7.1 Introduction
In this module, we will look at something that is used by a number of marketing professionals when they are creating their very own marketing strategy: the concept of the Four P's. Even though this may be seen by some as the absolute basics of marketing, it is important for us to stress once again that it is necessary for you to get these basic steps correct, in order to build your marketing strategy upon a strong foundation.
7.2 What are the Four P's?
We begin by examining what the Four P's actually are because they form a key part of the entire marketing strategy, being closely connected to how you deal with your product or service and how you present it to the buying public.
Price
It is important to be aware of your price and how it fits into your market. You want to price your product at such a rate that you make a profit but, at the same time, you also need to be aware of how much money your target market has to spend. For example You would not market a high-priced product to a sector of society that has low income as they would be unable to afford it. However, if you have a low-priced product that is capable of meeting their needs or creating a want, then this is more viable. Understand your price point by studying your market in advance, to ensure that you are targeting the correct people from the outset.
Product
Your product is the second of the Four P's because, once again, you need to understand your product and how it fits into your target market. Note that when we talk about a product, we are not just talking about a single product or service but your business as a whole. You must remember that your entire organisation is a product and that the things you sell or the services you provide are effectively sub-products.
You have to be able to market every aspect of your business, in order to be successful. For example, if you sell rugs, do not just market the rugs on their own; instead, market your business as the best supplier of rugs in the industry, in order to build confidence in what you offer and attract people to your company.
Promotion
By promotion, we mean how to present your product to your desired market. How do you plan on informing people? How do you plan to make people aware of your product and encourage them to purchase it? Understanding how to promote your product (i.e. and your business) is key to your potential success. Look at what others in the same market are doing when it comes to the promotion of their products or services and try to determine if their approach is actually working. If it is, then add your own twist and make it your own as there is every chance that you will also be a success.
Place
The final of the Four P's is place. By this, we mean where you are situated within the market. Are you placed at the top end of the market where the prices are higher but there are more opportunities or are you placed more towards the bottom of the market where the profit margins tend to be less but you can sell more products?
Knowing how to place your product involves you understanding your market and this is one area whereby you are at real risk of making a mistake that would ultimately lead to you focusing all your attention and efforts in the wrong place. Look at your market, think carefully about where you fit into it and then take the appropriate action.
7.3 How to Implement the 4 P's into Your Marketing Strategy
When implementing the Four P's into your marketing strategy, the key thing to remember is to spend time researching not only your market but also your business and products in general.
You must fully understand your business to be able to properly implement the Four P's and what they stand for into any kind of strategy or business plan. Look at it this way: you clearly need to understand your product or service, in order to sell it in the first place. Furthermore, you need to know that the price you are charging will result in acquiring customers. You must know how you are going to get the word out about your product or service. Finally, you must know where you sit in the market, to enable you to formulate everything else around that understanding, to avoid marketing your products or services to the wrong people. Failure to understand these basic concepts could lead to the failure of your business - yet it is not the product or service that is the problem, but the way in which you have understood your own business.
So, in order to implement these into your marketing strategy, you need to think carefully about your market research and ensure that you have answered all the questions that you have thought of, having read what the Four P's stand for. Make a note of all the information that you can find in regards to your product and where it fits into the market, and when you are looking to create your strategy continually refer back to these points, to eventually mould the perfect marketing plan for your particular business.
7.4 The Difference the Four P's Will Make to Your Business
As you study what the Four P's stand for, it should become apparent how they will benefit your business. The aim of these four aspects is to help you focus on the key points of your products or services and how they relate to your actual market. By breaking everything down into these four aspects and, by spending time and grasping the information that you have gleaned, it means that you will be able to increase the chances of your business becoming a success. We will use an example to further strengthen the idea of how it will make a difference to your business:
If you sell the rugs that we mentioned in an example, you will not be the only person out there doing so and this means that you have competition. If you enter the market blindly, then you will have no idea if your rugs are competitively priced or if you are undercutting or over pricing the products. A failure to correctly understand your pricing will mean that you either do not make the sales that you should have made or that you will lose income simply because you could have charged more.
Furthermore, say you specialise in antique rugs, it would perhaps not be in your best interests to focus your attention on brand new housing estates as the style of your rugs will not fit with the modern designs of the houses. In addition, if the rugs are priced high, then you would not take them to an area in which you know that there is not a lot of spend available for such a product.
You can take this example and easily apply it to your own products or services to see how these Four P's will make a huge difference to the potential success of your business. By using these Four P's as your inspiration, it will lead you to focus all your attention on your business in the correct way and thus you will be able to market your products or services to the correct people. Even though it may not be able to completely eliminate the chances of you making a mistake, being aware of these four aspects and therefore focusing on your business will certainly make it less likely.
FACT
By 2019 mobile advertising will represent 72% of all US digital ad spending.
Source: digitaldoughnut.com
7.5 Moving Forward and Keeping the Four P's in Mind
So, how do you actually utilise this knowledge regarding the Four P's?
The truth is that it is a lot easier than you perhaps imagine because you should use them at the very beginning of your market research. No business or marketing professional should ever try to create a strategy without being aware of how they are going to break into their market or, of course, knowing for which market they should be aiming. This is where keeping the Four P's in mind will prove useful as they will keep you on the right track, provided you use the information that you glean from them as the catalyst for everything that follows.
As we stated earlier, you have to understand your price, product, promotion and place or you adopt a completely random way of marketing your products or business and that will undoubtedly lead to failure and problems from the outset. Make things easier for yourself by simply writing down the Four P's and then use bullet points for the answers when thinking about your market research. The importance of doing your research from the very beginning cannot be stressed enough because it helps you to identify certain problems that can be rectified before you become too involved in your product or marketing. So answer the questions then make a note of the answers as the basis for your strategy, although remember that the exact way in which you use them varies depending on your business and your aims for your products or services.
SUMMARY
In this module, we introduced you to the Four P's and explained how they play such an important role in the potential success of your marketing plan. They are not complex or difficult to understand but, at the same time, we have tried to stress how you can make a huge mistake if you do not employ the Four P's, because you could misidentify the niche or market on which you are focusing and that will ultimately lead to disaster.
However, understanding your market is one thing but you also need to think about how to market your business and, in the next module, we will look at the different techniques and methods that are linked to offline marketing.
.svg)
