Marketing Plan

The Four Ps of Marketing

The four Ps are the cornerstones of new-product planning and marketing execution. These four elements of a marketing mix became an easy way to identify significant brand and product factors that would assist marketers in creating and executing an effective marketing plan.

The Four Ps of Marketing

Product A product may be defined in many ways. The following facets aid in defining a product:

· The actual components and functions of the product

· The quality of the product

· The customer service that comes with the product

· The warranty or upgrade package

The various components of a product are also used in marketing to help differentiate the product from its competition.

Price Price is the value placed on a product or service in terms of the money paid by the consumer for it. The price of a product has a direct impact on the perceptions of the customer. A high price indicates a certain level of quality and makes the product look valuable; a low price denotes the opposite.

Price works in combination with other brand attributes. A brand that has been marketed for quality can be more easily introduced into the market than a lower-priced one, irrespective of the price. Once the consumer perceives a product to be cheap (low in quality because of a low price), it is not easy to change the perception. The pricing strategy is important in the product planning and marketing process.

Place Place is defined in several ways. One definition is the physical retail environment in which the product to be sold is placed.

This placement pertains to:

· The store

· The shelves on which the product is placed

· The way the product is positioned in the store compared with the way other similar products are positioned

· The locations or geographic areas across the world a company decides to sell the product

· The media through which the brand and products are marketed, such as specific magazines or television shows

Where a brand and product are placed also adds to the brand identity. A consumer creates brand and product associations based on the various locations in which they are placed in the store.

Promotion Promotion is characterized by all the marketing activities that take place to bring the brand and product in front of the appropriate target audience. Promotion is defined by the integrated marketing communications plan that is implemented. It is this plan that puts the brand and product in front of the right consumers. The other three Ps are tools that clearly establish the brand, the product, and their placement.