What Is Your Marketing Strategy? The 4Ps Of Marketing

Posted on by Brian Colwell

According to the US Small Business Administration (SBA): “There’s no single way to approach a marketing strategy. Your strategy should evolve and change to fit your unique needs. Your goal in this section is to describe how you’ll attract and retain customers.”

While there is not a standard structure for marketing strategy, there are four key parts to the Marketing Strategy – these are referred to as the “4Ps Of Marketing”, or Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. The 4Ps help business owners clarify marketing strategy, and ensure effective use of advertising spend, by explaining how the company plans to attract and retain customers, outlining a clear distribution channel, and defining planned advertising and marketing strategies. It can also describe the types of media used for those strategies and campaigns, including media copy. Let’s take a look at each component of the 4Ps:

Product

A marketing campaign starts with an understanding of the Product itself. The job of the marketer is to define the product and its qualities, and introduce it to the consumer. Some questions to consider when working on the Product portion of the Marketing Strategy include:

  • What is the product? 
  • What does the product do? Does the product meet an unfilled need or provide a novel experience? 
  • Who is the product’s target audience? Who needs it, and why? 
  • How is the product different from what others offer? What does it do that no competitor’s product can do? 

Price

Price is the amount that consumers are willing to pay for a product. Marketers must link the price to the product’s real and perceived value, while also considering supply costs, seasonal discounts, competitors’ prices, gross margin expectations, and retail markup. Some questions to consider when working on the Price portion of the Marketing Strategy include:

  • What is the price range of the product’s competitors? 
  • What is the price range of the target audience? 
  • What price is too high for the audience? What price is too low? 
  • What price best fits the target market?

Once these questions are asked and Price has been determined, the business can develop a Pricing Strategy and adopt a Pricing Model.

Pricing Strategy

Pricing has a direct impact on the success of one’s business. The basic rules of Pricing Strategy are:

  • All prices must cover costs – to lower prices, lower costs.
  • Price to sell – Prices must be established to assure sales. Don’t price against a competitive operation alone – Prices must be set to preserve order in the marketplace.
  • Prices must reflect the dynamics of cost, demand, changes in the market and responses to and from competition.
  • Product utility, longevity, maintenance, and end-use must be judged continually, and target prices adjusted accordingly.

Pricing Models

There are many types of Pricing Models, the three most common of which include Price Skimming, Competitive Pricing, and Penetration Pricing.

  • Price skimming – Price above competitors to recapture margins, and lower the price as time passes. With this strategy, one will likely sell fewer products at a higher price point.
  • Competitive pricing – Base pricing off of what competitors are charging
  • Penetration pricing – Price below competitors to increase market share, gain customers, and sell more units. With this strategy, one try to sell a large volume at a lower price point and then raise prices as time passes.

Place

Place is where one sells one’s product and the distribution channels one uses to get it to the customer. Distribution information also details the entire process of moving the product from the factory to the end-user, including production and manufacturing processes, suppliers, and product availability. Analyze the competition in order to determine their channels of distribution, then decide whether to use the same channels or alternatives that may provide some sort of strategic advantage. Like price, finding the right place to market and sell the product is key to reaching the target audience. Some questions to consider when working on the Place portion of the Marketing Strategy include:

  • Where will the product be sold? (such as retailers, brokers, distributors, OEMs, direct sales, or an internal sales force)
  • Where does the target audience shop? 
  • What distribution channels are best to reach the target market? 

Promotion

After “Place” and distribution channels have been defined, one may begin to create a promotional plan for the business. The goal of Promotion is to establish the strategies used to support the sales messages and strategy, component 5.2 of the business plan. Promotion communicates to consumers that they need the product, that it is priced appropriately, and should encompass such tactics as advertising, public relations (PR), industry events, and media outreach. Some questions to consider when working on the Promotion portion of the Marketing Strategy include:

  • How much money will the business allocate to the year’s marketing activities?
  • What marketing messages would most resonate with the target audience?
  • What advertising approaches are most persuasive to the target audience?
  • What marketing channels are most effective for the target audience? 

Promotional Channels

When choosing marketing channels, think about where the target audience spends its time and with what type of information the target audience engages. Are these marketing channels free to use, or are they pay-to-play? “Push Channels”, such as Television, Radio, and Billboards, require large advertising budgets. “Pull Channels”, such as Search Engines, Podcasts, and Blogs, on the other hand, require an investment of time and energy for content creation and website optimization. Small budgets make most push marketing tactics ineffective due to lack of ad frequency and optimized scheduling. This is where digital marketing channels such as Search Engines and Social Media become attractive opportunities to maximize marketing ROI. Organized by channel type, below are some popular marketing channels:

  • Content marketing – Blogs, infographics, tutorials, guides, case studies, newsletters, webinars, demos, events, presentations, guest blogs, whitepapers, podcasts
  • Communities – Industry specific websites, forums, social media groups
  • Company website – Live chat, SEO, FAQs, resources, landing pages
  • Media coverage – Press, features in other websites and publications, partnerships, tags or mentions on social media
  • Partnerships – Referral or affiliate programs, integration partners
  • Social media – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, X, Reddit, Discord, Telegram, TikTok, WeChat

Thanks for reading!