Ps of Marketing

  What are the Ps of Marketing?

Ps of marketing are different in description and ideas but the first time it was claimed in 1948 by James Culliton a professor at Harvard University in marketing. The first Ps were Product (product policy), Price (pricing policy), Place (distribution policy), and promotion (communication policy). There were 4 Ps of marketing in the old definition but through the growth of technology and marketing it changed to 7 Ps of marketing. The next three terms were People (personnel policy), Packaging (presentation), and process (process policy).

The growth of digital marketing and social media was very important in changing digital marketing strategies. They usually focus on better results, but after fast-changing, digital marketers and specialists find out something is missing which was not mentioned by Culliton. People were the main point of the changes. In old-school marketing, all of the process was based on product and business, but in modern strategies, they find out the customer and people are as important as products and brand in marketing.

The visuals and graphics also changed very rapidly. It was a breaking of borders between art and preferences of brands like graphics, color, packaging, and advertisements. Day by day it was a great competition between brands to use psychology and art in preferences and marketing materials. Every color, shape, size, and advertisement strategy has its meaning in the market for customers. One of the Pioneers in artistic visual changes was PEPSI, and then some Fashion businesses like D&G which were using painters, film directors, and artists for their professional advertisements.

The classic way of Marketing and Ps of marketing were changed and revolutionary by social media and the internet. We can name two giant inventors with magical marketing minds, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs. There is no doubt that these two giants in marketing find out how the people are important in Ps of marketing. The products and websites or applications were mostly customer based and firstly they find and search for needs before preparing products. The most classic way of marketing was to find a market for a product made before R&D.

What is the importance of Ps in marketing?

In this part, we can find out the definition of each P and the importance of Ps of marketing in branding and marketing success.

The first P, Product

A product is a commodity that is designed to meet the needs of a specific group of people. This product can be intangible or tangible as it can be provided in the form of services or goods. You need to ensure that you have a suitable and market-worthy product, so throughout the production stages, a marketer must conduct extensive research on the product lifecycle it creates. A product has a specific lifecycle that includes the growth stage, maturity stage, and decline stage. Product is the most important P between Ps of marketing, especially in classical strategies.

Marketers should always ask themselves the following questions:

“What can I do to offer a better product to people compared to my competitors? What does the customer want from our services or products? How will the customer use it? What features should our product have to fulfill the customer’s needs? Is our product different from competitors’ products? Could some of our product features be unnecessary for the customer? How does our product appear? Has an appropriate name, size, color,

Second P, Price

The price of a product is essentially the amount that a customer pays to enjoy it. Price is one of the important elements in the marketing mix as it determines your company’s profits and survival. Setting the price of a product has a significant impact on the overall marketing strategy as well as the sales and demand for the product. Customers in the target market are unlikely to be willing to pay a high price for products and services from newly established companies that have just entered the market and have not yet established a name for themselves. Although they may be willing to pay more in the future, for a newly born business, this is not likely to happen easily.

Always remember that a low price generally signifies an inferior product in the eyes of consumers because they compare your product with a competitor’s; therefore, a very high price will cause the costs to exceed the customer’s benefits, and as a result, the customer’s perceived value of your product will be higher, and ultimately, they will not be willing to pay for it.

Always ask yourself these questions when determining the price of a product: How much did it cost you to produce this product? What is the perceived value of the product by customers? Is it possible to gain a larger market share by reducing the price slightly? Can the current price of the product be competitive with similar products in the market?

Third p, promotion

Advertising includes all the ways you use to introduce your products, and services, and the process of buying and selling them to customers. These communication methods include television advertising, radio advertising, print media, internet advertising, and so on. It seems that advertising in the modern era has shifted from the offline to the online world.

Large and small companies in every industry continuously experiment with different advertising methods to sell their products and services. There is a rule here that any marketing and sales approach you use today will eventually come to an end, and you will need new sales, marketing, and advertising approaches using new strategies. Even small changes in advertising can lead to significant changes in sales, and in this regard, advertising on social networks can throw your business on everyone’s lips as a tool for viral marketing or word-of-mouth.

To create an effective advertising strategy for your product and services, you need to answer the following questions:

“How can you send marketing messages to your potential buyers? When is the best time to advertise the product? Do you want to reach your audience and potential buyers through television advertising? Is it better to use social media for product advertising? What is the advertising strategy of your competitors?”

Fourth P, Place

One of the important parameters in the 7 Ps of the marketing model is the place of product or service distribution. A distribution place is where your product is seen, sold, or distributed. You need to distribute your product in a place that is accessible to potential buyers. By understanding efficient channels of product distribution, you can quickly introduce and market your product. In developing an appropriate distribution strategy, you need to answer the following questions:

Through which channels do your customers search for their desired products? Which stores do they go to? Do they make their purchases online or visit a specific store or shopping center?

How can you access distribution channels?

How does your distribution strategy compare to your competitors?

How many salespeople do you need and what kind of expertise and experience are required?

Do you need to participate in trade shows to showcase and sell your product?

Do you need an online store to sell your product?

There are the next 3 Ps of marketing that we will discuss in other articles but even nowadays most of the marketing works on the classic 4 Ps of marketing. Saurus Advertisement and Marketing Group with a highly experienced and knowledgeable team is ready to provide your marketing strategies such as web, digital, and social marketing. Saroo’s main focus is on observing the most updated technics of marketing to have better results in marketing for companies and businesses.

Conclusion, Why you should know the 7 Ps of marketing?

These terms are not only words, they are all marketing details you should think about and have research on them before starting any business or having a new product. Analyzing the marketing road through time and predicting happenings will help you to grow your business consciously. Saroo’s specialists are ready to help you in answering any question you have in your mind about marketing and help your business to have a marketing plan and strategies.