results, businesses come up with new ideas, create suitable products, and meet the desires of consumers.

2. Increased Benefits For Consumers

The model is useful to businesses and brings many attractive benefits to consumers, specifically, high-quality products with good features, new designs, and competitive prices.

3. Enhancing Brand Value and Corporate Reputation

It also improves the brand value and reputation of the business in the market. These campaigns aim to help the brand grow stronger, expand across the country, region, and the world, etc.

Businesses will regularly organize advertising campaigns and introduce products when applying this strategy. All serve the purpose of promoting product sales, increasing business efficiency, promoting brand image, and helping to affirm the position of the business in the market.

4P model to improve brand value and corporate reputation

4. Creating a Fair and Healthy Competitive Environment

There are more and more businesses operating in the same field. This requires the brand to innovate and launch more quality products regularly. Goods possessing superior features create competitive advantages and conquer increasingly demanding customers.

Pros and Cons of the 4P Marketing Model

The marketing 4P strategy brings many benefits to both customers and businesses. However, the 4P Marketing model also has its advantages and disadvantages.

The marketing 4P strategy makes it easy for businesses to interact with customers. Businesses easily know what customers are thinking about their brand or marketing strategy through social networking sites.

If the posts about the business's brand are shared widely, many positive comments prove that the marketing strategy is on the right track, reaching the target customers well.

The 4P Marketing model makes it easier for businesses to interact with customers

The number is displayed clearly and in detail. This makes it easy for businesses to evaluate the effectiveness of their brand promotion campaigns, aiming at motivating further marketing strategies.

Competition among businesses is getting fiercer. Therefore, businesses need to have a solid strategy and good financial potential to increase their competitiveness in the modern marketing war.

Marketing strategy 4P easily creates an annoying feeling for customers when there is too much information and suggestions. Therefore, enterprises need to have a strict management and control system to avoid information dilution.

Customers easily overlook advertising in the mass media. Therefore, creative content is extremely necessary if you want your business to stand out in the public eye.

Customers easily ignore advertising in mass media

How FieldCheck Helps You Optimize Your 4Ps Of Marketing

FieldCheck is currently highly appreciated by users for its support of employee management, data collection, and store chain management. These features support businesses to conduct their 4Ps of marketing optimally.

1. Employee Management

Boasting many advanced features, FieldCheck helps businesses manage employees easily and more efficiently. In particular, it is considered the perfect solution to manage market employees.

The software allows employees to time attendance and check-in / check-out on mobile phones. All employee activities are continuously updated to the system in real-time.

Digitizing all employees' work on the system makes it easy for managers to track and control fraud with a few simple steps.

Manage employees easily on mobile apps

2. Data Collection Support

FieldCheck collects and transforms data from traditional storage to modern digitalization. Employees and managers can update, store, and search data directly on mobile phones.

FieldCheck's management system is fully equipped with anti-fraud features and data analysis tools to help you understand the market and customers to build the most effective 4P Marketing strategy.

Accurate and detailed recording of all data in real-time

3. Chain Store Management

FieldCheck provides an optimized solution for chain management with many outstanding features implemented directly on mobile phones as follows:

• Update store location, and control the number of products sold in real-time.
• Record the number of products in stock, calculate the commission, and monitor the store's quality directly on the phone.
• Update business performance easily, not limited in time and place.
• Optimizing business administration saves time, costs, and human resources.

FieldCheck is a fieldwork support software that can work in tandem with the built-in system of businesses without affecting their operation. We are proud to be the partner of various established businesses like Masan, Electrolux, Circle K, to name a few in their journey of digitalization. We hope our article could be helpful for your searching. Thanks for reading!

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4 Ps of Marketing: What They Are and How to Use Them

Learn what the 4 Ps of marketing are and how to use them to market a product or service.

The four Ps — product , price , place , and promotion — are key elements of marketing a product or service. These elements are considered part of a “marketing mix,” a combination of factors a company controls when creating a marketing strategy.

There are many possible components of a marketing mix; the four Ps are the most common, foundational factors to a successful marketing plan. In this article, you will learn more about their purpose and history and find a detailed breakdown of the four Ps.

What are the 4 Ps of marketing? (Marketing mix explained)

The four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion. They are an example of a “marketing mix,” or the combined tools and methodologies marketers use to achieve their marketing objectives.

The 4 Ps were first formally conceptualised in 1960 by E. Jerome McCarthy in the highly influential text, Basic Marketing, A Managerial Approach [ 1 ]. There, McCarthy noted that while the book's text was “similar to that found in the traditional texts, the approach is not.” 

McCarthy’s novel approach was influenced by the still-recent “marketing mix” concept, which Harvard Business School professor Neil. H. Borden popularised in the 1950s. In fact, Borden himself had been influenced by a 1948 study written by James Culliton, in which the author equated business executives to “artists” or “mixer[s] of ingredients” [ 2 ]. Rather than using the same approach for every situation, Culliton and Borden recognised that successful executives instead mixed different methods depending on variable market forces. 

McCarthy streamlined this concept into the four Ps—product, place, price, and promotion—to help marketers design plans that fit the dynamic social and political realities of their time and target market. In effect, the purpose of the four Ps remains the same today as when McCarthy first published his book: “developing the ‘right’ product and making it available at the ‘right’ place with the ‘right’ promotion and at the ‘right’ price, to satisfy target consumers and still meet the objectives of the business” [ 3 ].

The four Ps

The four Ps form a dynamic relationship with one another. Rather than one taking priority over the other, each is considered equally important in crafting a strategic marketing plan.

The product is the good or service being marketed to the target audience.

Generally, successful products fill a need not currently being met in the marketplace or provide a novel customer experience that creates demand. For example, the original iPhone filled a need in the market for a simplified device that paired a phone with an iPod.    

As you are working on your product, it is essential to consider your target audience and their unique needs. Some questions to consider when working on a product include: 

What is your product? 

What does your product do? Does the product meet an unfilled need or provide a novel experience? 

Who is your product’s target audience? 

How is your product different from what others offer?

Price is the cost of a product or service. 

When marketing a product or service, it is important to pick a price that is simultaneously accessible to the target market and meets a business’s goals. Pricing can have a significant impact on the overall success of a product. For example, if you price your product too high for your targeted audience, very few will likely purchase it. Similarly, if you price your product too low, then some might pass it up simply because they are concerned it might be of inferior quality and cut into your potential profit margins. 

To identify a successful price, you will want to thoroughly understand your target audience and their willingness to pay for your product. Some questions you might ask yourself as you are considering your product’s price include:

What is the price range of your product’s competitors? 

What is the price range of your target audience? 

What price is too high for your audience? What price is too low? 

What price best fits your target market?

Place is where you sell your product and the distribution channels you use to get it to your customer. 

Like price, finding the right place to market and sell your product is key to reaching your target audience. If you put your product in a place that your target customer doesn’t visit—on or offline— you will likely not meet your sales target. The right place can help you connect with your target audience and set you up for success. 

For example, imagine you are selling an athletic shoe. Your target market is athletes in their early twenties to late thirties, so you decide to market your product in sports publications and sell it at specialty athletics stores. By focusing on sports stores over shoe stores in general, you target your efforts to a specific place that best fits your marketing mix.  

To decide the best place to market and sell your product, you should consider researching the physical or digital places where your target audience shops and consumes information. Some questions to consider include: 

Where will you sell your product?

Where does your target audience shop? 

What distribution channels are best to reach your target market?

Promotion is how you advertise your product or service. Through promotion, you will get the word out about your product with an effective marketing campaign that resonates with your target audience. 

There are many different ways to promote your product. Some traditional methods include word of mouth, print advertisements, and television commercials. In the digital age, though, there are even more marketing channels that you can use to promote your product, such as content marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing.  

Some questions to consider as you are working on your product promotion include: 

What is the best time to reach your target audience? 

What marketing channels are most effective for your target audience? 

What advertising approaches are most persuasive to your target audience?

Other marketing mixes

The four Ps aren’t the only marketing mix used today. Some other modern marketing mixes include the five Ps, the seven Ps, and the 5 Cs. Although each reflects certain aspects of the four Ps, they also possess some unique elements that alter their emphasis on the marketing process. 

The five Ps

The five Ps are product , price , place , promotion , and people . 

Today, many marketers use the five Ps over the four Ps because it centres the experiences of customers and staff in the marketing process. Typical considerations include how a customer behaves, their product experience, and overall satisfaction with the business.

The seven Ps

The seven Ps are product , price , place , promotion , people , processes , and physical evidence . 

The seven Ps further elaborate the five Ps, adding considerations of the processes defining the customer experience and the physical evidence the target market needs to see to become customers. While processes might involve the specific customer service processes that define a product, physical evidence can be websites or store displays that help the target market imagine themselves using the product.

The five Cs

The five Cs are customer , company , competition , collaborators , and climate . 

In some respects, the five Cs reflect many of the same concerns of the four and five Ps, but with added emphasis on external factors, such as possible outside collaborations and competitive research. 

Furthermore, while “climate” refers to the social, political, and economic context surrounding the market, “customer” refers to the target market and customer experience. “Company” refers to the place of the company and its available resources in the marketing process.

Build your marketing skills

You can learn some of the most important components of marketing with lessons from the Google Digital Marketing & E-Commerce Professional Certificate . Gain in-demand skills to prepare for a career in marketing as you gain experience with the tools used to implement them.

Digital marketing and e-commerce are rapidly growing fields, and knowledge in these areas is essential to marketing success in business. E-commerce is emerging as an important factor in marketing; global e-commerce sales are expected to grow by nearly $2 trillion by 2025 [ 4 ].

Article sources

Oxford Reference. “ E Jerome McCarthy , https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100143321.” Accessed July 29, 2022. 

Guillaum Nicaise. “ The Concept of the Marketing Mix , http://www.guillaumenicaise.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Borden-1984_The-concept-of-marketing-mix.pdf.” Accessed July 29, 2022.

HathiTrust. “ Basic Marketing: a managerial approach , https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000041584743&view=1up&seq=1.” Accessed July 29, 2022.

Insider Intelligence. “ Global Ecommerce Forecast 2021 , https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/global-ecommerce-forecast-2021#page-report.” Accessed November 2, 2022.

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How to Implement the 4 Ps of Marketing

• Linking websites 72

The number of websites linking to this post.

This post's estimated monthly organic search traffic.

Jeremy McCarthy originally proposed this type of marketing mix in his 1960 book, “Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach.” Since then, the model has been widely adopted by marketers and it’s still used today.

In this article, you’ll learn how to connect each of the 4 Ps into a coherent strategy to effectively promote and sell your product or service in four steps:

• Understand the product  you’re working with
• Decide on a price
• Choose a place  to sell your products
• Create a promotion  strategy

1. Understand the product  you’re working with

Most of you probably already have a product or service in mind—or at least an idea for it. After all, that’s the first step in the marketing mix . But before you move on to the next step, take a moment to double-check you’re on the right track. At the very least, you should be able to answer these fundamental questions:

• Who is the target market?
• How big is the market?
• What features does the market demand and value?
• How is your product different from the competition?

Learning the answers to these questions is a job for market research, which you can learn more about here . If you don’t have time for that right now (it can be pretty time-consuming), write down your best guesses so that you have something to work with. You can always refine it later on.

Here’s what things might look like for our product:

2. Decide on a price

Price is the cost your clients will pay for a product or service, and it needs to be linked to both the real and perceived value of your offer.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself when deciding on price:

• What costs do you need to consider? (supply costs, staff, distribution, etc.)
• Will it be enough to make you profitable?
• Will your target audience be able to afford the product?
• How will the price be perceived  in relation to its benefits and your competitors?

The main problem you need to solve here is how to connect your business costs with what your customers perceive as value.

The answer for our product was: data. Data is what our customers need, and at the same time, data is what creates cost on our side.

So we decided to tie the price of Ahrefs to data limits and data update frequency.

Then we decided to divide the pricing into four tiers (plus a custom enterprise plan). The cheapest plan is suitable for basic SEO needs and smaller marketing departments, while the most expensive plan reflects the needs of SEO agencies and big marketing departments.

To make things simpler and even more beneficial to our customers, every paid customer gets all the features Ahrefs has to offer.

Let’s also touch on the affordability issue. In other words, how do you make sure your product will be affordable for the target market?

One way to do it is to simply ask. You can survey or interview your target audience. For example, you can use the Van Westendorp  model to determine the optimal price point. The model is based on these questions:

• At what price would it be so low that you start to question this product’s quality?
• At what price do you think this product is starting to be a bargain?
• At what price does this product begin to seem expensive?
• At what price is this product too expensive?

Or you can listen to what people are saying on social media about similar products. But be careful with that. It’s hard to find people who publicly express their satisfaction with the price of something unless they get a bargain. You’re more likely to see people complaining.

However, if you’re lucky, you’ll stumble across lively discussions about pricing in your product category.

Here’s a good example  (be aware it contains some strong language):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvPkAYT6B1Q

It’s also a good idea to do benchmarking. We did that when setting the price for Ahrefs. Using comparable pricing to our then super-profitable competitor Moz decreased our chances of making a huge pricing mistake at the very beginning.

3. Choose a place  to sell your product

The place is about where and how customers buy your product or service. Think in terms of the type of shops, cloud vs. downloadable, staff needed, and possible fees to intermediaries.

Key questions this part of the process needs to cover:

• What are your potential customers’ shopping habits?
• Where does your competition sell its products?
• Where can the customers get the best buying experience and after-sales support?
• Do you need sales reps or will it be self-service?
• How much revenue will you need to give up to offer the product via a particular distribution channel?

I recently wrote a post about creating a go-to-market strategy  where I explained distribution models and how to choose the right one in more detail. So check that out if you want to learn more about this.

But just so have an idea of what to expect, here’s a table summarizing distribution models:

Salesforce is an excellent example of a company making a strong connection between product  and place . When starting out, they decided their product would be unlike anything on the market—a SaaS CRM sold on a subscription basis. This choice cemented their distribution model and made the place aspect of their marketing mix their brand differentiator.

Not only did this decision make Salesforce the company it is today, but it also shaped the industry for those who came to market after them. Now every CRM is a SaaS CRM.

Salesforce went even further by creating a strong connection between product  and promotion  (another “P”). They “translated” their product architecture into a promotional campaign called “The end of software,” which attacked the traditional software distribution model.

The takeaway here is that the right distribution model is greatly influenced by product type. Whenever you see more than one place you can sell your product, consider the costs and benefits. Maybe you’ll run into a goldmine as Salesforce did.

4. Create a promotion  strategy

Promotion refers to the tactics you need to use to reach the target market with your message. Think advertising, blog posts, social media, PR, etc.

Your promotion strategy needs to answer:

• Who are you trying to reach?
• How are your competitors reaching their customers?
• What is the typical buying journey of your prospects?
• What budget and staff do you need?
• What type of tactics can you use to fill the marketing funnel ?

Let me show you how we at Ahrefs answer some of these questions in our promotion strategy.

The cornerstone of our promotion strategy is content marketing . There are a few reasons we chose this type of marketing.

First , lots of people are searching Google for solutions to problems our product solves.

For example, there are an estimated 450 searches per month in the US for “how to rank higher on Google”:

So we wrote a blog post  explaining how to solve this problem with Ahrefs, which now ranks #3 for this keyword:

We’ve done exactly the same thing for hundreds of other relevant topics with search demand. As a result, our blog now gets hundreds of thousands of visits from organic search every month.

Second , since Ahrefs is an SEO tool, what better sales pitch is there than us ranking for every SEO-related topic ourselves?

By showing that we can rank our content using our very own tools, we create a strong connection between the product and promotion within our 4 Ps model. That strong connection acts as a reason to believe in our product’s value and gives us plenty of case studies to cover on our blog.

And finally , let’s consider our distribution model. Since our product is self-service and we sell it only through our website, we need a mechanism to bring our target market to us. Content marketing solves this problem.

Let’s take a look at the three core elements of our content marketing strategy  in more detail.

We currently have 14 free tools that showcase features from our core paid tools. These allow us to connect the Ps and use our product  as a promotion  vehicle to:

• Increase brand awareness by ranking for relevant searches, like “free backlink checker.”
• Reduce friction  by allowing potential customers to try before they buy.

If you’re curious how much traffic our free tools bring us, take a look at the Top pages report in Ahrefs’ Site Explorer  for our domain.

Here’s a sneak peek:

Our blog also sends tons of targeted  organic traffic our way:

This is because we keep our blog business-oriented. You won’t find us blogging about company retreats, office dogs, or how to remove a background from an image. Those first two topics have no search demand, and the latter has no ‘business potential.’

‘Business potential’ is what we use to gauge the likelihood of our readers discovering our product through an article about a particular topic. We judge it on a four-point scale:

So although an article explaining how to remove a background from an image could send us lots of organic traffic, there’s no point in us writing about it because it has zero ‘business potential.’

Instead, we mostly write about topics that score a two or a three on our ‘business potential’ scale. An example is “SEO audit,” which we’ve ranked quite consistently for over the years:

If you want to learn more about blogging for business, we have a free five-hour course here .

Our YouTube channel is another core element of our content marketing strategy.

We’ve been creating videos regularly for around three years now (when Sam  joined us). During that time, we’ve published 181 videos—a feat that simply wouldn’t have been possible without a dedicated person for that marketing channel.

How we approach our YouTube channel is very similar to our blog. We keep it business-oriented, with each video sharing our expertise on how Ahrefs can solve common SEO and marketing problems.

You can learn more about our YouTube keyword research and ranking strategy in this video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY3y0V9UDwM

• How to Create a Winning Content Strategy
• 16 Marketing Tactics That Work in 2021
• 10 Lead Generation Tactics That Work (With Examples)
• Growth Hacking Tactics That Every Startup Needs To Know
• A behind-the-scenes account of our marketing at Ahrefs SaaS Marketing Vlog .

Final thoughts

The 4 Ps of marketing is a bit like the SWOT. Both are extremely elegant in their simplicity, touch the fundamentals of business, and can be used for multiple purposes.

Here are just a few ways you can use the 4 Ps of marketing:

• Develop your marketing strategy. Once you get the product, price, place, and promotion right, you’ve laid the groundwork for your entire marketing efforts.
• Conduct a marketing workshop. The 4 Ps of marketing is something everyone can understand. Furthermore, everyone can have interesting ideas or insight on its components.
• Audit a marketing strategy. When you need to audit or dissect an existing (perhaps competitive) marketing strategy, the 4 Ps will keep you focused on what’s important.

Got questions? Ping me on Twitter .

The 4 P’s of Marketing + Marketing Mix Examples

The 4 P’s are a concept from the business world that helps you define your business offerings and create the best individualized marketing strategy possible. 

What are the 4 P’s of Marketing? 

The 4 P‘s stands for: 

• Price 
• Place 

All aspects of marketing can be categorized under one of these 4 terms. According to conventional marketing wisdom, optimizing each of these 4 categories is a successful strategy for marketing. 

Marketing Mix Definition 

Because each of t he 4 P’s are supposed to work together like ingredients in a recipe, the 4 P’s are also called The Marketing Mix.

What is the marketing mix? Just your business’s unique blend of the 4 P’s to create your own custom recipe for marketing success. 

History of the 4 P’s 

The term “marketing mix” came first, when Harvard professor James Culliton used the recipe metaphor to describe the components of marketing in a 1948 paper. The book The Concept of the Marketing Mix further refined the idea and by 1960 the elements had been reduced to the 4 P’s we know today. 

This concept has proved remarkably useful through the decades, even as businesses move increasingly online. 

The First P of Marketing: Product + Example 

Defining your product is the first step in determining your unique marketing mix. What do you sell or provide to the customer? 

This can be a physical product like cars or hair accessories; a service like business consulting, or even a digital product like a membership to an online forum. 

The marketing mix 4P approach suggests that you clarify your product as much as possible by defining the following attributes:

• Who is my target customer?
• What are they searching for?
• How does my product meet their needs? 
• What makes my product distinctive? 
• What makes my product stand out from competitors? 
• What are my product’s features? 
• What are my product’s benefits? 

This will help you craft the most appealing description of your product and drive more consumer interest and sales. 

4 P’s of Marketing Example: Product 

Let’s take a barbershop that caters to families with young children. Their product is - obviously - haircuts. 

Applying the 4 Ps, the barbershop might describe its product this way:

“ We know your kids may be nervous about a new haircut. We offer a fun, no-pressure shop where your kids can watch their favorite cartoons from our custom-painted chairs. Our trained stylists can give your little ones the latest style or just a trim quickly and easily. It’s so much fun, your kids will want to come back every week!”

In this example, the barbershop is offering a very ordinary product -haircuts. But they know that their target customers are parents who are worried about their children not sitting still for haircuts. Therefore, they position their product as unique - a “fun” haircut. 

The Second P of Marketing: Price + Example 

Much ink has been spilled determining the pricing sweet spot for any given product. The marketing mix strategy acknowledges that different businesses will use different pricing strategies. 

• Premium pricing - especially for “luxury” or “premium” brands
• Undercutting competitors 
• Offering a loyalty program
• Offering purchase points redeemable for rewards 
• Coupons 
• Sales 
• Free shipping 
• Bonus offers/free gift with purchase 
• Entry-level pricing 
• Accepting credit or pay-later systems 
• Financing 

4 P’s of Marketing Example: Pricing 

Google now offers a range of smartphones that are positioned to compete with the iPhone. 

We can see that Google is using several pricing strategies here to promote the Pixel: 

• Trade-in old phone for purchase credit
• Free shipping
• Added products (phone protection; Google One storage) 

As part of the 4ps, Google is choosing pricing strategies that will appeal the most to its customers: those who want a good phone but still want a deal and those who want easy integration with their existing Google products. 

The Third P of Marketing: Place + Example 

Since a big part of the marketing mix definition is place, it’s not a relevant concept in the digital age, right? Not quite. 

Keep in mind that some businesses will always be local: you can’t hire a remote plumber, for example. 

Furthermore, around 70% of Americans say that shopping locally is important to them. So actual geographic location is still quite important. 

That said, over 80% of consumers worldwide shopped online. Unquestionably, customers are online. But located exactly where online will be a key to deciding where to place your product’s promotion.

The Third P of marketing refers more to where your product is marketed than your actual physical location. This means finding where your customers spend time online and placing your product there. 

Do your target customers frequent any of the following sites:

Determining this will rely primarily upon your demographic research, but competitor research can help too. 

Are your competitors placing their products on Facebook? Have they ignored Instagram because your audience doesn’t spend time there, or is this an opportunity for you to locate your product near customers but away from competition? 

4 P’s of Marketing Example: Place 

Popular skincare brand Curology uses the marketing mix to reach its target customer on social media. The company’s headquarters is in San Francisco, but that is irrelevant to the “place” component 4P. 

Curology sells customized skincare 100% online, so it places its promotions where customers are - social media. 

Take a look at the promoted ad from Facebook below:

This ad uses the marketing mix concept well because it summarizes the product by highlighting a few of its key benefits - it's customizable, and it’s delivered to you (which means convenient). 

The ad is placed on a site that people check almost reflexively, so they are likely to see the ad and follow it for more information on the brand. 

Next, we’ll turn to the final element of the marketing mix definition: promotion .

The Fourth P of Marketing: Promotion + Example 

The 4Ps wouldn’t be complete without promotion. This refers to how you reach your customers and what strategies you use to incentive purchases.

This may include some of the following tools and types of digital marketing : 

• Search engine marketing
• Direct emails
• Targeted ads
• Content marketing 
• Word of mouth
• Influencer marketing
• Billboards 
• Direct Mail 
• Radio 

Anything that gets your product in front of your target audience is part of your marketing strategy. 

Now, many new businesses are inclined to go for all the promotion strategies.

As any seasoned marketer can tell you, this is a waste of time and effort. It’s better to research which strategies work best for your product and audience and build quality promotions. 

Remember, The 4 Ps of marketing maintain that each business has its own unique recipe. Just because billboard advertising works great for the auto repair shop down the street doesn’t mean it will work for your marketing consulting firm. 

4 P’s of Marketing Example: Promotion 

Email marketing is an effective strategy, with studies showing it has some of the highest return on investment of all digital marketing strategies. 

Here is how an online vitamin company, Puritan’s Pride, used email marketing over a holiday weekend sale: 

In this image, you can see how the company is using price to incentivize a sale in the form of 75% off. 

The promotion comes as an email. These are quickly skimmed, so this promotion is visual and easy to scan, relying on images rather than text to get its message across quickly before the potential customer moves on to a different email. 

Do You Know the 4Ps of Your Business?  

Does your business have a well-defined marketing mix? Here are some ways you can tell:

• Your marketing goals are clearly defined 
• You have a strong brand voice
• You know what percentage of business occurs in-person and online
• You know what online channels your customers frequent 
• You are clear about your product(s) benefits
• You’ve invested in market and competitor research
• You have chosen your distribution channels
• You have a clear pricing strategy

If your business is fuzzy on some of these basics, you probably need to revisit your unique marketing mix. 

How to Apply the 4Ps in Your Own Business 

So - what is the marketing mix you should be using? 

Your marketing mix may be different for any given product or phase of your business growth. Ideally, you will be determining your mix before you even finish developing your first product.

This is because you want to make sure you are actually offering something customers need. 

Step 1: Research: Customers, Competition, and Market

• What products or services are people looking for?
• Is there dissatisfaction with the current offerings? 
• How can you offer something distinctive?
• What is your competition doing well and poorly? 

Step 2: Determine your Pricing Strategy

• Will you position your product as a luxury/premium offering?
• Will you undercut existing prices?
• Do you plan to offer customer loyalty incentives?
• Do you plan to offer free services or loss leaders?
• Do you anticipate raising prices over time? 

Step 3: Placement 

• What are your primary distribution channels?
• Online, in-person, or hybrid purchase offers?
• Will you need a physical location for promotion?
• Do you plan to work through wholesalers and retailers?
• What online channels will you place your ads on? 

Step 4: Determine Promotional Strategies 

• What is your promotional budget? 
• Do you have a digital promotion strategy?
• What promotions are most effective with your target audience?

These are a lot of questions to ask. The more time and thought you can invest in the front-end of developing a new product, the more specific you can be about your approach to business. 

Ultimately, this means you can more effectively track the success of your chosen strategy and determine what is and is not working. 

Case Study: The 4Ps of SEOptimer.com 

Since we are a marketing company, after all, let’s use the SEOptimer website as an example of the 4 P’s at work. 

4 P’s of Marketing: Product 

SEOptimer offers numerous tools to make online marketing easier. One of our key products is the SEO Audit and Reporting Tool.

The headline of this page immediately tells visitors what they will get: a free, comprehensive SEO audit of their URL. When visitors scroll down, they learn the features and benefits of this product. 

Search Engines rely on many factors to rank a website. SEOptimer is a Website SEO Checker which reviews these and more to help identify problems that could be holding your site back from its potential.

Additionally, we provide a clear, actionable, prioritized list of recommendations to help improve.

This further defines the value of the product for potential customers and increases their chances of trying it out. 

4 P’s of Marketing: Price 

SEOptimer offers the free SEO audit tool (and lots of other SEO tools), as part of a “freemium” strategy. This means that our tools are freely available, but advanced features require a paid subscription.  

This is a pricing strategy. We also offer paid SEO consulting services. Customers use our free tools, which builds their confidence in us as digital marketing experts. If they need professional services, they are then more likely to turn to our company. 

4 P’s of Marketing: Place

Since our products are digital, they are accessible from anywhere in the world. For a company like ours with a global reach, “place” is more about reaching customers digitally. 

Maintaining a strong presence on multiple social channels is one way we do this. Another is by focusing on our SEO strategy, which reaches costumes across the world, rather than in one limited geographic location. 

4 P’s of Marketing: Promotion

While SEOptimer uses multiple promotional strategies, one good example is our organic search strategy.

Not only do we provide free and paid SEO tools, but we also offer valuable guides, articles, and how-tos to our customers. 

This content is indexed by Google and other search engines, making it more likely that potential customers will find our content, read it, and then engage with our brand. 

The 4P’S - Find Your Custom Marketing Recipe 

The 4 P’s of marketing have successfully guided marketers for over 6 decades. Far from being obsolete, combining these 4 elements is a tried-and-true method of defining your business’s overall goals and strategy. 

Try this exercise today: see if you can clearly define the 4 P’s for any given product in your company: 

If you’re clear on these 4 elements, then chances are you have the marketing mix for your business mastered. 

Adam Krzywda

SEOptimer's CEO and venerable leader. Adam has a wealth of experience across Digital Marketing, SEO and software, and enjoys sharing his learnings from growing SEOptimer to an audience of over 100,000 monthly users.

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The Four Ps of Marketing

You might have heard about the Four Ps of marketing in a textbook, in school, or from a fellow marketer. But the Four Ps of Marketing are more than just an abstract idea: they are a very important marketing concept that you can use to advertise your new business, optimize your sales, reach your target audience, or test your current marketing strategy. Learn how you can utilize the four Ps to help grow your business.

What Are the Four Ps of Marketing?

Marketing is the activity , set of institutions, or processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. The four Ps of marketing is a marketing concept that summarizes the four key factors of any marketing strategy. The four Ps are: product, price, place, and promotion.

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An Overview of Marketing

This course introduces marketing, the marketing mix (the Four Ps), the strategic importance of marketing, and customer values and satisfaction.

Brand Strategy 101

With practice and a dash of curiosity, this course will reveal what’s needed to bring a brand to life using this formula: Brand Commitment + Brand Voice + Design + Implementation = Brand Strategy.

Modern Marketing: Strategy and Execution

The course focuses on providing practical, hands-on advice to entrepreneurs and small-business people, including video segments with analysis and commentary from industry-leading practitioners and subject matter experts.

The History of the Four Ps of Marketing

The four Ps were popularized by Neil Borden, an advertising professor at Harvard University , in the 1950s, as part of the overall marketing mix. The four Ps of marketing are still widely used today by marketers and companies to advertise their goods and services.

Understanding the Four Ps of Marketing

Now that you know what the four Ps of marketing are, let’s break down each one so you can utilize each in your own marketing strategy.

What is Product?

The product is what your company sells. For example, maybe it is smoothies from your juice bar or jewelry from your e-commerce store. Or, it can be a service, like yoga classes or therapy sessions. The product is what you make available to the consumer. Ideally, your product or service should fulfill an existing consumer demand. The type of product or service you offer helps you determine how much to charge for it, where it should be placed, and how it should be promoted. (The other three Ps of marketing!)

To capitalize on successfully marketing your product, you need to identify why it is different or special. So, what sets your product apart from other products like it on the market? How can it win over customers and beat the competition? The key to this P of marketing is determining what it is that makes your product unique or special.

Example of Product

Many successful products and services are the first in their category. For example, Apple was the first company to sell a touchscreen smartphone that had the ability to do much more than simply make phone calls.

What is Price?

Price is the amount of money you charge customers for the previously determined product or service. The right price drives up the most amount of sales and the most profit for your company. The price also must be related to the product’s real and perceived value.

Example of Price

There are several factors that can affect the cost of a product or service , like supply costs, seasonal discounts, and competitors’ prices. There are also other reasons to raise or lower prices. For example, some high-end businesses might raise the price of their products to give the appearance of being a luxury to appeal to an affluent audience. On the other hand, other businesses might lower the price of a newer product or offer a discount to entice more consumers into buying and trying the product.

What is Place?

The third P of marketing is place. This is the place where you should sell your product and how it should be delivered to the market.

Example of Place

For example, would it be better to sell your product from a brick-and-mortar store or an e-commerce website? Or, it can refer to where you place the product within your store’s display. Place can even refer to where you choose to advertise your product, like on TV, social media, or web pages. The ultimate goal of place is to determine the best place to get products in front of the customers who are most likely to purchase them.

While place might seem irrelevant if you have an e-commerce website , it actually is extremely relevant. For example, on which social media platforms are you promoting your e-commerce website? Place and promotion are tied closely together.

What is Promotion?

The final P of marketing is promotion. Promotion includes all of the advertising and public relations that make up your promotional strategy for your product. The goal of promoting your product is to show consumers why they need it, what problem it will solve for them, and why they should fork over their hard-earned money for it. What is the best way to reach your target market? It might be a social media platform, a PR campaign, or an SEO strategy.

Example of Promotion

There are so many ways to promote your business today and so many tools available to help you do it. The key is choosing the right method of promotion in order to reach your specific target audience. They might include online marketing, SEO, social media, Google Ads, social media advertising, affiliate marketing or influencer marketing , content marketing, or email marketing.

Marketing Strategy Examples

To create an excellent marketing strategy , here is an example:

Step 1: Product: Determine what it is that you sell, whether it is a product, service, consulting, etc.

Step 2: Price: Decide how much you will charge for your product or service that will both help you make a profit, but is realistic for your consumers.

Step 3: Place: Choose where you will sell your product or service.

Step 4: Promotion: Pick the best method of promoting your product or service.

Marketing Analysis Example

If your current marketing strategy doesn’t seem to be working, perform a marketing analysis by working your way through each of the four Ps of marketing to determine the issue. Maybe it lies within the product, price, place, or promotion. For example, maybe you have an excellent product, but the place you are selling it isn’t working.

The Four Ps are Essential for Marketers

If you want to stand out from your competitors, you need to leverage the four Ps of marketing. For more marketing tips, consider joining the American Marketing Association! We offer Digital Marketing Certifications and more to help you be the best possible marketer.

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The 4 P of Marketing: Explained (with Examples)

Article last updated on August 20, 2021

I love to talk about marketing strategies because it is one of those things that can actually help you in growing your business and one of these strategies is definitely the Four P of marketing.

The Four Ps are an acronym for Product, Price, Place & Promotion.

So what does this ultimately mean?

It means that if we want our customers to buy from us then we need to be able to provide a product or service they will find valuable enough to pay for.

We also have to price it at a level where they won’t feel like they’re being ripped off.

And finally, we should promote ourselves in ways that get our message across effectively.

In contrast, here are three things I don’t think any company wants their customer to do:

• Pay too much – If you charge more than necessary, you’ll lose potential buyers because they’ll look elsewhere.
• Not use your services – You may not even know how good your products or services really are!
• Ignore your promotion efforts – It doesn’t matter how many times you try something new; if no-one knows about it, it didn’t work.

Therefore, let me show you why these four P’s are important and how you can start using them today.

So firstly, let’s define what is 4P in marketing and then break down each of the four Ps individually.

What Is The 4P In Marketing

Well, there are two main parts to the 4Ps.

The first part is ‘Product’ which refers to the actual thing you offer. This could be physical goods, digital content, events, experiences, etc.

Then there’s ‘Promotion’, which simply means getting the word out about your product or service. In other words, making sure others know about it i.e. marketing communications.

We could spend time talking about the process of customer decision making and how this relates to 4Ps, but let’s take a closer look at each of the four Ps separately because that will give you even better understanding for more focused marketing strategy .

1st P is Product

Just like the name suggests, Product refers to the actual thing you’re offering.

It can be anything from a physical item such as clothes to digital content such as an eBook or courses.

Products also come in all shapes and sizes too so it’s important you segment what you offer.

This will make it easier for you to market to different target markets and to boost your overall results.

What should be included in your product or service? In other words, what will people get from it?

Again, think practically and try to come up with a shortlist of 10-20 features or benefits explaining why someone would want your product or service.

For example: Now think about whether there are any additional services that could complement your offering.

List them out – 10 to 20 items.

On top of that, think about what you could give as a free gift to your potential clients.

This is relatively easy if you work in a service-oriented business, but even companies that manufacture and sell physical goods can consider giving away something of value for free.

The goal here is to create an overview of the entire product or service and then highlight everything it has to offer. What do customers get from purchasing it?

Here’s an example of a product with multiple layers:

Sometimes, it’s not possible to decide on which features you want to highlight right away.

In these cases, think about the quality of your marketing materials.

If they are flashy but basic, people may be more inclined to focus on just what they see on the surface rather than anything else that might be hidden inside.

That being said, I’d recommend creating something realistic for your first try.

It’s simpler and usually works better than coming up with something over-the-top at first.

2nd P is Price

I don’t need to tell you that this is of high importance because all organizations are concerned with price.

It’s an intrinsic part of any business. If people won’t pay for it, the business can’t survive!

If you’re selling a service or product then price is what your customer pays to own it.

And if you want to sell more of that service or product , you have to increase the price and so on and so forth.

You should also think about whether you want to charge based on value or the number of features.

In other words, are people really likely to buy something because it costs more (value-based pricing) or are they more likely to be interested in what you have to offer no matter how much it costs (feature-based pricing)?

That’s a tough question and there’s no one right answer.

On one hand, we all know that paying less is always good unless you’re talking about convenience or quality.

I mean, let’s face it – nobody wants a cheap haircut if it looks like someone butchered their hair with hedge clippers! So charging based on value might not work all the time.

On the other hand, there are people who will purchase an item no matter how much it costs just because they really need or want it.

It all depends on your budget and willingness to take a risk.

If you have a small capital investment, I’d recommend starting with value-based pricing since it’s easier to scale and can be more effective in the long run if executed properly.

If you’re going big, though, go straight for feature-based pricing and make sure that every penny is worth it!

The most important part of deciding on price is determining what you need to earn from each sale in order to achieve your goals.

For instance, let’s say you came up with 10 features and benefits that explain why someone should buy from you. Of course, your goal is to sell each product or service for the highest possible price!

But how much could you earn?

To make this decision easier, divide the total cost of creating your product by the number of features you have and then multiply that result by 100.

For example: Let’s say it costs $1,000 to create a set of 4 pillows with different designs (colorful feather pillows will look good on our bed).

Each pillow has 1 feature (feathered edges). That means I need to charge at least $25 per pillow if I want my goal ($50,000) to be realistic.

Then, just add up all the expenses related to making each pillow and divide it by the total number of features.

The result will be the price for each feature (in this case, $5 per pillow). This is what people have to pay for your product or service.

Finally, add up all the prices for each feature and multiply it by 100 to find out what the end cost is.

Of course, you can always adjust these numbers later on depending on how much profit you want to make or how competitive your market is.

3rd P is Place

Place refers to where your products or services are available.

Once you’ve decided whom you want to sell them to (target market), it’s important that you let them know how and where they can get hold of what it is you’re offering.

What are some ways we can do this? Well, if you have a website with an online store then that is one place where they can get it. Or, in other words, on your site.

Think about it like this – if all else was equal but the place differed, which option is more favorable from a marketing efforts standpoint?

Think about your target audience, their preferences and buying habits.

Here’s an example of a business that has a lot of options for placement:

It can be offline or online. Even better – it can be both!

It might not make sense to do this at first, but if you’re planning ahead, then this is important information to keep in mind.

Alternatively, if you want to start out with something simple and relevant right away, think about advertising on websites that match your target audience’s demographics and interests based on publicly available data.

Also consider places where people are likely to look for products like yours (i.e., Google search results).

If you’re not sure what works best for your business just yet, try doing some research.

4th P is Promotion

This one is a biggie and encompasses all the ways you communicate your product or service to your customers.

Once you have a plan for yourself, it’s time to start promoting your business in the wild.

There are many different ways to go about this – email campaigns , social media marketing, content creation and sharing… The list goes on and on!

I’d recommend starting small with a few ideas you know will work and then expand from there once you’ve seen some results.

However, stay realistic – take into account any limits or obstacles that may keep you from being successful and adjust accordingly (by changing strategies or lowering your expectations).

New businesses can be particularly vulnerable to failure if they concentrate too much on promotion while neglecting other important areas such as product development.

Remember that people tend to be more attracted to what they already know or have experienced in the past.

In other words, it’s better to create something great (or at least very good) and promote your services instead of offering poor quality products / information that nobody really wants.

You may also want to consider keeping costs low by finding partners for joint promotion efforts.

Do you know any businesses that would be willing to promote your product if you did the same? When done correctly, this can save a lot of money while providing both parties with additional exposure.

Collaborating with another business doesn’t necessarily mean less work – quite the opposite – but it does provide meaningful results faster than promoting on your own.

Here’s an example of a new business owner who is doing pretty much everything right from a marketing standpoint:

She has created a simple, realistic plan.

She has gathered all the necessary data and done her research.

Her plan reflects her business’s greatest strengths and weaknesses.

She is promoting herself both online and offline – via email campaigns, social media ads etc.)

Finally, she is using marketing materials that are relevant to her target audience.

Once you’re able to incorporate these four P into your own business model, you’ll be well on your way towards successful long-term growth.

In summary, here are some tips for implementing the 4Ps into your marketing strategy:

• Product – Find your business’s greatest strength and match it to a product / service that meets the needs of your target audience. Keep in mind that you can always offer several different products or services, but they should all fit into your overall business model.
• Price – Decide on a price that’s fair to your customers. You can always raise prices later, but it’s much harder to lower them. Lastly, take advantage of alternative pricing schedules (such as “buy one get one free”) when appropriate.
• Place – Determine where you want to sell your products and services – offline or online? It’s important to do the proper market research before making a final decision.
• Promotion – Decide how you plan to promote your business – with or without an online presence?  It’s also important to create realistic goals based on your resources (money, time etc.). A very small investment in promotion is often better than no effort at all.

And remember, the most important ‘P’ here is to be persistent; whatever you’re selling, follow-through and stay focused on your target market.

And of course, keep experimenting until you find what works for you!

Now that we have covered all 4P’s, I want to give you an example of combined 4P framework so you get even better understanding of each one of them.

Marketing 4Ps Example

The first example.

The first example shows us that a business has an existing product that they are offering.

The business also offers other products and services in addition to this one, but the first is being used as a primary example.

The business is offering $10 worth of service for the month, which would be equivalent to $120 if purchased continually without stopping.

The place of purchase is online only and there will not be any offline delivery.

One key factor that may reduce the amount of profits made from this particular product would be its exclusivity.

It appears that only one individual or group could use it at a time, which makes it difficult to market on a larger scale when you need more customers than that.

However, because this production happens almost entirely online, costs can easily go down by cutting out traditional advertising methods.

Traditional forms of advertisement such as televisions, newspapers and radio usually cost a lot to maintain each month.

The content for these advertisements are also created at the same time which means that multiple people are needed to create them.

Digital marketing is much more efficient in terms of money spent on advertisement.

With Facebook, these ads can be carefully targeted based on demographics and other useful information about the audience being advertised towards.

The place of this business’s product is almost entirely online.

This means that no additional physical infrastructure needs to be built by order to fulfill the demand for customers who would use it outside of their home/office computers.

The second example

The second example shows us that the business produces a product that can be delivered directly to customers for a price.

The service being provided is also unique in that it can only be purchased from one location, unlike common products such as food/drinks and electronics which have multiple stocked warehouses across the country.

Since this product is not something your typical customer would use on a daily basis, there are no additional costs involved other than the initial purchase cost.

There are plans to offer more services like this in the future but they will work independently of this set up so it does not affect profit margins or cash flow.

The place of this business’s product is both online and offline, however this one offers a service for the price of $60+.

If it was sold in physical stores, which are usually more expensive to run than their online counterparts, then average consumers would not be able to purchase the products regularly because they would have less money left after paying for rent/utilities and other living costs.

When a customer purchases this product, it also comes with access to the service provider which means that traditional advertising methods are not necessarily required.

It is believed that most sales come through people visiting and reading information posted by this company on social media websites such as Facebook and Instagram.

This type of business has its customer service section separated into individual stores or businesses that are a part of the overall brand and image.

If traditional advertising was used then it would be very costly to advertise on such a large scale so it is not believed that this method is currently being used (if at all).

The main marketing tool for this company may involve social media instead.

In addition to that, this business has a website as well which may be visited by customers in order to learn more about the product.

They have integrated themselves into the online community in order to market their product and service offerings on a global scale.

Many people have heard of this brand or company before so it is not necessary for them to market themselves as heavily since they already have a certain amount of recognition among potential customers.

Marketing through social media has proven itself as an effective method for promoting information on a large scale so it’s possible that most new customers are attracted to buy from them based on what they see online rather than recommendations from other customers.

After having a positive experience with their product, many customers may recommend them to others through word of mouth which is considered to be the most effective way for businesses to attract new customers.

As stated previously, since there are no costs involved in running this business aside from paying for advertising, they can scale faster.

In conclusion, marketing should be focused on helping others achieve success.

The four Ps framework helps us identify which parts of our businesses require improvement.

By using these tools, we can improve our own personal performance while simultaneously improving the quality of our service offerings.

Marketing 4P Mix

Marketing mix is often associated with the 4 Ps of marketing, but it’s not strictly limited to those four elements.

For example, in addition to the 4Ps, there’s also a fifth element that’s important for businesses – Product Life Cycle (PLC).

But also there can be even more elements to a marketing mix, like 6Ps or 7Ps. This is known as the extended marketing mix.

Of course each element must be matched with specific consumers’ needs and preferences.

Ideally the buyer’s decision making process can be divided into five stages:

• Problem recognition
• Information search
• Evaluation of alternatives
• Purchase decision
• Post‐purchase behavior

The customer buys a product at one stage in the process, while he/she may consider other options at different stages.

Problem recognition and information search are the first two stages in the decision making process.

This is where marketing campaigns can be targeted to create awareness about a product and to make potential buyers aware of its benefits.

Next comes the evaluation of alternatives , which means evaluating different brands and their products.

This is where the competitive successful marketing strategy comes into play.

Buyers can be influenced by internal and external information that surround him/her during all stages in this process, but especially at evaluation of alternatives.

When consumers are presented with two or more choices, they will try to estimate their relative worth by comparing different attributes of each option.

In other words, the marketing mix plays a huge role for each key element.

In order to be able to influence consumers, marketers must first know their needs and wants in advance.

As mentioned earlier, the traditional marketing mix (4Ps of marketing) are considered to be: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

Other elements can include more or less factors that affect the overall marketing performance.

Information about competition is also important when evaluating potential market opportunities and threats.

For example, if your product isn’t differentiated from others it’s much harder to sell it as compared to other products with different (or additional) features.

If you’re starting a new business in an existing market where there’s lots of competition – without being aware of competitors’ strategies etc., you may end up trying to sell a product nobody needs.

If this happens, you can always adjust your marketing strategy by making minor or major changes in the 4Ps.

For instance, changing prices might help you gain some customers who were previously unwilling to buy because of high prices.

This would potentially improve customer experience especially if pricing decisions were a main friction point.

However, if you don’t have any idea what kind of pricing strategy would work best for your particular situation, then you should probably start off with something simple.

You could offer free samples, discounts on certain items, special offers, etc.

These tactics won’t cost anything upfront, so you’ll get immediate feedback on how effective these approaches are.

All in all, the most successful businesses tend to focus on providing great value to their target audience and they do this through offering unique solutions to problems, creating useful content, building trust, delivering superior service, etc.

Remember: The goal isn’t necessarily to spend money; rather, it’s to generate leads and increase conversions.

Once you know what type of lead generation works best for your business, you can decide which channel to invest time and resources into.

4P in marketing plan

I want to show you how you can incorporate 4P in your marketing plan. This especially works well for digital 4P integration.

Let’s say that you already have a business, you are profitable, but you want to grow even more. You also realize that there is still room for improvement.

In order to achieve this, you should start by analyzing where you stand today.

What does your current situation look like? How much revenue did you earn last year? Did you lose any customers during the past 12 months? If yes, then you probably didn’t improve enough over the years.

If not, congratulations! Your business is doing fine right now.

However, you might be missing some opportunities to expand further.

To figure out what could help you grow faster, you must analyze all aspects of your business.

For instance, do you sell products directly through eCommerce websites? Or do you offer free samples? Do you provide customer support via phone calls or email messages? Are you using social media platforms to promote your product?

If so, great job! Now you’re ready to move forward.

Now we came to the part on how to implement the 4 Ps strategy successfully…

Here are some tips from personal experience developing growth strategies for my clients.

I recommend starting small by creating a simple landing page. Then test different variations of content and calls-to-action.

You may also consider using split testing software like Optimizely or Google Analytics so you can easily compare results across multiple versions of pages.

When you’ve found something that converts better, keep improving it! And always stay true to yourself and your brand.

Here’s quick recap:

• Who am I targeting?
• What problems do they face?
• How can I help them solve their problem?
• Focus On One Goal At Once – It might seem tempting to try to tackle several issues simultaneously, but this approach usually ends up being counterproductive. Instead, focus on one thing at once. If you want to grow your email list, then make sure all other aspects of your campaign revolve around building subscribers.
• Be Consistent – It is important to stick to your guns and not deviate too far from your original vision. Otherwise, people won’t trust you anymore. They will expect you to change direction every now and again. So, if you want to build long term relationships with your audience, you need to show them that you mean business.
• Don’t Forget To Measure Results – The most effective way to measure success is through data. Make sure you track everything – including clicks, impressions, bounces, form submissions etc. It doesn’t matter whether you use tools such as Google Analytics or Hubspot . Just make sure you collect enough information to see trends over time.
• Keep Improving – Don’t stop improving your user experience and conversion rate just because things are working well. Always strive to improve upon what’s already been done. The more effort you put into making changes, the faster you’ll reach your goals.

Questions About The Four Ps

Can i have a successful marketing plan without 4ps.

Yes, of course! But it will be much more difficult and time consuming than with the help of these four Ps.

So, don’t worry about having an “all in one package” solution.

You should start with whatever works best for you.

And remember – there is no right answer here. Every company has its own unique needs and challenges.

Do I need to have a marketing team and marketing process to use 4Ps?

No, not at all! You can do it yourself with the help of these two things:

• A good sales funnel. This allows you to segment your leads based on where they came from and how many times they visited your site before submitting contact info.
• An autoresponder service. These allow you to send automated emails to your contacts after they sign up for your newsletter.

These two things alone will get you started.

Then, add some analytics, social media management and content creation.

This way you will have an insight into what works to polish your 4Ps and improve your marketing process.

Is there some other marketing model besides 4P that I should be aware of?

The four Ps are a good starting place, but they’re not the only way to think about your business and its customers.

There are plenty of different models out there.

Don’t obsess over these things for long because you should pay attention to three main KPIs and your marketing model will be a secondary priority.

These three KPIs are:

• NPS : This metric measures customer loyalty by asking questions like “How likely would you recommend our product/service?” and “What percentage of your total revenue did we generate?”.
• CAC : This is basically the cost required to acquire each new customer. For example, let’s say you spend $100 per lead generated. If this number is high then you might consider lowering your price points. On the contrary, if it’s low then maybe you could increase your prices.
• LTV : This is calculated by multiplying the average lifetime value of a customer by their retention rate. In simple terms, it means how much money does your current customer bring in compared to the amount spent acquiring him.

Will 4Ps marketing reduce costs for my marketing budget?

Yes it will and it does that by reducing time wasted on ineffective activities.

You’ll save lots of time and effort which you can use to focus more on growing your company instead of wasting resources on unproductive tasks.

Which of the 4P of marketing is most important?

I think it’s all about your target audience and their needs, right? So, I would say 1st P i.e. Product and combine it with your ideal customer.

Let me give you a few examples on why: If you sell software products, you probably know who your ideal customer is.

• But do you really understand them?
• Are they looking for something specific?
• What problems do they face when buying from you?
• How can you help them solve those issues?

That’s where you start!

You don’t need to go deep into psychology here.

Just ask yourself: Who am I trying to reach? Why do they need my solution? And what problem do they face while searching for solutions online?

Then try to find out what kind of content they’re interested in reading.

Now you have an idea of what type of blog posts you should write next.

If you sell services, you may also identify your ideal client but you won’t get as many opportunities to talk directly to them.

Instead, you’ll have to rely on indirect ways such as surveys, case studies, testimonials, etc.

To overcome this challenge, you can still apply the same principle.

Find out what people like about your service and offer similar features in your product.

For example, if you provide web design services, you can include freebies like templates, icons, fonts, etc.

If you sell physical goods, you can simply look at your competitors’ catalogues and see what types of items they carry.

Or even better, visit local stores and observe what kinds of things people actually purchase.

This way you can figure out what exactly your potential clients are looking for.

So, how much money did you spend on advertising last year? Did you notice anything different after spending so much money? Probably not because you didn’t take enough actionable data before making decisions.

All in all, these four Ps in marketing are very powerful tools that every entrepreneur should use to their advantage.

They help us understand our customer base and give us insight into who exactly we need to reach out to.

It helps us create relevant messages that resonate well with our customers.

We can then tailor our message accordingly based on their interests and preferences.

It allows us to make informed choices regarding our business strategy and ultimately leads to higher conversion rates.

In short, the Four Ps of marketing are extremely useful tools that any business owner must master.

• Product- Ideal Customer : A persona is a fictional character used to represent one or more real individuals. In marketing terms, it’s someone who represents a group of consumers.
• Price-Value Proposition : Price is only part of the value proposition. Value includes quality, delivery time, reliability, support, brand name, etc.
• Place-Geography : Place refers to the location of your target audience. Geographical targeting involves selecting geographic areas which match certain criteria.
• Promotion-Channel : Promotion channel is where you advertise your products.

Hopefully now after reading this article you have a complete understanding of 4Ps of marketing. I wish you good luck!

Marko Matijasevic

Marko is performance-based growth strategist, focusing on business growth while maintaining a strong emphasis on authenticity in every individual he works with.

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What Is a Marketing Mix?

What are the 4 ps of a marketing mix, what are other marketing tools, what are the four elements of a marketing mix, what are the 7 ps in a marketing mix, what is the purpose of a marketing mix, the bottom line.

• Marketing Essentials

Marketing Mix: The 4 Ps of Marketing and How to Use Them

Investopedia / Mira Norian

A marketing mix includes multiple areas of focus as part of a comprehensive marketing plan . The term often refers to a common classification that began as the four Ps : product, price, placement, and promotion.

Effective marketing touches on a broad range of areas as opposed to fixating on one message. Doing so helps reach a wider audience, and by keeping the four Ps in mind, marketing professionals are better able to maintain focus on the things that really matter. Focusing on a marketing mix helps organizations make strategic decisions when launching new products or revising existing products.

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Key Takeaways

• A marketing mix refers to a framework that uses the four Ps of product, price, placement, and promotion.
• This concept traces back to 1960, when marketing professor E. Jerome McCarthy first published it in a book entitled Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach.
• The different elements of a marketing mix work in conjunction with one another with the ultimate purpose of generating higher sales.
• In addition to the 4 Ps, three approaches can also be integrated that include people, process, and physical evidence to reinforce a consumer-centric type of marketing strategy.
• This type of strategy extends beyond a product-focused marketing approach.

The four Ps classification for developing an effective marketing strategy was first introduced in 1960 by marketing professor and author E. Jerome McCarthy. It was published in the book entitled Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. Depending on the industry and the target of the marketing plan, marketing managers may take various approaches to each of the four Ps. Each element can be examined independently, but in practice, they often are dependent on one another. 

This represents an item or service designed to satisfy customer needs and wants. To effectively market a product or service, it's important to identify what differentiates it from competing products or services. It's also important to determine if other products or services can be marketed in conjunction with it.

The sale price of the product reflects what consumers are willing to pay for it. Marketing professionals need to consider costs related to research and development, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution—otherwise known as cost-based pricing. Pricing based primarily on consumers' perceived quality or value is known as value-based pricing .

Value-based pricing plays a key role in products that are considered to be status symbols.

When determining areas of distribution, it's important to consider the type of product sold. Basic consumer products, such as paper goods, often are readily available in many stores. Premium consumer products, however, typically are available only in select stores.

Joint marketing campaigns are called a promotional mix. Activities might include advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and public relations. One key consideration is the budget assigned to the marketing mix. Marketing professionals carefully construct a message that often incorporates details from the other three Ps when trying to reach their target audience . Determination of the best mediums to communicate the message and decisions about the frequency of the communication also are important.

Not all marketing is product-focused. Customer service businesses are fundamentally different than those based primarily on physical products, so they often will take a consumer-centric approach that incorporates additional elements to address their unique needs.

Three additional Ps tied to this type of marketing mix might include people, process, and physical evidence. "People" refers to employees who represent a company as they interact with clients or customers. "Process" represents the method or flow of providing service to clients and often incorporates monitoring service performance for customer satisfaction. "Physical evidence" relates to an area or space where company representatives and customers interact. Marketers take into consideration elements such as furniture, signage, and layout.

Additionally, marketers often study consumers in order to refine or update strategies related to services or products. This requires a strategy for communicating with consumers in order to obtain feedback and define the type of feedback being sought.

Traditionally, marketing commences with identifying consumers' needs and ceases with the delivery and promotion of a final product or service. Consumer-centric marketing is more cyclical. Its goals include reassessing customers' needs, communicating frequently, and developing strategies to build customer loyalty .

The four primary elements of a marketing mix are product, price, placement, and promotion. This framework aims to create a comprehensive plan to distinguish a product or service from competitors that creates value for the customer. Often, these elements are dependent on each other.

Product refers to a good or service that meets a customer's needs. Here, companies focus on features that differentiate it from its competitors. An organization may also consider complementary products that fit within its suite of product or service offerings.

Price represents the price point or price range for the product or service. Ultimately, the goal is to maximize profit margins and return on investment while considering the price that customers are willing to pay.

Placement refers to distribution channels. Specifically, where is this product being promoted, and how can you get it in front of your target audience?

Promotion focuses on creating brand awareness around your product or service. Importantly, it looks at how utilizing certain channels can drive sales.

Sometimes, the marketing mix can extend beyond the classic four Ps of product, price, placement, and promotion established by professor E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960. These additional categories include people, physical evidence, and process.

In this way, people represent the employees who interact with customers. A company may consider company culture as it relates to its brand strategy. This may include customer relationship management (CRM) , which aims to increase brand loyalty among customers.

Physical evidence might include the packaging or the layout of a physical store, which can reinforce a brand and create more value to the customer.

Finally, the process identifies areas, often from a logistical standpoint, that enable the customer to have the most seamless experience possible with a product or service. This may include everything from delivery logistics and shipping to managing third-party retailers.

At its core, a marketing mix is focused on promoting a product or service to generate revenue for a company. On the whole, it integrates key marketing strategies that create brand awareness, build customer loyalty, and drive product sales.

The development of a comprehensive, effective marketing plan takes into consideration a marketing mix that includes several areas of focus. Typically, the marketing mix refers to the four Ps: product or service, its price, placement, and promotion. This concept was developed in 1960, when marketing professor E. Jerome McCarthy first published it in a book entitled Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach.

However, because not all marketing is focused on products, customer-service businesses rely on other marketing tools that might include three additional Ps: the people who interact with customers, the process that creates a seamless customer experience, and physical evidence, or the area where customers and company representatives interact.

All of these tools are used to promote a product or service and build brand awareness and customer loyalty in order to generate revenue for a business.

E. Jerome McCarthy. " Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach ," Page vi. R.D. Irwin, 1960.

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• Building Your Business

What Are the 4 Ps?

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The 4 Ps is a marketing term that stands for product, price, place (or placement), and promotion. This “marketing mix” of four key marketing factors is the foundation of successful marketing strategies around the world.

Key Takeaways

• At least four key factors, known as the 4 Ps, go into a successful marketing mix and plan: product design, pricing, placement, and promotional strategies.
• Use a marketing mix of all 4 Ps to ensure that your goods or services are marketed effectively to the right customers, in the right way, and in the right areas. 
• Understanding the 4 Ps and creating an ever-evolving marketing plan can help your business adapt, thrive, and grow in a dynamic, ever-changing market environment. 

Definition and Examples of the 4 Ps of Marketing

The 4 Ps were notably identified by Neil Borden, an advertising professor at Harvard University, in a 1964 article entitled, “The Concept of the Marketing Mix.” However, the concept of four essential marketing factors has been around since the 1950s, although it has evolved significantly since then. 

This four-pronged marketing model is used by most successful businesses and is the foundation of comprehensive marketing plans. Here’s more on the 4 Ps:

• Product : The goods or services your business is offering.
• Price : How much the consumer can or will pay for your goods or services.
• Place(ment) : The location or environment where the product will be sold.
• Promotion : How your product is positioned and advertised.

The easiest way to incorporate the 4 Ps is by answering these four questions: What are you offering? How much is it worth? Where can consumers find it, is it priced well, and why should they care?

In the marketing world, these considerations are referred to as “positioning” and help businesses examine their offering in relation to consumers and the market as a whole.

Sometimes, these 4 Ps are expanded to include three more “P” components:

• People : The employees responsible for creating, marketing, and curating your products.
• Process : Procedure management of your products and/or the methods and flow of your services.
• Physical evidence : The physical assets (location, furniture, signage, layout) used to present your product.

The 4 Ps are more than a simple, static marketing plan; the approach is an evolving and cyclical explanation of your business's offering. Using a blend of techniques, strategies, and focus areas, the 4 Ps help business owners ensure that their marketing plan is hitting all the right points of emphasis, consistently, and over time. 

There is a subtle but essential difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan. Marketing strategies are the methods used to execute a marketing plan. Marketing plans are the road maps, or blueprints, businesses create to implement effective marketing strategies.

How Do the 4 Ps of Marketing Work? 

An effective business marketing plan based on the 4 Ps depends on what you're providing to the public, who wants or needs it, how rare or valuable it is, and the strength of your competition. Let's look into what roles product, price, place, and promotions play in building a marketing plan and shaping marketing strategies for businesses.

Quality, packaging, design, materials, and production cost are vital considerations when designing and branding products. To fully understand this part of the 4 Ps, ask yourself, do I have a product worth buying? What makes this a good product? Who would want it and why? 

It’s important to ask questions such as, who is not interested in my product and why? How could I alter my product or marketing mix to accommodate new or more customers? Which designs, price points, promotional tactics, or product placements aren’t working effectively? 

For example, paper plates should be able to hold food well, be made of sanitary materials, have a low cost, be disposable, and readily available. Therefore, marketing gold-rimmed paper plates as a product would be a marketing failure. Offering expensive paper plates defeats the purpose of their invention.

The sizable current target market for paper plates would not be interested in paying more for this product, or in throwing away something of value (gold) when they only desired a time-saving, low-cost convenience product.

Conversely, offering gold leaf on fancy desserts at a top-tier restaurant to a clientele that spends more makes sense. Those kinds of extravagant products are almost an expected part of a high-end dining experience and, therefore, market well. It’s also worth noting that marketing that same high-end dessert on paper plates would not be as popular, for obvious reasons.

When considering the "price" element of the 4 Ps, it's important to consider the two different pricing structures businesses can adopt: cost-based and value-based. Using market research to determine how much niche, mass appeal, or interest your product has is an excellent place to start.

For readily available products in flooded markets with much competition, cost-based pricing is the norm. If the product is not costly, sought after, or unique, basing the price on the cost to consumers makes more sense, and pricing your product competitively will be effective.

Value-based pricing is dependent on the subjective assessments of worth from consumers. Designer clothing, luxury cars, and rare gemstones are examples of value-based-priced products. The rarer the item, the stronger the social and societal value placed on it—and the greater the demand—the higher a price it can command.

In the marketing mix, "place" refers to the location (virtual or real-world) where you will market your goods or services. Consider who wants your product and where they spend the most time. This explains why most marketers spend their largest marketing ad budget on social media and search engines now rather than on TV or Radio. The reason is that the customers spend their time there. The common expression used now is "meet where they are."

Also, consider which kind of promotions work well with that target audience in order to work this angle successfully. Certain kinds of products perform better when marketed in different venues or environments.

Hardware supplies still sell well in physical stores for a large number of reasons. Consumers enjoy being able to handle such products before they buy them. Often, a trip to a hardware store leads to a few more purchases than the customer realized they needed. Selling a tool in a hardware store or lumberyard is still a smart move, in addition to offering it online .

Placing your product where it makes sense to do so (and where your target audience expects it to be) is smart marketing. That said, innovative, guerrilla marketing (a term for marketing in an unexpected location where consumers least expect it) can also be highly effective. Sometimes the element of surprise can be a powerful addition to a marketing plan.

For other products, sales in physical stores don't make sense anymore. Streaming services , apps, and software programs or services are great examples of this. There is nothing physical to buy, so the promotion, price, place, and product all happens in one place—virtually. This keeps production and advertising costs down and ensures that the products or services are readily accessible and serviceable, improving customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth marketing.

Promoting your product successfully depends heavily on the other three marketing-mix factors as well. For example, how you promote your product or service depends on what kind of offering you have, where it will be sold, how much it costs, and who your target market is.

For example, promoting the launch of your new app through a newspaper advertisement may not make much sense logistically (as your target market may not even see it), but promoting its launch through TikTok videos or Instagram ads does.

Within the 4 Ps marketing mix, you can morph promotional ideas from your marketing plan. Which blend of promotional tactics or strategies will work best for your product? Consider possibilities such as advertising on social media, targeted public relations (PR) releases, personal selling campaigns, direct marketing, and sought-after sales promotions.

Prof. Neil Borden. " The Concept of the Marketing Mix ." Accessed June 14, 2021.

Harvard Business Review. " A Quick Guide to Value-Based Pricing ." Accessed June 14, 2021.

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The Marketing Mix and the 4Ps of Marketing

Understanding how to position your market offering.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Marketing is all about putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.

Sounds simple! You just need to create a product that a particular group of people want, put it on sale some place that those same people visit regularly, and price it at a level which matches the value they feel they get out of it; and do all that at a time they want to buy.

To achieve this effectively, however, a lot of hard work needs to go into finding out what customers want, and identifying where they do their shopping. Then you need to figure out how to produce the item at a price that represents value to them, and get it all to come together at the critical time.

But if you get just one element wrong, it can spell disaster. You could be left promoting a car with amazing fuel economy in a country where fuel is very cheap, or publishing a textbook after the start of the new school year, or selling an item at a price that's too high – or too low – to attract the people you're targeting.

The marketing mix and the 4Ps of marketing are great tools can help you to avoid these kinds of mistakes. In this article and in the video, below, we'll discover more about how you can use them to develop a successful marketing strategy.

What Are the 4Ps of Marketing?

The 4Ps of marketing is a model for enhancing the components of your "marketing mix" – the way in which you take a new product or service to market. It helps you to define your marketing options in terms of price, product, promotion, and place so that your offering meets a specific customer need or demand.

The marketing mix and the 4Ps of marketing are often used as synonyms for one another. In fact, they are not necessarily the same thing.

"Marketing mix" is a general phrase used to describe the different kinds of choices organizations have to make during the process of bringing a product or service to market. The 4Ps is one way – probably the best-known way – of defining the marketing mix, and was first expressed in 1960 by E. J. McCarthy in his book, "Basic Marketing – A Managerial Approach." [1]

The 4Ps are:

• Product (or Service).

A good way to understand the 4Ps is by the questions that you need to ask to define your marketing mix. Here are some questions that will help you understand and define each of the four elements:

Product/Service

• What does the customer want from the product /service? What needs does it satisfy?
• What features does it have to meet these needs? Are there any features you've missed out? Are you including costly features that the customer won't actually use?
• How and where will the customer use it?
• What does it look like? How will customers experience it?
• What size(s), color(s), and so on, should it be?
• What is it to be called?
• How is it branded?
• How is it different from products by your competitors?
• What is the most it can cost to provide and still be sold sufficiently profitably? (See also Price, below.)
• Where do buyers look for your product or service?
• If they look in a store, what kind? A specialist boutique or in a supermarket, or both? Online? Or direct, via a catalog?
• How can you access the right distribution channels?
• Do you need to use a sales force? Or attend trade fairs? Or make online submissions? Or send samples to catalog companies?
• What do your competitors do, and how can you learn from that and/or differentiate?
• What is the value of the product or service to the buyer?
• Are there established price points for products or services in this area?
• Is the customer price sensitive? Will a small decrease in price gain you extra market share? Or will a small increase be indiscernible, and so gain you extra profit margin?
• What discounts should be offered to trade customers, or to other specific segments of your market?
• How will your price compare with your competitors?
• Where and when can you get your marketing messages across to your target market?
• Will you reach your audience by advertising online, in the press, on TV, on radio, or on billboards? By using direct marketing mailshots? Through PR? On the internet?
• When is the best time to promote? Is there seasonality in the market? Are there any wider environmental issues that suggest or dictate the timing of your market launch or subsequent promotions?
• How do your competitors do their promotions? And how does that influence your choice of promotional activity?

As the four Ps all need to be considered in relation to one another, it doesn't really matter in what order you define them. This is why you may find them quoted in a different order from the one used above. In particular, they're often referred to in the order "place, price, product, promotion."

Alternative Marketing Models

The 4Ps of marketing is just one of many lists that have been developed over the years. And, whilst the questions we have listed above are key, they are just a subset of the detailed probing that may be required to optimize your marketing mix.

Amongst the other models that have been developed over the years is Boom and Bitner's 7Ps, sometimes called the extended marketing mix, which include the first 4Ps, plus people, processes and physical layout decisions.

Another approach is Lauterborn's 4Cs, which presents the elements of the marketing mix from the buyer's, rather than the seller's, perspective. It is made up of:

• Customer needs and wants (the equivalent of product).
• Cost (price).
• Convenience (place).
• Communication (promotion).

In this article, we focus on the 4Ps model as it is the most well-recognized, and contains the core elements of a good marketing mix.

Using the 4Ps of Marketing

The model can be used to help you to decide how to take a new offer to market. It can also be used to test your existing marketing strategy . Whether you are considering a new or existing offer, follow the steps below to help you to define and improve your marketing mix.

1. Start by identifying the product or service that you want to analyze.

2. Now go through and answer the 4Ps questions – as defined in detail above.

3. Try asking "why" and "what if" questions too, to challenge your offer. For example, ask why your target audience needs a particular feature. What if you drop your price by 5 percent? What if you offer more colors? Why sell through wholesalers rather than direct channels? What if you improve PR rather than rely on online advertising?

Check through your answers to make sure that they are based on sound knowledge and facts. If there are doubts about your assumptions , identify any market research , or facts and figures that you may need to gather.

4. Once you have a well-defined marketing mix, try "testing" the overall offer from the customer's perspective, by asking customer focused questions:Does it meet their needs? (Product.) Will they find it where they shop? (Place.) Will they think that it's priced favorably? (Price.) Will the marketing communications reach them? (Promotion.)

5. Keep on asking questions and making changes to your mix until you are satisfied that you have optimized your marketing mix, given the information and facts and figures you have available.

6. Review your marketing mix regularly, as some elements will need to change as the product or service and its market grow, mature and adapt in an ever-changing competitive environment.

The marketing mix helps you define the marketing elements for successfully positioning your market offer.

One of the best-known models is the 4Ps of Marketing, which helps you define your marketing options in terms of:

Use the model when you are planning a new venture, or evaluating an existing offer, to optimize the impact with your target market.

[1] McCarthy, E.J. (1960.) 'Basic Marketing - A Managerial Approach.' R.D. Irwin. Available here .

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4Ps of Marketing (Marketing Mix with Examples) The 4Ps of Marketing or the Marketing Mix is one of the most basic concepts taught in Marketing. At the same time, it makes up for an extremely large part of a successful marketing plan. The fact is, the 4Ps of Marketing are really important because they, together, form the marketing strategy of your company. Let me tell you more about it.

Marketing mix - the 4Ps of marketing can never be overestimated when it comes to determining the success or failure of a marketing campaign.

In this article, I will explain to you what is marketing mix and also each of the 4Ps of marketing mix. Not just that, I will share with you four examples of how each of these elements of marketing mix makes a lot of difference in marketing.

Before that, let’s ponder over something basic. And also let me tell you what all I will be covering in this detailed article on the 4Ps of Marketing.

Let me begin by telling you, what exactly is Marketing Mix all about?

What is Marketing Mix? 

Marketing Mix is ideally a brilliantly coordinated combination of Product, Price, Place and Promotion strategies.

I wrote about marketing it in detail in my blog post titled ‘But really, what is Marketing?’. In simple terms, you could say marketing is about “ putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time”.

That is what it really is.

That one statement defines everything, from what is marketing to what is marketing mix to how to create and deliver an amazing marketing campaign.

Source: thefinancialbrand . com

If you’re in marketing, you have some basic ingredients that you would use to create some magic out of your marketing plan, these ingredients are called the 4Ps of Marketing or the Marketing Mix.

What is Marketing Mix? Marketing Mix is a set of elements, the 4Ps, that are the four decision-making areas in Marketing . Again, getting any of these elements wrong may destroy the rest of the factors you got right.

This is true because, the 4Ps factors are interdependent and rely on one another for an effective strategy. And if you begin to think, any marketing decision that you take essentially lies in any one of these areas.

4Ps of Marketing and all other basic marketing concepts!

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What is the purpose of the 4Ps of Marketing Mix?

Its purpose is to ensure the creation and execution of a successful marketing strategy ; the attempt is to satisfy both the customer and the seller. You will often come across your managers telling you to create marketing plans.

And this is what a marketing plan predominantly covers. The purpose is to ensure that every marketing initiative that you take is brilliantly coordinated with each other.

Marketing incorporates all these physical and non-physical, real and perceptual attributes into four elements of the marketing mix.

The 4Ps is basically about asking relevant questions that will help you to define your marketing mix.

Let me explain to you each of the elements of the Marketing mix , or the 4Ps of Marketing here. Stay tuned for the later part of the article where I will share with you the examples for each of the 4Ps.

Product  

First, it is important to understand the problems your product is trying to solve, because without it, you don’t have a place in the market, and you certainly can’t sell or advertise something that doesn’t exist or doesn’t have any demand.

The key to get this element of the marketing mix correct is by writing down a product definition .

This should include what is your product , what is your target market and most importantly why is your product different from the alternatives out there.

A product can be a physical object, an intangible service, an idea, a campaign or even a personality.

Also, the Unique Selling Proposition of the product must be determined as well as the potential buyers of the product.

There are questions you need to ask when you want to determine the kind of product you should have. They include:

• What problems can this product solve for customers?
• What features are included in the products to meet this need?
• What will differentiate it from the competitor’s own if any?
• How is it supposed to be used by the customer?

Let me know take you through the second P of the 4Ps of marketing - which is Price .

Price  

The price of a product should reflect its value to the customer. This also entails the relative price versus quality level that the product maintains against the competitors.

The marketer’s challenge is to come up with a price that is attractive to consumers while still turning an acceptable profit for the company.

The price of a product will directly affect how it sells . This must be determined by what value the customers attach to the product rather than the objective cost of the product.

If the product is priced higher or lower than its perceived value, then it will be difficult to make sales. Simply put, the value of the product in the eyes of the consumer determines the price.

I have written a series of articles on how to price a product and those articles shall help you with this particular element of the 4Ps of the Marketing mix . Here are some of those posts:

• How to Price your Product – The Fundamentals
• How to Price your Product better in 8 Steps (Part 1 of 2)
• How to Price your Product better in 8 Steps (Part 2 of 2)

Hence, if the value is low or negative , the product may need to be under priced to make sales.

The questions to ask here are:

• What is the perceived value of the product to the buyer?
• What is the market fixed price for this kind of product?  
• How much is your price when compared with the competitor’s?  

Moving on to the third element of the marketing mix and the 4Ps of Marketing - the Place .

Place  

There is a way how the product will be provided to the customer , this is the “Place” factor. Once the place has been decided, the marketing channel to reach the customer is chosen.

The place refers to where the product is to be sold (distribution) .

In the past, this meant how visible your product was in the physical marketplace. In today’s modern world: where your product appears on the Internet is even more important because your reach online can be global whilst as your reach in the physical marketplace is limited by physical space.

You can determine this by answering questions like:

• Where is the first place buyers check when looking for your kind of product. Is it a store, or a boutique, or maybe they check a catalogue?
• How can you determine the best distribution channels?
• Do you need to take a multi-channel approach? If yes, then which channels?

And finally, let me tell you about the 4th element of the marketing mix - Promotion .

Promotion  

Promotion refers to the marketing communication methods used to inform, persuade, and remind the target market of the product or services , basically any interaction that your company has with the consumer regarding your product.

This may include advertising, sales, promotions, special offers, and public relations.  Promotion is quite different from marketing, because promotion is the communication aspect of the entire marketing function.

The marketing mix is a crucial tool to help understand what the product or service can offer and how to plan for a successful product offering. 

• What are the promotion methods of your competitors?
• Which digital channels does your target market use often?
• What is the return-on-investment from each of the promotion channels?

After a brief explanation of the Marketing Mix and the 4Ps of Marketing , I am going to talk about them in a more direct and practical way. I explain elements of marketing mix with examples to show you how simple (and impact driven) the Marketing Mix can be.

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4Ps of Marketing - Video Explanation

Here is a decent video that I found on the 4Ps of Marketing. Purely Branded, explains in brief what the 4Ps of Marketing are all about and how to use them. For all of you who like to watch videos, I suggest you to have a look at it.

4Ps of Marketing - How to develop the Marketing Mix?

If you were to ask me the steps to determine the 4Ps of Marketing Mix , I would suggest to you the following 4 steps.

As you use these four steps in your marketing projects at your college or your work, you will realize that these are the exact steps that will help you bring out the best and the most coherent marketing plans.

4 Steps to Develop the 4Ps of Marketing Mix

• Identify the product to be analyzed. 
• Answer the 4Ps questions surrounding this product. 
• After getting a well-defined marketing mix for the 4Ps, try relating them with the 4Cs (i.e. from the customer's perceptive).      a. Product - Consumer Value      b. Price - Cost      c. Promotion - Communication      d. Place - Convenience
• Review your marketing mix regularly, because things can change.

4Ps of Marketing - Key Features

I had to write this out as a separate section because of how important it is for you to understand the nuances attached with the 4Ps of Marketing.

Let me share with you the 4 points, the 4 features that will make a lot of difference in your understanding of the marketing mix.

They are Interdependent variables. That is, they have different functions, but they must work together. One can hardly do without the other.

The 4Ps of marketing are flexible in such a way that, you can always play around with each of the variables. See the the 4Ps of Marketing as the four lever that you as a Marketing Manager will have with you to pull and do different things with.

Constant monitoring is required to make sure that the elements in the marketing mix stays relevant and updated. Again, as I mentioned, they are lever you can play around with.

The focal point of the marketing mix activity are the customers . Therefore, as I mentioned in one of the paragraphs above, you should at all times evaluate the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix from the 4Cs stand-point, i.e. the standpoint of the customers.

Elements of Marketing Mix with Examples

In this part of the article, my aim is to give you a feel of the four elements of the marketing mix through relevant real-world examples of the 4Ps of marketing . 

In each of these examples, I will take you through those examples that caught my attention and will help you understand the concepts better.

Product: Coca-Cola Life  

When you come to know that there is a Coca-Cola with the Green Label somewhere in the world and that it is still not sold worldwide you probably think

“What-The-H...?”.

Most people still find it weird but after years of dominating the market with the product and powerful advertising campaign, Coca-Cola found itself in a world where everyone wanted to feel more sustainable and healthier.

So, after 5 years of research, they came up with the Coca-Cola Life , with less sugar and stevia, a natural sweetener.

After a Market test in Chile and Argentina, the product was launched in different countries of the world.

What does this teach about the first P of the marketing mix?

Well, that products must always respond to the needs of the market .

No matter how strong your starting position is, no matter how strong your marketing is (so strong that in the case of Coca-Cola they influenced the way the Western World sees Christmas), there are moments where you have to start from a product.

Seth Godin said: Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.  

Price: Organic Apples aren’t Cheap  

Pricing doesn’t just mean: go as lower as you can to attack the market.

The Book “Ecological Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman talks of how producers and sellers of organic products must raise prices otherwise none will believe it’s REALLY organic!

This is the concept of Price Positioning on which I happen to have done a blog post some weeks back. 

Same happens with Apple: considering the hardware and the competition they can be defined unreasonably overpriced but if Apple will launch a new iPhone for 200$ the strong Apple fan base most probably will not react in a positive way.

So, choosing one price instead of another can automatically identify your product to your customers. 

Also Read:  Edible Cutlery won't sell until you do this

Place: Don’t tell everyone what you did last Friday  

Another mistake that most people do is trying to get through as many channels as possible . A lot of “improvised” entrepreneurs without any education in that make this mistake to multiply their distribution channels. 

The problem is that people will also judge not just what you sell and how much you charge for it, but also where they see you.

Imagine that in your city there is a club that is famous for being a place where illegal activities happen.

Now imagine you end up there on a wild Friday night and your partner’s dad finds out: won’t he get a really bad impression of you?

At the same time, your friends will think you are a real bad-ass. 

So, the place where you are seen can give you a certain identity according to your target. You want your friends to know where you were Friday night but not your in-laws.

 This is the same reason certain brands decide to only sell in their own stores, others don’t sell online and some only sell online: you have to select your sales channels carefully. 

Promotion: Loud Enough doesn’t mean Louder  

This point can get into thousands of pages without saying anything. With the concept of promotion, you talk about marketing, advertising, sales strategy and a lot more. 

What people hardly understand at the beginning is that in a crowded market like our World, being loud enough to be heard in the constant buzz doesn’t mean being louder than everyone.

So, the promotion has nothing to do with exaggerated claims, fake claims, obsessive  advertising and all these old-school-tricks .

Yes, they still work for others in certain cases, but they don’t give long-lasting positive fame and sooner or later it will ruin your business.

These old tricks work when you didn’t work on the marketing mix for real (maybe because you don’t have anything valuable to sell) so you have to work all with the promotion.

We tend to think that the 4th P is the most important but this is just because it is the tip of the Iceberg. Promotion is what you see more but there is a lot more than you don’t see. 

Conclusion  

At the end of the day if you want to succeed in business you have to be looking to create long-lasting relationships with your customers. 

The four elements must be in harmony and none most portray conflicting messages. The marketing mix must be customer-centric, that is why the 4Cs must be used alongside the 4Ps while determining answers to the variables.

• The price must be a cost the customer can afford
• The promotion must solely be based on communicating with the customers
• The product must offer a solution to the problem of the customer
• The place must be one that is convenient for the customers to reach  

And, just as in your personal life, you don’t create any long-lasting relationships by shouting loud, showing off and lying.

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What is a Marketing Mix?

A Marketing Mix is a set of Factors to focus on, to design a Successful Marketing Campaign .

• Or simply to Analyze How companies Market their Products.

A Marketing Mix can consist on 3, 4, 7… or 12 Factors.

Each Method proposes a certain amount of Factors to Analyze.

You could even create your own Marketing Mix , choosing the Factors you consider most important when Designing or Analyzing Marketing Campaigns.

The 4 Ps of Marketing with Examples

The 4 Ps of Marketing is the most basic Marketing Mix you can use .

It contains the minimum Marketing Factors that you should always keep in mind.

As its name indicates, it proposes 4 Factors to analyze:

• Promotion .

* There is another approach that uses 7 factors instead of 4: The 7P Marketing Mix.

• Visit our “ 7P Marketing Mix ” if you are interested about it.

Now, we’ll analyze them in detail with some useful Examples:

This P stands for Define perfectly what you are Really offering to your Customers :

• Experience.
• Alternatives.
• Complementary Products.

Do not limit the description to Technical Characteristics .

• Consider the Product as a complete experience.

Product - 4 Ps of Marketing example

We bet you’ve ever been into a McDonald’s .

• It is one of the most valuable Brands in History.
• Its restaurants are always full of happy children… and not just children.

How did they achieve this great Success?

Think about the Experience they offer :

• Children get a “Toy” when they order a Happy Meal.
• The Memories you have playing with your friends.
• The taste of their hamburgers has not varied since you were a child.

They sell this Product (apart from their Burgers):

• An Oasis where you can Remember good old times .

Many things in your life may have changed, but you know that the taste of a Big Mac won’t change .

This P Stands for:

• Competitor Prices .
• The Price of Substitute Products .
• Whether Customers Perceive Prices as High, Fair or Low.

All these factors must be taken into account simultaneously.

Customers decide if something is Cheap or Expensive after looking at all the Alternatives they have .

We will continue with the example of McDonald’s, analyzing its Pricing Policies:

Price - 4 Ps of Marketing example

At first glance, it may appear that McDonald’s only uses a “low price” policy.

But, if you look carefully, you’ll find out that it’s Menu can be divided into 3 different categories :

• $1 ice cream, the McDouble, McChicken….
• Big Mac, Quarter pound, etc.
• French Fries, McNuggets, etc.
• These Products are usually Advertised on TV Commercials, at bus stops…
• They are offered only for a specified period of time.

These Limited and “more exclusive” products give McDonald’s the Highest Margins.

• We’re pretty sure.

Therefore, McDonald’s has 3 different Price Strategies depending on the Product .

Also, its Famous Products are used as a Hook to attract Customers to its Restaurants.

• And, once inside, they can be tempted to purchase new Limited products.

This P Stands for How you Market the Product , and it must consider:

• What you Sell (obvious).
• How your Clients Perceive it .

There must be Coherence between your Product , its Price , and How you Promote it.

• You cannot promote a Mercedes in the same way that you would promote a cheap car.

Generally speaking, there are 3 main Types of Promotional campaigns:

• Traditional Campaigns.
• Uncommon Campaigns.
• Innovative Campaigns.

Traditional Promotional Campaigns

These Campaigns consist in Acting like the Competition .

• Without adding anything new.

Chanel No 5 - 4 Ps of Marketing example

As Christmas comes, you can see How all perfume commercials are the same :

• Handsome girls and boys doing nothing but whispering the name of the perfume.

No matter if it is Chanel, Hermès, Dolce & Gabbana…

• Nothing different .

Uncommon Promotional Campaigns

These Campaigns consist in Adding variations to the Competitors’ Campaigns .

• These Variations characterize the Product, Brand or Company.

Burger King - 4 Ps of Marketing example

Compared to McDonald’s, Burger King does more or less the same with its New Burgers, Traditional and Cheap Products…

But, Burger King highlights the “ Taste ” of its Hamburgers .

It seems obvious to Highlight the flavor but, nowadays is not very common.

• Family, Friends, Nostalgic Values, etc.

McDonald’s never mentions the taste of their products.

Burger King follows the same Promotional approach   but , with an additional factor .

Innovative Promotional Campaigns

These Campaigns consist in do something completely New and Disruptive .

• Even if you are a Marketing Expert, these Campaigns are very Risky.

SPAM - 4 Ps of Marketing example

You surely know the word “ SPAM “.

But do you know why we call excessive advertising “SPAM”?

SPAM is a canned-meat company that decided to promote its products with massive publicity some years ago.

• Its name comes from putting together the words “spread” and “ham”.

Its campaign was so aggressive that, nowadays, we still use its name as a synonym for indiscriminate propaganda .

These type of Promotional campaigns can be the best , if you know what you’re doing.

• Otherwise, they can ruin your Reputation right away.
• Where are your Customers from.
• Where you are developing your Marketing Campaigns.
• Which Communication Channels you are employing.

Geographic Differences can make the difference between Success and Failure .

• The same product can be Perceived differently in different countries.

KFC - 4 Ps of Marketing example

In Europe , KFC is usually regarded as an “unhealthy product” that is mainly consumed by Lower-Medium income families .

• (I personally love KFC, by the way).

On the other hand, in China (or at least, the last time we were there) it is considered almost as a Premium Product that is consumed by Upper-Middle Income families .

If you were designing a Promotional Campaign for KFC or another Fast Food Company, you should take these differences into account.

Communication Channels

The Communication Channel is part of the Product Identity .

• Choosing the adequate Communication Channel is key when developing a Marketing Campaign .

To choose the proper Communication Channel, you should think about all the factors we mentioned before:

• The Product .
• Its Perceived Value .
• The Customer Profile .

Disney - 4 Ps of Marketing example

How do you think, they’ll promote it?

• At children’s lunchtime
• During Disney-movies ads.
• They’ll offer toys within Happy Meal menus or in Pizza Hut, Burger King, etc.

They won’t waste their money on ads during the 12:00 pm horror movies .

Disney promote its products on Channels that are best associated with its Brand a nd Reputation .

• Channels that also maximize its chances of reaching the right audience.

* There is another Method that replaces these 4 Ps by 4 Cs that focus on Customer’s perception.

• Visit our “ 4C Marketing Model ” if you are interested about it.
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By Denis G.

The 4Ps of Marketing

In this article:

The 4Ps of Marketing, also known as the marketing mix, is a tool that can help you offer the right product in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price.

Imagine you run a one-person startup and are in the process of creating a new product. You feel that all you have to do is create your product and then offer it to the market, and you’ll have people falling over themselves to be your customer.

Unfortunately, it’s rarely this simple. Being product-focused in this way is a mistake that many people make. To be successful in the market, you need to be laser-focused on creating what your customers want, and the 4Ps of Marketing can help you do this.

The 4Ps of Marketing is a tool to help you think about the customer-focused choices you have to make when bringing a product to market. 

The 4Ps are:

• Product:  What is it that you sell, and how does it fulfill your customers’ needs?
• Place: Where do you promote or sell your product?
• Price:  How much is your product?
• Promotion:  How do your ideal customers find out about you?

As you can see, the 4Ps of Marketing is essentially a set of questions you have to answer to give your product or service the best chance of being successful in the marketplace.

Let’s examine each of the 4Ps of Marketing in more detail.

Creating a successful Marketing Mix begins with creating a product or service that fulfills a significant customer need. 

Consumers purchase your product because it satisfies a need or want. These needs and desires are rarely basic; for example, a customer may buy a luxury car to fulfill their need for status. 

Good marketers understand these needs and create and position products to cater to these needs. To understand your customer’s needs, it is essential to interact with real or potential customers and get their feedback and input.

The definition of a product not only refers to the actual good or service that you offer, but it also refers to how you package your product. The packaging of your product includes, amongst other things, the features of your product, its unique selling proposition, its branding, its packaging, any guarantee or warranty you offer, and your after-sales service. 

Product is deliberately the first element of the 4Ps of Marketing. The reason for this is that it’s almost impossible to determine any of the other Ps if you haven’t clearly defined what your product is. For example, how can you set the price of a car if you don’t know whether you’re building a Mazda or a Ferrari?

Place refers to how and where people will buy your products. You want to make sure that your products are available when and where customers want your products to be available.

Place also means making sure that your product is available in the right quantity to ensure that you’re able to satisfy the demand for your product.

A key question to answer during this stage of the 4Ps of Marketing is what is the most appropriate distribution channel for your product or service? Will you sell directly to the customer? If not, how will you get your product to where you are selling it? 

Be aware that each intermediary to recruit to help you sell your product will expect to be paid to perform this role.

Other questions to answer in this element include, what form of transportation will you use to get your product to where you’re selling it, and how will you manage inventories?

Note that it is called multi-channel distribution when you sell your product via more than one distribution channel.

Price refers to the price a customer must pay to purchase your product or service. 

Price is the easiest element of the 4Ps to manipulate. You can change your price overnight and immediately see an impact on your revenue.

Determining a price for your product can be complex. Typically, you’ll want to consider three variables:

• Cost:  how much your product costs to produce.
• Price:  how much you charge customers for your product.
• Value:  How much value your customers get from the product.

Where you focus amongst these three variables will depend on your business strategy. If your business strategy focuses on cost leadership, then you’ll want to minimize your costs and the price you charge. If your business strategy focuses on differentiation, that is, being unique in the marketplace, then you’ll want to focus on maximizing the value you provide.

4. Promotion

Once you’ve finalized the other three Ps, it’s time to promote your product. Promotion aims to persuade customers to buy your product.

Promotion is concerned with where, when, and how you’ll advertise your products and services. Examples of promotional channels include:

• Billboard advertising.
• Facebook advertising.
• Radio advertising.
• TV advertising.
• Social media advertising.
• Trade show stands.

When nonmarketers think about marketing, it is often only promotion that they think of as marketing. If you’re not a marketer, it’s important to realize that a marketer’s brief covers all of the 4Ps of Marketing.

Promotion is broader than just advertising, as it includes public relations outreach and any discounting strategies you use. 

How to Use the 4Ps of Marketing

If you want a product to be successful in the market, then here is a six-step process you can use to develop your own marketing mix.

1. Align your product to serve specific customer needs

Your product should clearly meet your customer’s needs. You’ll need to perform customer research to ensure you give customers what they want.

In this step, you need to articulate precisely who your customers are and how your product uniquely meets their needs. You’ll use this information later when you construct your marketing messages.

2. Find out where your target audience hangs out/shops

Now that you know your ideal customers, you need to figure out where they hang out or shop. This might be online, such as in a special interest forum, or a physical location, such as an airport.

3. Determine a price for your product

Set a price for your product that will appeal to your target audience. Take into account your business strategy and the cost, price, and value variables to help you set your price.

4. Determine your messaging and channels

In this step, you determine the messages you’ll use to communicate the benefits of your product to your potential customers. 

You also need to determine which marketing and distribution channels you’ll use to reach your ideal customers. For example, you might choose to use a combination of Facebook advertising and working with affiliates.

5. Check all the pieces fit together

The beauty of online advertising is it allows you to relatively cheaply test your messaging with your target audience before you fully launch and commit to a large advertising spend. 

In this way, you can sanity-check your decisions so far before proceeding to the next step. Testing in this way can help you answer some important questions:

• Is the price right?
• Do customers want your product?
• Have you selected the best channels?
• Is your audience engaging with your ads and messaging?

This step is still important if you don’t plan to advertise online. Review your 4Ps of Marketing to check that all the pieces fit together and are pulling in the same direction.

6. Revisit your marketing mix over time

If you launch a successful product, your market share will grow over time. In response to this, your competitors will adapt their 4Ps. Over time, your customers’ behavior may also change.

Thus, the 4Ps of Marketing are not static, and you should adjust them regularly.

For example, maybe over time, you’ll need to add new ideal customer types as your market share grows. This simple decision will cause you to need to revisit all of the 4Ps to ensure that all elements are aligned and working together to attract these new types of customers.

4Ps of Marketing Template

If you’d like to perform your own 4Ps of Marketing exercise, you can download our 4Ps of Marketing template here .

4Ps of Marketing Example

To bring everything we’ve covered together, let’s work through an example of using the 4Ps of Marketing in practice.

Imagine you are creating a course teaching English speakers to speak Spanish. Let’s work through each of the six steps to see what your marketing mix might look like.

There are hundreds of other Spanish courses in existence, so why should someone choose yours?

One way to think about this problem is that right now, your potential customers are living unhappily on an island where they don’t speak Spanish, and what they want to do is get to the island where they do speak fluent Spanish.

Unfortunately, there are many bridges available to them to get to the speaking Spanish island, so why should they choose yours? Crafting your unique selling proposition (USP) is all about giving potential customers a reason to cross your bridge rather than a competitor’s.

Your USP boils down to how you slice and dice your product to offer something unique. Ideally, to determine your USP, you should go out into the marketplace and talk with potential customers.

Assuming you have done this, then a few examples of how you might uniquely craft a Spanish course are:

• Learn the 1,000 most common Spanish words quickly.
• Watch your way to Spanish fluency (for a video-based course).
• Learn Spanish in just 10 minutes a day.
• Speak like a local in just three months.

Each of these USPs gives potential customers a reason to choose your bridge instead of your competitors because they distinguish your product from those of your competitors.

You can create a USP even if your product isn’t all that different from your competitors. The key is that you slice and dice how you describe your product so that your potential customers perceive a difference.

This step is all about examining the place element in the 4Ps of Marketing model. In what places might you sell your course? Well, if this were 1995, you’d have more limited choices than you have today:

• You could work with a publisher to sell your course in written format in bookstores.
• You could sell your course directly to your customer via mail order by advertising in newspapers, magazines, etc.

These days you have more options available to you, including:

• Customers could purchase your course directly from your website.
• You can work with bloggers to promote your course and, in return, pay them a commission for each sale they make.
• You could provide your course as an app, downloadable via an app store.

How much will you charge for your Spanish course? Let’s examine the three variables:

• Cost: while your course may have cost a lot to produce, but the marginal cost (the additional cost) of selling one additional subscription to your course is minimal.
• Price:  your product strategy is one of differentiation, so you’ll be looking to charge a high fee for access to your course.
• Value:  while the value of speaking a second language is considerable, people are used to paying low monthly amounts to access online language courses.

Taking all of this into account, your pricing options might be:

• $10 per month for access.
• Certain features are free forever, but you need to pay to access premium features.

Suppose your USP was: watch your way to Spanish fluency. You might decide to keep this as your messaging but add some additional messages to complement it, such as:

• Why read a book when you can watch yourself to Spanish fluency?
• Sit back, relax, and get fluent in Spanish?
• Sound like a local without opening a Spanish book.

In this step, you also decide that your primary channels to attract new customers will be Facebook and Instagram advertising.

You’ve now completed all of the 4Ps of Marketing. Your completed 4Ps of Marketing template will look something like this:

Now it’s time to sanity check that everything makes sense.

In this example, you’re going to do this by running test ads using Facebook. The point of these tests is to determine if people are engaging with your messaging and, therefore, if they are interested in what you have to offer.

Fortunately, in this example, people do engage with your test ads, so you’re in a position to launch when you’re ready.

You haven’t launched yet, so this step isn’t relevant to you right now, but you make a note to revisit the 4Ps of Marketing regularly after launch.

Advantages and Disadvantages

There are several advantages and disadvantages associated with the 4Ps of Marketing model.

• It helps you to understand what your product can offer to your customers.
• It provides a way to build a complete marketing plan that begins with focusing on aligning your product to your customer’s desires.
• It allows you to see the critical components of even the most complex marketing plans on a single page.

Disadvantages

• It provides no mechanism to measure the success of your marketing efforts.
• Price is fundamental to the model, but brand building isn’t. This focus on price rather than brand can be corrosive to your ultimate profitability.
• The model is high-level and doesn’t go into detail.
• While the model can help you put together a marketing plan, the quality of your marketing plan will be determined by the quality of the people who put your marketing plan together.
• It can take significant time to put a 4Ps of Marketing plan together.

The 4Ps of Marketing model, also known as the marketing mix, is a tool that can help you offer the right product in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price.

The model begins by helping you create a product that your customers actually want to buy and moves on to help you determine where you will sell your product, how much you will charge, and finally, how you will promote your product.

Cite this article

Minute Tools Content Team, The 4Ps of Marketing, Minute Tools, Mar, 2022 https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2022/03/4ps-of-marketing/

Originally hailing from Dublin, Denis has always been interested in all things business and started EPM in 2009. Before EPM, Denis held a leadership position at Nokia, owned a sports statistics business, and was a member of the PMI's (Project Management Institute’s) Global Executive Council for two years. Denis now spends his days helping others understand complex business topics.

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More From Forbes

How To Start Writing A Business Plan That Works

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For the entrepreneur, knowing how to start writing a business plan can be as exhilarating as it is overwhelming. The business plan is a foundational document and the blueprint of your business and is critical for securing funding, setting clear goals, and communicating your vision to the world.

Let’s explore the significance of a business plan, the essential elements it should include, and strategies to forge a plan that resonates with stakeholders and steers your business toward success.

Whether you are about to launch your first business or need to revitalize an existing business strategy, a business plan provides the foundation that supports your entrepreneurial journey.

Why a Business Plan Is Needed

A business plan is not solely for the benefit of a bank manager or an investor . The business plan is a document that helps bring clarity to your vision and can guide every decision and strategy within your company.

A well written business plan forces you to put your goals and ideas into concrete, manageable steps. It cuts through the noise, ensuring you stay focused on what truly matters for your business’s growth.

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For startups looking to secure that critical initial investment, a business plan is often the first point of reference for potential backers. It’s a chance to sell your vision, show your financial acumen, and demonstrate a roadmap to profit.

Identifying potential pitfalls early is a vital aspect of proactive business ownership. A good business plan helps you prepare for the unexpected and develop strategies to mitigate risk and safeguard the longevity of your business.

Setting clear, measurable goals in your business plan provides a framework for tracking your progress. This will give you the insight needed to pivot or double down on strategies as the market dictates.

Creating Your Story

Before you start drafting sections and compiling data, step back and consider the story of your business. Your plan should be like a good book, with a clear narrative arc that compels the reader from the first sentence to the last.

Any good story is rooted in an understanding of the world it inhabits. Your business's narrative begins with a comprehensive analysis of the industry in which you operate, as well as the consumers you aim to serve.

Think about how you define your unique selling proposition (USP) . What sets your business apart from competitors? All good stories have a unique twist, and your business plan should articulate what makes your venture different from, and better than, the competition.

Introduce your team into the story. Highlight their expertise, experience, and any relevant achievements that lend credibility to the business’s ability to execute on its vision.

Writing Your Business Plan Is Just the Beginning

A business plan can span from a quick roadmap sketched on the back of a napkin to a hefty document carefully crafted to align with industry standards. Regardless of size, it should contain certain fundamental elements .

The act of writing a business plan, while pivotal, is just the first step in an ongoing process of refinement and execution.

Here’s how to make sure your business plan is a living document:

1. Regular reviews and updates

Markets shift, consumer behavior changes, and your business will grow. Your plan must evolve with these factors, which makes regular reviews and updates a must-do.

2. Be realistic

It’s essential to be both ambitious and realistic in your plan. Don’t over-inflate projections or underestimate costs. An unrealistic plan is as unattractive to investors as a lack of vision and ambition.

3. Seek professional input

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Experienced business advisors, accountants, and mentors can provide invaluable feedback and spot issues you may have missed.

4. Start small

Your first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. Write down your initial thoughts, outline your ideas, and refine them over time. Starting with a large plan can be intimidating but working on it gradually can be a more manageable and effective approach.

The bottom line is that writing a business plan can feel overwhelming, but with the right approach and attention to detail, you can create a document that not only articulates your vision but actively works to make that vision a reality. It’s a living, breathing narrative that outlines your business’s course of action, and should be treated with care and enthusiasm.

Melissa Houston, CPA is the author of Cash Confident: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating a Profitable Business . She is the founder of She Means Profit, which is a podcast and blog . As a Finance Strategist for small business owners, Melissa helps successful business owners increase their profit margins so that they keep more money in their pocket and increase their net worth.

The opinions expressed in this article are not intended to replace any professional or expert accounting and/or tax advice whatsoever.

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Transform Your Practice With The “4 Ps of Marketing” Framework

Do you utilize a framework in your Nurse Practitioner practice? When you work with your patients and do your marketing?

Not sure …?

Chances are you do, even though you may not call it a framework.

Although there are formal frameworks, with fancy names, across all different fields, most of us have our own informal frameworks we use every day.

After all, a framework is nothing else but a tool to help us make structured decisions. They are a systematic way to help us organize our approach to problems so we can find solutions.

Think back to when you planned your last vacation; you applied some decision-making framework, didn’t you?

• You defined the problem… I want to go on vacation, but where?
• You did some research and found a few exciting places.
• You considered the pros and cons of the finalists.
• You picked a winner; you made your decision.
• You took action and booked your vacation.

What’s the Connection?

What does this have to do with your Nurse Practitioner practice and marketing?

Let me explain…

One of the most frequently asked questions we get is: “How do I get more patients… how do I market my practice?’

And I get it…

No Patients = No Practice. It’s a simple equation.

Ironically, it’s the same challenge all businesses face.

How do I get more clients for my business?

And that’s why marketing is so vital to the well-being and future of your practice.

But here is the problem…

While it’s easy to apply a framework when planning a vacation, doing the same to building your practice is far more challenging.

But it doesn’t have to be, not if you have a framework, not if you have a way of thinking and approaching the marketing of your practice!

And this is why I want to share the “The 4 Ps of Marketing” framework .

Don’t let the name fool you; I think the framework applies to everything in business beyond marketing.

The 4Ps of Marketing

What are they, and what do they include:

It sounds boring and abstract, but stick with me and let me explain.

Now I’d like you to stop for a moment; think about your business and the 4 Ps…

• At the core of every business is a product, a service , or both, a product and service.
• The product or service is available for purchase by customers at a specific price .
• The place refers to how and where the products or services are delivered to customers.
• The Promotion refers to the strategies used to market the product or services. The promotion also includes your customers, patients, or the audience you’re working with.

Sidenote… you’ll find the 4Ps listed as product, price, place, and promotion or as product, price, place, and people .

Please keep in mind that you don’t want to look at these 4 Ps in isolation. They interact with each other and influence one another. Tweaks and changes in one will affect the rest.

Also, while the 4 Ps provide a valuable framework for marketing your practice, they don’t cover every aspect. They’re not a framework for researching your market, building customer relationships, or delivering world-class customer service.     

The Moral of the Story…

If you made it this far, it tells me you want to grow your practice and have some interest in marketing.

Kudos to you!

So here is what I want you to take away…

When you think about growing your practice, always consider all 4 Ps. From now on, it’s your framework for marketing and growing your practice.

And be sure to tailor the 4Ps to your specific situation.

For your Nurse Practitioner practice, the two points below are the most important ones to consider.

Although you may sell supplements or similar products in your office, your core “product” is most likely a service, not a tangible product.

What’s the difference, and why does it matter?

When you offer a tangible product to customers, it’s something they can see, touch, and feel, like a new car, a pair of shoes, or a piece of furniture. Tangible products are standardized, and for the most part, one is the same as the other.

But that’s not the case with a service; a service is an intangible. People can’t compare your service to a similar service down the street because services are performance-based.

Services are unique; they are consumed, can’t be owned or stored, and provide the bulk of their benefit while delivered.

Evaluation:

The difference between tangible and intangible products is important to your marketing. Potential patients will evaluate you based on your credentials and your reputation. They will trust a referral from a friend, family, or another provider.

The takeaway : establish trust and credibility in your marketing ; ask happy patients for referrals.

Consistency:

Compared to products, services, due to their nature, vary in performance and consistency. A patient may have a great experience one day but be bitterly disappointed at the next visit, all because there may have been a flood of patients or an emergency that took precedence.

The takeaway: try to be as consistent as possible in operating your office and delivering services.

Relationships:

As a service provider, you have a direct relationship with your patients. Their satisfaction with you and your office is directly influenced by the quality of interaction with you and your staff.

The Takeaway: create a friendly and attentive environment for patients. Make them feel welcomed and appreciated.

With the internet, access to a wide variety of marketing channels is available even to small businesses.

Traditional marketing methods are still available and still work. They are complemented by digital marketing methods such as social media , email and content marketing, search engine optimization, and pay-per-click advertising, to name a few.

It’s essential to match the audience to the channel… market to people where they are (not where you think they are).

The Takeaway:    Choose your marketing channels wisely. Always match your audience to the channel. Limit the number of marketing channels you use and track your results.

In Conclusion…  

The 4 Ps of marketing framework…  product, price, place, and promotion is an essential tool in every NP’s marketing toolbox.

In healthcare, the product is an intangible service. Frequently, its perceived value is heavily influenced by trust toward and reputation of the provider.

Promotion utilizes traditional marketing methods and digital, online strategies to bring new patients into the practice.

In most practices, price is determined based on customary reimbursements and what other offices providing similar services charge.

Today, place in the framework may include a traditional office, telehealth provided from a home office, and various other settings, providing ever more accessible healthcare services to patients.

By understanding and embracing the 4 Ps of Marketing framework Nurse Practitioners can boost their marketing efficacy, expand their patient base, and grow their practices over time.

What are your thoughts about this framework…? Let us know what you think and leave a comment below.

By Johanna Hofmann, MBA, LAc; regular contributor to the NPBusiness blog and author of “ Smart Business Planning for Clinicians .”

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Thankyou so much for Advising Through the Effecient Strategy of 4p's! Indeed These 4p's Helps us in Every kind of Assigned Work or a Job! Thankyou So Much!