A lot of people think of marketing as strictly advertising, and it’s not. Have you heard of the four P’s of marketing? You have to get all four of these right– product, package, positioning, and promotion – and get it all together so that it’s promoted well and it’s the right product for the right market.
Marketing Basics
P1-Product
The actual item that you are trying to sell. It can be a service, a retail product or an idea.
P2-Packaging
The receptacle for your product, the container in which the consumer views it.
P3-Price
The price is the net cost of the product to the consumer of the product. In a manufacturing or wholesale environment the consumer would be the Retailer who buys the product at wholesale. In the retail environment the consumer would be the customer the buys the product at retail.
P4-Promotion
Any feature that will enhance the purchase of the product by the ultimate consumer. This can be advertising, price reductions, displays, rebates, guarantees, repurchase agreements or a host of other vehicles.
You can have a great product with a great price and a great package, but if it’s not promoted properly, no one will ever find out about it and the product will flounder. You can have a great product with great packaging and a strong promotional effort, but if it’s not priced right, it’s not going to do well. You can have a great product, great price, promoted well, in terrible ugly packaging and the perceived value will go down. People won’t buy it. You can have a great package, great price, strong promotional effort, but just a crummy product that nobody wants. So, all four of these elements are required for you to launch a successful marketing campaign.
Improving your position doesn’t necessarily mean lowering your price. You could have a higher price but offer more features, extras, benefits, and more ancillary products, or extra service that would make your price a better value, even though it’s higher than somebody else’s.
What are you doing to better position your products and services?
