The 4Ps of marketing are product, place, price, and promotion. They can help you successfully market your products and services.
The 4ps of marketing stand for product, place, price, and promotion, which are a mix of marketing elements that can help businesses reach their target customers. Let’s take a closer look. 👇
The history of the 4Ps of marketing
The 4ps of marketing can be traced back to a marketing article from 1948, published by James Culliton, professor of marketing at Harvard. He suggested that the best way to reach customers was a combination of several marketing strategies, which he referred to as a ‘marketing mix’. However, the term ‘4ps’ wasn’t coined until 1960 by E. Jerome McCarthy.
The 4 elements product, place, price, and promotion are now the cornerstone of marketing strategies and analysis. Marketing professionals should use these 4 elements to make sure they reach the right customers, maximize profit, work more efficiently, and so on.
Product
The first P stands for product. This strategy is all about defining your product, the product’s qualities, and how it’ll be marketed to consumers.
You need to figure out
- what products/services you’re going to offer
- who needs these products/services
- why do they need these products/services
- what differentiates these products/services from competitors
- what makes your products/services unique or special
- how are you going to brand your products/services
And so on!
See also: How to make a business model—with a free template
Price
Price is how much you’ll be charging for your products and services. However, it’s about so much more than just charging the highest price possible. You have to link the price to the product’s real and perceived value—and you have to consider your costs, as well the prices of your competitors.
Pricing strategies can be effective marketing tactics, for example, you can raise your prices to make your products appear more exclusive, or you can lower your prices temporarily to gain a foothold in the market.
Pricing is also about how you’ll charge customers, is it a one-off payment, a subscription, or package pricing? And how are you going to charge customers?
See also: The ultimate guide to pricing strategies
Place
Place is where the products or services will be offered to customers. Are you setting up an e-commerce website? Are you selling something strictly online like software or online courses? Are you going to lease a brick-and-mortar store? How are you getting the products from A to B?
The goal is to get your products or services in front of customers who’ll be interested in buying them.
Promotion
Promotion is how you’re going to tell customers that they need this product or service. In this category we find advertising, PR, media strategy and so on.
You need to consider which platforms you’re going to use to advertise your products and services, for example social media, newspapers, radio, or billboards.
What messaging is going to be promoted, is it the exclusivity of the product? Is it the down-to-earth service you offer? Is it the ease of use? Or something else entirely?
Example of the 4Ps
To look closer at how the 4Ps work, let’s take the example of running shoes.
The product is running shoes, which are designed to be long-lasting at an affordable price point. These shoes are for every-day runners, not for professional athletes.
The pricing in this case would be mid-level. These shoes are not designer shoes made for celebrities and professional athletes, but for down-to-earth runners who don’t want to be held back by the need for expensive equipment. However, you shouldn’t price the shoes too low since that would make them appear cheap and low quality. A slightly higher price conveys higher quality.
A great place to sell these shoes would be an online store: You could set up your own, but you should also try to get them included in the online stores of big retail brands. You can do the same for physical stores.
You should figure out how to promote the shoes. In this case Google Ads could be a great way to reach people who search for affordable, but good running shoes. You could try to find a brand ambassador that embodies these qualities, for example a workout influencer. Maybe you could team up with a popular workout app to promote the shoes?
As you’ll notice, the 4Ps often overlap, so don’t worry if that’s the case with your marketing strategy too.
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How to use the 4Ps of marketing
You can use the 4Ps to get your business off to a good start, to launch a new product, or to reevaluate an existing marketing strategy.
In short, it’s a recipe for success.
Start by identifying your product and what sets your product apart. Move on to price and find a good pricing strategy that’ll maximize sales. Then, figure out where your product will be available and the logistics surrounding that. Finally, think about how you’ll get the word out.
By using the 4Ps, you’ll
- ensure that you’ve through through all the necessary details of your marketing
- identify and avoid pitfalls in your strategy
- nail down your product and your branding
- make sure the whole team is on board
Frequently asked questions about the 4Ps of marketing
The 4Ps of marketing are product, price, place, and promotion. They’re marketing elements that together make up a good marketing strategy. By using the 4Ps, you’ll figure out what your product is and who it’s for, what it’s going to cost, where it’s going to be sold, and how it’s going to be promoted.
There’s been a lot of debate about whether there should be more than 4 elements, and both 7 and 8ps have been proposed.
For services, the mix is typically extended to include 7 marketing elements: product, place, price, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence. Sometimes performance is added too, making it 8ps.
People refers to any employee that interacts with customers. Process is how your business operates, such as logistics, checkout, delivery and so on. Physical evidence is what reassures customers of the value you provide, for example reviews, case studies and so on.
In the 90s, the 4Cs were proposed as a more customer-focused marketing mix: consumer, cost, convenience, and communication.
