The 4 Ps of Marketing: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion

For more than 60 years, the four Ps of marketing have been a cornerstone of modern marketing practices: price, product, place, and promotion.

These four attributes are often called the “marketing mix,” a term created by a Harvard professor in the mid-20th century. A fellow academic, E. Jerome McCarthy, further refined the concept of the marketing mix in his 1960 book “Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach.”

The 4 Ps constitute a framework of the most important decisions to make about your business’ marketing efforts. Let’s dive in and take a look at how they can affect your business.

1. Product

The product is the good or service you’re selling. Depending on the size of your business—e-commerce, brick & mortar, or a combination—someone else might have developed the product you need to market. Or maybe you made the good or offer the service. Either way, this is the step for assessing your product’s place in the market.

What you know about your own products is going to help you effectively market and sell them. Getting intimately familiar with your products, the aspects of it that customers care about most, and how it compares to other products on the market is key.

Questions to consider:

• What is my product? How would I describe it?

• How is it unique or different from other similar products?

• What’s the biggest selling point for your product?

2. Price

The price is the amount you’re going to charge customers. Ideally, a business owner has already determined the lowest price they can charge in order to break even. But breaking even isn’t good enough: You want to turn a profit while making sure you’re charging an amount that customers are willing to pay.

Different pricing strategies and models are appropriate for different products. Luxury products might be priced far higher than competitors’ products, while affordable options have lower price tags. Services may use a subscription, package, or membership model to set a price. There’s also an element of psychology in setting higher retail prices, then offering discounts on a regular basis.

Questions to consider:

• What did it cost to produce my product? What’s the value of my product? 

• How will the price compare with competitors’ prices?

• How will the price affect customers’ perception of my product?

• What discounts or sales am I willing to offer?

3. Place

The place is where customers are going to find your product, whether at a physical store or online. Within each of those categories are plenty of options. For physical locations, you need to decide whether you open your own shop, get picked up by other stores, or pay for ideal display placements. Online, you have to decide whether to sell on your own website, on other stores’ websites, on social media platforms, or through listings on marketplaces. 

A product’s placement affects buyers’ perception of the product. It also determines who is most likely to see that your product is available. If your product is for aging Baby Boomers, you’re better off advertising on Facebook rather than TikTok. If your service is for upscale clients, create a website that oozes luxury in its colors, design, and user experience. 

Questions to consider:

• What kind of shopping experience complements my product?

• Where are my target customers already shopping?

• Where can I find my product’s customer demographic for advertising?

4. Promotion

Promotion ties together the other three Ps in a grand finale: how you communicate your product to the world. Promotion highlights your product’s unique differentiator and features that potential customers are hungry for. It names the price, which the target customer will gladly pay. It puts the product and advertisements in the right places for the right audiences to see. 

There are more options for promotion channels and content types than ever before. Social media, websites, search advertisements, search engine optimizations, TV, radio, podcasts, magazines, newspapers, flyers, brochures, and billboards all provide space for advertisements. You can also create original content to talk about your brand and area of expertise on YouTube, in a podcast, in articles, or through graphic design. You can hire micro-influencers or go on shows to plug your product yourself. The possibilities for promotion are seemingly endless.

Questions to consider:

• Where are your target customers reading, listening, and watching?

• How can your product show up as the answer to a problem at exactly the right time for potential customers?

• Where do you, realistically, have the time and resources to invest in promoting your product?

Elevate your Brand and Marketing with Certum Solutions

If the four Ps of marketing are about three more Ps than you want to handle, consider outsourcing your marketing. From brand development to social media management, content creation to sales enablement, Certum Solutions has the expertise and experience to level-up your marketing.

In fact, we recently added “marketing” to our services, so check it out and reach out today to find out more about how we can help.