The 4 Ps of Marketing: How to Apply Them to Your Business

Marketing a business goes beyond advertising.

While advertising is important, you need to consider a variety of other factors to convince prospects that your product or service is exactly what they need.

What are the 4 Ps of marketing?

The 4 Ps of marketing - product, price, place and promotion - also known as the marketing mix, are a popular marketing concept essential to the success of any business.

This idea dates back to the 1940s, when Neil H. Borden, professor of advertising at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, coined the term "marketing mix".

Borden has identified the 12 components of the marketing mix:

Product planning Pricing Branding Distribution chains Personal sale Advertising Specials Packaging Attach Maintenance physical handling Research and analysis of facts

Later, in 1960, Edmund Jerome McCarthy, an American professor and author, developed the concept of the 4Ps of marketing in his book "Basic Marketing: A Marketing Strategy Planning Approach".

He summarized the 4 Ps as follows:

Product: a good or service Price: The amount a customer or consumer pays for a good or service Location: place where you market a good or service Promotion: how you advertise a good or service

McCarthy published his book 50 years ago, but many marketers today rely on his approach to grow their businesses and train their teams.

The first P of marketing: the product

A product is value that your business creates and people pay you for. It can be tangible (like goods) or intangible (like consulting services).

A product is the most important part of the marketing mix. Without it, you have nothing to sell. Consumers today have countless options to choose from. So if your product goes unnoticed, it will likely be lost to another competitor.

The 4 Ps of marketing focus on creating a unique product. This allows you to stand out from your competitors and make customers trust you.

What does it take to create an amazing product?

If you want people to use your product, create something they love and increase your chances of being competitive.

So how do you create a great product?

Former Evernote CEO Phil Libin highlighted two characteristics of great products.

Great products have a point of view. They are not neutral. So the creators have a specific perspective on how the world should work through this product. Good products don't depend on the user to do anything. They should reduce or eliminate the amount of work a user needs to get things done.

Apple, the first publicly traded company to hit $1 trillion, is an example of a great product.

One of the hallmarks of their product is that company founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak set out to make computers user-friendly. This vision was and still is at the heart of the company and set it apart despite intense competition in the tech industry.

How would you know if the market wants your product?

Creating a great product is good. Guess what's better? A product that the market actually wants.

Simply put, if no one cares about your product, it won't stand the test of time, no matter how great.

That's why it's important to do a thorough market or user research before creating a product. Good preparation helps you know what people want and don't want.

If you want to target a specific market, you can create an online survey to see if your target audience is interested in your product. This will help you identify pain points and whether the product you have in mind will solve them.

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