The 4Ps of Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide

Understanding Marketing Mix

A Marketing Mix is a set of different factors that helps your company or a business.

You can leverage it to make your customers purchase your products, thus, it helps to create leads.

As the name suggests, it is a mix of different marketing tactical tools.

Moreover, the role of the marketing executive is to prepare the right combination to bring out a synergy between the product and the target audience.

Marketing Mix often refers to the set of 4Ps.

Product, Price, Promotion, Place

However, theoretically, a marketing mix is a border term with 3 additional Ps.

These are: Process, People, and Physical Evidence

An important thing to note is that the role of the marketing mix is to synthesize the visible and invisible qualities of the product with the aspirations of the target audience.

The marketing mix for a manufacturing product will be different than that of a product or a service.

4Ps of Marketing

In this article, we will discuss the basic 4Ps of marketing that also summarize the four basic pillars of any marketing strategy.

These 4Ps of Marketing are:

• Product: What you are selling? Is it a physical good, services, consulting, etc.?
• Price: How much do you charge and how does it effects how your customers view your brand?
• Place: Where are you going to promote your product or service? Where do the ideal customers go to find the information about your industry or niche?
• promotion: How will your customers find about you? What strategies will you use and how effective they are?

You might find it simple, and it really is.

However, the harder part is implementing the concept which we will discuss in the later section.

Moreover, the theory behind the 4Ps of Marketing is covering all the 4 Ps will help to achieve higher sales.

However, it is also not that easy.

The original concept of the marketing mix goes back to 1960 when McCarthy introduced it in his book: Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach.

Before diving into the 4Ps of Marketing, let’s consider the factors that will help you determine the marketing mix and its importance.

Factors that Determine the Marketing Mix

In order to find the right pitch for your brand, you need to consider a number of factors before setting out to do it.

The marketing mix for any product depends on two factors:

• Internal Factors
• External Factors

Internal Factors These are the factors that lie within your organization or are about the inner atmosphere of your company.

The internal factors are the nature of the product, product stages in its overall lifecycle, availability of the funds, and your objectives.

External Factors On the other hand, external factors are the factors that are present outside the atmosphere of your company.

These are your competition, efficiency of the channel, buying behavior of your target customers, and control from the government.

Importance of 4Ps of Marketing

With the help of core marketing mix fundamentals, you can enhance the success of your products.

The benefits you can achieve are:
Helps Create Strategy
When you blend the 4Ps of marketing it helps to create coordination that gives the right pitch to the product.

It follows the principle: “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.

Brand Loyalty and Value As this approach focuses on the needs of the target audience, and their satisfaction, the product earns consumer loyalty and esteem.

Serves as a Link The features of your product, pricing, and places strive to consider the expectations of a customer.

Moreover, the promotions give your customers what your brand proposes to odder and thus, position the products later.

This is a link that is present between the consumer and the organization.

Proper Integration In order to design 4Ps, you need to think critically and have perspectives.

When they emerge correctly, then your product will find a unique place in the mind of your target audience.

Helps to make Decisions The interdependence and the overarching of one element over e another guide you to make decisions.

Higher Sales Volume Therefore, the results of all the efforts are higher customer satisfaction and greater market share which is, in turn, an increase in the ale of your products or services.

Learn more about Best Web Development Companies in Dubai here.

Popular Examples to Consider

If you are still not convinced how 4Ps of Marketing can help your brand’s product r service to stand out, consider the following examples:

Slacked Doubled Down on “Product” to grow to 44 billion in 4 years
Product not only refers to the final outcome rather it is the quality, warranties, packaging, features, variety of the products or service levels, and so on.

Product-led growth is a go-to-market strategy that is very popular in the startup world.

The basic idea is to put your user experience at the forefront of every aspect of the strategy to create a product.

Thus, with the help of this concept, Instant messaging company, Slack, used product-led growth to reach $4 billion in revenue in just 4 years.

Starbucks uses “Price” to maximize profitability
In order to make their business viable, the price element offers a seemingly straightforward way to fuel growth.

Even a 1% increase in price can increase profit by 11% on average.

Starbucks ‘ approach to pricing gives an insight into how the company continues to grow and operate profitability.

Understanding that is customers are not price-sensitive, the company increases the process in tiny increments.

Moreover, it continues to move its pricing upward towards the amounts customers are willing to pay, without causing them to stop buying.

Lego becomes a valuable toy brand with “Promotion”
Lego become a top-notch brand when it connected with entertainment.

You might have seen it to collaborate with franchises like Star Wars and Batman.

Moreover, its YouTube Channel is one of the most popular ones with 5 million subscribers.
Now, let’s dive right into the 4Ps of Marketing in the next section.

Product: The First P of the Marketing

The Product is what your brand is selling, and it may be a product like an energy drink in the beverage industry or a dress in a clothing store.

Or in this time of the era: a marketing agency like Makrfiniti.

Moreover, it can also be services like consulting or a paid speaking gig, or even a therapy session.

Thus, the product is everything that is made available to your customer.

In the 4Ps strategy, this means that you need to understand what your offers need in order to stand apart from your competitors and win over the customers.

In other words, what is the unique feature that makes your product or services stand out from others?

Because if you do not stand out, it is going to be hard to thrive.

For instance, you might know about the products like SEMRush, however, you do not know who the competitors are.

So what is the big thing that makes SEMRush stand out from everyone else?

Let’s not focus on the features, rather on the usability.

SEMRush is one of the leading keyword research tools that you can use as well as to trach the overall performance of your website.

Thus, this is what makes it stand out.

Creating an Amazing Product that Customers Love Consider something really simple.

Visit the website Hotjar, sign up for free, and run a poll, like the one below.

While running a poll, ask some open-minded questions like:

• What is the biggest problem I can help you solve? This will give you an idea of what your product or service needs to do.
• What is your favorite marketing product and why? You can replace the term marketing within whatever industry or niche you are working in, and this question will give you an idea about your competitors and what they are doing right.
• Why did you come here today? This will help you to determine why people come to your site and what they are looking for.
• How can we make our product or service better? If you already have a product or service up, this will get real feedback.
• Things you don’t like in your competitor XYZ? You can replace the name of your competitor and it will help you to know where there is an opportunity.

It is important to pay attention to the last question as this is where you can identify how you can differentiate yourself from your competitions.

Thus, before you go on and build a product, or make it better or improve it, do not invest too much time and money without getting feedback first.

It can help to avoid wasting any money and save worth of time building a product you do not want to use.

Learn more about SEO Competitor Analysis using SEMRush here.

Price: The Second P of Marketing

Price is simple and it refers to how much you are going to or are charging for your product or service.

Though it is simple to understand, yet it is really hard to come up with the “right” price.

The one number that not only drives the most amount of sales but also drives the most profit.

The real question is How do you want your customers to perceive you?

For instance, Amazon wants to be the place where you can get the best-valued products from A to Z and of course with fast delivery.

My buddies’ company Imperia Caviar offers high-end caviar at low prices.

They are able to get the same caviar that big brands charge thousands of dollars for.

You might be thinking that having a cheap price is cheapening the brand, however, instead, it is bringing transparency to the market.

Moreover, it is educating people on how caviar is not really expensive, it is actually a marketing ploy.

Consider another example here.
Well, most people often charge for marketing software education and it is often expensive.

However, Ubersuggest gives a lot for free or super cheap.

If you think that it is cheapening the brand, then look at the following data:

See.

On the flip side, would Porche be Porche if their cars were selling for $10,000?

Obviously not.

Picking the Right Place for your Product

By no means you are a pricing expert, thus, it can be often difficult to tell what price you would set for your product.

For this purpose, you can consult the blog: Price Intelligently Blog.

They know to price like the back of their hand and also have a dozen of articles that will teach you how to price your product.

Moreover, it is important to think about pricing, particularly if you are in a crowded space.

Pro Tip: If you are new to a space or already a leader, you can always change the premium amount.

On the other hand, if your space is too saturated and you are late in the market, then you will need to have a cheaper price.

Some questions you should ask yourself are:

• What would be the lowest price you are willing to sell your service or product on?
• What would be the highest price that your consumers are willing to pay?
• How sensitive to price are your customers?
• The prices current leaders in your niche are charging
• How does the price compare to the competition?

Learn more about Offline Advertising in Dubai here.

Place: The Third P of the Marketing

The place is another word for locations. You might have heard that it is all about location, location, location.

Consider the following example:

You are a tech genius and you just bought an event, not created it.

However, it fails.

The reason: Your event fails because it is not a good event, however, it has a terrible location.

The location of your event is somewhere the lech companies need hours to reach and thus, a lot of them avoid coming to the place of your event.

In other words: Location, location, location

How to pick the Right Place? The web is this virtual world and though the location or place may seem irrelevant, it really is not.

Think of it this way: If we put out company, “Markfinit” all over Tiktok, what do you think will happen?

We will not be able to generate new clients as none of our ideal customers are on Tiktok.

Do you think that a bunch of people from 16 to 24 years of age are looking for marketing services?

However, if we helped to get more followers, sure, but we don’t do that.

Think of the platforms and places your target or ideal customers are and be there.

It can be a site like Google or even an offline venue like Conferences.

However, do not try to bring your customers to you, instead, go where they are.

As these simple questions:

• Where is your target customer?
• Which outlets, online or offline will help to sell your product?
• Which distribution channels are currently working for you?
• Do you sell directly to businesses or consumers?
• Do you sell directly to your end customer or do you have to go through middlemen?

It is important to note that your customers should always be the center of your decision, however, it is important to include aspects of other Ps.

Learn more about Video Production Agency in Dubai here.

Promotion: The Fourth P of Marketing

The fourth P is the promotion, and after optimizing your previous 3 Ps of marketing, it is time to promote your offer.

To be clear, when we talk about promotion, it is not just about getting your brand out there.

Instead, it means generating revenue.

What is the point of promotion if you can’t drive sales? Right?

With all the channels out there, it is important to start with the one that best suits you.

Consider the following example:
Visit Ubersuggest and put in your competitor’s URL.

If they are big, you will see the data on how much traffic they are generating, which keywords they rank for in Google, the sites that link to them and talk about them, and even know the number of social media shares.

While if they are small, you will not see any data. you will have to put in a bigger competitor.

How do you Promote Well?
Start off by asking yourself the following questions:

• Which channels does your audience use the most to consume or find information?
• What kind of message tends to be more effective when promoting your solutions?
• What is the ideal period for promoting your product?
• Is there any concern about seasonality?
• How do your competitors plan and carry out their promotions?

You can also use Facebook’s ad library.

It will show you the ads that your competitor runs and more importantly, the messaging they use.

Now, let’s discuss how you can implement the 4Ps of marketing.

Let’s discuss what you will need to do to implement the 4Ps of Marketing.

Step 1: Understand the Product you are Working on

Most of you probably have a product or service in mind or at least an idea of it.

The first step in the marketing mix is figuring out the product or service.

Before moving to the next step, think about whether you are on the right track or not.

At least make sure to answer questions like the target market, the size of the market features the market demand and value as well as what makes your product different.

Answers to these questions can help you learn more about your product or service.

However, you can also write the best guesses so that you have something to work with.

Moreover, you can always refine it later on.

Learn more about Best Web Development Companies in Sharjah here.

Step 2: Decide on a Price

Price is what your target clients will pay for your product or service.

Moreover, it needs to be linked to both the real and perceived value of your offer.

Answers to questions like what costs you need to consider, will it make you profitable, can your audience afford it, and how will they perceive the price as compared to competitors can help.

One of the main issues you need to solve is to connect your business cost with what your customers perceive as value.

Another thing to consider is how do you intend to make your product affordable for the target market?

One way to do this is to simply ask.

You can survey or interview your target audience. Or you can listen to what people are saying on social media.

However, be careful as it is often hard to find people who publicly express their satisfaction with the price of something unless they get a bargain.

If you are lucky enough, you may stumble across lively discussions about pricing in your product category.

Learn more about Twitter Ads Company in Dubai here.

Step 3: Choose a Place to Sell your Product

The place is about where and how your target customers buy the product or service.

Moreover, you need to think in terms of the type of shop, cloud vs. downloadable, staff needed, and the possible fee to intermediaries.

Key questions this part of the process needs to cover are:

• What are potential customers’ shopping habits?
• Where does your completion sell its products?
• Where can the customers get the best buying experience and after-sales support?
• Do you need sales reps or will it be self-service?
• How much revenue will you need to give up to offer the product via a particular distribution channel?

The takeaway here is that the right distribution model is gently influenced by the product type.

When you see more than one place you can sell a product, consider the costs and benefits.

Learn more about Flyer Distribution in Dubai here.

Step 4: Create a Promotion Strategy

Promotion refers to the tactics you need to use to reach your target audience.

Think to advertise, blog posts, social media, PR, etc.

Your promotion strategy needs answers to who the target audience is, how your competitor reaches their customers, budget, and staff.

Moreover, the typical buying journey of your prospects, and the type of tactics you can use to fill the marketing funnel.

Final Thoughts

The 4Ps of Marketing are a bit like SWOT. Both are extremely elegant in their simplicity, touch the fundamentals of business, and can be used for multiple purposes.
You can use the 4Ps of marketing to develop your marketing strategy, conduct a marketing workshop, and audit a marketing
strategy.