If you work in marketing, you probably already know about the 4 Ps of marketing. The four Ps cover the basic elements of marketing a product, and the idea has been around for decades.  For those wondering what are the 4 Ps of marketing, they stand for Product, Price, Promotion and Place. All four of these elements must be considered if you are going to have success selling a good or service.  While the 4 Ps marketing mix is still important, any marketer working today probably sees that there is much more to it than that. Not only do we now have digital marketing, but many of the conventional ideas have changed a lot in this new century of marketing. In this post, we are going to cover the traditional 4 Ps of marketing and consider some of the ways they fit in the modern marketing landscape.

Product

The product is an obvious part of the marketing mix. Without the product, there is no marketing. This is the good or service you are selling, and you need to answer several questions. What need are you filling? What makes your product unique? In what ways can you improve your product? In the old days, having a narrow range of products may have been enough, and you might not have needed to offer updates and improvements very often. For most modern brands, this has changed. Consumers like products that are part of a line, and they also want to see new updates and improved versions of the product released regularly. Today’s consumers also have higher expectations for what is offered with the product. They want things like stronger guarantees and return policies. They also want strong after-sales support and things like free or same-day shipping. Many customers also want products that have different upgrades or accessories that they can buy.

Price

Price is more complicated than it may sound. There is more to it than just adding up the cost of producing and selling the product and then adding a mark-up to make a profit. In reality, there are several pricing strategies that can be relevant depending on your goals and the types of products you sell. As an example, going for the lowest price possible might be good if you are targeting economy shoppers, but a luxury product would sell for much more than just the basic costs and a small mark-up. In the case of the luxury product, the price you set helps to establish the value of the product in the minds of consumers. In the modern day, you might have to go beyond the conventional pricing methods. As an example, if your product is an app, you might need to consider whether you charge for the app or if it would be a better idea to go with a freemium, ad-supported or subscription-based revenue model. If you are selling products online, you can even run tests to find the pricing strategy that works best for you. You could split test different prices to different customers to see which pricing model works best for your business.

Promotion 

This is where you sell consumers on the idea that they need or should want your product. For this P, you need to consider a range of questions. Through which channels should you market your product? Is there a primary audience for your messaging? What types of messaging will you use to raise awareness and drive sales? Many decades ago, you only had so many options for promotion. Radio and TV ads were considered the height of marketing, but advertisers also considered things like print ads, billboards, flyers, brochures and other promotional materials.  Any of these traditional marketing methods could still be a part of your promotions, but the internet has changed the ways we promote products. For the modern marketer, things like social media marketing, search engine marketing and email campaigns are almost essential. If you are going to promote products today, you are going to need to know where your customers are and build a presence in that space.

Place

Finally, the place is where you plan to sell the product. In the past, a business might open brick-and-mortar stores, distribute to other retail stores or sell through a catalog. With online shopping and ecommerce, you now have additional options for places to sell your products.  If you have a physical location or partners that sell your products from their stores, that is great. However, you do need to consider ecommerce. Online selling grows with every year. In many industries, it will get harder and harder to compete if you do not have options for shopping online. In the case of online shopping, you need to consider the place as well. Will you sell on your own website? Will you offer your products on a large ecommerce site like Amazon? There might even be benefits to having your own site and taking advantage of the platforms of large ecommerce giants. Beyond that, you might even want to consider building an app to offer a better shopping experience for mobile users.