Attract, capture attention, build loyalty… These are some of the purposes that marketing seeks. Any company or business worth its salt must foresee one that will report positive results at all levels. For this, one of the instruments, so to speak, most common is that of the so-called 4 P’s of marketing, very practical when preparing studies, analyzes and actions before bringing a new product or business to market.
But what are the 4 P’s of marketing? Product, Price, Distribution (originally “Place”, in English) and Promotion. These four terms perfectly explain the operation of marketing, thus connecting with the concept of . Let us see in detail its meaning, history and evolution.
What are the 4 P’s of classic marketing
As we said, the 4 P’s of the marketing mix divide the areas to be taken into account to carry out a good marketing strategy.
Thus, for a product or service to be , these four pillars must follow a coherence between them and with respect to the public to which they are directed. How are they defined? Doing a previous market study that yields useful information when it comes to understanding and satisfying customer demands.
Each of these areas should have its own strategy, and it would take a lot of time (and text) to break down each of them in detail, but essentially here’s what you should keep in mind when tackling them:
1. Product
The element, without a doubt, on which any marketing campaign revolves. is actually a very broad concept that encompasses not only tangible things (what is placed in a supermarket, for example, for purchase by the consumer), but also values and ideas
. A product is, for example, the corn cereals you eat every morning, but also the packaging that contains them, the design of the logo that identifies them and the values that your brand conveys. In addition, the product strategy includes other variables, such as the possibility of generating product ranges or families, and the characteristics of each of them.
In any marketing strategy, the product must be defined as best as possible.so there are a number of useful questions we should answer:
- What do I want/what am I going to sell?
- What needs does my product satisfy?
- What are the characteristics of my product? What benefits do you get from each of those features?
- What added value or values does my product provide?
2. Price
The amount of money that the consumer must pay for the product or service that he purchases at any time. It is almost the first thing consumers look at when accessing a consumer good. And for this reason it is not an easy task for brands to set an adequate price. It is, in fact, an issue as important as it is complex in a marketing strategy.
How to set the optimal price in each case?
- Doing studies on consumer perspectives.
- studying the competitor prices for the same or similar products.
- Calculated the benefits that we as sellers will be able to obtain, taking into account the costs that we impute to our products or services. Those costs will act as the lower bound for pricing.
In addition, it is interesting to answer these questions:
- What worth Do you have the product for the customer?
- Are there some standard prices established or strongly assumed by consumers for our product or for similar products?
- By lowering the price of the product, will we really achieve competitive advantage in the market?
3. Distribution
Sales distribution refers to the process by which the product or service we sell reaches our client (in this case we speak of both wholesalers and end customers). It could also be understood as distribution of the product or service, and it is an issue that will influence notably in our profit margin and in the final satisfaction of the consumer.
What should we analyze to carry out a good distribution? Variables like:
- Where our products or services are going to be purchased.
- Storage.
- Transportation.
- Operation times.
- Shipping costs.
- Channels that are best for me to use: direct sales, distributors, online stores, etc.
4. Promotion
Talking about promotion is talking about all those channels or media that go to or service. This includes traditional media (billboards, radio or television ads, etc.) and, of course, everything related to digital media (search engine advertising, campaigns, banners on a website, etc.)
The ideal way to reach our audience is generally with combination of several strategiesprior study of aspects such as age, sex, habits or needs, etc.
Questions we can ask ourselves in this case are:
- What idea or ideas do you want to convey?
- What are the channels where our target audience is?
- How can we surprise them?
A practical case. The 4 P’s of the marketing mix of a well-known brand: Coca Cola
Nothing better than a practical example to better clarify or illustrate the ideas. Let’s see some examples of the 4 P of one of the best known brands in the world: Coca Cola.
1. Product: A company of this caliber cannot focus on a single product. It has all kinds of drinks, from its Zero, Light or Normal varieties to its Fanta or Sprite soft drinks. It also has all kinds of containers: large, small, glass, cans… All this variety of products is adjusted to the different needs of the client.
2. Price: Coca Cola has a pricing strategy that adjusts to the different countries where its product is consumed. Thus, the price of a Coca Cola in our country is not the same as, for example, in Australia. In addition, it must compete, and does so, with its main rival, Pepsi, so it is common for them to adjust their prices based on how their competition does.
3. Distribution: If we talk about point of sale, we would have to talk about more than 200 countries around the world. And the fact is that the company has a great presence globally and in almost all types of businesses: bars, supermarkets, hotels… In this sense, we must also highlight its presence both in physical stores and in online stores.
4. Promotion: Finally, the promotion part. How does Coca-Cola do it? At the time, its television spots prevailed (surely if you think back you will remember some of its great advertisements), which reach the mind of the consumer due to the concepts with which the brand works: happiness, joy, friendship… (An example: «the spark of life”). Now, Coca Cola does all kinds of online campaigns, without giving up, of course, the video.
But the company goes further and focuses its promotional strategy on other types of campaigns to help environmental and social causes. Sponsor sports events and teams, host cool contests and actions, and always innovate so your brand and sales stay on top. This has been the case for decades.
History and evolution of the 4 P’s of marketing
When talking about the 4 P’s of marketing, it is also interesting to know where the concept comes from. Initially, these four elements (product, price, point of sale and promotion) were used by the American accounting professor, E. Jerome McCarthy, to define the concept of marketing back in 1960. His marketing mix included the 4 P’s mentioned above.
Already in the seventies the model was updated and Booms & Bitner added 3 new Ps to the group of the original 4 Ps, in their book Marketing Strategies and Organization Structures for Service Firms:
- People: The company’s team of collaborators is an essential part of the sales process, even if they are not in the first line of contact with customers.
- Processes: Develop clear sales processes in relation to the way the product or service is delivered.
- Physical evidence (Physical evidence): Refers to the presence of a tangible element in Marketing processes, whether you sell a product or a service. The influence of what you sell is always tangible.
Closer to us are those known as the 4 Cs (consumer, costs, communication and convenience) and the SAVE model which, unlike McCarthy’s model, focuses its attention not on the product, but on the consumer and their purchase cycle. . The SAVE model includes:
- Solution: Orientation not to the product but to emphasize how it solves consumer problems.
- Access: Thanks to the Internet, purchases are made from various places and 24 hours a day. Good access implies turning the brand’s website into the epicenter of communication and that it appears well positioned in search engines.
- Worth: The price loses relevance and almost becomes an obscene topic in certain markets. Concern about price gives way to concern about value. Marketing should be focused on reinforcing the perception of product value, highlighting what makes your company different and what you offer that is truly unique. The goal is to position yourself in the mind of the consumer with a brand with a strong personality, relevant and differentiable.
- Education (content): The promotion is now focused on offering educational information that draws the attention of the audience. This “education” is carried out with various products and formats through online and offline channels.
The new generation of the 4 P’s of the marketing mix
How is the panorama currently presented? Now marketers shape their marketing strategies and use as a reference the second generation of the 4 P’s enunciated by Rush Branding & Communication: proposition, promise, preference and positioning. And this approach is totally digital, as you can see in this graphic that we leave you.
We have the entire alphabet at our disposal and a reality rich in nuances that challenges marketers to think creatively about how to reach the heart of the consumer. In any case, there are other models that have been based on the 4 P to analyze the marketing mix. We refer to other proposals, also based on digital marketing, and which have been chosen as axes:
- Personalization: The importance of offering personalized content adapted to the reality of each client
- Stake: One of the 4 Ps in which the management of communities and the creation of communities takes on more prominence
- Peer-to-peer: Essential to get your messages across effectively to customers
- Predictive Models: The use of new information management technologies allows maximizing the profitability of data from commercial activity
In general, a large number of models designed to be able to structure the marketing mix of brands and adapt them to the reality of the consumer with a clear objective: to achieve optimal results in the short and long term.
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