4P’s of Marketing and Marketing Mix

 

Marketing is the key tool and plays a significant role in a organization or firm. Initially a company need to plan their objectives and goals which generate leads for the goods or product. A company initially need to launch a product and then a complete marketing strategy to target the audience. Product, Price, Plan and promotion all fall under 4P’s of marketing which is also known as marketing mix.

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The marketing plan leads to segmenting, targeting and once these segments are identified marketing mix helps the company or organization to achieve it’s objective.

Definition of 4P’s of marketing:

The marketing mix is the set of controllable marketing variables that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market. The marketing mix consists of everything that the firm can do to influence the demand for its product. These variables are often referred to as the “4P’s”

1. Product: stands for the “goods-and-service” combination the company offers to the target market.
2. Price: stands for the amount of money customers have to pay to obtain the product.
3. Place: stands for company activities that make the product available to target consumers.
4. Promotion: stands for activities that communicate the merits of the product and persuade target consumers to buy it.

According to Neil H.Borden,

The marketing mix is the set of marketing tools the firm uses to pursue its marketing objective in the the target market.

Product:

A product is the starting point for marketing and it can be any good or service. A products is anything that can be offered to customer which satisfy his/her needs or wants. A products is a television or an insurance policy the product offers bundle of benefit to the customers.

A firm can market product or service anything that can be marketed is called a product. According to the Philip Kotler 10 entities that can be marketed.

• Goods
• Services
• Experiences
• Events
• Persons

• Places
• Properties
• Organizations
• Information
• Ideas

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Price – Easy Element in Marketing Mix

The second p in marketing mix is price which is the only element generates revenue and you get benefited. A business is based on the pricing plans which consider to be an easy element in 4p’s of marketing to be adjusted in short run. Price is important as it communicates the value proposition.

According to David J. Schwartz

Price is the money; you pay for any service or product.

The name may be different but the price is the money you pay for anything examples are listed below.

• Salary
• Wage
• Rent
• Airfare
• Tuition fee

• Commission
• College fee
• Lease Rental
• Retainer Fee
• Hotel Tariff

• Consultancy Fee
• Interest Charges
• Insurance Premium
• Toll or Honorarium

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When a company wants to modify it’s marketing mix price is the key factor to react faster in the market. In 4P’s other factor may take long time to change, but to compete in the market a company can take a step to change the price.

Place

Place in 4p’s of marketing provides the channel of marketing to reach the customers where you find a distribution channel or trading portal to market your product. Whenever customer buy your product remember, sales is always dependent on your marketing medium.

According to Louis Stern and Adel Ansary

Marketing channels are sets of interdependent organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption.

Why marketing channel is important:

Beside revenue, marketing channel creates the demand for the company which is beneficial for good will. The firm must fulfills the wants and needs of the customer and provide them after sale services or satisfactory goods to the consumers.

A real forum of reviews

Marketing place opens the channel for quick response and feedback forum tells the demand of that product or company. Reviews decides the company’s sales and services.

Promotion

After the successful launch of a product, awareness is a key point which attract customers. Company must include promotion to their marketing strategy and get benefit and feedback from promotional campaign. Awareness not only attract customer but give boost to the product and helps in generating revenue and increase sales.There are number of communication channels to approach real customers or consumers.

1. Advertising
2. Sales Promotion
3. Pubic Relations
4. Direct Marketing
5. Personal Selling
6. Digital Marketing

 The other name of promotion is integrated marketing where a company tries to integrate all it’s communication efforts to get a maximum returns on their promotional expenditure.

Why promotion is necessary in 4ps of marketing

Customer will not ask about your product in the market if he or she is not aware about the product. Awareness or communication with customer should be in such a way that the customer choose your product over competitors product.

Communication channels:

Now a days there are lots of communication channels to attract customers to your product or company and become the brand.

1. Print advertisement
2. Tv Commercials
3. Posters
4. Leaflets
5. point of Purchase(pop)
6. Hoardings
7. Video films
8. Directories
9. Sales meeting
10. Fairs and trade shows
11. online shopping
12. Telemarketing
13. Catalogue Marketing
14. Contests
15. Seminars