stmAre you searching online on how to use the 4 Ps to boost your business? You’re at the right place. This article features the 4 Ps of marketing and how to use them to grow your business.
What Are The 4 Ps In Marketing?
The 4 Ps in Marketing are often referred to as the “Marketing-Mix”. This Marketing-Mix is the foundation of business and it is centered on the 4 Ps which were introduced by Edmund Jerome McCarthy in Basic marketing: a managerial approach, McCarthy’s models are as follows; product, price, place and promotion.
The marketing mix is generally defined as the set of tools marketing firms use to pursue their objectives in the target market. Marketing theory was introduced in the early twenty-first century, unlike the marketing mix which has been in use since the late 1980s.
However, since the introduction of the 4 Ps, several authors have introduced more Ps to enhance the marketing world. Service marketing comprises 7 Ps (product, price, place, promotion, positioning, packaging and people) while Occasional service marketing comprises of 8 Ps (7 Ps plus performance).
In the early 1990s, two authors introduced the 4 Cs and 7 Cs as a customer-driven replacement of the 4 Ps, Professor Robert Lauterborn introduced the 4 Cs marketing mix in New marketing litany: four Ps passé: these 4 Cs include; commodity, cost, channel and communication.
Another 7 Cs model was introduced by Professor Koichi Shimizu in his first edition of Advertising theory and strategies. Shimizu’s 7 Cs include; Cooperation, commodity, cost, channel, communication, consumer and circumstances.
A lot can go wrong when you oversee several marketing mix or you try to combine them all, the 4 Ps cover all the basics of marketing. The idea of the 4 Ps is to create an easy method for remembering the principles involved in marketing.
So whenever you’re stuck or confused about a tactical decision, you can easily remember the 4 Ps. However, for you to achieve your goal by using the 4 Ps, you must understand them extensively.
Understanding The 4 Ps Of Marketing
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Product
When talking about products you will definitely involve services. Your products and services are the core of your business. Moreover, your products define your marketing plan, and as every business owner who wants to sell a satisfactory product, your product should speak for itself.
Many products target practical needs (i.e detergent or food), it’s also viable to offer products that meet the needs of emotions such as identity or status. Think of customers who spend millions of dollars buying wristwatches when they can easily check the time on their smartphones.
Your products and services should target fulfilling a need that current products do not. In this digital age, your products will fit into a market opening when you use newly advanced technology to solve a problem that doesn’t have a solution before.
If you’re thinking of launching a new product line or improving an existing product, then you should think of what brings people discomfort, a good product also restores your customer’s pain point, either a minor discomfort like your phone’s low battery notification or life-threatening discomfort like fire detectors.
In a competitive marketplace, you need to add something unique to your product that will give you an edge over your competitors, for example, your competitors do not produce their products in 8k resolution, and so you make yours in 8k resolution.
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Price
Pricing affects your business in both positive and negative ways, strategic planning can also help you break into a new market, gain customer loyalty or establish your products as cost-effective or high-end.
Price is the amount customers are willing to pay for a particular product, marketers must compare the price to the value of the product, other factors are also considered, like; competitors’ price, cost of supply, retail markup and seasonal discounts.
In some cases, marketers may increase the price of products to give it a new look and exclusivity and they sometimes reduce the cost of products to make more customers try them out.
Bear in mind that customers also determine if and when a discount is suitable, when you put discounts on some products, it might make them less desirable or attract more people to give them a trial.
There are a whole lot of marketing strategies and only a few focus on maximizing profit, most are focused on achieving a particular goal, for example, increasing the cost of one product to encourage customers to buy another product.
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Place
Do not pay attention to where everyone sells, instead search for where your targeted audience shops. Understand your audience and narrow down your search, and you should be careful enough not to waste resources marketing in the wrong place.
You can start by identifying your customer’s psychograph such as ideas, values, personalities and lifestyles, you should also put your customers’ demography into consideration. After doing this, you’ll get an insight into how your customers shop and then you can offer them promotions.
You should also advertise your products in the right channel to generate leads that may eventually turn into customers, consider the social media your customers visit the more and the search engines they use. This will give you insights on where to place your ads.
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Promotion
The goal of promotion is to make your products more visible to the target audience, and show them that your product is better than that of your competitors.
Promotion includes advertising, public relations, media strategy, outreach, special offers and contests. Advertising is the most common form of promotion and it is a way of reaching out to your target audience to raise your brand awareness by showing them the benefits of your products.
The content of your ads can greatly improve your branding, and the logo of your business impacts purchasing decisions. And when designing your ad, do not forget a strong call to action.
Final Words
The internet has made marketing easy, and it facilitates customer penetration. The 4 Ps are the starting point for every business both large and small, a wise and experienced marketer will combine the traditional 4 Ps and additional 4 Ps to bring out the best in his products, clients and company.
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