Product, Price, Place, and promotion all make up the marketing mix. Marketers need to understand these before they can properly do their job, so what are they really?
Why Does it matter?
As a Marketer you are given information such as the 4 P's and then expected to use that information to formulate a strategy to best use that information to target an audience. You can use the information to establish a plan, or when considering a new product, knowing your target audience, tweak it to best fit your customers.
Example:
Apples iPhone's are are designed to be sleek and trendy (product), The price is higher as it is seen as a status item (price), It is sold in places that promote it properly such as they aren't on sale or discounted to maintain their reputation of being upscale (production), and the ads you see reflect their target markets values (promotion).
Product
Product refers to the
physical item itself. The design of the item, its
packaging, it's looks and how it works are all factors that go into what makes up the product. You can alter the product to better suit your audience. A bigger question is how is it different then other products out there. Besides its looks, the Apple iPhone has a different operating system (OS) which its consumers like because of its ease of interaction, where as some people prefer androids because they let you do a lot more customization.
Price
Not everything can be a price competition, nor should it. Price can often reflect the perceived value of the product. If you browse an unfamiliar item, you might assume the cheapest one is the worst one quality wise. Pricing the product heavily depends on the target market. How much money do they have to spend and why would they spend it on this product? Designer clothes can be prices so high because its target market uses that high price as a status for themselves. A well established brand will be able to get away with charging more for an item because of its reputation and known quality (look at name brand cereal compared to store brand).
Place/Production
How are the customers going to buy your product? Place refers to how the customers will actually obtain your product. Is it online, in store, offered on your website, Amazon, eBay, Esty? Where it is sold matters and it can even go deeper to which stores sell your product and what they are allowed to do with it. You wouldn't want to sell high end fashion brands like Gucci at Walmart because that would hurt your brands image of being exclusive.
Promotion
How is your customer going to know about the product? When releasing a new product, your biggest struggle is going to be getting customers to be aware of your product. Knowing who your target audience is will effect the type of ad you put out, the medium such as social media, TV or radio, and what your ad is going to say are things you will have to consider. You may also be maintaining a brand such as Coca Cola, these ads will be different such that you are worried less about getting people to know about your product and more so getting them to think about your product next time they are at the store. Depending on the product you will use different methods to planning your promotion.
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