Marketing Mix and the 4Ps of Marketing

The marketing mix is a tool for considering the different elements needed to promote a brand or a product/service. This is one of the most important concepts in marketing.
After all, what is marketing? Many marketing students learn that marketing is about knowing how to put the right product in the right place, at the right price and at the right time.
It’s simple! You just need to create a product that a particular group of people want, put it on sale in a place that these people visit regularly, set a price that this group considers appropriate, and you have to do all of this at a time when people want to buy it. That’s it!
This message is not wrong. However, it is not easy to understand what the customer is looking for and identify where they shop. Then, you need to identify the value that the interested party attributes to this product. Finally, you need to know the best time to present your product. But if any one of these is miscalculated, then the whole thing is spilt. You may end up selling a fuel-efficient car where petrol is cheap; a textbook after the school year has started; or a price that is completely inadequate to the customer’s purchasing power.
So, the 4 Ps are:

• Product,
• Place (local),
• Price,
• Promotion.

How to use the 4 Ps of marketing?

1. Start by identifying the product or service you want to analyse.
2. Now try to answer the questions raised by the 4 Ps.
3. Try to ask “why” and “what if” style questions to challenge yourself to offer better solutions.
4. Once you have a well defined mix, try to analyse the consumer perspective by answering the following questions:
   1. Does it meet their needs? (Product)
   2. Will they find it when they go looking for it? (Places)
   3. Will they find the price appropriate? (Price)
   4. Will the communication reach them? (Promotion)
   5. Keep asking questions and changing your marketing mix until you are happy with your optimisation given the information you have available.
   6. Review your marketing mix regularly, as some elements will need to be changed over time.