Marketing 4 P’s

Marketing's 4 P's are simple: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. By using the Marketing 4 P's, you'll be able to fine-tune your business to drive more sales and higher profits.

Marketing 4 P's: Product
The #1 "P" of Marketing is Product. It's no good creating the best product in the world, even if people need what you are delivering, if they are not prepared to pay for it. Conversely even if the product or its packaging or marketing is not exceptional, if it's fulfilling a need it is likely to be bought.

It's essential to know what's going on in your market, what your competitors are up to and what your customers are looking for, now and in the future. Small businesses are at an advantage as they can react to market changes far more quickly than bigger organisations, often creating a niche that can be difficult to break into.

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Marketing 4 P's: Price
The 2nd Marketing "P" is Price. The price you charge for your product or service must:

Cover your fixed and variable costs
Make you a profit
Be appropriate to the target audience
Be consistent with the brand image

In other words you need to identify your target customers and understand their buying behaviour and decision making process. You also need to decide where to rank your product against other competing products and make sure your pricing policy is consistent with this. For example if you're promoting a product as luxurious and top-of-the-range you need to price it high to maintain the image; if you're promoting a budget everyday product you need to price it low so it's consistent with customer expectations. Running a 'buy one get one free' type of offer is appropriate for the budget brand but would do major damage to the luxury one.

Marketing 4 P's: Promotion
The 3rd "P" of Marketing is Promotion. How you choose to promote your business is often based on cost, particularly in the early days. You need to consider who your most likely target customers are and then consider where and how they are most likely to hear about your services. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that printed advertising is essential for your business as there are many other ways to raise its profile, such as press releases, sponsorship and by providing free content to magazines or websites in return for mentioning your company name.

You should ensure your promotional materials are consistent with your brand image. For example, if your product is high price/high quality this needs to be reflected in the language you use and the imagery and quality of any printed materials. If, on the other hand, you're providing a budget dog walking service simple flyers to post through local letterboxes maybe sufficient.

You also need to consider what aspect of your product makes it more attractive to your customers than your competitors' products. Put yourself in your customer's shoes – why should they buy from you? What will your product do for them? These are your unique selling points (USP) and they should be used consistently throughout your promotions to ensure you are selling the benefits of your product rather than just describing what the product is or does. Your USP could be response time, delivery time, after sales service, exclusivity of design – try not to make price your USP; it is the easiest one for your competitors to beat you on and if you get into a price war your margins will be eroded to nothing.

Your promotions can range from the conventional to the more outlandish, but you should take care to keep it consistent with the brand image you're trying to build. Make a point of asking each new customer how and where they heard about your business so you can identify which of your promotion activities is the most successful.

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Marketing 4 P's: Place
The last but certainly not the least of the Marketing 4 P's is how you sell your product or service to your customers should be dictated by what you con