What Is a Marketing Mix: 4 Ps of Marketing(guide)

One of the essential aspects of running a business successfully is marketing. Without marketing, good or bad, the product wouldn’t see the light of day, or even if it does, the business cannot scale.

It is the primary factor behind the growth and sales of your business.

It is also how you grow and expand your business market share. It is a process where you promote your products to your target potential customers.

It is a way of getting people to know what product you’re selling and spreading product and brand awareness. In fact, without marketing, initially, there is no way that people know that you even exist.

Through marketing, you are giving them information about your products and services.

You are showing your target customers that when it comes to a certain product or niche, you are reliable and trustworthy and an authority or industry leader.

If you want to succeed in any industry, you must first understand the importance of marketing. You cannot expect to sell your products without marketing.

So, let’s dig in and find out what’s 4Ps of marketing are, how you can find out for your business, and how to optimize accordingly for better sales.

What is a Marketing Mix?

A marketing mix is basically a set of strategies and tactics that a company or a brand uses to push its product in the market.

It is a tool that helps you to understand how your customers think and behave.

It’s the combination of all the elements in your marketing mix, including media, channels, content, offers, price, and promotion.

It helps you to decide which mediums to use and when. A good marketing mix ensures that your message reaches the right audience at the right time with the right information.

What Are the 4Ps Of Marketing Mix?

There are four P’s of marketing that involves the promotion of any product or service; these are product, price, place, and promotion.

These four Ps are structured by the internal and external factors in the overall business environment gives.

So, here we go with the very fundamentals of marketing, and that is the 4 Ps of marketing. These are the four Ps of marketing that will help you in your quest to become successful in your business.

1. Product: What is your product? Is it a service or a physical product?

2. Price: How much does your product cost? Are you charging too little or too much?

3. Promotion: How are you promoting your product?

4. Place: Where are you selling your product? In which platform & medium?

The First P Of Marketing: Product

The first P of marketing is the product. It’s the most important part of your business, and it can be really challenging to get it right.

You need to understand why a product matters so much in marketing, what makes a good product, and how to create one.

How To Decide The Right Product For Your Business?

This might sound very obvious as the product definitely is the most important part of the business. It is what you sell.

However, you still have to give its importance and understand its true significance to optimize it better.

Product is the heart of any business. Without a strong product, there is no reason for anyone to buy from you.

The product you are going to sell has to solve an existing problem, fulfill an ongoing demand, or have some kind of desire that people are willing to pay for. It must be something people want, need, or desire.

You may not know exactly what they want, but if you are able to answer the question of why would someone buy your product? Then you’ve got a winning product right there.

Have a look at How to market your products.

How Do Decide The Right Product To Do Business?

The product you chose must do or/and :

Resolve a specific problem of the target audience.
Fulfill a particular need of the target audience
Fulfill a specific desire of the target audience

If your product doesn’t solve a problem or fill a need, it won’t matter how much marketing effort, money, or strategy you put out there; it won’t sell.

Also, your product needs to be unique. This means that it has to stand out from the competition.

People don’t just buy things because they’re available. They buy them because it solves a specific problem they have or fulfill their need or their desire.

Everything you buy is designed by someone else. And they create because people are buying, which means there is a demand and hence, a supply.

That’s all that you should aim for.

So when you are creating a product for your business, you have to think of these essential questions :

What specific problem is your product solving?
Is there an ongoing demand for your product?
Does your product fulfill a desire that people have?

The only way to find what your customer wants is by interacting with them. And once you know that, you can build a product around it.

There’s another reason why the product is so important. Customers don’t just buy things. They also have a tendency to share with their social circle.

It is human nature, the default behavior. When you like something, you want to tell people through personal recommendations, social media, or reviews.

How To Optimize Your Product For Better Sales?

If you give away free samples, you’ll probably sell more than if you charge for your product.

People will try your product, love it, and then will definitely share it with their friends and family. And that’s how it grows on its own.

In fact, word of mouth is one of the most powerful marketing methods, and it continues to be.

Especially when you get that level of intention behind buying a product, you never really get home without buying the product.

Everyone has experienced the wish to have something when one sees a product in an advertisement.

In both cases, you were influenced by other people.

In fact, studies show that 90% of buying decisions are made without consulting a salesperson.

This means that if you want to succeed as a business owner, you need to start thinking about your product long before you ever get started.

So the product has to become before even the business. It is not enough to just have a great idea; you need to have a real product that solves a problem.

The very first step right after that is to decide what kind of product you want to create for your business.

Do you want to sell clothing?
Is it a book?
Are you selling services?
Or is it a Software-based service, SaaS?
It also can be devices.

Because the category of the product you opt for decides how you are going to shape the business, how you market it, and what customer you will target.

Then you have to figure out all of these aspects related to the product :

Develop a plan for creating your product
Manufacturing of the product
Your distribution channel
Your target potential customer
The most effective way to promote it
How do you deliver it?

The Second P of Marketing: Price

Price is the second P in the 4 Ps of marketing.

Price isn’t just a number that you throw out there when you’re promoting your product. It’s how much your customer pays for your product.

It is the value of the product in terms of the money that a customer has to pay to use your product.

As a marketer, your goal is to convince potential buyers that the price of the product they suppose to pay is worth it.

It must be practical and strategically tailored to gain higher margins or profits as well as cover all the costs of creating it.

But also, the price has to be something that makes sense to your potential buyers. It should not be too low or too high.

When you look at the competition, you need to compare apples to apples. You shouldn’t compare your product to something that costs less.

This is because then you’ll end up undercutting your competition, which could hurt your business.

Instead, you want to make sure that you’re charging a fair price.

How To Set the Right Price For Your Product? ( With Example)

So let’s take a look at some examples.

Amazon.com, the e-commerce giant, sell all kind of products, but instead of selling everything for $10, they sell products for different prices.

For example, a DVD from Netflix costs $9.99. But Amazon sells the same DVD for $19.99.

Now, you might be wondering why Amazon would sell the same DVD for two different prices. Well, they’ve got a good reason.

They’re trying to attract new customers. By offering a lower price, they hope to lure customers who aren’t willing to pay the full price.

And because they’re attracting new customers, they’re able to offer better deals on the rest of their inventory. That’s why Amazon charges different prices for different products.

Setting Up Everyday Low Pricing

Another example is Walmart. They sell clothes, electronics, groceries, and so on. But instead of having one fixed price for each item, they use a system called “everyday low pricing.”

Every day, they change the prices of certain items. Some days, they charge more than others. Some days, they even give discounts.

Walmart applies these strategies to attract new potential customers. And once they’ve attracted those customers, they can charge them higher prices.

If you’re finding different methods to boost your profits, you should consider using everyday low pricing. It’ll help you attract new customers while giving you an opportunity to earn some extra bucks alongside.

In fact, it’s estimated that every dollar spent on advertising generates only 50 cents in sales. This means that if you spend $1 million dollars on advertising, you’ll only generate $500,000 in revenue.

However, if you use everyday low pricing, you’ll have an additional $400,000 in profit.

That’ll means that you’ll see a return on investment of over 400%. Of course, you don’t have to go through these steps to get started with everyday low pricing.

You can start utilizing this strategy for your small business by simply lowering your prices for the products.

But there is something to remember here you won’t be able to raise prices until you reach profitability.

Once you’ve reached that point, you can raise prices and continue making more money.

The Third P of Marketing: Place

The Third P of Marketing is about the place. It’s about the physical location where your brand exists and how that location can be used to create a unique experience for customers.

This isn’t just about brick-and-mortar stores. You can also apply this concept to digital marketing.

For example, if you run a small business, to be more specific, you own a restaurant.

How do you decide what type of food to serve?
Do you choose healthy options or comfort foods?
What kind of ambiance will make people feel comfortable?

These are all questions that you need to ask yourself when deciding what to serve at your restaurant.

Similarly, when you’re creating content online, you need to think about what type of content works best for your audience.

For instance, if you run a blog, you might want to focus on writing articles that provide information.

On the other hand, if you run a YouTube channel, you might want to post videos that entertain people.

When you’re thinking about which type of content to create, you need to take into account your audience.

Figuring Out Your Target Audience & Where You Find Them

People consume content in different formats and mediums. For example, some people prefer watching videos, whereas others find reading articles easier.

So, before you create any content, you need to figure out who your target audience is.

And then, you need to figure out what type of content would work best for them. Some like short-duration videos, while others go for detailed articles and guides.

For some, they like to get information as listicles or quick news. It also depends upon the niche you’re targeting and the product you seek to promote.

Creating Strong Brand Identity Before You Promote On Places

Now let’s talk about another way to look at the place.

The question that is often heard from entrepreneurs is that they are trying to grow their businesses, but they don’t know how to market themselves.

Well, a crucial part of marketing yourself is branding. It refers to the overall image that you project to the world.

If someone sees your logo, what are they going to immediately associate that logo with your company? That’s branding.

And since most companies have similar logos, it makes sense that consumers will assume that your product is of good quality.

In addition, when a consumer looks at your website, they should be able to tell whether you’re trustworthy.

If they see that your site has lots of red flags, they may not trust you. So, when you’ve created a strong brand identity, you’ll be perceived as a high-quality company.

However, even if you’ve got a great brand, you still need to promote it. So the marketing is still there.

This means that you are going to use every single opportunity to spread brand awareness.

Find Different Opportunities To getting Exposure For Your Brand

Initially, at least, your focus must be to ensure that your brand is visible everywhere.

And that is everything from free social media posts to Google Ads to billboards to TV commercials.

But not all are easily accessible or budget-friendly. For example, You can’t just put up a billboard in Times Square and expect people to notice it. It costs a lot more than other forms of marketing.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try.

However, your focus should be to start by looking at the places where your target audience spends most of their time.

Once you identify those locations, you can brainstorm ways to get your message across through those platforms.

For example, if you’re selling shoes, one of the best places to advertise would be shoe stores. Why? Because people spend a lot of time shopping for shoes.

They go to shoe stores to buy new pairs. They also visit shoe stores to find deals.

So, if you want to reach potential buyers, you should consider advertising in these types of locations.

Similarly, some kinds of products sell better through Instagram or a specific age group tends to find more on a particular social media.

The 4^th P of Marketing: Promotion

The fourth P of Marketing is promotion. Without promotion, your products is not going to reach out to your target potential consumers.

You must have heard the saying that money makes money.

It is true that you can’t have a business without money, but it doesn’t take much to start one, either.

However, if you want to start a business, you need to spend some time thinking about how you will promote your business.

The other thing you need to worry about is whether you want to use paid advertising and marketing or not, at least at the beginning.

Here are some avenues to promote your business :

Digital Marketing
Social media marketing
Email marketing
Content marketing
Paid Ads
Offline marketing
Influencer marketing

And there are many other ways to promote your business.

Free Promotion vs. Paid Promotion

Paid advertising definitely needs capital to invest. You can pay for Facebook ads, Google Ads, Instagram ads, and other popular advertisement channels to reach out to more target consumers.

Don’t forget to read about Ultimate Guide On Social Media Paid Promotion For Small Businesses.

However, it is only a great option if you have secured some amount for marketing and promotion for your business initially.

In fact, many small businesses do not have a lot of marketing spending. Most of them do not even spend on it, especially at an early stage.

There are other free or highly cost-effective methods, such as blogging, social media, and SEO marketing to promote your brand without spending anything or very little.

This is a great way to build up your brand name and reputation online.

Free promotion includes things like blogging, sharing content on social media platforms, etc. Free promotions work well when you have a large following and lots of loyal fans.

However, they aren’t very effective unless you have a big audience. So if you only have a few hundred followers on Twitter or Facebook, then you won’t see any results from posting there.

So, now you know the options available to you. Which one do you choose?

Well, you probably already know which one you prefer. But let me tell you why you should pick paid advertising over free promotion.

First off, paid advertising works better than free promotion because you have control over what gets promoted.

For example, if you post something on Facebook, you can decide whether you want to share it with everyone or just your friends.

You can also target certain groups of people based on their interests. For example, you can show a particular ad to people who live near a shopping mall. Or maybe you would show an ad to people who are interested in buying a house.

You can also choose to run different types of advertisements depending on the type of products you sell. For example, you could run an advertisement promoting your new shoes while running a sale on your old ones.

So, it is all about what stage you are at in your business.

How much budget do you have for marketing? And how creative can you get to promote your product without any cost? That’s the decision as a business you need to take strategically.

How To Develop Marketing Mix For Your Own Business?

Developing your own marketing mix is not easy. You must understand what works best for your business and your target audience.

You need to consider the following factors:

What is your business?
Who are your customers?
Where are these customers located?
How do they communicate?
What are their needs?
How does your product/service meet those needs?
What are the barriers to buying?
What are the benefits of buying from you?
How much money are they willing to spend on your product/service?
How often do they buy similar products/services?
How much time do they have to make a purchase?
How much do they trust you?
What are they looking for?
What makes them happy?
What makes you unhappy?
What are your competitors doing?
What are people saying about you?
What do you want to say about yourself?
What kind of image do you want to project?
What do your customers expect from you?
What would your ideal customer say about you?
Are there any special circumstances that apply to your business?
Is there anything else you should consider?

This process may seem like a lot of work, but it’s worth it. Once you get started, you’ll find that you gain valuable insights into your business and your customers.

Why Use The Marketing Mix Concept?

The marketing mix concept was developed by Joseph E. Zenger and Jack O. Urquhart in 1938. They were both professors at Harvard Business School.

The main reason why marketers use the marketing mix is that it provides a framework for thinking about the various components of a marketing campaign. In addition, it helps to identify the most effective ways to reach consumers.

Zenger and Urquhart believed that if a company has a clear understanding of its market, then it can create successful strategies.

According to the authors, the marketing mix consists of four basic parts: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

Product

A product is something that satisfies a consumer’s desire or need. The product must be unique and different from other companies’ products. This means that it must offer value to the buyer.

A good example of this is Apple computers. Consumers love these devices because they are innovative, reliable, and easy to use.

Price

The price of a product refers to how much a person will pay for it. Pricing strategy determines whether a company wants to sell more units or fewer.

For instance, some companies set high prices so that they can earn higher profits. However, this approach doesn’t always work. High prices also affect sales volume.

Place

Place refers to where a product is sold. For example, a company could choose to sell its products online or through retail stores.

Promotion

Promotion is a very critical part of the marketing mix. It includes advertising and public relations activities.

One of the best ways to promote a product or service is through advertising.

Apart from digital marketing today, MNC companies also advertise their products using television, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, direct mailings, and whatnot, say, other traditional marketing methods as well.