What are the 4 Ps of Marketing?

The 4 Ps of Marketing. Like our article on Lean, Agile, Scrum, and Kanban, you might have heard of these terms. But, you might not be truly familiar with them or feel comfortable using them at work.

That’s why we have a quick guide to what these are, where they are from, and why they are relevant. And, if you are interested in learning more about Management Principles, check out our article on All You Need to Know About: Lean, Agile, Scrum, and Kanban.

If you have ever watched Mad Men or any other famous marketing TV show, you’re well aware that advertising has a lot that goes into it. From color scheme to client relations, marketing involves understanding all of the business.

That is where the 4 Ps come into play. These were originally developed in the 1960s and together make up the marketing mix, a combination of factors that can be controlled by a company to encourage and influence consumers to purchase its products.

Price

The first of the 4 Ps is Price. Obviously, this includes the list price of an item, but there are a number of things that go into determining that. By researching your competitors’ pricing and offerings, you can judge the playing field and determine your position. You must also consider how much it costs you to make a product or provide a service. If it is expensive, you need to price higher. Too high though, and customers won’t be interested.

Plus, you have to consider the psychological impacts of how you price something. For example, prices ending with .99 are viewed as less expensive than prices ending with .00, even if the difference is only a penny. Prices ending with .00 though, are typically viewed as nicer, higher quality.

Effectively, pricing is a complicated balancing act that greatly affects your marketing strategy.

And, price isn’t the only thing you have to consider.

Product

Product, the second of the 4 Ps, is equally important. While this is the easiest of the 4 Ps to determine, it impacts all the rest. You want to consider what product or service you are offering, why people want it, what customer support you should offer, and why you are better than your competitors.

Determining your product, and answering all of these important questions, sets the stage for your marketing mix. Any successful marketing or advertising agency knows that the product is VIP.

Place

But, again, we are talking about the Four Ps of Marketing. You also have to consider the Place. Place encompasses a number of factors, including if your store or business has both online and offline locations. Whether you are working solely with a website or have a storefront greatly impacts your marketing and your target markets. (FYI – target market is a group of consumers at which a specific product or service is aimed).

Keeping track of your different options for selling, different locations where marketing might be important, and different target markets is important for considering the place of your 4 Ps. 

Promotion

And, last but not least, consider your Promotion. Target market comes into play here, like with place. Promotion generally refers to communication with the objectives of informing, persuading, and remembering a target audience.

Especially considering how digital marketing is becoming more prevalent and popular, promotion is important. From billboards to magazine ads to Google, promotion takes on a variety of forms and functions. Social media, paid advertising, email marketing, and TikTok are all becoming relevant, and profitable, ways to promote your service or product.

Even with these new forms of advertising, though, it is important not to reject or forget more traditional methods.

While these 4 Ps were originally developed in the 1960s, they are still relevant today. From TV shows to advertisements in stores, marketing permeates everyday life. While marketing is so common to see, it is harder to understand how to use it in a business context.

Focusing on price, product, place and promotion, we are able to reach customers and learn about marketing principles.

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