What Are the Four Ps of Marketing?
The four Ps must be carefully considered and applied to successfully sell a product or service—product, pricing, site, and marketing.
The four Ps are commonly known as the marketing mix. Marketing a product involves considering what consumers want, how the product or service meets or fails to meet those wants, how it is perceived in the world, how it stands out from the competition, and how the company that produces it interacts with its customers.
There are now four Ps: people, process, and physical evidence.
Knowing the 4 Ps of Marketing
In the 1950s, Harvard advertising professor Neil Borden popularized the marketing mix and the four Ps. The 1964 paper “The Concept of the Marketing Mix” showed how firms may engage customers with advertising.
Companies continue to promote using Borden’s ideas decades later.
Other industry leaders enhanced Borden’s ideas over time. Michigan State University marketing professor E. Jerome McCarthy simplified Borden’s work into the “four Ps” of marketing. McCarthy co-authored Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach, popularizing the concept.
When established, the notion helped enterprises overcome physical hurdles to product uptake. Today, the Internet allows firms to overcome these obstacles.
People, processes, and physical evidence build on the Four Ps and are relevant to marketing trends.
Review any effective marketing plan periodically. The marketing mix you design should change. You must refine it as your product expands and your consumer base changes.
The 4 Ps of Marketing
1. Product
Understanding the product is the first step in marketing. Who needs it, and why? It does what no competitor’s product can. Perhaps it’s fresh and so appealing in appearance or function that shoppers must have it when they see it.
The marketer introduces the product and its attributes to the consumer.
Product definition is crucial to distribution. Marketers and executives must understand the product life cycle and have a plan for each step.
Product type affects price, placement, and promotion.
Many successful items were category pioneers. Apple was the first to build a touchscreen smartphone to play music, access the web, and make calls. Apple earned $205.4 billion in FY 2022 from iPhone sales. It sold 2 billion iPhones in 2021.
2. Price
Consumers pay a price for a product. Marketers must consider supplier costs, seasonal discounts, rivals’ pricing, retail markup, and product value when setting prices.
Business decision-makers may boost a product’s price to make it seem luxurious or exclusive. Lowering the price may encourage more customers to try it.
Marketers must also decide when to discount. A discount may attract more buyers, but it may also make the goods seem less appealing.
Japanese casual apparel brand UNIQLO manufactures worldwide. UNIQLO makes affordable, trendy clothes for young shoppers like Gap and Zara.
Innovative and high-quality items distinguish UNIQLO. It buys fabric in bulk to get the best and cheapest fabrics. The firm negotiates directly with its producers and collaborates with innovative Japanese manufacturers.
UNIQLO uses partner factories for production. That lets it switch production partners as needed.
Finally, the corporation dispatches expert textile artisans to its partner companies worldwide for quality monitoring. Production supervisors visit plants weekly to fix quality issues.
3. Place
Place considers where and how to sell and show the goods in shops and online.
Luxury cosmetic brands choose Sephora and Neiman Marcus over Walmart and Family Dollar. Business leaders constantly want to reach their products’ most potential buyers.
That involves limiting a product to particular retailers and optimizing its display.
Placement also means advertising the goods in the correct medium to reach target buyers.
GoldenEye (1995), the 17th James Bond film, was the first without an Aston Martin automobile. Bond star Pierce Brosnan drove a BMW Z3. Despite the Z3’s delayed arrival, BMW got 9,000 orders the month after the film opened.
4. Promotion
Promotion is to convince consumers they need and can afford a product. It includes advertising, PR, and product launch media strategy.
Marketers combine promotion and placement to reach their target consumers. In the digital era, “place” and “promotion” are online and offline. Specifically, where a product appears on a company’s website or social media and which search functionalities activate tailored marketing,
Total sales of Absolut vodka in 1980 were 10,000 cases. Due to its memorable advertising campaign, the firm sold 4.5 million cases by 2000. The marketing depicted the brand’s iconic bottle as a halo, stone, or ski slope tree. The 1981–2005 Absolut campaign is one of the longest-running continuous promotions.
Utilizing the 4 Ps of Marketing in Your Strategy
The four Ps guide marketing strategy. Consider all factors. Avoid worrying when elements overlap. That’s inevitable.
Market your product after analyzing it. What attributes make it appealing? Look at comparable items on the market. It may be more robust, straightforward, attractive, or last longer. Its components may be natural or eco-friendly. Determine what will appeal to your target audience.
Consider the product’s pricing. It goes beyond manufacturing costs and profit margins. You might market it as a luxury item or a cheap alternative.
Placement entails finding online and offline stores that sell your items to your customers.
Promotion is only relevant to your target market. The product may appeal to hip young people, sophisticated professionals, or bargain seekers. Your media strategy must target the correct audience with the right message.
The 4 Ps of Marketing?
The four Ps of the marketing mix are product, pricing, promotion, and location. These are the main steps in publicizing a product or service.
When did 4 Ps become 7 Ps?
Marketing has emphasized the four Ps—product, pricing, location, and promotion—since the 1950s. Three new Ps add 21st-century marketing to the mix.
- People focus on the individuals that represent the product. That includes salespeople, customer care reps, social media influencers, and viral campaigns today.
- The process is logistics. Consumers increasingly expect their purchases to be delivered quickly and efficiently.
- The physical proof seems to be the most contemporary of the seven Ps. Selling diamond jewelry online must quickly convince them that you are a reputable firm that will deliver. A professionally designed website with great functionality, an “About” section containing the company’s founders and address, professional packaging, and fast delivery are essential to convincing customers that your product is excellent and authentic.
Examples of the 4 Ps of marketing
- Place refers to where people purchase or find your goods. Today’s consumers may research and buy things online, via smartphone apps, in stores, or from salespeople.
- Price refers to the cost of a product or service. Product pricing requires consideration of competition, demand, manufacturing costs, and consumer spending. Pricing models, including one-time purchases and subscriptions, may be considered.
- Companies offer products based on their kind and expertise. McDonald’s offers relaxed, dependable, quick food. They might extend their products, but they wouldn’t change their identity.
- Effective promotion targets the target market for a product through targeted advertising. A corporation may utilize Instagram, PR, advertising, email, or a mix of these to target the correct demographic.
How Do You Market with 4 Ps?
You may use the 4Ps model to design a new product launch, evaluate an existing product, or optimize sales.
Marketing professionals may create a successful product launch or relaunch plan by analyzing the product, pricing, place, and promotion.
Bottom Line
The marketing mix includes product, pricing, venue, and promotion. These are the main components of product and service planning and marketing, and they interact. Consider these factors for a comprehensive marketing plan.
Conclusion
- Marketing a product or service requires the four Ps.
- Four Ps: product, pricing, venue, and promotion.
- The four Ps are a 1950s idea. Other Ps—people, process, and physical evidence—have emerged in marketing.
