Skip to main content

Understanding the Marketing Mix Concept – 4Ps

Marketing is simplistically defined as ‘putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.

 The use of a marketing mix is an excellent way to help ensure that ‘putting the right product in the right place,…’ will happen. The marketing mix is a crucial tool to help understand what the product or service can offer and how to plan for a successful product offering. The marketing mix is most commonly executed through the 4 P’s of marketing: Price, Product, Promotion, and Place.

 These have been extensively added to and expanded through additional P’s and even a 4C concept. But the 4Ps serve as a great place to start planning for the product or even to evaluate an existing product offering.

THE FOUR P’S

Product

The product is either a tangible good or an intangible service that is seem to meet a specific customer need or demand. All products follow a logical product life cycle and it is vital for marketers to understand and plan for the various stages and their unique challenges. It is key to understand those problems that the product is attempting to solve. The benefits offered by the product and all its features need to be understood and the unique selling proposition of the product need to be studied. In addition, the potential buyers of the product need to be identified and understood.

Price

Price covers the actual amount the end user is expected to pay for a product. How a product is priced will directly affect how it sells. This is linked to what the perceived value of the product is to the customer rather than an objective costing of the product on offer. If a product is priced higher or lower than its perceived value, then it will not sell. This is why it is imperative to understand how a customer sees what you are selling. If there is a positive customer value, than a product may be successfully priced higher than its objective monetary value. Conversely, if a product has little value in the eyes of the consumer, then it may need to be underpriced to sell. Price may also be affected by distribution plans, value chain costs and markups and how competitors price a rival product.

Promotion

The marketing communication strategies and techniques all fall under the promotion heading. These may include advertising, sales promotions, special offers and public relations. Whatever the channel used, it is necessary for it to be suitable for the product, the price and the end user it is being marketed to. It is important to differentiate between marketing and promotion. Promotion is just the communication aspect of the entire marketing function.

Place

Place or placement has to do with how the product will be provided to the customer. Distribution is a key element of placement. The placement strategy will help assess what channel is the most suited to a product. How a product is accessed by the end user also needs to compliment the rest of the product strategy.
Written by
Md. Abdullah-Al-Firoz

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Techniques used in Capital Budgeting (with advantages and limitations)

Techniques used in Capital Budgeting (with advantages and limitations) Capital Budgeting : Capital budgeting can be defined as a process of identifying, evaluating, determining & selecting   long term investment proposal where return are expected over the one year. Capital budgeting consists of various techniques used by managers such as : 1. Net present value method: The net present value (NPV) method is a process of calculating the present value of cash flows (inflows and outflows) of an investment proposal, using the cost of capital as the appropriate discounting rate, and finding out the net profit value, by subtracting the present value of cash outflows from the present value of cash inflows. Decision making criteria : NPV greater than 0 = Accept NPV less than 0 = Reject NPV equal 0 = indifferent position Advantages: 1. It recognizes the time value of money 2. It considers all cash flows over the entire life of the project in its calcul...
1 comment
Read more

Audit of Government Accounts

CONCEPTS OF GOVERNMENT AUDIT Government audit is applicable to Government departments and departmental undertakings. Government of India maintains a separate department known as Accounts and Audit Department. Comptroller and Auditor General of India heads this department. In India the President appoints the Comptroller and Auditor General of India under Article 149 of the Constitution, which gives the powers and rights and fixes his responsibility for the audit of Government departments and institutions. Government audit is divided into several branches like Defense, Railways, Posts and Telegraphs audit. It works only for government offices and departments. This department cannot undertake audit of non-government concerns. Its working is strictly according to government rules and regulations. OBJECTIVES OF GOVERNMENT AUDIT The objectives of government audit are as follows: 1. To make sure that the expenditure is incurred out of the fund, which the competent author...
Post a Comment
Read more
Types of Audit Report : there are four types of audit reports issued by auditors on financial statements.Each type of report contains different meaning and message from auditor to users of financial statements   1.Unqualified Audit Report : Unqualified audit report issued by yhr auditor to financial statements when auditor found no material misstatements after their testing.  this report contains the unqualified openion from an indipendent auditor. the report  showed that the entity financial statement are prepared and present true and fair complying with accounting framework besing used. 2.Qualified Audit report: The qualified audit report is the report that issue by auditor to financial statement that found meterial misstatements on them.  But those material misstatements are not pervasiv. For example, the operatin balance of the entity contains a large number of inventories that could not varify.  3. Adverse Audit openion: Adverse...
4 comments
Read more