The Four P’s of The Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is a very crucial business tool that marketers use before launching the product in the market. It is also called the integrated marketing approach as it integrates all the aspects of marketing.

Marketing Mix is mainly of two types

Product Marketing Mix is also known as 4Ps of Marketing
Service Marketing Mix is also known as 7Ps of Marketing

Let’s see the product marketing mix first.

Marketing Mix is also known as 4Ps of Marketing and consists of the following 4 variables

Product
Price
Promotion
place

In the case of service marketing mix we add 3 more Ps to the existing list of 4Ps.

People
Physical Evidence
process

1- Product

The product is either a tangible good or an intangible service that seems to meet a specific customer need or demand. All products follow a logical product life cycle and it is vital for marketers to understand and plan for the various stages and their unique challenges. It is key to understand those problems that the product is attempting to solve. The benefits offered by the product and all its features need to be understood and the unique selling proposition of the product needs to be studied. In addition, the potential buyers of the product need to be identified and understood.

2- Price

Price is the amount of money consumers will pay for the products or services.

Many factors like the demand for a product, cost incurred, customer’s ability to pay, prices charged by competitors, government policy etc. have to be kept in mind while setting the price of a product in a target market.

3- Promotion

While We’ve got a product and a price now it’s time to promote it. Promotion looks at the many ways marketing agencies disseminate relevant product information to consumers and differentiate a particular product or service. Promotion includes elements like: advertising, public relations, social media marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing, video marketing and more.

4- Place

Place or placement has to do with how the product will be provided to the customer. Distribution is a key element of placement. The placement strategy will help assess what channel is the most suited to a product.

How to Use the Four Ps of Marketing?

We have developed a dedicated marketing process often used with our Cleveland web design and marketing clients. As a part of this process, we incorporate the four Ps through a series of questions designed to help define each brand’s marketing mix. Here are just a few of the questions we use:

What do consumers want from your product or service?
How does your product meet those needs?
Where do potential buyers look for your particular product or service?
How do you differentiate from your competitors?
What is the perceived value of your product or servic?
What current interactions do you have with potential clients?