Marketing basics- one must know to be successful

This post is to discuss the most basic and fundamental marketing concept called the marketing mix that includes the four Ps. These famous four Ps are sometimes forgotten, and I want to stress their importance and that they are to be taken into consideration before making any small or big marketing decision. These include Price, Product, Promotion and Place- which all are internal factors and can be controlled by the entrepreneurs/ marketing heads.

Let’s understand each P in more detail to implement the correct marketing tactics as per your target audience.

Price- apart from the final price of your product, this includes a range of price related variants from discounts, allowances, payment options, credit terms etc. One’s branding strategy will include close attention to all these numbers, to frame the best prices for your brand. It is important to define the right pricing, because it directly affects your company’s revenue. Pricing may act as the first impression of your product or service and cannot be changed as easily or frequently as other budget for marketing activities.

Product- this area includes the entire look and feel of your product, from its packaging to its usage, marketers need to research in detail about their products positioning, substitutes, competitors, features, USPs, etc. Your product will go through all the phases i.e. launch, growth, maturity and decline; good marketing teams will have strategies in place for all phases in advance.

Promotion- without promotion your product will not reach the end user, you will have to invest in advertising, public relations and other ways of promoting your product to the target audience. Word of mouth is known to be a beneficial and cost-effective method of promotion that works across industries; please emphasize on customer service and keep customer first attitude for good word of mouth promotions.

Place- as we already know that different types of products are sold at different places, you need to decide as a brand, where will you be placed, where will you distribute your product and services. Once you understand your target market, it is easy to figure out the right place for your product.

All the above-mentioned Ps decide your product segment and positioning, and that takes us to our next article on segmentation. Stay tuned for basics part 2.