What are 4p’s in Marketing? Marketing Examples

4p’s in marketing are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

In order to create an effective marketing strategy, you need to consider these essential aspects of it to make your business profitable. The four p’s of marketing also know as ‘Marketing Mix’.

As you know, Marketing refers to our efforts to reach our product/services to the ultimate consumer. So it’s useless if we create a product or service and it doesn’t convince people to purchase it from us. That’s where the role of 4p’s of marketing came into existence.

Imagine you created a product and launched it in marketing, now what!!

Now it’s time to sit and analyze the key elements of the 4 Ps in marketing to understand your audience and customize your marketing strategies as per their requirement.

“Business has only two functions – Marketing and Innovation” – Milan Kundera

In this blog, you will get an overview and step-by-step guide on 4p’s in marketing along with real-life business examples, that will help you to convert the marketing mix into action

What are the 4p’s in marketing

Explain – 4p’s in marketing are Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. In simple words, the combination of these four elements is put into action to get the best possible result from the market. 

4p’s of marketing mix means all of the marketing efforts put together to squeeze out the result that shows in the balance sheet of the business at the end of the financial year.

Now the concept is as simple as it sounds, for a matter of fact the level at which you are performing these 4p’s of marketing strategies makes it easy or difficult (depending on the market) 

Every advanced marketing strategy starts by asking some basic questions and depending on that question, the way you solve that problem makes you different from other competition.

If your product or services solve that real problem and you are familiar with the current market trends, you are a badass of the market.

But all of these start by asking questions.

Here in this blog, I have mentioned some of the common but unseen questions that you can ask yourself to identify your product or service better than before.

4p’s in marketing

1. Product

The first P in the Marketing mix stands for Product.

Product is the offering that you give to the customer in terms of getting monetary benefits.

As you know a product is the foundation of every business organization. Here product refers to Physical products or virtual services as well. 

Every business organization thinks that they have the best product or service but the fact is you can say it is best until you know the customer standpoint. 

You can do it by opting for the best marketing strategy to showcase your product and increase the visibility of the product in the market.

By marketing strategy, I mean creating a product that people want, not what you think they might want.

You can do this by asking some simple questions to yourself.

1. Why should they buy your product?
2. Does it solve the real problem or the fictional problem?
3. How does your product/service bring comfort to the customer?
4. Is it for Ordinary people or luxury standard people?
5. How often can you retain their attention with your product?

Example of Product of Marketing 4p’s 

Product Marketing Example of Coca-Cola – 

The Coca-Cola Company’s quick global development may be credited to its distinctive franchise distribution system, or “Coca-Cola System,” which has been in operation since 1889. Syrup concentrate is created by Coca-Cola and marketed to other bottlers worldwide.

Coca-Cola has begun a new marketing initiative called “Share a Coke with ___  .” Coke filled the space with a rotating list of the 250 names that American young adults most frequently use. They hurried outside to see cans bearing their names or the names of their loved ones.

2. Price

The second P in the Marketing mix stands for Price.

Price means the money we charge for the product or service

Price is the most effective factor that determines whether you are going to make it or not.

There is a dilemma, you neither can’t underprice your product nor overprice it. Because it puts a psychological thought in the consumer’s mind that directly correlates with your product quality.

So as a business, you need to determine the right price for the right product. There are plenty of different product pricing strategies 

Here are questions you need to ask for determining the price of a product

1. Is your customer willing to pay that much for your product?
2. Who are your targeted customers?
3. Can you offer different products or services for different price ranges?
4. Can you make a reason for your customer to pay for your product?

Pricing strategy examples in 4p’s of marketing

• Price Skimming – Charging a high price for your product or services and gradually lowering it as per the marketing demand and supply.
• Competitive Pricing – charging the price that is close competition for your competitor and driving their targeted audience towards your brand.
• Psychological pricing – This means playing with numbers that hit differently for different consumers. Example – ($9.90 rather than $10)

3. Place

Place means the place where you sell or distribute your product or service. These could be retail shops, local stores, online distribution channels, e-commerce, website, etc.

There are many platforms or distribution channels available to start your business with, just you are one step ahead of figuring out the right platforms for your type of business products or services

So pick the best optimal marketing strategy ( 3rd P of marketing ) to make it profitable

Here are questions you need to ask for selecting the right place for your business

1. Do I get my targeted audience over there?
2. How will you get your targeted audience? 
3. How much is the set-up cost?
4. Does it benefit my business in the long run?

4. Promotion

Promotion means a marketing strategy you perform in order to increase the visibility of the product or services that you offer.

The concept of promotion is very simple, you need to advertise your product on various platforms and channels where you can find maximum potential customers.

This could be through traditional marketing that is banner ads, Soft e-mailing, poster ads, etc.

In this digital era, running digital media ads would be more profitable and cost-effective as well. Rather than spending thousands of dollars on television ads instead spend half of the amount on youtube ads, and you will have far more ROI on it.

Here are the questions you could ask yourself regarding the promotion marketing mix

1. Where will I find my targeted audience?
2. What is the most effective way to reach out to them?
3. Where can I reach out to more people with less ad spend?
4. What is the most suitable promotion platform or channel?

Example of Promotion in 4 p’s of marketing

As Nike attempted to enter the casual footwear market in the 1970s and 1980s, it lagged behind Reebok.

Then, it employed a then-unknown and occasionally mocked marketing strategy: celebrity endorsements. Ilie Nastase, a tennis player, and Steve Prefontaine, a track star, were among the first famous athletes to promote Nike in the 1970s, helping to boost company sales to $270 million. When Michael Jordan joined the company in 1990, its revenue surpassed $2.2 billion.

What is 7p’s marketing?

7 p’s of marketing was originally invented in 1960 by Jerome McCarthy in the book called Basic Marketing

7 p’s in marketing is the extended version of 4 p’s of marketing where you will see an additional three p that stands for physical evidence, people, and processes 

5. Physical Evidence – means the proof or physical evidence that you got, that makes the customer easy to trust your product, for example- a great website, good customer service, etc
6. People – means how skilled your staffs are and how good they are at solving customer queries 
7. Process – means the way you reach out to the customer with your product or services.

Final Thought- 

 Here are the 4 p’s in the marketing summary 

1. Product – The commodity that you are launching in the market whether it could be a product/service for monetary benefits that is through sales.
2. Price –  The final price that you are going to charge for your product or service 
3. Place – Platform or Channel that you are using in order to establish your product or services 
4. Promotion – The effective marketing strategy that you are using to spread awareness about your product or services

The 4 Ps of marketing are great ways to know and understand your product, thus you deliver it to the end customer with that clarity. Wisely using these marketing mix strategies could bring a huge impact on your current business position.