Probably one of the oldest marketing models on earth, the 4P marketing mix remains crucial to any business. It dates back to the 1950s where the model was first introduced. The main goal of the 4P model (also called the marketing mix) is to identify the key factors in marketing your goods or services.
In today’s blog you will learn:
- How to create your own marketing mix FAST
- Why the marketing mix will never fade away
- Tips & tricks to get more out of the 4Ps
- To boost your sales tremendously
Enough chit chat, let’s create your 4P marketing mix!
What Is The Marketing Mix (4Ps)?
The marketing mix is the foundation of your business. It has the core task to identify key factors that directly influence and guide your marketing activities. In the 1950s, Neil Borden introduced the world to the concept of the marketing model. Later on, the model was redefined by E. Jerome McCarthy by giving the marketing mix 4Ps: product, price, promotion, and place.
If you invest time and effort into the marketing mix then it will provide you with more revenue and steady growth. Another reason to take the marketing mix seriously is because investors and banks often expect you to have the model in your business plan.
Now, what does McCarthy mean with his 4Ps?
Product
Your product is all about the goods or services that your business provides to customers (both tangible and intangible). What is it exactly that you provide? Try to describe your product thoroughly because the deeper you go the more perspective will be gained.
A couple of factors to consider:
- Product design
- Unique feature(s)
- Quality
- Packaging and labeling
- Guarantees and warranties
Price
The price is what the customers pay for fulfilling their needs. What do they pay for your goods or services? And what is your earning model behind your product? When you identify these key factors you will increase your awareness of your profitability and spot potential opportunities or weaknesses.
Think about key factors like:
- The actual price your customer pays
- Your pricing strategy (include discounts)
- Location & shipping costs
- Production costs of your product
Promotion
Promotion is focused on the activities a business performs to show their potential customer what you can offer them. The goal is to persuade them to buy your product. What marketing communication are you using?
Think about promotion activities like:
- Advertising (online & offline)
- Public relations
- Sales promotion
- Communication frequency
The rapid advancements of technology have given us massive opportunities in online promotion. Make sure to include this in your marketing mix. If you are not doing anything online yet, it might be wise to consider if it’s not time to change that.
Place
Place within the marketing mix is all about where your customer can get access to your product. Do they need to go to a store? Or do you have an online store? Or maybe even both! The place was traditionally more a logistic matter but that all changed with the advancements of communication technology.
Where can your customer reach you and get access to your product? For instance:
- Distribution strategies
- Retail & online
- Location decisions
- Transport and logistics
- Multi-channel strategies
Just like with Promotion, there are massive opportunities within the online space. For instance, you could start an online store beside your physical store to diversify your distribution. But you could also use Facebook chat for customers to reserve a product. Try to innovate as much as possible in 'place' to directly affect your distribution output.
4P Marketing Mix [INFOGRAPHIC]
To give you a clear and fast overview of the marketing mix, we made you an infographic. You could include our infographic in your business plan or save it on your pc as a roadmap. If it helps or has helped you in any way then we would love to hear from you! Send us a message at info@markdagency.com. Lastly, feel free to share it with anyone who can benefit from it!
4ps - marketing mix
Why The 4Ps Will Increase Your Sales
The 4P model has the potential to drastically increase your sales when you do it thoroughly. It can be a powerful tool to examine the key factors that influence your marketing and business performance. Often the 4P model is seen as a chore to be done whilst creating your business plan. However, when you see the importance of the model, then you can start harvesting it’s true potential
Use the 4P model to identify the key factors but also use it to alter your strategies. Whether that is pricing, promotion channels, or distribution, try different strategies and innovate. Make sure to document these changes and only change one factor at a time. Only then you will be able to tell if a change is successful or not. If you add too many changes it will become impossible to find the responsible factor.
Lastly, the 4P model is the most effective when you treat it as an organic model instead of a static one. That means you could benefit from updating, changing, and testing different strategies. As time goes forward your marketing mix should change as well. If it doesn’t, that likely means that you haven’t innovated in a while.
4P Model - Revenue Increase Example [inspiration]
To give you a taste of how changing and trying out different marketing mix strategies could benefit you, we added the following video. Below you will find a video made by Evan Carmichael. He started by co-founding a biotech company and sold it at age 19. At age 21, Evan became a venture capitalist. Nowadays Evan runs a YouTube channel with 2 million subscribers. In this video, he will give you some valuable tips about pricing (the second P of the marketing mix). This is a subject many entrepreneurs struggle with and lose money on. Definitely worth it to watch and write down Evan’s tips.
Want To Learn More About Marketing?
I hope this article helped you realize the power of the marketing mix and more importantly helped you build your own! The marketing mix is really the basis of your business and how you create revenue. However, our world is evolving fast and we need to keep innovating our business to stay on top. To keep you informed on the latest trends and give you an advantage, we created the branding blog.
Check out all the different kinds of articles to strengthen your business:
To make your marketing plan stronger, please take a look at adding a SWOT Analysis or Confrontation Matrix to your plan.
If you want to use the same tools as we use for our clients, check out our branding tools.
Let’s make your brand unforgettable!