The marketing mix is a tool used to help brands understand what elements must be combined in order to meet their marketing goals and objectives. Ultimately, this includes the 4 Ps of marketing: product, price, place and promotion. The evolution of the digital age has caused the standard methods and practices of nearly every industry to change and grow to work within this new paradigm, and marketing is certainly no exception. In fact, the marketing industry has arguably seen the most benefit from the growth of digital. Today’s marketers have access to a wealth of information and access through new tools for customer profiling, artificial intelligence, and response analysis to name just a few. Add to that Big Data, or the ability to collect, analyze, and act on enormous amounts of customer and product information, and the idea of providing reliable, predictive one-to-one marketing becomes very real. The core tenants of marketing have stood the test of time. The Internet age has caused some changes in the way that marketers work, meaning revising old marketing processes, concepts, and priorities, and then reconstructing them into forms that work better and more effectively in this new world of communications. But through it all, those tenants and fundamentals remain the same. The 4 Ps of MarketingThe 4 Ps of marketing include product, price, place, and promotion. These are the key elements that must be united to effectively foster and promote a brand’s unique value, and help it stand out from the competition. Jerome McCarthy first proposed the modern form of the 4 Ps in his 1960 textbook, Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. These elements have since provided a standard method to describing marketing programs for over 50 years. But, what makes the 4 Ps of marketing so important that they have withstood the test of time, including the growth of the internet age? Below we break down each P, and reexamine the ways that each has remained critical to marketing. ProductA product refers to any item that intends to satisfy the needs and wants of a target customer. It can be a tangible good, such a clothing item or piece of software, or intangible, like a service or experience (think legal services or a cruise). Marketers must always have a clear concept of what their products stand for, and what differentiates them from the competition, before they can be marketed successfully. Today, the internet can be considered either the medium for purchase, via e-commerce, or the product itself, such as a social media service. Because of this, it’s vital that marketers fully understand the product they are selling, how it meets the needs of their target customer, and what makes their product stand above the competition. Some key questions that marketers need to answer include:
PriceFirst comes the product, and immediately after comes a determination of its value among target audiences. Pricing strategy is an art and a science, in that it involves both market data and careful calculations, as well as skillfully balancing between pricing that is too high or too low, and understanding how skewing either way might damage the brand. Price not only refers to the monetary value of a product, but also the time or effort the customer is willing to expend to acquire it. Determining this will be a critical factor in revenue for the brand as it will impact profit, supply, demand, and how much marketers should spend on a promotion or marketing strategy. This, in and of itself, is why this ‘P’ is one of the most important. If a product is priced too high or too low, the product – and brand – could fail. Some key questions that marketers need to answer include:
➤ Connect the 4 Ps of marketing with true personalization and start growing your business. PlaceThe internet age has introduced new challenges when it comes to reaching your customers. Place refers to providing customers access to the product, and it also calls into play convenience for the customer. Marketing, through digital means or otherwise, is about putting the right product, in the right place, at the right price, at the right time, in front of the customer. Some key questions that marketers need to answer include:
Even though transactions with your company may take place exclusively in-store or online, customers likely interact with your brand or your specific products in a variety of places. It’s important to consider how each of these places influences the overall customer experience. PromotionNow, how to make an audience aware of the product? Within the framework of the four Ps, promotion refers primarily to marketing communications. These communications use channels such as public relations, advertising, direct marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, or sales promotions; think of it as any way marketers disseminate relevant product information to their target customers. Promotion is the area that has arguably seen the greatest growth and change as a result of the digital age. With the exceptional access offered by B2C marketing solutions, marketers can now promote products easier, more effectively, and with more personalization than ever before, thus leading to greater outcomes and ever-increasing expectations. Some key questions that marketers need to answer include:
Using the 4 Ps of MarketingThe four elements of the marketing mix can be used to help you decide how to take a new offer to market or can be leveraged to help test your current marketing strategy. Follow these steps to define or improve your marketing mix:
Final ThoughtsWhile today’s marketing environment has changed significantly since the 4 Ps were established in 1960, the foundation of marketing has not. By continuing to focus on the 4 Ps and how to use them within the framework of the digital age, marketers can be successful no matter the circumstances. There may be new methods made possible with these types of technological advancements, but old concepts still ring true. ➤ Implement the 4Ps with true personalization by downloading our whitepaper “Artificial Intelligence: Bridge the Gap Between Data and Personalization.” As you already know, there are four elements in the marketing mix of any product (and seven in case of services). They are product place, price, and promotion and all of the four play an important and valuable role in the marketing of that brand. While the marketing of a brand begins with its product, the other three elements too are equally important and getting them right is essential to make your marketing strategy win. A good quality product outshines its competitors easily. However, a good product also needs to be complemented with a good price and great promotions. Sometimes, having one of the four elements right makes up for any weakness in the other areas. Like you offer great quality and people are willing to pay higher prices. Your quality or your prices and marketing become the talk of the town and you automatically reap its benefits and do not have to struggle with the promotions part. So, a deep understanding of these elements helps you achieve the best thing — sales and revenue because after all, you want to earn profits from your product and brand. Here, I will discuss the role these elements play in your marketing strategy. Product: This is the central element in your marketing strategy. Not just the success of your marketing strategy but the image of your brand too depends on the success of your product. In the 21st century where competition has become only all the more intense, you need to have a great quality product to shine on the shelf. Otherwise, your product gets lost in the crowd of brands every customer comes across in the market. So, you do not want your product to lose. You must fill it with quality. Consider the example of Apple. It is its product range that has made the brand a celebrity. The case of Starbucks also proves that good quality products are easier to sell. Place: Placement also serves an important role in the marketing of a brand. If you want your product to sell, you must place it where your customer segment is. If your product is made for the metropolitan crowd then no use trying to sell it in rural areas. If you have a product for the millennials, then you must sell it online because that’s where you will find the largest crowd of millennials. Moreover, you would not like your product to be inaccessible and so you have to place it where it is easily accessible to your target audience. Brands like IKEA have their stores in strategic locations where they attract the highest number of footfalls. Price: Pricing is also an important part of a brand’s marketing strategy. Many times your pricing strategy is the most effective part of your marketing strategy. Take for example Walmart. It is the most favorite retailer of the majority of Americans because it sells at the lowest prices. Apple has priced its products higher because it is marketing its products to the higher-end segment. IKEA has a smart pricing strategy that has helped it target middle-class customers effectively. If it was not for its pricing strategy, its customer base would shrink to less than half of its current customer segment. So, you must keep your target market and your competition in mind before pricing your products. This does not just help you attract the right customers but also helps you build a distinct image. Promotion: After pricing, it is the promotional part. Despite getting the rest elements of your marketing mix right, you might need to do some marketing to let your customers have a better glimpse of your product and its features and quality. You have a great product and a smart pricing strategy but still, you need to reach your target market and help it know and understand your brand and its value proposition. It is because there is a lot of competition and you have to reach your customers before others do. This is the importance of your promotional strategy and promotion mix. Being smart at it means achieving higher sales and penetrating your target market deeper than the competitors. Marketers must focus on all these aspects of their marketing mix to get the desired results from their marketing campaigns. It is not all about promotion because without a great product all the promotion will return no results. So, focus on making all these aspects strong and if you can truly outshine your competitors in a few areas, it might lead to a need for less investment in the others. Even an average product can sell given your pricing, placement and promotional strategies are right. [This article was first published on linked in.] Read more @ notesmatic.com |