The Many P's of Marketing: The Original Four P's

In the 1950's, American Marketing Association President Neil Borden coined the term "marketing mix."  The traditional four P's of Marketing (Product, Price, Promotion and Place) were considered to be the primary components of the marketing mix.  The Four P's of Marketing have been a staple of marketing education since then, although some have added a fifth P, People, to the marketing mix model.  If you have studied marketing in the last 60 years, most likely you have spent time reading about the 4 or 5 P's of Marketing.

It is my contention that these five categories are very broad.  Too broad for today.  With marketers' ability to mass customize their marketing efforts these days, I think we need to pay attention to many more P's of Marketing.  I plan to explore some of the many P's of Marketing over a series of blogs.  I encourage readers to suggest other P's of Marketing.  In this blog, I will briefly discuss the Original Four P's of Marketing.

Product:  Everything starts with the product (or service) that is being marketed.  The nature of the product, its qualities, its faults, its uniqueness, its available options, the demand for it in the market, all impact on how the product is marketed.  All of the features of the product, including how it is produced, its packaging and its performance (3 more P's) impact the impression potential customers will have of a specific product.  It is also impossible to view a product in a vacuum.  How a specific product compares to its competitors is an essential component of marketing.

Price:  Price, simply put, is what the consumer pays to acquire the product or service being marketed.  In reality though, price really refers to the perceived value of that product or service.  The trick of the marketer is to figure out how to maximize a product's profit potential by setting price so that it is just at the point where it meets perceived value.  Econ 101 revisited!

Promotion:  This is what most people think of when they think of marketing.  Promotion refers to the efforts a company or marketer employ to get customers to make a purchase.  This includes advertising and public relations that marketers employ to let prospective customers know about their product and the features and values they want those prospective customers to focus on.  Promotion also traditionally includes the sales function, including direct sales and sales promotion.

Place:  Place refers to where the product can be purchased.  It seems to me that Place is the Original P that has changed the most in the last 60 years.  Physical location of a store or allotment of shelf space matter much less now than they did in the 50's.  With the advent of online sales, even the smallest producer can have a worldwide market available to them.  No longer does the success of a product depend on whether the sales manager is able to negotiate a deal with Sears and Roebuck.  These days, I would include in the Place category elements such as placement on a Google Search list, placing links to your sales website on sites that are popular with your target audience, getting on Pinterst and Facebook, and the like.  I also suspect that if Mr. Borden were introducing his marketing mix concept today, Place may NOT be one of the four P's.


Next blog I will discuss the 5th P, People, and several other P's I think are worth paying attention to.