The 4 Ps of Marketing

In the 1960's, E Jerome McCarthy came up with the 4 Ps of marketing: product, price, place,
promotion.

Essentially, these 4 Ps explain how marketing interacts with each stage of the business.

Product
Let's say you come up with an idea for a product you want your business to sell. What's
next? You probably won't be successful if you just start selling it.

Instead, you need your marketing team to do market research and answer some critical
questions: Who's your target audience? Is there market fit for this product? What
messaging will increase product sales, and on which platforms? How should your
product developers modify the product to increase likelihood of success? What do focus
groups think of the product, and what questions or hesitations do they have?

Marketers use the answers to these questions to help businesses understand the
demand for the product and increase product quality by mentioning concerns stemming
from focus group or survey participants.

Price
Your marketing team will check out competitors' product prices, or use focus groups and
surveys, to estimate how much your ideal customer is willing to pay. Price it too high,
and you'll lose out on a solid customer base. Price it too low, and you might lose more
money than you gain. Fortunately, marketers can use industry research and consumer
analysis to gauge a good price range.

Place
It's critical that your marketing department uses their understanding and analysis of your
business's consumers to offer suggestions for how and where to sell your product.
Perhaps they believe an ecommerce site works better than a retail location, or vice
versa. Or, maybe they can offer insights into which locations would be most viable to
sell your product, either nationally and internationally.

Promotion
This P is likely the one you expected from the get-go: promotion entails any online or
print advertisement, event, or discount your marketing team creates to increase
awareness and interest in your product, and, ultimately, lead to more sales. During this
stage, you'll likely see methods like public relations campaigns, advertisements, or
social media promotions.
Hopefully, our definition and the four Ps help you understand marketing's purpose and
how to define it. Marketing intersects with all areas of a business, so it's important you
understand how to use marketing to increase your business's efficiency and success.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in May 2018 and has been updated for
comprehensiveness.