You've got your product, now how will you use the other four Ps to promote its purchase?
Practicing marketers like to refer to the tools of their trade as a toolbox, a marketing toolbox. This image brings to mind the skilled craftsman who, in the process of creating a marketing campaign, selects from the various discipline options as he prepares a solution for the marketing challenge before him. The tools of marketing are also known as the four Ps -- price, product, place (distribution) and promotion. How the marketer uses the four Ps in a campaign is known as the marketing mix.
Product
At the heart of marketing is the product. The product is usually a given, an entity that exists among competitive products, has its consumer users, and has specific features and benefits for which those users purchase the product. Most products don't exist in nature as complete entities. They can be the result of years of scientific or other kinds of product research, a government-issued patent of ingredients and processes, consumer usage trials, packaging development and brand identity.
Price
The price at which a product is sold is the result of a complex series of analyses. The price is determined based upon the cost of raw goods to manufacture the product and other costs including the salaries of people who make the product, overhead and manufacturing facilities costs. Finally, the manufacturer will add a profit margin onto these basic costs to arrive at first a wholesale price then a suggested retail price for the product. A marketing campaign will reexamine price to determine if it is in line with costs and the pricing of competitors while being affordable and attractive to the ultimate consumer.
Distribution
Distribution (or "place" in the 4 Ps) plays a key role in a marketing campaign. The marketer must ensure the product is on the shelf before a big marketing campaign push. He must determine where product sales are strong and where they are weak, and if it is worth it to shore up weak sales areas. He must deal with local brokers and interstate or even global shippers as well as the sheer logistics of getting the product through the factory's pipeline and out the door as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Consumers rarely see or even care about a product's distribution chain. All consumers want to know is whether the product is available to purchase when a marketing campaign has driven them to buy.
Promotion
Promotion is often the most visible part of a marketing campaign. Its sole reason for being is to create awareness, interest and motivate consumers to action. The tools of promotion include advertising, public relations, sales promotion and social media. These are the exciting elements of the marketing campaign that result in catchy jingles, splashy TV commercials and glossy print ads. Increasingly, having the online world searching for your product is a high-water mark for today's marketing campaign.
Tags: marketing campaign, price product, your product