What are the 4 Ps in order?
SummaryThe 4 P’s of marketing are price, promotion, place, and product—the four key factors every marketer should use to guide their campaign strategy. Our guide covers the 4 P’s of marketing and gives a breakdown of each step involved. Show Product, price, place, and promotion. According to the marketing mix theory, these 4 P's are the building blocks of any successful marketing campaign. While no strategy is a guaranteed path to skyrocketing sales, covering the four P's in your marketing campaigns can significantly increase your likelihood of success. The 4 P's approach works for any industry, and can be applied to any business, from solopreneurs to enterprise organizations. In our guide, we'll cover what the 4 P’s of marketing are, then break down exactly how to incorporate them in your next marketing campaign. What are the 4 P’s of marketing?The 4 P's stand for product, price, place, and promotion, the four primary factors that marketers need to consider when designing a campaign strategy. A marketing strategy should:
Keep these four objectives in mind as you craft your marketing strategy. The 4 P's should influence your product positioning, marketing channel selection, advertising decisions, promotional strategy, and copy choices throughout the campaign. Free marketing strategy template How do the 4 P’s work?Knowing what the 4 P’s are isn't very helpful unless you also know how to implement them in your marketing strategy. Below, we'll break down each P to help you better understand what they are, why they're important to your marketing efforts, and how you can incorporate them into future campaigns. The first P: ProductIn the marketing mix, "product" is shorthand for whatever it is that you're selling, whether it's a physical product or a service. A strong marketing campaign starts with a clear and detailed understanding of the product and how it appeals to the target customer. For example, a car advertisement that only highlights details like what the car looks like and how much it costs isn't very compelling. Guided by a complete understanding of the product they're selling, a more skilled marketer might pitch an SUV crossover advertisement that emphasizes unique safety features in order to specifically target parents of small children. Example product questions
Put yourself in your target customer's shoes to more thoroughly understand what your product has to offer. With a better understanding of the specific ways in which your product offers value to the customer, you'll be able to market that product more effectively. The second P: PriceThe second P of marketing stands for “price.” This is how much you should charge for your product in order to make a profit. When creating your pricing strategy, a good place to start is by looking at your competitors. Checking how much your competitors charge gives you a good sense of how much potential customers are willing to pay for similar products. Combine that with the perceived value of your product—in other words, what you want your price to imply about your product. Are you a luxury, standard, or budget option? You can use your marketing messaging to focus on these different price points. Don’t forget to also think about coupons, discounts, offers, and bundles that are popular in your marketplace. Example price questions
If you've priced your product correctly, you should be selling it at a cost that's affordable for your target customer and still brings in a profit. The third P: PlaceThe third P of marketing stands for “place.” This encompasses where you are in relation to where your customer is, as well as where you need to place your advertising in order to reach your target audience. It doesn't take a master strategist to know that a physical product or service needs to be available where potential customers live, shop, and work. However, place will impact your marketing strategy, too. If you operate a physical store, it's unlikely that customers will come from far away to buy your product. Generalized marketing methods will always be effective, but you may get a greater return on investments in local SEO, advertising in town newspapers, and co-sponsoring community events. The same principle applies to locating your target audience online. For example, if you're targeting Gen Z social media influencers, you'll probably be wasting valuable budget by advertising on platforms that cater to older audiences like Facebook or LinkedIn. Example place questions
The last P of marketing stands for “promotion.” If product is what you're selling, price is how much you're selling it for, and place is where you're selling it, then promotion is how you're promoting the sale. In designing your promotion strategy, think through how you want your messaging to be received. Is your brand fun and clever, upscale and luxurious, or serious and intellectual? Nail down your brand voice and then keep it consistent across all of your marketing. It's also important to determine what messages will perform well on different platforms. A multiple-paragraph post will be ignored on Facebook or Instagram, but might make an excellent SEO opportunity for your blog. You might be targeting audiences that use both LinkedIn and TikTok, and you may even be promoting the same message across channels, but you'll need to tailor the format of your content to match each platform. Example promotion questions
4 P’s vs. 7 P’s of marketing: What’s the difference?The 4 P's first appeared in a book called Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach that was published in 1960. Though the 4 P's are still just as applicable today, the original marketing mix didn't account for modern factors like the specific challenges of online marketing or the massive variety of products available today. That's why some marketers like to use an expanded list that contains an additional three P's: people, physical evidence, and process. The 7 P's of marketingThe 7 P's of marketing include the original four (product, price, place, and promotion) plus three people, physical evidence, and process.
The 4 P's aren't something you can implement as an afterthought. To utilize the 4 P's effectively, incorporate them into every step of your marketing campaign. From your initial organizing stages all the way through to campaign launch, the presence of the 4 P's should be evident in your marketing strategy every step of the way. Free marketing strategy template |