The Four Ps of Marketing

Whenever I start talking about the basics of some subject, I always flash back to that song from The Sound of Music. It’s called “Do, Re, Mi” and the opening line is “Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.” When you’re starting at the beginning of building any marketing campaign, there are four things you need to consider. The building blocks of your campaign, and the information from which everything else will grow. In marketing, these four things are known as the Four Ps.

Some people might argue what exactly the four Ps should be, or that there should be more than four. The original 4 Ps were first posited by Harvard professor Neil Borden in the 1950s. The ideas were later refined into what we know as the 4 Ps by a Michigan State University professor named E. Jerome McCarthy. The idea, at the time, was to give companies tools that would help them overcome barriers to production adoption on a widespread basis.

Today the 4 Ps are still relevant, but perhaps not in the same way they were when the concepts were first developed. The advent of the internet has made it easier for companies to reach widespread audiences and to get their messages out to an extensive customer network. Even though the utility of the 4 Ps may have morphed slightly, they’re still the basis of any successful marketing campaign and useful tools when you’re devleoping a new campaign for your business.

Marketing’s 4 Ps

Product- To create a useful marketing campaign, you need to first understand your product. What is it? What does it do? Who needs it? Does it has attributes other products that are similar don’t have? Basically, you’re defining your product offering. You can’t market a product if you don’t understand it. This P makes sure that you’re clear on what your product is and what the benefits are so you can accurately communicate that information to your customer base.

Price - What will people be willing to pay for this product? And no, this isn’t a fantasy price, what people would, ideally, pay if everything was perfect and people always did what you wanted them to do. This is a realistic price based on market research, the products real value and perceived value, competitors’ prices and retail mark-up. This P basically encompasses all the thought and research that has to go into coming up with a realistic price for your product.

Place -Where is the product going to be sold? This is the first part of this P. Are you going to have a brick and mortar store? Are you going to do pop up shops at events? Are you selling solely online? And when you sell the product, how will it be displayed? Are you selling only in high end venues and displaying the products elaborately. Are you selling online only and so will need to invest in really good product photography? This P is about how and where your product is available and why.

Promotion - How are you going to communicate what customers need to know about your product? What venues are those messages going to be released to or communicated in? What do your messages look like, sound like, feel like? This is probably what most people think about when they think about marketing, what’s the message and how do we get it in front of as many people as possible. In reality, however, this P is really about branding, messaging and communicating. And it’s what supports and underpins all the other Ps.

Action Items

Price Your Product - Product Marketing Alliance - Pricing a product can be one of the hardest things a business owner does. This article gives some tips on determining price as well as some helpful formulas that can be used to calculate prices. It also covers multiple pricing models.

Place Your Product - Ecwid - This article was written in 2018, so some of the stats may be a little old, but it does offer a good overview of the drawbacks and benefits of some of the major channels through which you can sell products. It always pays to look at the benefits and challenges of any sales channel. Sometimes you might discover that one option you thought was perfect doesn’t work as well as you thought it would work. Or that another channel might suit your product better.

Find Your Product - Shopify - Maybe you’re just starting out and deciding what to sell. Or perhaps you’ve been in business for a while, but are looking for a new product to add to your offerings. This blog post offers 16 ways to find new products. None of them are revolutionary, but it’s possible you might not have thought of some of them.

About Me

My name is Kristine Shreve. A Marketing Director for over a decade, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Marketing and what works and what doesn’t and why. Good marketing grows businesses and growth for everyone is what I’m rooting for. Visit my website to learn more about me.