Structuring a sound marketing strategy is one of the main structures of a successful company. In fact, it is so important that it is one of the few factors that can make or break your brand. In this article, we will discuss the Four P’s of marketing, and how it can help lead your brand to success.

The Four P’s of marketing can help you structure the components that make up a sound offering for your brand. Not only that, but it can also help you structure the differentiators and a great marketing strategy.

Over the years, the Four P’s have helped make countless brands a success, and it has been one of the main guidelines of marketers and businessmen alike. As time changes, these Four P’s have also been fundamentally changed by technology and the Internet.

This article will discuss the four P’s in the context offered by digitally connected media and from the perspective of the consumer. Always remember that how your brand is positioned in the mind of your consumer will be the ultimate test of your success.

Now, onto the Four P’s:

Products (and services)

The first P focuses on Products and services. This is what your company sells or offer to the consumer. Nowadays, the Internet has helped enable businesses to sell a huge variety of products. These products can be anything from fast-moving consumer goods to different digital products such as software, mobile applications, and more. 

A company can also sell services such as consultancy, project-based services and more. In the online world, the experience that the user has in discovering and purchasing can be considered as part of the product the brand provides. This means that not only do you have to offer a great product, but you also have to make the experience as seamless and convenient to the customer as possible. 

Additionally, the power of the Internet has also enabled mass customization. You may have seen several brands and companies that offer customization for their customers. There’s a wide range of customized services such as customized mugs, t-shirts, pillows, and more. Even Nike and Converse, on their websites, offer their customers trainers that are customized based on their needs and desires. 

Another brilliant thing about the internet is that almost everything can be sold. Using this powerful technology that almost everyone on the planet uses as a distribution medium is highly beneficial to businesses. Today, even products such as music and movies can be sold digitally. 

Price

The second P in this list is the Price. Again, the power of search engines now allows customers to compare websites and product prices. There are different shopping comparison websites where consumers can go to to check where the most cheapest-priced product is. Such website make it easy for consumers across a number of retailers to compare product prices. This means that the Internet is a market of near-perfect competition.

This also means that price differentiation is becoming more and more of a challenge for businesses. This is especially true for smaller players in the market. Nowadays, businesses need to consider differentiating on value. This value is a combination of service, perceived benefits, and price. 

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There are certain instances where the customers may be willing to pay a product or service at a higher price for a better experience. This can also be true if the consumers feel like they are getting something more than just the product itself. 

The better the experience, the more your consumers will make conversation about your product. Every human being are nature’s storytellers. And it is the brand’s job to create stories, myths, and legends around their products and services so their consumers can have something to talk about. 

At the end of the day, what people say about your product or what you are selling is a story. Your consumers are helping to craft the stories that define organizations. This is one of the main things that remains true to marketing until today. The better the story, the more it connection it builds between people, ideas, brands, and products. And because people want to be a part of a story, they follow truly great brands with a larger story and larger community. 

Setup (or distribution)

Once again, engineering, consumer delivery, and markets must no longer be locally controlled. Businesses can simply make their products visible online and their brands can instantly reach a global market. 

There was a great quote that says “If your business is not on the internet, you might as well be obsolete.” And that is very true today. Most brands – big or small, are on the internet. They have their own Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, websites, and more. 

The key to building a broader audience online is by reaching out and engaging with your customers on the different channels that they are using. This means that you need to choose your digital tactics very wisely – it is that vital. 

Additionally, you want to engage with customers on their own terms, not yours. You don’t want them to feel like you are invading their personal space. Using today’s technology, APIs, SOAP, RSS, and XML make it possible to transmit data and services worldwide. For instance, the API for a hotel reservations database allows a diver range of websites to offer customers around the world instant online bookings for hotels in their inventory. 

Promotion

The power of the Internet helps promotions to be tracked, measured and targeted in a way that they have never been before. Today, it is not enough to just advertise and talk at customers. It is also crucial to engage with your consumer base, collaborate with your audience and join in their conversations in a natural way.

This goes back to building good relationships with your customers. The worldwide web now makes communication easy for brands and consumers alike. 

A new P: People

The list should’ve stopped at the fourth P, as the title suggests. But a great marketing tactician knows that none of these strategies matter without the fifth and final P: the People. 

The internet requires you to consider People, aside from the first existing Four Ps. As we have said previously, building a great community between your consumer base, interacting and engaging with your customers is very crucial. The digitally connected world now allows brands to help their customers with personalization, peer-to-peer sharing, communities and consumer-centric organizations that help them be a part of the brand’s story.  

© Image credits to Scott Webb

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