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.