It’s time for a bit of marketing and particularly, let’s focus on marketing mix? Today we’re going to talk about the 4P. Let’s go for a good laugh. 😂 On the program:
- The definition of the 4Ps or the marketing mix.
- How to use it well.
- A marketing example of the 4Ps.
- The 7Ps.
The 4P (marketing mix): Definition
The 4Ps, also known as the marketing mix, is an extremely important concept in marketing. These 4P describe the 4 fundamental elements that make up an effective marketing strategy. We will find the following elements composing these 4P:
- Price.
- Product.
- Promotion.
- Place.
Let’s take a closer look at these 4 elements! Let’s move forward. ✊
Price
This is simply the amount your customers have to pay 💰 to get the product. This can include different pricing strategies such as introductory pricing, penetration pricing, low pricing strategy…
This is the element that determines the perceived value of the product or service to your customer. It can therefore have a significant impact on the company’s profitability. You have to think about everything and therefore set the right price to promote the balance between maximizing profits and satisfying 😁 your customers (yes, we know, it’s easier said than done). This pricing strategy can vary depending on:
- The competition.
- The demands in the marketplace.
- Your customer’s perception 👀 of value.
- Or your overall strategy.
These prices can be used to achieve goals like penetrating a market (you’ll put a cheaper product on sale to get people to start paying attention to your brand for example). In any case, the price must be attractive enough for your customers and prospects but profitable for your business.
Product:
The product is the offer that you will propose to your customers. Your product can be a physical product, a service or an experience. It is the heart 🫀 of your strategy. This product or service can be influenced by market demand, trends, competition or even the resources you have in your possession.
Don’t hesitate to focus on the features of it, on the quality 🪙, functionality or even security to offer a real value to your customers. Finally, don’t hesitate to ask yourself for a long time about your product or your service, it’s him who will be able to make your customers loyal 💍 on the long term.
Promotion (or communication mix):
This is the concept that refers to all the marketing strategies used to promote your product. This can include:
- ➡️La advertising.
- ➡️Les public relations.
- ➡️Les sales promotions.
- ➡️Le loyalty program…
The objective of this promotion is to create brand awareness, attract new customers and retain existing customers.
Place:
“Place” refers to where your product is sold and distributed. You have choices in terms of distribution channels such as:
- Physical stores.
- An e-commerce site.
- The points of sale…
As you can see, this concerns the place where customers can find and buy your product or service. By implementing an effective distribution strategy, you can maximize your market reach and improve customer satisfaction (we can take the example of ephemeral stores for example).
4P: How important are they in a marketing strategy?
It is in your best interest to know your 4Ps as they provide a complete framework for designing your product or service offering (or even your experience) and making it attractive to your prospects as well as your customers. These 4Ps (discussed earlier in this article) work together to deliver a compelling value proposition to the target audience. If you make sure you execute these 4Ps well, you can ensure that your offering matches the needs and wants of your customers.
The marketing mix helps you differentiate yourself from your competitors by creating unique offerings. This will help you strengthen your position in the market or even build loyalty 💍 a customer base.
How to properly use the 4Ps or the marketing mix?
To effectively use the 4Ps in a marketing strategy, it is important to pay attention to several small things. Well yes, you don’t go into it without knowing where you’re going to step 👣. Let’s talk about 6 steps to use this strategy well.
Step 1: Understand your persona and your market
As you know, understanding the needs and wants of your target market 🎯 (you can actually use PESTEL analysis to understand your market) is essential to designing an effective and compelling product or service offering. So it’s important to start analyzing your market data as well as your customers’ buying behaviors and preferences.
You can set up the famous persona and of course do a market research to gather 🧺 the information you need. We also talk about market trends that you will have to take into account because they can help you anticipate the evolutions of your product and adapt to any change. These trends can be related to technology, consumer behaviors, lifestyle preferences, policies…
Once you have identified your persona’s needs and market trends ✅ you are able to start designing your product offering that responds to what you have detected in your persona. By understanding your market, you also have the opportunity to look at what your competitors are doing and…
You can learn from them! Yes, you can! You can try to understand what works in their strategy, how they communicate with their customers, what is the message they are going to put across… And thanks to this, you will be able to set up an action that will make you stand out from your rivals.
But that’s not all, because you can also adapt your communication channels according to the information collected during the setting up of your persona.
Step 2: Define your offer
In any marketing strategy, defining your offer is an essential step. This involves determining the key characteristics 🗝️ of your product or service. In these characteristics, you will determine:
- 🟢 The benefits.
- 🟢 The drawbacks of your product.
- 🟢 Its features.
- 🟢 Its size.
- 🟢 The weight.
- 🟢 The material used…
List all the features of your product or service as well as the answers they give to your personas’ needs. By carefully defining your offer, you can differentiate yourself from your competitors and win the hearts of your customers (you’ll build loyalty). Don’t hesitate to ask your customers through forms what they like about your offer and what they would like to improve. You’ll also prove that you’re listening 👂 and that their opinions matter to you.
Step 3: Set the price
Price is a super important element ⚡ in the 4P strategy. We can imagine since it is thanks to this one that you will know if you are profitable or not. You have to think about setting a price that is in line with the expectations and needs of the target market. To set the price, you will have to take into account:
- The competition.
- The demand on the market.
- The production costs.
If your product is roughly in the same range as your competitors, set up competitive prices to attract your customers (you can modify according to the features or added value you will set up).
Step 4: Identify distribution channels
If you’ve done your homework on establishing a persona, you (usually) know what the preferences are 💞 of your users or consumers. Determining your distribution channel(s) is a necessary step in implementing a successful marketing strategy.
As a reminder, distribution channels refer to the different ways you are going to make your product available to customers. You may sell your products in a physical store or through the Internet on your e-commerce site (sometimes both).
Choosing your distribution channel will greatly depend on your target market 🎯 the characteristics of your product among other things. The challenge here is to know which channels are the most effective for YOU and your target.
Of course, you will be able to adapt according to your brand awareness or even the evolution of your sales. You may be able to move from an online store to a physical store. You should also take into account that the choice of your distribution channels will have an impact on the perception of your product or service. For example, if you use only one distribution channel, you can reinforce its image and uniqueness. Of course, evaluate your costs before you go all out in choosing your channels.
Step 5: Promote
This is where you try to get your prospects to buy your products. We are talking about communication efforts to create brand awareness and therefore encourage customers to take action. As with all the previous steps, you will need to understand your environment to promote your products or services. There are several communication channels to choose from:
- Advertisements (billboards or Google Adwords).
- Social networks.
- Influence marketing.
- Email marketing…
Once you have designed your promotional strategy, you will have to implement it in a coherent and consistent way. Yes, it’s not about making an ad in the hope that it will work. Far from it. You will have to choose the message and the communication channel that you think is the most appropriate. It may not work the first time. To save you time, you can do A/B tests on different ads and analyze which ad converts the most.
Step 6 to use the 4Ps well: Monitor
Everything you implement is going to need to be monitored. Why? To know if you’re reaching your goals 🥇 on the one hand, and more importantly to take corrective action when necessary. Indeed, if you analyze the results of your actions on a recurring basis, you will be able to make necessary changes. And there you have it, with these steps, without realizing it, you have used the 4P.
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4P Marketing: Example
Now that we have reviewed all the information about the 4Ps, let’s dive into an example so that everything can flow smoothly and you can reproduce it at home or for your business.
Here’s the background: We are an online store specializing in the sale of socks and we call ourselves “Sockovore”.
Does it stop there? Oh no, because there are also the 7Ps… Finally, it’s an addition of three other elements already present in the marketing mix, given the evolution of the markets.
The 7Ps
Marketing experts decided that 4P were not enough, so they added 3 more. Like the 4Ps, the 7Ps will help design and implement marketing campaigns. The P’s represent:
- Product.
- Price.
- Promotion.
- Place.
- People.
- Packaging.
- Process
Each element plays a role in the success of a business that seeks to attract customers, build loyalty and convert even more. So, let’s talk about the last three elements in more detail.
7P: People
When we say “people” for the 7P strategy, we’re going to refer to everyone who interacts directly or indirectly with you and your customers 💰 (employees, suppliers, partners for example). This is an element not to be neglected since it can have a considerable impact on the satisfaction and loyalty 💍 of your customers.
We can mention the employees or collaborators who work with you and can contribute significantly on the customer experience. Customers are also included in the 7Ps since if they are satisfied, it will benefit your business. Partners and suppliers can influence the way your products or services are perceived.
By working with suppliers who provide quality materials, you know that customer satisfaction will be higher.
Packaging
We’re talking about the presentation of the product here. You are not insensitive to beauty 💗 (just about everyone is). Therefore, packaging can have a positive or negative effect on your consumers. In addition to promoting product appeal, you can also use packaging to communicate 👄 important information about your product such as ingredients, usage instructions, or even safety warnings.
With environmental issues at the forefront of the debate, your packaging should also think about its environmental impact. 🍃
Process
In this part, we’ll talk about the methods and procedures ⚙️ used to deliver products or services to customers. The process can have a big impact on the quality of your customer’s experience (like a little bit of everything we said above). Through process, you will be able to provide quality service. Processes can take many forms:
- Inventory management.
- Automation of certain tasks.
- Staff training.
- Delivery methods…
When you implement a process, you need to make sure that it is easy to implement and that everyone can understand it. 🧠
Conclusion of the 4P and 7P article
You now know a little bit about 4P and even 7P. So in the course of this article, we have seen:
- The definition of the 4P.
- How to use the marketing mix.
- A marketing example of the 4Ps.
- What are the 7Ps?
What we can keep in mind through this article is that you have to know your personas, your market, your competitors 💢, the trends and the evolutions to come. You will have to anticipate so that your sales will go as well as possible.
FAQ of the article
It’s almost the end of this article. To further your knowledge, we’re going to talk about terms that are ancillary or complementary to the 4Ps.
What are the 10P in marketing?
You read that right, we can also talk about the 10P’s (normally, marketers would stop there) and these are elements that will be added to your marketing strategy. As markets change and consumer habits change, there are other areas that are added to the marketing mix. So we’ve gone from 4Ps to 7Ps to 10Ps. We imagine you’re pining to know what these three new “Ps” stand for.
Here they are:
Partnership
It is possible that at some point, you need one or more partners to develop your reputation or even increase your credibility in the eyes of your customers. You will therefore weave new relationships, and perhaps set up a partnership contract.
Permission
This notion is related to the privacy of your consumers. As we said before, behaviors have changed and users are more and more careful about how their data is processed. So you need to ask their permission when collecting data.
Purple Cow
This one is quite strange… Why a cow 🐄 and a purple one at that. In fact, that’s the whole point of this last one. It’s all about surprising consumers and innovating in all areas. You have to succeed in waking up the interest of your target so that they don’t get tired of what is already on the market.
Marketing automation
In your acquisition process, you can use an automation software to:
- Save time on your communications.
- Manage time-consuming tasks more quickly.
- Improve your visibility (on LinkedIn for example).
In fact, don’t hesitate to use Waalaxy to boost your sales through LinkedIn. We’ve now covered the 4P marketing (up to the 10P), all that’s left is for you to implement it. 😎
