researches on marketing mix

How to Develop a Successful Marketing Mix Strategy [+ Templates]

Updated: July 28, 2021

Published: July 02, 2020

One of the first things you're taught in your Introduction to Marketing class is that marketing can be best explained using the marketing mix – also known as the four Ps.

They are – and say 'em with me because if you took that class, you know these four words by heart:

However, once you're in your first marketing internship or job, you learn that marketing entails so much more than can be simplified in a four-section marketing mix matrix.

Still, there's an undeniable benefit of marketing teams organizing their work into the marketing mix framework.

When you stray too far away from the four P's, it can be easy to lose focus on your purpose as a marketer.

Marketing truly is about teams and individuals working together to promote a product in the right place at the right price point. Efforts beyond this scope are essential, but they do all stem off of this foundation of the marketing mix.

Here, we're going to dive into what a marketing mix is and how to develop a successful marketing mix strategy for your own company.

What is a marketing mix?

The marketing mix refers to the actions a company takes to market its product(s) and/or service(s). Typically, it acts as a framework for breaking down the four key components of marketing — product, price, place, and promotion.

The marketing mix helps companies organize their marketing initiatives by task and department for more process-driven and impactful marketing campaigns.

This framework has roots dating back to the 1940s and has been evolving ever since. While some elements have been added or tweaked over the years – most notably for the modern digital age – the core elements of the marketing mix (i.e. the four P's) have remained consistent for decades.

Featured Resource: Marketing Mix Templates

Need a way to visualize your marketing mix to share it with your employees or investors? Use these four marketing mix templates to organize your initiatives and activities by the right section. Click here to download them now .

Marketing Mix Elements

When perfected and synchronized, the core elements of a marketing mix provide a well-rounded approach to marketing strategy.

Product refers to what your business is selling – product(s), service(s), or both. The bulk of the work in this element is typically done by product marketers or managers.

Nailing the product element of the marketing mix means doing extensive research and development, understanding the need for the product, developing a product launch plan and timeline, and educating customers and employees – especially salespeople – on the product's purpose.

Price refers to the price point at which you'll sell your product(s)/service(s) to consumers. Arriving on this dollar amount requires consideration of multiple pricing strategies, analysis of similarly priced products in your market, and insights from consumers through surveys and focus groups.

Price speaks to positioning in the market, the speed at which you want to penetrate your market, and your company's revenue goals and profit margin.

In the marketing mix, place refers to where your product or service will be sold. For tangible products, this will include physical locations such as your own store, or a retailer where your product will be resold.

It can also include the other methods where your products can be purchased, like online or over the phone.

4. Promotion

Promotional activities are those that make your target market aware and excited about what you're selling.

While this does include paid initiatives like commercials and advertising, promotion also entails organic initiatives like word-of-mouth marketing, content marketing, and public relations.

Other Elements

While the marketing mix can often be simplified down to the 4 P's, the expansion of the scope of marketing in recent years has resulted in more P's added to the list.

For example, Smart Insights includes the following elements in its marketing mix definition:

• Process , or the large internal initiatives taken to support a product launch, such as including salespeople in goal setting.
• People , which can refer to your buyer, market, and target audience, or your internal team responsible for a launch.
• Partners , or who you'll be working with outside of your company, such as distributors or co-marketing partners.

Some of the other P's can include:

• Payment , or how transactions will be held and processed.
• Physical evidence, or anything tangible pertaining to your product or service, like any materials needed to complete your service or deliver your product.
• Packaging , or anything pertaining to the physicality of your product, like how it looks or how it's packaged.

These other marketing mix elements should be utilized as you see fit for your projects. However, every good marketing mix should rely on a thorough exploration of those first 4 Ps.

Marketing Mix Templates

Fill out the form to get your templates, marketing mix examples from real businesses.

Fintech companies are everywhere, but how many of them focus on organic and non-GMO agriculture?

As sustainable agriculture becomes more top of mind, brands like Mercaris help support agriculture companies looking to stay ahead in the market. Beyond delivering a service, the company identified a niche and launched a business with few direct competitors.

They offer a monthly subscription-based service that arms agricultural companies with the market intelligence needed to compete in the space. This includes detailed reports on food production, commodity prices, and market shifts.

Not long after Airbnb launched, users filed complaints of racism from their hosts and expressed reluctance to use the platform's services. The company implemented measures to appease these concerns. However, it brought attention to an important issue.

It's this uncertainty that allowed Noirbnb to enter the market. The brand tapped into people of color's desire to feel safe and welcomed in their temporary home while traveling – then, they used it as their unique selling position (USP).

The brand even plays on Airbnb's name – which is now a household one – to indicate that they offer a similar service that's been adapted to cater to travelers of color.

Warby Parker

This online retailer of prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses is known for its stylish yet affordable glasses. Warby Parker 's pricing, which starts at $95, undercuts many of its competitors, making it a popular go-to for consumers.

The brand's pricing strategy is based on public perception. In interviews, the founders revealed that originally, they were going to price their frames as low as $45. However, after considering how low prices for items like glasses can be perceived as low quality, they doubled the price to settle at a number that was still competitive.

A brand's pricing strategy can have an important role in how it's perceived in the market. So, it's important to consider what that perception is and if it's the one you want to put out there.

When Canva entered the market, it was every small business owner's dream. You could design any marketing material you wanted for FREE, what more could you ask for?

Eventually, the brand introduced premium versions of its platform. Catering to businesses ranging from small to enterprise-level, they added features like high-quality stock visuals, social media publishing tools, marketing campaign management, and large cloud storage.

Hu , short for "Get Back to Human," is a dessert company that specializes in making organic, paleo chocolate bars free of the junk ingredients we find in big-name products.

The brand has made its products available from multiple major retailers, including Walmart, Target, and Whole Foods. They also have a virtual storefront on Amazon. If stock ever runs out there, you can always purchase their products through their website.

Hu has made its product accessible through multiple channels, maximizing its earning potential while expanding its brand awareness.

The Lip Bar

Vegan beauty brand The Lip Bar leverages influencers and celebrities to promote its products and increase its brand awareness. Recently, the brand partnered with beauty influencer Raye Boyce to announce its expansion into Walmart stores and its nine latest products.

The Lip Bar places women of color at the center of its products and collaborating with a Black influencer known for her love of lipsticks is in perfect alignment with the brand's identity.

Beyond a robust social media presence, the company also has a blog on its website with content that appeals to audiences across the buyer's journey.

Avant-Garde Vegan

Some brands launch a product then promote, while others promote then launch.

Avant-Garde Vegan , an online brand created by UK-based chef Gaz Oakley, grew his business on social media – namely YouTube. Oakley gained popularity posting recipes for healthy, vegan dishes and soon became a go-to resource for new and established vegan consumers.

Eventually, Oakley released his first product, a cookbook. Now the brand sells both cookbooks as well as merchandise.

The reason why this strategy works particularly well is that it focuses on adding value instead of selling. Oakley gained his audience's trust and loyalty through consistent and quality posts on social media.

Once he introduced a product, many of his followers were ready to make a purchase. It's a long-term strategy that can have a big payoff if executed well.

How to Develop a Marketing Mix Strategy

Because the marketing mix incorporates elements from across your department – and even your company – it's imperative to establish a marketing mix strategy for each product you launch, or for your company as a whole. For a fully fleshed-out marketing mix, follow these steps.

1. Engage in market research and product development.

The success of your marketing work is first and foremost contingent on your product. Make sure it's well developed and your team can speak to its benefits and the story behind it.

Best practices in this step include:

• Engaging in market research to understand your buyers' needs.
• Speaking to your current customers to uncover their pain points and see which needs to address in your current product or service line.
• Monitoring industry trends to identify a potential demand in your market.
• Examining the competition.
• Collaborating with your product team during product development to ensure it meets your buyer personas' needs.
• Having your product tested by current customers to see how they're using the product or service and if it's actually solving for their problems.

Taking these actions ensures you're making every effort to understand and solve for your customer, providing a solid foundation for your product to launch successfully.

Featured Tool: Market Research Kit . To make your R&D more impactful, use these free market research templates so you can better understand your customers and competitors.

2. Determine your pricing model.

A lot goes into choosing a price point – so much so that we wrote an entire guide to pricing strategies .

Luckily, you'll be able to refer to much of the work done in the previous section. Thanks to your understanding of your market through research, you'll have answered most of the necessary questions in this section. You'll also need to take your costs into account so you can maximize unit sales and profit.

During this stage, make sure you do the following.

• Speak to customers (or refer to previously completed market research) to determine the ideal selling price.
• Work with the product team to ensure the product can be developed in a cost-effective manner that would ensure profitability at your target price point.
• Meet with financial experts to determine aggressive yet realistic sales forecasts to contribute to the company's bottom line.
• Collaborate with your sales team to determine discounting strategies.
• Determine how you'll adjust price and revenue forecasts when selling through resellers.

Lastly, don't forget to factor in the perceived value by the customer. Even if your product or service doesn't cost a significant amount to make, you'll be able to mark up your product more if you face little competition and provide an irreplaceable benefit to your customers.

Featured Tool: Pricing Strategy Calculator . If you need help selecting your pricing model, use this template to compare different pricing strategies and see which will yield your company the most profit and revenue based on your forecasts.

3. Choose your distribution channels.

The "place" part of the marketing mix answers where your product will be sold. Keep in mind, this can be any combination of your store, a distributor's store, or online. You'll want to address the following points before moving onto the promotion stage:

• Determine if your product will fare best in your physical location, a store of another retailer, on your website, on another company's website, or some combination of these locations.
• Think about geographic location – make sure your supply meets regional demand, and plan for whether or not what you're selling will be available in a certain city, a state, the country, or worldwide.
• Come to an agreement with retailers and resellers on margins, markups, and manufacturer suggested retail prices (MSRP).
• Figure out how many salespeople will be needed to ensure you meet your goals.
• Set goals for retail, third-party sellers, since you may be sharing shelf space or search results with a competitor or two.

4. Select your promotion tactics.

Finally, it's time to promote your product. While this is probably the element most associated with marketing, it's crucial that this element be completed last, because you need the foundation of product, price, and place before determining promotion tactics.

Think about it – shouldn't you know what you're promoting, why you're promoting it, and where it's available before actually promoting it? It's tempting to jump right to this step, but your promotion will be much better off if it's done after everything else in the marketing mix.

Once you do have that understanding, consider the following promotional channels and choose the one(s) that makes the most sense for your product, its buyers, and its price point:

• Content marketing efforts, such as blogging, content creation, and building a website.
• Public relations and working with affiliates and/or influencers.
• Social media marketing – both organic and paid – on channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
• Search engine ads on sites like Google and Bing.
• Ads to air on video streaming sites like YouTube, or on TV.
• Event marketing, including attending industry events or hosting your own event.
• Customer marketing and utilizing referrals.
• And more – There are countless promotional ideas you can use to spread the word on your product, service, or business.

Featured Tool: Marketing Plan Template . If your promotional tactics are multi-faceted enough, consider documenting your plans in this customizable template.

Every company's marketing mix is different, placing emphasis on certain factors over others.

Some businesses use their marketing mix for a single product, while others adopt a company-wide marketing mix. However, good marketing mixes should tie in all the elements without neglecting one.

All elements of the marketing mix are important, so don't be quick to overlook any of them, and find ways for different elements of the mix to overlap and share goals.

With so many activities happening to support a single initiative, it's helpful to organize everything in a single template for easy reference. Here are a few examples of marketing mix templates your marketing department can use, in addition to when they might make sense to reference.

1. Simple Marketing Mix Template

Download this Template

This template is a great starter for organizing a marketing mix. It's ideal for one product and for the marketing mix's maker to get an understanding of all the elements involved in the marketing of a product.

2. Company Marketing Mix Template

For a marketing mix that applies company-wide, this template is a perfect fit. You can outline the initiatives that apply to most or all of the products and/or services in your suite.

3. Structured Marketing Mix Template

For when you need to get right to the point with a more organized, actionable visualization, use this structured, bulleted template for quick reference and clarification.

4. Production Marketing Mix Template

Finally, a production marketing mix template is best utilized for internal reference. This template answers questions on the go-to-market efforts for products and services that you're selling.

Mix It All Together

Whether you're a student just learning to understand everything that marketing entails or a CMO hoping to clearly convey the work that your team is doing to your fellow employees, the marketing mix framework is an essential tool to help you get the job done.

Don't forget – if you need to organize your marketing initiatives into a central location, try using HubSpot's Marketing Mix Templates to document your activities in one place.

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

The Best Free Business Budget Templates in 2024

I Learned How to Write a Budget Proposal (+ Free Template)

How to Manage Your Entire Marketing Budget [Free Budget Planner Templates]

How a Bottom-Up Budget Can Transform Your Company From Bottom to Top

Millennials vs. Gen Z: Why Marketers Need to Know the Difference [New Data]

Marketing Agencies We Admired in 2023

Marketing Budget: How Much Should Your Team Spend in 2024? [By Industry]

12 Best Free (& Private) Email Accounts & Service Providers for 2024

How to Delete Your Instagram [Easy Guide]

How Marketing Leaders are Navigating Recession [New Data]

Organize your product, price, place, and promotion initiatives in a simple, single template.

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

Marketing Mix: The 4 Ps of Marketing & How to Use Them?

Appinio Research · 06.08.2024 · 33min read

Have you ever wondered what makes a marketing campaign successful and why some products seem to fly off the shelves while others gather dust? The answer often lies in the marketing mix, a concept that combines several key elements to create a winning strategy. Understanding the marketing mix is crucial for any business looking to meet customer needs, stay competitive, and achieve long-term success. This guide will delve into the essential components of the marketing mix—Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence—providing you with practical insights and examples to help you develop an effective marketing strategy. By mastering these elements, you can tailor your marketing efforts, optimize resources, and drive business growth. Let's explore how each aspect of the marketing mix plays a vital role in crafting a strategy that resonates with your target audience and elevates your brand.

What is Marketing Mix?

The marketing mix is a foundational concept in marketing that refers to the combination of factors a company can control to influence consumers to purchase its products. Coined by Neil Borden in the 1950s, the term initially referred to the 4Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. These elements work together to create a strategic approach to market a product or service effectively. Each component must be carefully considered and balanced to meet the target audience's needs and achieve the company's marketing objectives.

Importance of Marketing Mix in Business Strategy

The marketing mix is critical in shaping a company's overall business strategy. Here's why it is so important:

• Customer Satisfaction : By tailoring the marketing mix elements to meet customer needs and preferences, businesses can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Competitive Advantage : A well-crafted marketing mix helps differentiate a company's products from competitors, creating a unique selling proposition that attracts customers.
• Resource Optimization : Effective use of the marketing mix ensures that resources are allocated efficiently, maximizing return on investment.
• Market Adaptation : The flexibility of the marketing mix allows businesses to adapt to changing market conditions, consumer behavior, and competitive pressures.
• Strategic Alignment : Aligning the marketing mix with overall business goals ensures that marketing efforts support the company's long-term vision and objectives.
• Increased Sales and Profitability : By optimizing each element of the marketing mix, businesses can drive higher sales and profitability through targeted and effective marketing strategies.

Overview of the 4Ps of Marketing

• Product : Refers to what the company is selling, including the quality, design, features, branding, and packaging of the product. It's essential to ensure that the product meets the needs and expectations of the target market.
• Price : Involves determining the right pricing strategy for the product, considering factors such as production costs, target market, competition, and perceived value. Pricing decisions directly impact the demand and profitability of the product.
• Place : Focuses on how the product is distributed and made available to customers. This includes choosing the proper distribution channels, managing logistics, and ensuring the product is accessible where and when customers need it.
• Promotion : Encompasses all the activities and tactics used to communicate the product's benefits and persuade customers to purchase. This includes advertising, sales promotions, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing.

Understanding and effectively managing these 4Ps allows businesses to create a balanced and integrated marketing strategy that drives growth and meets business objectives.

A product is any good or service that can satisfy customers' needs or wants. It's the cornerstone of your business because it's the primary reason customers engage with your brand. A well-defined product meets customer expectations, solves problems, and provides value. Your product's significance lies in its ability to fulfill market demands and create a loyal customer base.

Product Life Cycle

The product life cycle describes the stages a product goes through, from its introduction to the market to its eventual decline. Understanding this cycle helps in strategic planning and maximizing the product's profitability.

• Introduction : The product is launched, and awareness is built. Marketing efforts are high, but sales growth is typically slow.
• Growth : The product gains market acceptance, and sales increase rapidly. Profits rise, and competitors may enter the market.
• Maturity : Sales growth slows as the product reaches market saturation. Competition is intense, and efforts focus on differentiation and maintaining market share.
• Decline : Sales and profits decline due to market saturation, technological advancements, or changing consumer preferences. Decisions need to be made about discontinuing or rejuvenating the product.

For example, consider the lifecycle of smartphones. When a new model is introduced, it's heavily marketed. As it gains popularity, sales soar. Eventually, sales stabilize as the market becomes saturated, and finally, older models are phased out as new technology emerges.

Product Differentiation and Positioning

Differentiation and positioning are crucial for making your product stand out in a competitive market.

• Product Differentiation : This involves adding unique features or benefits to your product to distinguish it from competitors. It could be through innovation, quality, design, or customer service. For instance, Tesla differentiates its cars using advanced technology and sustainable energy solutions.
• Positioning : Positioning is about creating a specific perception of your product in the consumer's mind. It involves identifying your product's key benefits and associating them with the target market's needs. For example, Volvo positions itself as a leader in vehicle safety, appealing to consumers who prioritize this aspect.

Product Line and Portfolio Management

Managing a product line involves offering a range of related products that cater to different customer needs and preferences. Effective product portfolio management ensures a balanced mix of products that contribute to the overall profitability of the business.

• Product Line : A group of related products marketed under a single brand, catering to different segments or price points. For example, Nike's product line includes running shoes, basketball shoes, and casual footwear.
• Portfolio Management : This involves analyzing the performance of each product and making decisions about product additions, modifications, or discontinuations. Tools like the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix help evaluate products based on market growth and market share to make strategic decisions.

Price is the amount customers must pay to acquire your product or service. It directly affects your revenue and profitability. Setting the right price is crucial because it influences customers' purchase decisions and perceptions of your brand. An optimal pricing strategy balances affordability for customers and profitability for your business.

Pricing Strategies

Effective pricing strategies help you set prices that attract customers and achieve your business goals. Here are some standard methods:

Cost-Based Pricing

Cost-based pricing involves setting prices based on the cost of producing the product plus a markup for profit. This method ensures that all costs are covered and a specific profit margin is achieved.

Price = Cost + Markup

For example, if a product costs $50 to produce and you want a 20% profit margin, the price would be:

Price = $50 + (0.20 * $50) = $60

Value-Based Pricing

Value-based pricing sets prices based on the perceived value to the customer rather than the cost of production. This strategy works well when your product offers unique benefits that justify a higher price.

For instance, a luxury brand like Rolex can charge premium prices because customers perceive high value in the brand's craftsmanship, prestige, and exclusivity.

Competition-Based Pricing

Competition-based pricing involves setting your price based on what competitors are charging. This strategy is helpful in markets with similar products where price differences can significantly impact customer choices.

For example, airlines often adjust ticket prices based on competitor pricing to remain competitive and attract price-sensitive customers.

Factors Influencing Pricing Decisions

Several factors influence your pricing decisions, and understanding them helps you set effective prices:

• Cost of Production : To ensure profitability, direct and indirect costs associated with creating your product must be covered.
• Market Demand : Understanding how much customers are willing to pay for your product helps in setting a price that reflects its value.
• Competition : Analyzing competitors' prices ensures your pricing is competitive and can attract customers.
• Economic Conditions : Inflation, purchasing power, and the overall economic environment can affect how much customers are willing to spend.
• Regulatory Environment : Laws and regulations regarding pricing, such as minimum pricing laws or price controls, need to be considered.

Psychological Pricing Techniques

Psychological pricing techniques leverage human psychology to make prices more appealing and encourage purchases. Here are a few effective methods:

• Charm Pricing : Setting prices slightly below a round number (e.g., $9.99 instead of $10.00) makes the price seem lower.
• Price Anchoring : Showing a higher-priced item first makes other options appear more affordable. For example, a high-end product listed alongside a more reasonably priced one can make the latter seem like a better deal.
• Bundle Pricing : Offering multiple products together at a lower combined price can encourage customers to buy more. For instance, a meal deal at a fast-food restaurant bundles a burger, fries, and a drink at a lower price than buying each item separately.

By understanding and applying these concepts, you can create a pricing strategy that not only covers your costs but also aligns with your overall marketing strategy and business objectives.

Place (Distribution)

Distribution, or place, is about making your product available to customers in the right location and at the right time. It's a crucial aspect of the marketing mix because even the best products won't sell if they're not accessible to the target market. Effective distribution ensures that customers can easily find and purchase your product, which can significantly impact your sales and customer satisfaction.

Distribution Channels

Distribution channels are the pathways through which products travel from the manufacturer to the end consumer. These channels can be direct or indirect, and choosing the right one depends on your business model, product type, and target market.

Direct vs. Indirect Channels

• Direct Channels : Selling directly to consumers without intermediaries. This can be done through online stores, company-owned retail outlets, or direct sales teams. Direct channels provide greater control over the customer experience and margins but can be resource-intensive.
• Indirect Channels : Utilizing intermediaries such as wholesalers, distributors, or retailers to reach the end consumer. Indirect channels can expand market reach and reduce operational burdens but often involve sharing profits with intermediaries.

Online vs. Offline Channels

• Online Channels : E-commerce websites, online marketplaces, and social media platforms. These channels offer convenience, broader reach, and lower operational costs. They are especially effective for tech-savvy and geographically dispersed customers.
• Offline Channels : Physical stores, pop-up shops, and traditional retail outlets. These channels provide a tangible customer experience and immediate product availability, which can be crucial for specific product categories.

Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Logistics and supply chain management are critical components of effective distribution. They involve the planning, implementation, and control of the movement and storage of goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption.

• Warehousing : Efficient storage solutions ensure products are readily available for distribution. Strategic placement of warehouses can reduce shipping times and costs.
• Inventory Management : Maintaining optimal inventory levels to meet customer demand without overstocking or stockouts. Techniques like Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory can enhance efficiency.
• Transportation : Selecting the suitable transportation methods (e.g., trucks, ships, planes) to balance cost, speed, and reliability. Ensuring timely and safe delivery is crucial to customer satisfaction.

Selecting the Right Distribution Strategy

Choosing the right distribution strategy involves considering several factors:

• Intensive Distribution : Placing products in as many outlets as possible (e.g., FMCG products).
• Selective Distribution : Using a limited number of outlets in a particular market (e.g., electronics).
• Exclusive Distribution : Limiting distribution to a single retailer or a few outlets (e.g., luxury goods).
• Cost : Balancing the cost of distribution with potential sales revenue. High-margin products may justify higher distribution costs.
• Control : Determining the level of control needed over the distribution process. Direct channels offer more control but require more resources.
• Customer Preferences : Understanding where and how your customers prefer to shop. This can vary significantly across different demographics and product categories.

Promotion is the aspect of the marketing mix that involves communicating the benefits and value of your product to the target audience. Effective promotion helps increase brand awareness, generate interest, and ultimately drive sales. It's about telling your brand's story in a compelling way that resonates with your audience.

Elements of Promotional Mix

A comprehensive promotional strategy incorporates various elements, each serving a unique purpose in reaching and engaging with customers.

Advertising

Advertising involves paid promotions through different media channels such as TV, radio, print, online ads, and outdoor billboards. It's designed to reach a large audience and build brand awareness. Advertising can be highly targeted and customized to specific segments.

Sales Promotion

Sales promotions are short-term incentives aimed at encouraging immediate purchases or temporarily boosting sales. They can include discounts, coupons, contests, and special offers. Sales promotions are effective in attracting new customers and retaining existing ones.

Public Relations

Public relations (PR) involves managing your brand's image and building positive relationships with the public. PR activities include press releases, media relations, community engagement, and corporate social responsibility initiatives. Effective PR can enhance brand credibility and reputation.

Personal Selling

Personal selling is a direct approach where sales representatives interact with potential customers to persuade them to purchase. It's particularly effective for high-value or complex products that require detailed explanations or demonstrations.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing targets specific individuals with personalized messages through channels like email, mail, and telemarketing. It allows for precise targeting and measurable results, making it a cost-effective promotional tool.

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) ensure that all promotional activities are aligned and deliver a consistent message across all channels. This creates a unified brand image and maximizes the impact of your marketing efforts. IMC involves coordinating various elements of the promotional mix to provide a seamless experience for the customer.

Digital Promotion Strategies

In the digital age, online promotion strategies are essential for reaching and engaging customers. These strategies leverage digital channels to create targeted and interactive marketing campaigns.

• Content Marketing : Creating valuable and relevant content to attract and engage your target audience. This includes blog posts, videos, infographics, and eBooks.
• Social Media Marketing : Using social media platforms to connect with your audience, share content, and promote products. Engaging with followers through posts, stories, and live sessions can build a solid online community.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) : Optimizing your website and content to rank higher in search engine results, increasing organic traffic.
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising : Running paid ads on search engines and social media platforms where you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. PPC allows precise targeting and quick visibility.

By integrating these strategies into your promotional mix, you can effectively communicate your brand's value, reach a wider audience, and drive sales.

Extended Marketing Mix (7Ps)

The traditional 4Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) have been extended to include three more critical elements: People, Process, and Physical Evidence. These additional components are especially important for service-based businesses and help create a more comprehensive marketing strategy.

People play a crucial role in the marketing mix, particularly in service industries where customer interactions can significantly impact the overall experience.

Role of Employees in Marketing

Employees are the face of your brand and directly influence customer perceptions. Their behavior, attitude, and competence can make or break a customer's experience. Investing in employee training and development is essential to ensure they represent the brand positively and deliver exceptional service.

For example, Ritz-Carlton is renowned for its exemplary customer service, which is largely attributed to its well-trained and empowered staff, who are encouraged to go above and beyond to meet guests' needs.

Customer Service and Experience

Customer service is a vital component of the overall customer experience. It encompasses every interaction a customer has with your company, from initial contact to after-sales support. Providing excellent customer service can lead to higher customer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive word-of-mouth.

Strategies to enhance customer service include:

• Training employees to handle various customer scenarios effectively
• Implementing customer feedback systems to continually improve service
• Ensuring quick and efficient resolution of customer issues

A real-world example is Zappos, which is famous for its customer-centric approach and generous return policies, creating a loyal customer base.

Processes refer to the procedures and activities that ensure the efficient delivery of your product or service. They play a crucial role in maintaining quality and consistency.

Importance of Efficient Processes

Efficient processes streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve the overall customer experience. They help ensure that products and services are delivered promptly and consistently, which can significantly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Key areas to focus on include:

• Standardizing procedures to ensure consistency
• Using technology to automate and streamline processes
• Continuously monitoring and refining processes to improve efficiency

For example, McDonald's has perfected its food preparation processes to ensure fast, consistent service across all its locations worldwide.

Process Improvement Strategies

Continuous improvement strategies help identify and eliminate inefficiencies in your processes. Techniques like Lean, Six Sigma, and Total Quality Management (TQM) focus on enhancing process efficiency and quality.

Lean focuses on minimizing waste and maximizing value, while Six Sigma uses data-driven methods to reduce variability and defects. TQM emphasizes company-wide quality improvement. Toyota is a prime example of a company that has successfully implemented Lean and Six Sigma principles to streamline its production processes and enhance quality.

Physical Evidence

Physical evidence refers to the tangible elements that customers can see and interact with, which can influence their perceptions of your service.

Tangible Aspects of Service Delivery

Tangible elements include the physical environment where the service is delivered, as well as any materials used in providing the service, such as brochures, signage, and uniforms. These elements help customers form their perceptions of your brand and can significantly impact their overall experience.

Creating a Positive Physical Environment

Creating a positive physical environment involves designing spaces that are aesthetically pleasing, functional, and aligned with your brand image. This can improve customer satisfaction and encourage repeat business. Strategies include:

• Ensuring the physical space is clean, organized, and welcoming
• Using branding elements consistently across all physical touchpoints
• Incorporating sensory elements like lighting, music, and scent to enhance the atmosphere

Starbucks, for instance, creates a cozy and inviting atmosphere in its coffee shops, encouraging customers to spend more time there and enjoy their products.

Integrating these additional elements into your marketing mix can create a more holistic and effective marketing strategy that enhances customer satisfaction, loyalty, and overall business success.

How to Develop a Marketing Mix Strategy?

Creating a marketing mix strategy involves carefully analyzing each component of the 7Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, Physical Evidence) and how they interact to meet your business objectives. A well-crafted marketing mix strategy aligns with your overall business goals, targets the right audience, and leverages your unique selling points effectively.

1. Understand Your Market and Target Audience

The first step in developing a marketing mix strategy is understanding your market and identifying your target audience. This involves conducting thorough market research to gain insights into customer needs, preferences, and behaviors. Understanding your competitors and market trends is also crucial.

• Market Research : Use surveys , focus groups , and data analysis to gather information about your potential customers. Identify their pain points, preferences, and purchasing behaviors.
• Competitive Analysis : Study your competitors to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Identify opportunities to differentiate your product or service.

2. Define Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Your USP is what makes your product or service stand out from the competition. It's a unique benefit you offer that is valuable to your target audience. Clearly defining your USP helps craft messages that resonate with your customers and highlight why they should choose your brand over others.

For example, TOMS Shoes' USP is its "One for One" model, where they donate a pair of shoes for every pair purchased, appealing to socially conscious consumers.

3. Develop Your Product Strategy

Your product strategy should focus on delivering value to your customers. This involves decisions about product features, design, quality, and packaging. Consider how your product meets the needs of your target audience and what enhancements could increase its appeal.

• Product Features : Identify which features are most important to your customers and focus on developing these.
• Quality : Ensure your product meets high-quality standards to build trust and satisfaction.
• Packaging : Design packaging that is not only attractive but also functional and environmentally friendly.

4. Set Your Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy should reflect the value of your product while being competitive in the market. When setting prices, consider your costs, target market, and competition.

• Cost-Based Pricing : Ensure your prices cover your production costs and provide a reasonable profit margin.
• Value-Based Pricing : Set prices based on the perceived value to your customers. Customers may be willing to pay a premium if your product offers unique benefits.
• Competitive Pricing : Analyze your competitors' pricing strategies and position your prices to attract your target market without eroding your profits.

5. Choose Your Distribution Strategy

Your distribution strategy ensures that your product is available to customers where and when they want it. This involves selecting the proper distribution channels and managing logistics effectively.

• Distribution Channels : Decide whether to sell directly to consumers, use intermediaries, or a combination of both. Consider online and offline channels based on where your customers prefer to shop.
• Logistics : Develop efficient logistics and supply chain processes to ensure timely delivery and reduce costs. Optimize your warehousing, inventory management, and transportation strategies.

6. Plan Your Promotion Strategy

Your promotion strategy involves communicating the value of your product to your target audience. It includes advertising, sales promotions, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing.

• Advertising : Choose the best media channels to reach your audience, such as TV, online ads, social media, or print. Create compelling messages that highlight your USP.
• Sales Promotions : Use discounts, coupons, and special offers to drive short-term sales and attract new customers.
• Public Relations : Build positive relationships with the public and media to enhance your brand's reputation.
• Personal Selling : Train your sales team to communicate your product's benefits and close deals effectively.
• Direct Marketing : Use personalized marketing techniques, such as email campaigns, to target specific segments of your audience.

7. Integrate People, Process, and Physical Evidence

These additional elements ensure that your marketing mix is comprehensive and customer-centric.

• People : Invest in training and developing your employees to provide exceptional customer service. Ensure that your team embodies your brand values.
• Process : Streamline your processes to deliver a consistent and high-quality customer experience. Use technology and continuous improvement strategies to enhance efficiency.
• Physical Evidence : Create a positive physical environment that reflects your brand. This includes the design of your stores, website, and any other touchpoints where customers interact with your brand.

8. Monitor and Adjusting Your Strategy

Finally, continuously monitor the performance of your marketing mix strategy and make adjustments as needed. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success and gather customer feedback to identify areas for improvement.

• KPIs : Track metrics such as sales volume, market share, customer satisfaction, and return on investment (ROI) to evaluate your strategy's effectiveness.
• Customer Feedback : Use surveys, reviews, and direct customer interactions to gather insights and make informed adjustments to your strategy.

By carefully developing and continuously refining each element of the marketing mix, you can create a robust strategy that effectively meets your business goals and delights your customers.

How to Measure and Evaluate Your Marketing Mix?

Understanding how well your marketing mix strategy is performing is crucial for making informed decisions and optimizing your efforts. Measuring and evaluating your marketing mix involves tracking key metrics, using analytical tools, and continuously refining your approach to improve results.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable values that help you gauge the effectiveness of your marketing mix strategy. Selecting the right KPIs depends on your business goals and the specific aspects of the marketing mix you want to evaluate. Here are some essential KPIs to consider:

• Sales Volume : Tracks the number of units sold over a specific period. It helps assess the effectiveness of your product and pricing strategies.
• Revenue : Measures the total income generated from sales. It provides insight into the overall financial health of your marketing efforts.
• Market Share : Indicates the percentage of total market sales your product accounts for. It helps evaluate your competitive position in the market.
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) : Calculates the cost of acquiring a new customer. It includes expenses related to marketing and sales efforts.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) : Estimates the total revenue a customer will generate over their relationship with your business. It helps you understand the long-term value of your customers.
• Return on Investment (ROI) : Measures the profitability of your marketing activities by comparing the revenue generated to the costs incurred.
• Conversion Rate : Tracks the percentage of prospects who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
• Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty : Assessed through surveys and feedback to understand how satisfied customers are with your product and service, and their likelihood of repeat business.

Tools and Techniques for Analysis

To effectively measure and evaluate your marketing mix, you need to use various tools and techniques that provide detailed insights and actionable data. Here are some commonly used tools and techniques:

• Google Analytics : A powerful tool for tracking and analyzing website traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates. It provides valuable data on how customers interact with your online presence.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems : Tools like Salesforce or HubSpot help manage customer interactions, track sales activities, and analyze customer data to improve relationships and drive sales growth.
• Marketing Automation Platforms : Solutions like Mailchimp enable you to automate marketing tasks, track campaign performance, and analyze customer engagement.
• Surveys and Feedback Tools : Platforms like Appinio help collect customer feedback and measure satisfaction and loyalty. They provide insights into customer preferences and areas for improvement.
• Social Media Analytics : Tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social offer detailed analytics on your social media performance, including engagement, reach, and sentiment analysis.
• A/B Testing : This technique involves comparing two versions of a marketing asset (e.g., a web page, email, or ad) to determine which one performs better. It helps optimize marketing materials and improve conversion rates.
• Heatmaps and Session Recording : These tools provide visual insights into how users interact with your website. They show where users click, scroll, and spend the most time, helping you optimize user experience and design.
• Competitive Analysis Tools : Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs allow you to monitor competitor activities, track keyword rankings, and analyze their marketing strategies to identify opportunities and threats.

Using these tools and techniques, you can gather comprehensive data on your marketing mix performance. Regular analysis and interpretation of this data enable you to make informed decisions, adjust your strategies, and continuously improve your marketing efforts. Remember, the goal is to create a dynamic and responsive marketing mix that evolves with changing market conditions and customer needs.

Conclusion for Marketing Mix

Crafting an effective marketing mix is all about understanding and balancing the key elements that influence customer decisions. By focusing on the 7Ps—Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence—you can create a comprehensive strategy that meets your customers' needs and sets your business apart from the competition. Each component plays a unique role in shaping the customer experience and driving sales. Whether it's designing a product that solves a specific problem, setting a price that reflects its value, ensuring it's available where customers shop, or promoting it in a way that captures attention, every decision counts. Integrating these elements thoughtfully can lead to improved customer satisfaction, stronger brand loyalty, and increased profitability. As markets evolve and consumer preferences shift, it's crucial to continuously evaluate and adjust your marketing mix. Use the tools and techniques outlined in this guide to measure performance, gather feedback, and refine your approach. Stay agile and responsive to changes in the market, and don't hesitate to experiment with new strategies to see what works best for your business. Remember, the goal is to create a marketing mix that not only meets immediate objectives but also positions your brand for long-term success. By keeping the customer at the center of your strategy and making data-driven decisions, you can build a resilient marketing plan that adapts to challenges and seizes opportunities, ensuring your business thrives in a competitive landscape.

How to Enhance Your Marketing Mix Strategy?

Developing an effective marketing mix strategy requires timely and accurate consumer insights, and Appinio is the ideal platform to achieve this. As a real-time market research platform, Appinio revolutionizes the way companies gather and utilize consumer data. By providing rapid, actionable insights, Appinio empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions with confidence and speed.

Our platform handles all the technical and research complexities, allowing companies to focus on what truly matters—crafting a marketing mix that resonates with their target audience and drives success. With Appinio, market research is no longer a daunting or expensive task; it's an exciting and intuitive process seamlessly integrated into everyday decision-making.

• Real-Time Insights : Get from questions to insights in minutes, ensuring your marketing mix decisions are based on the latest consumer data.
• User-Friendly Platform : Designed for ease of use, Appinio's platform is so intuitive that anyone can conduct market research without needing a PhD.
• Global Reach and Precision : Define the right target group from over 1,200 characteristics and survey respondents in over 90 countries, with an average field time of under 23 minutes for 1,000 responses.

Get free access to the platform!

Join the loop 💌

Be the first to hear about new updates, product news, and data insights. We'll send it all straight to your inbox.

Get the latest market research news straight to your inbox! 💌

Wait, there's more

06.08.2024 | 32min read

01.08.2024 | 27min read

Multistage Sampling: Definition, Guide, Examples

30.07.2024 | 37min read

VRIO Framework: Definition, Analysis, Examples

• General SEO
• Keyword Research
• On-Page SEO
• Link Building
• Technical SEO
• Enterprise SEO
• General Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Paid Marketing
• Video Marketing

Marketing Mix: 7 Ps, 4 Cs, & Other Things You Need to Know

• Linking websites 38

The number of websites linking to this post.

This post's estimated monthly organic search traffic.

You can create your custom marketing mix from scratch. But to build a sustainable business, you probably shouldn’t be reinventing the wheel in this area.

In this article, we’re going to cover the following:

Why is the marketing mix important?

• Types of marketing mixes

Five tips on using the marketing mix

Marketing a product or service can become overwhelming quite fast. There are just so many things to think about and no clear place to start.

But marketing mix models put things in the right order. They provide a sort of template that helps to zero in on things that really matter and lay the foundations for a successful marketing strategy .

Types of marketing mixes

The marketing mix and the four Ps of marketing are often used interchangeably. We need to start by noting this is not accurate. The four Ps of marketing are just a type of marketing mix (historically, it’s probably the oldest).

So without further ado, here are the key types of marketing mixes with some examples.

The four Ps of marketing

The four Ps of marketing is a marketing mix model proposed by Jerome McCarthy in 1960. The four components of the model are:

• Product – What you sell.
• Price – How much you sell it for.
• Place – Where you sell it.
• Promotion – How you get customers.

Let’s look at how this works in practice for a SaaS product like Ahrefs:

Recommended reading: How to Implement the 4 Ps of Marketing  

The seven Ps and eight Ps of marketing

The seven Ps of marketing is a marketing mix model designed especially for service marketing and was proposed by Bernard Booms and Mary Bitner in 1981. The seven components of the model are: 

• Product – What you sell.
• People – Who is involved in delivering your product.
• Process – Procedures of delivering the product.
• Physical evidence  – Tangible elements of your service the customers will interact with.

In later years, the model was expanded by some marketing theorists. This resulted in the eighth P: performance , i.e., how you will measure your success.

Since the seven Ps and eight Ps of marketing are models designed for services, let’s see how a service like Uber can use this marketing mix to bring its brand to the market:

The seven Cs of marketing (aka the compass model)

The seven Cs of marketing (also called the compass model) is a marketing mix model proposed by Koichi Shimizu in 1981. It is based on his earlier four Cs model (1973). Here are the seven components of the model:

• Corporation  – The company, i.e., the center of all decision-making.
• Commodity – The product or service you’re offering.
• Communication – How you reach your customers and how you get feedback from them.
• Channel – The distribution channels of your product/service.
• Cost – The overall cost to the consumer.
• Consumer – Needs, security, education, and wants of the consumer.
• Circumstances – Uncontrollable external factors: national/international, economic, social, and weather.

Since this is a framework that takes a lot of different physical factors into account, let’s see how the compass model can work for a hardware company like Tesla.

The four Cs of marketing

The four Cs of marketing is a marketing mix model proposed by Bob Lauterborn in 1990. The four components of the model are:

• Consumer  – The needs and wants of the consumer.
• Cost – The overall cost to the consumer.
• Convenience  – How you make your offering accessible.
• Communication – How you establish two-way communication with the consumer.

For this example, we’re going to look at Huel, the nutritionally complete meal replacement product:

These aren’t the only marketing mix models you will stumble upon. For example, I’ve also heard about the four Es of marketing, the SAVE model, and so on. But they are all more or less extensions or alterations of the types featured above.

Instead of flooding you with all of the possible marketing models, I’d like to share with you some insights on using the marketing mix.

Here are five things worth keeping in mind when designing your marketing mix.

1. Practice designing the marketing mix on competitors first

Coming up with ideas for your marketing mix is easier if you reach out for some inspiration first. There’s hardly a better source of inspiration than other companies, especially your competitors. 

This way, you can learn two important things:

• You may likely find that other companies have similar problems. You can learn how they solve them, use the same solutions, or use your own remixed and improved solutions.
• This is a great exercise for understanding your competitors. After all, to win in the market, you just need to do better than them.

So just take one type of marketing mix and try to fill in the blanks with as many details as you can. You can repeat that for other companies too. After a couple of those, devising your mix won’t seem so daunting.

Recommended reading:   How to Conduct a Competitive Analysis (Template Included)  

2. Always start with the product/service

Seeing the various elements inside the marketing mix models, you may be wondering where to start. Or in other words, what the foundation of the entire plan should be.

My advice: start with the value you are planning to deliver to your customers, i.e., your product or service. Reason: the importance of product-market fit .

Product-market fit is achieved by a company when it has confirmed signals that its product can satisfy an existing demand in a market with high potential. It’s arguably the single most important thing in building a sustainable business and is something that should precede any scaling up of the business.

When you’re leading with your product/service in your marketing mix, you’re aligning your marketing efforts with product-market fit.

This way, if you’re developing your marketing mix pre-market fit (i.e., before validating the idea of your product), the marketing mix will help you achieve product-market fit. And if you’re developing your marketing mix post-market fit, you’ll be building on the success of your product (more on this in the next section). 

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can completely ignore the customers’ needs and wants and just put something on the market that fits your vision. In fact, the product-market fit is just as much about the idea for the product as it is about the people who will use it.

Take Ahrefs, for example. Before becoming a robust, all-in-one SEO toolset and hiring the first-ever person for marketing, we were testing the waters with one tool built just for backlink analysis. And because the product caught on, we were able to confidently focus our marketing efforts on product marketing .

In 2011, Ahrefs was a tool for one thing only. Thanks to the product-market fit of that offering, we were confident in scaling everything up. What started as a backlink database is now an eight-figure ARR business.

Recommended reading: How to Achieve Product-Market Fit (5 Steps)

3. Coherence is key

Most effective marketing mixes are those that create a coherent system of interlinked elements.

This means that a viable strategy for devising marketing mixes is to build upon elements that are either the most certain or the strongest. This way, the consequent elements of the mix can reinforce themselves. Let me give you an example.

The strongest element in Ahrefs’ marketing mix is the product. Our product is designed to help marketers and business owners rank higher on search engines and get more traffic. From that P (product), we can derive another P (promotion). There are two opportunities for us (which we, of course, took):

• Lots of people are searching Google for solutions to problems our product solves.
• By showing that we can rank our content using our very own tools, we deliver a strong message about the utility of our product and the expertise of the people who develop it.

Here, you can see some of the topics we talk about on our blog. Within them, there are hundreds of subtopics that can add to the monthly Traffic Potential (TP). Data via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer .

For us, the obvious solution to that is content marketing, namely product-led content marketing designed to rank on Google . And by choosing a marketing tactic that works well with our product, we’ve strengthened the ties between those two Ps, allowing them to reinforce one another.

We decided to go even further than that. We chose to slice out portions of our products and release them for free. This way, our product  becomes our promotion . It has proven to be an effective way to bring people from search engines to us:

The write-ups of our free tools are some of the pages that bring us the most organic traffic. Data via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer .

4. Guess and test (where needed)

Market research should be the number one step to take in devising a marketing mix or any kind of marketing strategy. But this kind of research can be time-consuming and expensive.

Instead, you can reach for agile market research methods. Make small bets or educated guesses based on information that is available to you and just test them. Then build upon that.

For example, instead of going in circles to search for a definitive, theoretical answer on how to price your product, you can use an agile market research tool like SurveyMonkey for price testing  and get feedback from real people.

The same can be done for your product prototypes with the help of platforms like Loop11 or UserTesting .

Making educated guesses is also not completely unheard of in the world of business. After all, this is how Amazon famously started—with a single stat that the internet is growing 2,300% per year.

Founder Jeff Bezos used this information to make an educated guess that an online bookstore may likely be a viable business idea . He tested that idea, and the rest is history.

• Why You Only Need to Test With 5 Users  
• When an Educated Guess Beats Data Analysis  

5. Review your marketing mix regularly

The factors that you build upon will eventually change. Some will change a year from now, some five years later, and others even longer than that.

To illustrate, here are the things that may change for the companies featured in our analyses of marketing mix types:

• Ahrefs – Increasing demand for all-in-one marketing platforms
• Huel – New studies of the detrimental effect of using sucralose (what Huel uses as a sweetener) long term
• Uber – Outbreak of a pandemic, e.g., COVID-19
• Tesla – Advances in hydrogen fuel and other types of alternative energy

And here’s an example of a company that made a game-changing switch after considering the circumstances: Netflix. Due to advancing web technology and increasing internet adoption, Netflix realized it made less and less sense to stick to renting movies on DVD by mail.

Did Netflix make the right choice to enter the streaming market? Just look at the volume trend of “streaming services,” and the answer becomes obvious. Data via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer .

Netflix in 2005 was the “best way to rent movies” (on DVD). Source: Internet Archive .

By the way, here’s another highly successful transformation: Netflix’s decision to not only distribute content but also create content. That decision allowed it to triple its revenue.

When changes happen, it usually means that you need to tweak your mix and adapt to changes in the environment. The trick is not to get caught by surprise. So regularly review your mix.

Final thoughts

I deliberately skipped the broader historical overview of the origin of the marketing mix models. The reason is when it comes to this marketing theory, the fact that something is conceived later doesn’t make it better.

In fact, some marketers argue the original marketing mix, the four Ps of marketing, is still the best one. Well, we won’t go into that too much. But now that you know the different models, you may be wondering which best suits your business.

My advice: start with the four Ps. Because your success or failure is likely going to be dependent on a) the market fit of the product or service, b) the adequacy of the price in the context of market conditions and benefits of your offering, c) whether there’s inconvenient/faulty distribution, and d) whether there are wrong marketing strategies or ineffective tactics. All of those concerns are addressed in the four Ps.

The basic four Ps are embedded in other types of marketing mixes. So you can treat the additional elements of other types as extensions as you move along. But in essence, what you really need to nail is the product, price, place, and promotion.

Got questions or comments? Ping me on Twitter .

Root out friction in every digital experience, super-charge conversion rates, and optimize digital self-service

Uncover insights from any interaction, deliver AI-powered agent coaching, and reduce cost to serve

Increase revenue and loyalty with real-time insights and recommendations delivered to teams on the ground

Know how your people feel and empower managers to improve employee engagement, productivity, and retention

Take action in the moments that matter most along the employee journey and drive bottom line growth

Whatever they’re are saying, wherever they’re saying it, know exactly what’s going on with your people

Get faster, richer insights with qual and quant tools that make powerful market research available to everyone

Run concept tests, pricing studies, prototyping + more with fast, powerful studies designed by UX research experts

Track your brand performance 24/7 and act quickly to respond to opportunities and challenges in your market

Explore the platform powering Experience Management

• Free Account
• Product Demos
• For Digital
• For Customer Care
• For Human Resources
• For Researchers
• Financial Services
• All Industries

Popular Use Cases

• Customer Experience
• Employee Experience
• Net Promoter Score
• Voice of Customer
• Customer Success Hub
• Product Documentation
• Training & Certification
• XM Institute
• Popular Resources
• Customer Stories
• Artificial Intelligence

Market Research

• Partnerships
• Marketplace

The annual gathering of the experience leaders at the world’s iconic brands building breakthrough business results, live in Salt Lake City.

• English/AU & NZ
• Español/Europa
• Español/América Latina
• Português Brasileiro
• REQUEST DEMO

9 Key stages in your marketing research process

You can conduct your own marketing research. Follow these steps, add your own flair, knowledge and creativity, and you’ll have bespoke research to be proud of.

Marketing research is the term used to cover the concept, development, placement and evolution of your product or service, its growing customer base and its branding – starting with brand awareness , and progressing to (everyone hopes) brand equity . Like any research, it needs a robust process to be credible and useful.

Marketing research uses four essential key factors known as the ‘marketing mix’ , or the Four Ps of Marketing :

• Product (goods or service)
• Price ( how much the customer pays )
• Place (where the product is marketed)
• Promotion (such as advertising and PR)

These four factors need to work in harmony for a product or service to be successful in its marketplace.

The marketing research process – an overview

A typical marketing research process is as follows:

• Identify an issue, discuss alternatives and set out research objectives
• Develop a research program
• Choose a sample
• Gather information
• Gather data
• Organize and analyze information and data
• Present findings
• Make research-based decisions
• Take action based on insights

Step 1: Defining the marketing research problem

Defining a problem is the first step in the research process. In many ways, research starts with a problem facing management. This problem needs to be understood, the cause diagnosed, and solutions developed.

However, most management problems are not always easy to research, so they must first be translated into research problems. Once you approach the problem from a research angle, you can find a solution. For example, “sales are not growing” is a management problem, but translated into a research problem, it becomes “ why are sales not growing?” We can look at the expectations and experiences of several groups : potential customers, first-time buyers, and repeat purchasers. We can question whether the lack of sales is due to:

• Poor expectations that lead to a general lack of desire to buy, or
• Poor performance experience and a lack of desire to repurchase.

This, then, is the difference between a management problem and a research problem. Solving management problems focuses on actions: Do we advertise more? Do we change our advertising message? Do we change an under-performing product configuration? And if so, how?

Defining research problems, on the other hand, focus on the whys and hows, providing the insights you need to solve your management problem.

Step 2: Developing a research program: method of inquiry

The scientific method is the standard for investigation. It provides an opportunity for you to use existing knowledge as a starting point, and proceed impartially.

The scientific method includes the following steps:

• Define a problem
• Develop a hypothesis
• Make predictions based on the hypothesis
• Devise a test of the hypothesis
• Conduct the test
• Analyze the results

This terminology is similar to the stages in the research process. However, there are subtle differences in the way the steps are performed:

• the scientific research method is objective and fact-based, using quantitative research and impartial analysis
• the marketing research process can be subjective, using opinion and qualitative research, as well as personal judgment as you collect and analyze data

Step 3: Developing a research program: research method

As well as selecting a method of inquiry (objective or subjective), you must select a research method . There are two primary methodologies that can be used to answer any research question:

• Experimental research : gives you the advantage of controlling extraneous variables and manipulating one or more variables that influence the process being implemented.
• Non-experimental research : allows observation but not intervention – all you do is observe and report on your findings.

Step 4: Developing a research program: research design

Research design is a plan or framework for conducting marketing research and collecting data. It is defined as the specific methods and procedures you use to get the information you need.

There are three core types of marketing research designs: exploratory, descriptive, and causal . A thorough marketing research process incorporates elements of all of them.

Exploratory marketing research

This is a starting point for research. It’s used to reveal facts and opinions about a particular topic, and gain insight into the main points of an issue. Exploratory research is too much of a blunt instrument to base conclusive business decisions on, but it gives the foundation for more targeted study. You can use secondary research materials such as trade publications, books, journals and magazines and primary research using qualitative metrics, that can include open text surveys, interviews and focus groups.

Descriptive marketing research

This helps define the business problem or issue so that companies can make decisions, take action and monitor progress. Descriptive research is naturally quantitative – it needs to be measured and analyzed statistically , using more targeted surveys and questionnaires. You can use it to capture demographic information , evaluate a product or service for market, and monitor a target audience’s opinion and behaviors. Insights from descriptive research can inform conclusions about the market landscape and the product’s place in it.

Causal marketing research

This is useful to explore the cause and effect relationship between two or more variables. Like descriptive research , it uses quantitative methods, but it doesn’t merely report findings; it uses experiments to predict and test theories about a product or market. For example, researchers may change product packaging design or material, and measure what happens to sales as a result.

Step 5: Choose your sample

Your marketing research project will rarely examine an entire population. It’s more practical to use a sample - a smaller but accurate representation of the greater population. To design your sample, you’ll need to answer these questions:

• Which base population is the sample to be selected from? Once you’ve established who your relevant population is (your research design process will have revealed this), you have a base for your sample. This will allow you to make inferences about a larger population.
• What is the method (process) for sample selection? There are two methods of selecting a sample from a population:

1. Probability sampling : This relies on a random sampling of everyone within the larger population.

2. Non-probability sampling : This is based in part on the investigator’s judgment, and often uses convenience samples, or by other sampling methods that do not rely on probability.

• What is your sample size? This important step involves cost and accuracy decisions. Larger samples generally reduce sampling error and increase accuracy, but also increase costs. Find out your perfect sample size with our calculator .

Step 6: Gather data

Your research design will develop as you select techniques to use. There are many channels for collecting data, and it’s helpful to differentiate it into O-data (Operational) and X-data (Experience):

• O-data is your business’s hard numbers like costs, accounting, and sales. It tells you what has happened, but not why.
• X-data gives you insights into the thoughts and emotions of the people involved: employees, customers, brand advocates.

When you combine O-data with X-data, you’ll be able to build a more complete picture about success and failure - you’ll know why. Maybe you’ve seen a drop in sales (O-data) for a particular product. Maybe customer service was lacking, the product was out of stock, or advertisements weren’t impactful or different enough: X-data will reveal the reason why those sales dropped. So, while differentiating these two data sets is important, when they are combined, and work with each other, the insights become powerful.

With mobile technology, it has become easier than ever to collect data. Survey research has come a long way since market researchers conducted face-to-face, postal, or telephone surveys. You can run research through:

• Social media ( polls and listening )

Another way to collect data is by observation. Observing a customer’s or company’s past or present behavior can predict future purchasing decisions. Data collection techniques for predicting past behavior can include market segmentation , customer journey mapping and brand tracking .

Regardless of how you collect data, the process introduces another essential element to your research project: the importance of clear and constant communication .

And of course, to analyze information from survey or observation techniques, you must record your results . Gone are the days of spreadsheets. Feedback from surveys and listening channels can automatically feed into AI-powered analytics engines and produce results, in real-time, on dashboards.

Step 7: Analysis and interpretation

The words ‘ statistical analysis methods ’ aren’t usually guaranteed to set a room alight with excitement, but when you understand what they can do, the problems they can solve and the insights they can uncover, they seem a whole lot more compelling.

Statistical tests and data processing tools can reveal:

• Whether data trends you see are meaningful or are just chance results
• Your results in the context of other information you have
• Whether one thing affecting your business is more significant than others
• What your next research area should be
• Insights that lead to meaningful changes

There are several types of statistical analysis tools used for surveys. You should make sure that the ones you choose:

• Work on any platform - mobile, desktop, tablet etc.
• Integrate with your existing systems
• Are easy to use with user-friendly interfaces, straightforward menus, and automated data analysis
• Incorporate statistical analysis so you don’t just process and present your data, but refine it, and generate insights and predictions.

Here are some of the most common tools:

• Benchmarking : a way of taking outside factors into account so that you can adjust the parameters of your research. It ‘levels the playing field’ – so that your data and results are more meaningful in context. And gives you a more precise understanding of what’s happening.
• Regression analysis : this is used for working out the relationship between two (or more) variables. It is useful for identifying the precise impact of a change in an independent variable.
• T-test is used for comparing two data groups which have different mean values. For example, do women and men have different mean heights?
• Analysis of variance (ANOVA) Similar to the T-test, ANOVA is a way of testing the differences between three or more independent groups to see if they’re statistically significant.
• Cluster analysis : This organizes items into groups, or clusters, based on how closely associated they are.
• Factor analysis: This is a way of condensing many variables into just a few, so that your research data is less unwieldy to work with.
• Conjoint analysis : this will help you understand and predict why people make the choices they do. It asks people to make trade-offs when making decisions, just as they do in the real world, then analyzes the results to give the most popular outcome.
• Crosstab analysis : this is a quantitative market research tool used to analyze ‘categorical data’ - variables that are different and mutually exclusive, such as: ‘men’ and ‘women’, or ‘under 30’ and ‘over 30’.
• Text analysis and sentiment analysis : Analyzing human language and emotions is a rapidly-developing form of data processing, assigning positive, negative or neutral sentiment to customer messages and feedback.

Stats IQ can perform the most complicated statistical tests at the touch of a button using our online survey software , or data from other sources. Learn more about Stats iQ now .

Step 8: The marketing research results

Your marketing research process culminates in the research results. These should provide all the information the stakeholders and decision-makers need to understand the project.

The results will include:

• all your information
• a description of your research process
• the results
• conclusions
• recommended courses of action

They should also be presented in a form, language and graphics that are easy to understand, with a balance between completeness and conciseness, neither leaving important information out or allowing it to get so technical that it overwhelms the readers.

Traditionally, you would prepare two written reports:

• a technical report , discussing the methods, underlying assumptions and the detailed findings of the research project
• a summary report , that summarizes the research process and presents the findings and conclusions simply.

There are now more engaging ways to present your findings than the traditional PowerPoint presentations, graphs, and face-to-face reports:

• Live, interactive dashboards for sharing the most important information, as well as tracking a project in real time.
• Results-reports visualizations – tables or graphs with data visuals on a shareable slide deck
• Online presentation technology, such as Prezi
• Visual storytelling with infographics
• A single-page executive summary with key insights
• A single-page stat sheet with the top-line stats

You can also make these results shareable so that decision-makers have all the information at their fingertips.

Step 9 Turn your insights into action

Insights are one thing, but they’re worth very little unless they inform immediate, positive action. Here are a few examples of how you can do this:

• Stop customers leaving – negative sentiment among VIP customers gets picked up; the customer service team contacts the customers, resolves their issues, and avoids churn .
• Act on important employee concerns – you can set certain topics, such as safety, or diversity and inclusion to trigger an automated notification or Slack message to HR. They can rapidly act to rectify the issue.
• Address product issues – maybe deliveries are late, maybe too many products are faulty. When product feedback gets picked up through Smart Conversations, messages can be triggered to the delivery or product teams to jump on the problems immediately.
• Improve your marketing effectiveness - Understand how your marketing is being received by potential customers, so you can find ways to better meet their needs
• Grow your brand - Understand exactly what consumers are looking for, so you can make sure that you’re meeting their expectations

Download now: 8 Innovations to Modernize Market Research

Scott Smith

Scott Smith, Ph.D. is a contributor to the Qualtrics blog.

Related Articles

May 20, 2024

Best strategy & research books to read in 2024

May 13, 2024

Experience Management

X4 2024 Strategy & Research Showcase: Introducing the future of insights generation

November 7, 2023

Brand Experience

The 4 market research trends redefining insights in 2024

June 27, 2023

The fresh insights people: Scaling research at Woolworths Group

June 20, 2023

Bank less, delight more: How Bankwest built an engine room for customer obsession

April 1, 2023

Academic Experience

How to write great survey questions (with examples)

March 21, 2023

Sample size calculator

November 18, 2022

Statistical analysis software: your complete guide to getting started

Stay up to date with the latest xm thought leadership, tips and news., request demo.

Ready to learn more about Qualtrics?

• Business Strategy

How to Do Marketing Research in Less than 30 Minutes? Nike Case Study

Table of contents.

Marketing research is a complex and time-consuming process, but what if I told you that you can do it in less than 30 minutes?! With AI capabilities and the right tools, market research is no longer a tall order. You need only two things: a media monitoring project for collecting data and an AI Brand Assistant to analyze data for you.

Let’s say that in your market research, you want to learn about Nike’s online performance in the past 30 days.

It couldn’t be easier!

Marketing research  is the process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information about a market, including its products, services, customers, focus groups, competitors, and industry trends, to support decision-making and strategy development. Usually, the market research process is resource- and time-consuming, but with the right tool, you can conduct it in less than 30 minutes.

So, if market research is one of your responsibilities and you have been struggling with it so far, you are in the right place!

Read further to compare 3 helpful tools and discover the secret to market research in 3 steps and less than 30 minutes.

Let’s go!

What is marketing research? Definition

Marketing research is your secret weapon for business success! 

Imagine having a crystal ball that shows you what your customers really want, what your competitors are up to, and how you can win your target market. 

That’s marketing research for you! 

It’s all about gathering data, crunching numbers, and getting insights to help you make smart decisions. 

Whether you’re launching a new product, improving your services, or just wanting to know what people think about your brand, marketing research gives you the answers. 

It’s like having a superpower that keeps you one step ahead, ensuring you’re always in the know and ready to grow!

Conduct marketing research in less than 30 minutes with Brand24!

Purposes & benefits of marketing research

• Consumer research:  Understanding customer needs, preferences, and customer satisfaction level
• Market analysis:  Evaluating market potential and market share
• Competitor research:  Analyzing competitor strategies and performance, evaluating market saturation
• Marketing efforts assessment:  Assessing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns based on comparison with historical data
• Exploratory research:  Identifying new market opportunities and trends allowing to reach new potential customers
• Business idea evaluation:  Conducting research for product development and innovation

Marketing research made easy with Brand24.

How to do marketing research?

Marketing research can take a lot of work. 

But what if I told you you could conduct it in less than 30 minutes?

Yes, that’s possible.

Incorporating smart marketing research techniques is the answer.

One last thing you need to know is that there are two types of market research regarding the source of data:

• Primary research – based on primary data collection methods, meaning that you create new, original data, e.g., through surveys and interviews
• Secondary research – relying on existing data produced and collected by somebody else to support your market research

And two types of market research depending on the amount and detail of data:

• Qualitative research – closely analyzing a small sample for very precise insights into consumer preferences.
• Quantitative research – collecting and analyzing massive datasets for a general overview of consumer markets. Especially useful for creating focus groups that will realistically reflect your customers.

Market research in 3 steps

Step 1: ask ai tools.

The fastest and most efficient way to do market research is to use AI marketing tools. 

You can ask this software about anything; it will serve the needed insights in seconds.

Whether you need insights into your brand, influencers, focus groups, product, or service, AI holds the answer to all your questions.

You can choose between many solutions depending on the depth of insight you need for your market research.

I will discuss Chat GPT, Perplexity, and Brand24.

What is the difference between them?

• Chat GPT  is a general-purpose conversational AI that provides general responses based on its training set data and online insights. It can be used for secondary market research.
• Perplexity  focuses on data accuracy and up-to-dateness. It bases its answers on online sources with a good reputation. This allegedly limits unfounded and outdated answers. With Perplexity, you can do secondary research.
• Brand24  combines Chat GPT knowledge with its own data analysis. It works based on a media monitoring project that collects all online mentions of a given keyword. Thanks to this combination, it can answer very specific questions about your brand or support you in competitor research. Brand24 offers primary market research with some secondary research insights. It’s also a handy tool both for qualitative research (individual mentions analysis) and quantitative research ( brand metrics analysis). In short, it’s a versatile tool that can meet all your needs regarding marketing research.

Primary market research made easy with Brand24.

Let’s choose a sample market research question to ask all of them. I’ll go for something general like: Present customer insights for Nike over the past 90 days.

While the answer by Chat GPT is generally correct, it doesn’t tell you much for your marketing research. Unfortunately, it’s too general and quite common knowledge. 

Additionally, you cannot ask Chat GPT about a specific period like “the past 90 days”.

Chat GPT cites Brand24 as a secondary data source in the 3rd and 4th point to support its answer. 

However, it is a one-year-old article—clearly not information about Nike’s performance in the past 90 days. 

Although it’s not entirely wrong, it’s rather useless for thorough market research.

Let’s try Perplexity, then.

That’s another correct yet very general answer.

It is informative for someone outside the company, but I bet everybody at Nike already knows the information shared by Chat GPT and Perplexity.

This means that you need a tool that conducts primary research and provides completely new market insights.

That’s where Brand24 and its AI Brand Assistant come in.

This tool combines Chat GPT’s knowledge and language processing skills with its unique data collected through media monitoring. 

By leveraging both primary and secondary research, Brand24 can provide in-depth insights into your product or service.

Additionally, by combining both qualitative and quantitative data it can conduct a thorough analysis for all target markets.

Thanks to its method, it knows:

• What people are saying about your brand online
• Which of your products is the most loved and which is the most hated
• What is your brand reach online and social media reach
• Everything about your last hashtag campaign
• How you perform compared to your competitors
• What is the AVE of your mentions
• and so much more!

Let’s ask the same question we tested on Chat GPT and Perplexity.

That’s what we needed!

Detailed insights into your online performance deeply informing your market research.

This critical tool combines primary research with external resources to give you ultimate insights into your market research.

Do market research in less than 30 minutes with Brand24!

There’s also a concise conclusion and a visual, so don’t worry if you don’t like digging through numbers.

Additionally, this saves you time and improves your business decisions.

Let’s try one more question: What is the sentiment around Nike?

Chat GPT again tries to use Brand24 data for its secondary research, but again, it’s wrong. 

That “past 30 days” is data for February 2023. Chat GPT took this information from one of our blog posts without checking the date. 

This makes Chat GPT useless as:

• It doesn’t have its own data
• It tries to conduct secondary market research based on others’ data but does it wrong

What about Perplexity?

Again, the answer is not wrong, but it’s also not what you would expect. The information is too general to support market research in any way.

Let’s see what the AI Brand Assistant by Brand24 has to offer.

The AI Brand Assistant supports its answers with its own quantitative research results. Thanks to this, its answers are precise, up-to-date, and reflect the actual state of your brand online.

You can also ask follow-up questions. 

Let’s check the reasons behind the negative sentiment around Nike.

As you can see, the answer is very detailed, referencing particular mentions.

With these in-depth insights, you can adjust your marketing strategy, improve business decisions, and prevent PR crises by addressing customer needs and the most common concerns.

Conduct market research faster than ever with Brand24!

And what else can you ask our AI Brand Assistant regarding marketing research?

1. Which source generates the most mentions?

2. How many mentions did Nike receive in the last 30 days?

3. What is the target market for Nike?

4. What other brands appear in mentions?

5. What is the most trending topic?

6. What is the most mentioned product?

7. What time the target audience is most active on Instagram?

8. How do customers perceive Nike compared to Reebok?

9. How do customers feel about Nike?

10. What is the share of voice compared to Reebok?

11. Conduct a competitor analysis of Reebok.

12. Conduct sentiment analysis of Nike.

13. Present customer insights

And there’s so much more waiting for you to discover!

A hit for market researchers! Streamline your work with Brand24.

What is best is that you don’t even need to ask all those questions. You can completely delegate the market research to our AI Brand Assistant. 

For instance, use this prompt: Conduct market research for Nike. Include sentiment analysis, competitors analysis, reach, and SWOT analysis .

Streamline your market research with AI Brand Assistant!

Step 2: Ask the target audience and focus groups

This is so-called primary research, meaning you collect new, original data directly from your audience or a particular focus group.

So, how to collect customer feedback?

You can ask your target customers about their preferences in survey research. These can be distributed through email, social media, or other channels.

Another option is conducting marketing research through real-time interviews.

But let’s be fair; the former is usually quite ineffective, and the latter is very time-consuming.

There are three ways for you to go.

• Use a dedicated tool to improve your customer experience with your survey. There are many solutions to choose from for your primary research. The most prominent are Google Forms, Survey Monkey, Survey Lab, and Zoho Survey.
• Delegate your whole team to do the interviews for faster results.
• Leverage social listening tools .

If I were to choose, I’d go for social listening . 

Why would you generate more data when there’s already so much existing data to be analyzed online? 

Another thing is that customer behavior changes depending on the method of conducting market research. 

Indeed, for honest consumer insights, social media monitoring works better than any other primary research method.

Thanks to monitoring online mentions, you can also conduct exploratory research. 

Take a moment to browse your customers’ words, and you may identify groundbreaking market research insights. 

There may be aspects of your company that you never thought of as issues, opportunities, etc.

Primary research with Brand24 can inform your strategy and lead you to completely new discoveries and conclusions. 

Based on them, you can create an informed strategy to better appeal to your focus groups and potential customers.

Discover customer preferences with Brand24!

Step 3: Benchmark with competitors

Competitor analysis is the last crucial step of every marketing research. 

By understanding what your competitors are doing, you can identify gaps in the market, spot market trends, and find opportunities to differentiate your brand. 

It helps you benchmark your performance, see where you stand, and understand why certain competitors are more successful. 

Competitive analysis also prepares you to anticipate and respond to threats, ensuring you stay competitive and innovative. 

It helps you to conduct a SWOT analysis for your business as well.

In Brand24, we understand the importance of competitor research .

That’s why we offer a complex comparison feature. With its insights, you can gain a competitive edge over other companies in your niche.

Besides the raw data analysis, you can also ask our Brand Assistant about: 

• Two brands comparison 

What’s great is that the tool prepares a concise conclusion with a visual.

• Strategies to outperform your competitors

• Your competitors’ biggest mentions source
• and anything else that comes to your mind and is based on your project data.

Benchmark competitors with the Brand24 market research tool!

Challenges in the marketing research process

Marketing research is a critical component of business strategy, but several challenges can affect the accuracy and usefulness of the insights gathered. 

Here are some of the main challenges faced when conducting marketing research:

01  Sampling issues

• Challenge:  Selecting a representative market segment is crucial, but it can be difficult to access and ensure that the sample accurately reflects the target consumers.
• Solution:  Use robust sampling techniques and consider multiple methods to improve representativeness. You can also set up focus groups to ensure inclusive sampling.

02  Data collection methods

• Challenge:  Choosing the right data collection method can be difficult. Each method has its pros and cons, and the wrong choice can impact data quality and final results.
• Solution:  Evaluate the research objectives and the characteristics of the target audience to select the best data collection method(s). Remember, media monitoring is a great starting point for any marketing research.

03  Data quality and reliability

• Challenge:  Ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the data collected can be difficult, especially with self-reported data or secondary sources.
• Solution:  Implement data validation techniques and cross-check data from multiple sources when possible. Leverage media monitoring tools for first-hand insights into your customer satisfaction.

04  Data analysis complexity

• Challenge:  Analyzing data, especially large and complex datasets, requires specialized skills and tools. Misinterpretation of data can lead to incorrect conclusions.
• Solution:  Use advanced analytical tools like Brand24 or involve skilled data analysts who can correctly interpret the data.

05  Time constraints

• Challenge:  Conducting comprehensive research takes time, but businesses often need quick insights to make timely decisions.
• Solution:  Plan research timelines carefully and use agile research methodologies. Start your media monitoring project before conducting market research to ensure representative and relevant data.

06  Keeping up with technological changes

• Challenge:  The rapid evolution of technology means new data analysis methods and tools are constantly emerging, making it hard to stay up-to-date.
• Solution:  Choose a tool that keeps up with technological developments and embraces solutions like machine learning and artificial intelligence. Brand24’s AI models have been trained for the past 12 years, ensuring a modern approach with significant reliability.

07  Respondent bias

• Challenge:  Respondents may provide socially desirable answers or may not fully engage with the survey or interview, leading to biased results.
• Solution:  Design surveys and interview questions carefully to minimize bias. Use techniques like anonymous surveys to encourage honest responses. Leverage social listening for brutally honest customer review examples.

08  Interpreting and communicating results

• Challenge:  Even with good data, interpreting and communicating findings effectively to stakeholders can be difficult.
• Solution:  Use clear, visual representations of data and tailor the communication of results to the audience’s level of understanding and interest. At Brand24, we understand this issue, so we offer a wide array of visual data representations, such as charts, graphs, and infographics.

Addressing these challenges requires careful planning, skilled execution, and ongoing adaptation to new trends and technologies in marketing research.

Address marketing research challenges with Brand24!

Marketing research is a challenging, time- and resource-consuming process that is prone to mistakes.

At the same time, marketing research is the key to your success. It informs your marketing strategy, provides key demographics of your clients, and helps you get ahead of your competitors.

Fortunately, with the right tool, effective market research can be done in less than 30 minutes and in 3 simple steps.

How to conduct market research?

Long story short:

• Ask AI Brand Assistant to conduct market research for you.
• Leverage primary research data from social listening to learn about customer satisfaction and focus groups.
• Benchmark with competitors to ensure your leadership in the target market.

Effective market research? Brand24!

Final thoughts:

• Marketing research helps companies better understand their business environment, consumer behavior, market size, and product or service performance. With the right tools, you can get all of those insights in less than 30 minutes.
• While tools like Chat GPT and Perplexity base their answers on secondary research, Brand24 has unique primary data about your brand that nobody else can provide.
• Brand24 combines primary and secondary research by listening to and analyzing your consumer attitudes and transforming them into unique quantitative research data.

Market research conducted in-house in less than 30 minutes.

Related articles

The 13 Best Market Research Tools to Use [2024]

How to Do Brand Research in Less than 30 Minutes? 

• Digital Marketing

15 Key Digital Marketing Metrics You Should Track in 2024

• Brand Image

How to Measure Marketing Performance? [2024]

What is AI Marketing Automation? Examples and Definition

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

Rejuvenating the Marketing Mix

• Benson P. Shapiro

The marketing mix concept is an essential part of marketing theory. But describing the concept and putting it to effective use are two different things. In this article, the author reviews the elements of the marketing mix and lends insight into how these elements interact. Applying such ideas as consistency, integration, and leverage, he demonstrates […]

The marketing mix concept is one of the most powerful ever developed for executives. Since just after World War I, it has been the essential organizing theme of many MBA marketing courses. It is now the main organizing concept for countless corporate marketing plans as well as for most marketing textbooks and many courses and executive education programs. It has endured because it is both effective and simple.

• BS Benson P. Shapiro is the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing Emeritus at Harvard Business School.

Partner Center

Marketing Mix Examples: The Building Block of a Successful Brand

Learn about marketing mix and its examples through advertising campaigns of various leading brands..

• overview#goto" data-overview-topic-param="what">What is marketing mix?
• overview#goto" data-overview-topic-param="origination">Origination of the 4P's
• overview#goto" data-overview-topic-param="important">Why is marketing mix important?
• overview#goto" data-overview-topic-param="examples">Examples of marketing mix
• overview#goto" data-overview-topic-param="7">7P's of marketing mix
• overview#goto" data-overview-topic-param="why">Why is it important?
• overview#goto" data-overview-topic-param="write">Best practices to write marketing mix

Marketing mix can make or break a product’s success. We have put together the best marketing mix examples of leading brands for your understanding and a guide to help you craft an effective marketing mix strategy for your brand.

What is Marketing Mix?

Let's start with the Marketing mix definition before moving on to the guide.

A marketing mix is a blend of business strategies brought into execution that make up the overall marketing strategy for a product.

Typically, marketing mix collectively includes the 4 Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.

With dynamic changes in the business environment, these four Ps were further expanded into the 7 P's of marketing mix to include: people, process, and physical evidence. 

The intersection of these factors leads to the formation of a distinct marketing strategy that is tailored for a brand. Having a marketing mix that is compatible with your brand values is crucial for the success of a company. 

Origination of the 4 P's of Marketing Mix

Prof. James Culliton was the first one to mention the marketing mix in the late 1940s. Later his colleague, Neil Broden published an article - The concept of the marketing mix .

Jerome McCarthy first introduced the concept of the 4 P's of marketing mix in his book “Basic marketing: A managerial approach”.

Why is Marketing Mix important?

Imagine if Tiffany diamonds were sold in Walmart.

Or McDonald’s was located in remote locations.

Or Red Bull was advertised on a kid’s Television channel.

Or an artist was the brand ambassador of Nike.

This would have gone terribly wrong, and these brands might not even be in the market today. 

The slightest angle change in a marketing mix can tremendously impact the market you are targeting. Every element must be selected carefully after rigorous market research and analysis.

A right marketing mix ensures you are -

creating a product that solves a problem

selling it at the correct price

promoting it to your target customers

distributing it at a place easily accessible by the consumers

All these factors need to work in tandem to ensure the creation of a well-oiled marketing engine.

Is Marketing Mix rigid in nature?

The marketing mix isn’t set in stone. It ebbs and flows in alignment with the dynamic changes in the business environment and company growth. Often a company might test various combinations of the marketing mix elements to settle on marketing tactics that give the highest returns.

With that let’s dive into the world of marketing mix with marketing examples from leading brands around the world to give you a practical understanding.

4 P's of Marketing Mix with Examples

A marketing plan must be based on thorough market research and analysis of the many factors of marketing. A marketing design without a solid blueprint is like aiming in the dark, you’ll never hit the target. Understanding the 4 P’s of marketing is crucial for devising a marketing scheme that hits home.

Here are the 4 P's of marketing mix with examples.

Product Marketing Mix

Product is at the core of all marketing strategies. The product attributes don’t only refer to tangible goods but also intangible service products and ideas. It is what a company has to offer to its customers.

A great product is at the center of a brand’s success. Noteworthy marketing tactics can get the product in front of the target customers and get them to try it once, but after that, the product is on its own. The product must have the potential to survive and thrive in the market.

The product must solve customers’ problems efficiently, and better than others in the market, otherwise, customers won’t buy it. The question is, what’s in it for them?

Product marketing refers to product benefits, market research, product features, design, quality, technology, and warranties.

To develop a product mix, a marketing manager takes into consideration the following questions:

Who is your target market?

What are their pain points or problems?

What quality product are they looking for?

What is your competitor’s offering?

How can you gain a competitive advantage over them?

How large is the target market?

What pain point are you solving?

Which product features and benefits solve that problem?

Apart from the above checklist, feedback from the customers about what they like or dislike about the product is taken further to mold the product to suit their needs.

This will help you craft customer-centric marketing instead of product-centric.

Product Marketing Mix Example

Apple 's unique selling proposition is its product marketing mix by producing products with innovative features, advanced technology, and sleek design. From their iconic iPhones to their ingenious MacBooks, Apple’s products are the perfect combination of form and function. Apple’s product mix includes more than just hardware. Their services and add-ons make their products irresistible. Customers have access to the world of entertainment and convenience with iTunes, iCloud, and Apple Music.

Apple treats its customers like a kind by providing a simple user interface, exceptional support, and warranty claims. Apple is a legendary marketing example everyone must take notes from.

Source: Apple Website

Source: Unsplash

Price Marketing Mix

Price is the money paid by the customers to own, access, or avail of your product. Pricing strategies must be profitable to the company. Prices are determined based on the cost incurred, the expected profit margin, and how much the customers are willing to pay.

Does your product solve a problem better than others, is it sold for an appropriate price, and is it worth the price? Based on your business strategy, product prices can be luxury, premium, or bargain price.

Price marketing mix elements include pricing strategy, payment terms, credit policy, discount, allowances, and payment mode.

To develop a pricing strategy, the marketing manager first determines:

The income range of their target consumer

Brand’s value perception by the customer

How much are they willing to pay?

How much do their competitors charge?

Do you want to adopt a luxury, bargain, or premium pricing strategy?

How will your price portray your brand?

Premium prices give the impression that the brand must be superior. The right price is the one that meets your profit margins and keeps more customers happy, a win-win situation.

Price Marketing Mix Examples

Coca-Cola uses a competitive pricing strategy for penetrative marketing. It is a pricing expert such that it matches the competitor’s prices head-on combined with a value-based pricing approach to push discounts for stimulating higher sales. The business is adaptable and it also changes its prices to meet local laws and market conditions.

Another example is Walmart which uses Everyday Low Prices (EDLP) pricing strategy that entails selling products at a low price to attract more customers, higher sales volume, and increase profits. Walmart does this by buying products in massive quantities from all over the world and use economies of scale to sell products at high discount rates depending on the demand.

Source: Walmart Website

Source: Tech Crunch

Place Marketing Mix

The third P, Place refers to the chain through which the products go from manufacturer to customer. This chain is determined based on who is the target audience, where will you find them, and how will you reach your product to them.

The quicker the goods travel from production to point of sale, the higher customer satisfaction.

Place mix determines the distribution channels and place where the product will be sold like online/eCommerce stores, physical locations like retail, wholesale, convenience stores, brand owned outlets. It is significant to research where your customers will be looking for your product and how to best serve them.

Place marketing mix elements include warehouse, transport, distribution channel, inventory control, and areas covered.

To determine the place marketing mix strategy, marketing managers find the answers to the following questions:

Where will your customers find your product?

Where will you sell your products?

Will they be available in eCommerce stores, retail stores, or brand store chains?

A well-optimized distribution channel is even more important for retail businesses. You can read our marketing mix case studies on Costco , Pepsi , or Airbnb to get more perspective on how they manage their distribution.

Place Marketing Mix Examples

McDonald’s has more than 36,000 franchises and company-owned outlets all across the globe. It also has drive-ins, online ordering through its app, and food delivery partners. Consumers can either dine at the restaurant itself or get a takeaway at their convenience. McDonald’s is located in easily accessible locations providing its customers serving tasty food quickly at low prices.

Source: McDonald's blog

Tiffany & Co is a high-end luxury jewelry brand. It sells its signature Tiffany True only in its stores creating exclusivity and an elite user experience.

Source: Harpers Bazaar

Promotion Marketing Mix

Promotion defines the strategies to make your potential customers aware of your brand. Simply put, how to get the word out about your product to your potential customers. Promotion marketing mix advertises, differentiates your product in the target market, and convinces your ideal customers to buy your product.

Promotional mix elements in the digital age include television ads, publicity, sales promotion, digital marketing, social media ads, personal selling, direct marketing, public relations, print advertising, search engine marketing, and online marketing.

Questions marketing managers ask when devising a promotion marketing mix strategy:

Where do your customers hang out online & offline?

Where will you promote your product?

What promotion tactical marketing tools will you use?

One needs to perform a lot of trial and error in devising promotional channel strategies. You can read this book to know many possible growth channels - Traction by Gabriel Weinberg

Promotion Marketing Mix Example

Red Bull spends extensively on promotions to stay at the top of its consumer's mind. 'Red Bull gives you wings' tagline has made a home in people’s minds. It’s impossible to plainly say it without dragging out the wings in a high-pitched voice. Red Bull promotes itself as a high-energy drink for intense activity. Its promotion strategy includes creative ads, digital marketing, content marketing, and sponsorship of extreme sports events .

Nike’s target buyers are athletes and people seeking a sporty and healthy lifestyle. It collaborates with high-profile sportspersons to promote its product line and maintain its brand image of being a premium sportswear brand. Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, and Kobe Bryant are a few of Nike’s brand ambassadors. Managers must study Nike's marketing example to devise their promotion strategy.

Source: Footwear News

Source: WWD

The 4 Ps of marketing work in unison to create a brand’s marketing strategy. It’s like a four-legged chair. If one leg is of the wrong height or broken, the chair won’t stay upright.

As businesses became more dynamic, more elements were added to the 4 Ps of marketing to derive an effective marketing plan to meet today’s business needs. 

What are the 7 P’s of Marketing Mix?

The 4 Ps were expanded into the 7 P's of marketing mix to keep up with the modern business environment. The additional P’s are Physical evidence, people, and process.

Let’s learn about each one of them with marketing examples.

Physical Evidence Marketing Mix

It is the look and feel of your product and brand. It includes exterior design, interior decor, ambiance, atmosphere, furnishing, packaging, employee appearance, and overall experience. 

Physical Evidence Marketing Mix Example

Starbucks serves exquisite coffees in a soothing ambiance. It positions itself as a place where you can work, interact, or hang out in a peaceful atmosphere with utmost ease. The experience Starbucks offers is what makes users choose it over others.

Paperboat’s packaging is vibrant and colorful with unique shapes and sizes because its consumers are children. Kids are attracted to colorful things that catch their eye in an instant. This way Paperboat distinguishes itself in a sea of competitors.

Source: Elephant design

People Marketing Mix

People marketing mix refers to the people involved in the development, distribution, and selling of the product. Personnel is the backbone of a company because they represent the company in front of its consumers and leave an impression. Hiring the right people, and training them thoroughly to match the quality of your brand is crucial for a brand’s success. The people marketing mix includes employees, service providers, sales executives, delivery staff, and work culture.

People Marketing Mix Example

Taj is a world leader in hospitality. It keeps customer satisfaction at the forefront. They train their personnel, right from the front desk to managerial staff, rigorously to provide the best customer experience.

Source: Taj Hotels

Process marketing mix

The process consists of the direct and indirect activities involved in the manufacturing, delivery, and consumption of the product. It also includes customer feedback to solve any inconvenience and give consumers what they need. The efficiency of the process decides the performance of a product.

Process Marketing Mix Example

Starbucks holds customer feedback in high esteem to refine its product offering. Starbucks' “My Starbucks Idea” platform was in operation for nearly 10 years before being retired. It provided consumers with a better way to share their concerns and submit requests. The aim was to give consumers exactly what they want while building a relationship and a loyal customer base.

Source: Braineet

Marketing mix elements work in agreement with each other to formulate the right marketing design for a brand. You cannot focus on a single element and call it a day. If there are internal discrepancies between the elements then those must be eliminated to provide the best value to the customer.

Why should you care about Marketing Mix?

The marketing mixes work in unison aiding each other. They are interrelated like the tires of a car, driving the company forward.

A correct marketing mix ensures you target the right buyers, make them aware of your product, position yourself distinctly, and offer a product they want, at a price they are willing to pay, and at a place easily accessible to them.

Each element decides the strategy for other elements. For example, a luxury product with a premium price cannot be sold at indie shops that follow cost-sensitive pricing strategies.

Best Practices to write a Marketing Mix Strategy

Use these best practices to write an effective marketing mix strategy for your product:

Clear, measurable, time-specific and stretch goals for a marketing campaign improve marketing success rate as one works towards a defined outcome. Is your aim to attract more customers, get more sales, differentiate yourself from competitors, enhance brand image, or increase brand awareness?

Perform Market Research

Market research gives a direction and validation to your marketing mix as to whom you need to sell in the first place. It helps define a target audience, finalize product's features, get inspired from competition's promotion tactics, etc. The result is a customer-centric product stand that has a distinct unique selling proposition backed by research.

Incorporate customer feedback

Are your product's benefits truly aligning with your customer's expectations? What is the perceived value of your product in front of your potential customers ? Can you increase your product pricing? Should you invest in search engine marketing?

All such present and future product decisions can be made by actively taking customer feedback. You also get a clear data if your marketing mix work on your target audience as strategized.

Get started with your brand's marketing strategy today

The marketing mix is crucial to successfully market your product and achieve marketing goals. Effective marketing mix results in higher customer satisfaction, larger market share, increased sales, and finally soaring profit margins. Now that you have a clear understanding of the marketing mix, it’s time for you to devise a marketing mix plan for your product and achieve those banger sales and profit goals.

• popover#mouseOver mouseout->popover#mouseOut" data-popover-translate-x="-25%" , data-popover-translate-y="-220%"> Copy link
• bottom-bar#toggleTagsSection"> popover#mouseOver mouseout->popover#mouseOut" data-popover-translate-x="-25%" , data-popover-translate-y="-220%"> Copy Link
• bottom-bar#toggleTagsSection">

You'll love these articles too!

Co-founder & CEO at Flexiple ($3mn+ revenue, bootstrapped) & buildd.co | Helping Startup...

Monster Energy Marketing Strategy: How Monster become a market leader by 'Unleashing the Beast'?

Learn about Monster's iconic marketing strategy and advertising campaigns. Read how Monster aces the 4Ps of marketing mix - Product, Price, Promotion & Placement.

Co-founder at Flexiple, buildd & Remote Tools ($3 million revenue, bootstrapped)

Breaking Down The Maruti Suzuki Marketing Strategy: How they became a brand that rules India's automobile market

Learn about Maruti Suzuki's iconic marketing strategy and advertising campaigns. Read how Maruti Suzuki's aces the 4Ps of marketing mix - Product, Price, Promotion & Placement.

Clinical Research | Data Analytics

Partner at Deloitte | Banking & Capital Markets | Cloud Strategy | FinOps Offering Leader | Board...

Market Penetration Definition, Rate Calculation Examples and Strategies

Learn all you need to know about market penetration. Find the market penetration definition, how to calculate it, examples and strategies.

BE Mechatronics |

Hi! My name is Uche, a Nigerian and undergraduate degree student at Brigham Young University (...

How to Develop a Marketing Mix Through Marketing Research

• Small Business
• Advertising & Marketing
• Market Research
• ')" data-event="social share" data-info="Pinterest" aria-label="Share on Pinterest">
• ')" data-event="social share" data-info="Reddit" aria-label="Share on Reddit">
• ')" data-event="social share" data-info="Flipboard" aria-label="Share on Flipboard">

How to Prepare a Sales Plan

Importance of a marketing strategy in an organization, how to identify the appropriate price strategy.

• A Business Plan for Advertising and Promotion
• How to Increase Sales & Revenue: 5 Essential Strategies

Creating a marketing plan takes creativity, but relying on your instincts and gut feelings can lead to assumptions that don’t pan out when you open your doors. The marketing mix consists of interrelated product development, pricing, promotions and distribution strategies that should be based on thorough research. Conducting the right kind of research to analyze how the marketing mix applies to your product or service will help you pursue the right strategies for your company.

Identify your product’s unique selling benefit and research how important it is to consumers. Look at other products and services that offer the same benefit and how successful they are. Conduct surveys and focus groups of your target customers to confirm their demand for your benefit. Examine how your product or service provides its benefit and test-market it with consumers using focus groups, product demonstrations and free sampling. Use your research to finalize your product or service features.

Collect data on what your competitors are charging for what you offer. Look at prices, discounts, rebates, warranties and guarantees. Compare price levels for high-end and bargain versions of products and services that deliver your unique selling benefit. Talk to your distribution partners and ask their opinions as to what you should charge, and if you need to offer incentives, a warranty or specific customer service.

Analyze your distribution options, looking at where your customers buy, your costs of sales for each and potential sales volumes. Survey your target customers, and look for industry research that shows where people buy products or services like yours. Seek out peers in geographic locations where you don’t compete for their feedback. Ask potential customers their impressions of different distribution channels you might use to determine if any will enhance or damage your brand.

Collect media kits from newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, websites and outdoor advertising companies. Compare their audience demographics to see which best match your target customer profile. Read trade publications or trade association research papers to learn which promotional methods companies in your industry report work well. Use free data from companies such as Quantcast and Alexa to research your target customers’ use of the Internet so you can develop a social media strategy. Create print, broadcast or Internet ads and test them with focus groups. Include competitors’ ads in your presentation to learn which your potential customers respond to best. Develop a brand message based on the feedback you get from potential customers.

Analyze your findings regarding your product, pricing strategy, distribution options and promotional choices as they relate to each other. For example, if your brand strategy positions you as a high-end product or service, set your prices, choose your advertising media and select where you’ll sell your product accordingly. Finalize your marketing plan to ensure all four aspects of the marketing mix support and complement each other without conflicting.

• MindTools: The Marketing Mix and 4 Ps
• Purdue University Extension: Marketing’s Four P’s: First Steps for New Entrepreneurs
• QuickMBA: Marketing Plan Outline

Sam Ashe-Edmunds has been writing and lecturing for decades. He has worked in the corporate and nonprofit arenas as a C-Suite executive, serving on several nonprofit boards. He is an internationally traveled sport science writer and lecturer. He has been published in print publications such as Entrepreneur, Tennis, SI for Kids, Chicago Tribune, Sacramento Bee, and on websites such Smart-Healthy-Living.net, SmartyCents and Youthletic. Edmunds has a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Related Articles

How to write a pricing strategy analysis, challenges in marketing products, how to identify characteristics of a good marketing plan, how to appeal to customers of different ages, how to target marketing needs in distribution channels, how to market a skin product, how to select a distributor for your product, pre-launch marketing checklist, how to create marketing plans depending on customer insights, most popular.

• 1 How to Write a Pricing Strategy Analysis
• 2 Challenges in Marketing Products
• 3 How to Identify Characteristics of a Good Marketing Plan
• 4 How to Appeal to Customers of Different Ages

1.2 The Marketing Mix and the 4Ps of Marketing

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• 1 Define and describe the marketing mix.
• 2 List and explain the 4Ps of marketing.

Marketing Mix Defined

Having a great product or service is just the first step in establishing a successful business or building a successful brand. The best product or service in the world won’t translate to profits unless people know about it. How do you reach customers and help them connect with your product? That’s the role of the marketing mix.

The marketing mix is commonly referred to as the tactics a company can use to promote its products or services in the market in order to influence consumers to buy. The marketing mix is also known as the 4Ps: product, price, place, and promotion (see Figure 1.4 ). Let’s look more closely.

• The product is the good or service that the company provides.
• The price is what the consumer pays in exchange for the product.
• The place is where the product is purchased.
• Promotion is comprised of advertising, sales, and other communication efforts the company utilizes to attract the customer.

The 4Ps of Marketing

To this point, we’ve been talking marketing in somewhat of an abstract manner. Instead of continuing with a theoretical discussion of the marketing mix and the 4Ps of marketing, we’re going to approach these topics using an example of a product you probably already own—a backpack. Let’s get started.

Remember: product refers to a good or service that a company offers to its customers. Let’s consider a product that many of you likely own as a college student: a backpack (see Figure 1.5 ).

In terms of the first of the 4Ps, marketing analyzes the needs of consumers who buy backpacks and decides if they want more and/or different bags. For example, marketing will analyze what features consumers want in the bag. Do they want a water bottle pocket, padded shoulder straps, reflective tape, a padded laptop sleeve, or organizer pockets? Think about your own bag for a moment: Why did you buy this particular product? What features did it have that made it appealing to you?

Armed with market research knowledge, marketing then attempts to predict what types of backpacks different consumers will want and which of these consumers they will try to satisfy. For example, are you selling bags to adults for their children’s use? Are you selling them to young adults who might want more (or different) graphics on the bag? Are you selling to adults who will use these bags for work or for school?

Marketing will then estimate how many of these consumers will purchase backpacks over the next several years and how many bags they’ll likely purchase. Marketing will also estimate how many competitors will be producing backpacks, how many they’ll produce, and what types.

Price is the amount consumers pay for a product or service. There’s a delicate balance here. On one hand, marketers must link the price to the product’s real or perceived benefits while at the same time taking into consideration factors like production costs, seasonal and distributor discounts, and pricing product lines and different models within the line.

Marketers attempt to estimate how much consumers are willing to pay for the backpack and—perhaps more importantly—if the company can make a profit selling at that price. Pricing products or services can be both an art and a science. In the case of our backpack example, the company wants to determine two things:

• What’s the minimum price that the company can charge for the backpack and still make a profit?
• What’s the maximum price that the company can charge for the backpack without losing customers?

The “correct” answer usually lies somewhere in between those points on the price continuum.

Promotion includes advertising, public relations, and many other promotional strategies, including television and print advertisements, internet and social media advertising, and trade shows. A company’s promotional efforts must increase awareness of the product and articulate the reasons why customers should purchase their product. Remember: the goal of any promotional activity is to reach the “right” consumers at the right time and the right place.

In terms of our backpack example, marketing now needs to decide which kinds of promotional strategies should be used to tell potential customers about the company’s backpacks. For instance, should you use TV advertisements to make customers aware of the backpack? If so, you’ll want to run your commercials during programs that your target audience watches. For example, if you’re selling backpacks to children (or trying to entice them to badger their parents to purchase them), children’s cartoons may be the most cost-effective avenue to reach your target market. If your backpacks are designed for work or school, you’ll likely decide to advertise on television programs that target younger adults.

Link to Learning

Netflix, jansport, and stranger things.

A real-world promotional example is the recent brand partnership between Netflix and JanSport , the backpack company. These two companies collaborated on a Stranger Things –branded backpack with the launch of the fourth season of Stranger Things in 2022. This collaboration created five Hawkins-inspired backpacks centered on various Stranger Things themes. Read more about this promotion and see the backpacks here .

Perhaps you’ll decide to run magazine print ads. If so, you’ll need to decide in which magazines you’ll place the ads. Most magazines have a very specific readership demographic consisting of factors such as age, gender, and interests. If you’re going to advertise those backpacks with print ads, you’ll want to leverage readership demographics to ensure that your message is being seen by the right consumers—those who are most likely to buy your backpacks. 18

What about internet advertising? Internet advertising (sometimes known as online advertising or digital advertising) is a promotional strategy in which the company utilizes the internet as a medium to deliver its marketing messages. If you’re going to go the digital route, what types of internet advertising will you use? Search engine marketing? Email marketing? Social media ads? TikTok videos?

Place considerations focus on how and where to deliver the product to the consumer most likely to buy it. Where did you buy your backpack? Did you buy it in a big box store, online, in an office products store, or perhaps even the school bookstore? Once again, through market research, marketers determine where potential customers will be and how to get the company’s backpacks to them.

One important factor to note about the importance of place in the marketing mix is that it doesn’t refer to the location of the company itself but rather to the location of the customers or potential customers. Place deals with strategies the marketer can employ to get those backpacks from their present location—a warehouse, for example—to the location of the customers.

Knowledge Check

It’s time to check your knowledge on the concepts presented in this section. Refer to the Answer Key at the end of the book for feedback.

• Positioning

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/1-unit-introduction

• Authors: Dr. Maria Gomez Albrecht, Dr. Mark Green, Linda Hoffman
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Principles of Marketing
• Publication date: Jan 25, 2023
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/1-unit-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/1-2-the-marketing-mix-and-the-4ps-of-marketing

© Jan 9, 2024 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.

• Search Search Please fill out this field.

What Are the 4 Ps of Marketing?

• Understanding the 4 Ps

4. Promotion

How to use the 4 ps of marketing in your marketing strategy, example of the four ps of marketing, how does apple use the four ps of marketing, the bottom line.

• Business Essentials

4 Ps of Marketing: What They Are & How to Use Them Successfully

Product, price, place, and promotion are the four Ps in a winning "marketing mix"

The four Ps or marketing are a “marketing mix” comprised of four key elements—product, price, place, and promotion.

These are the key factors that are involved in introducing a product or service to the public. Often referred to as a marketing mix , they provide a framework that companies can use to successfully market a product or service to consumers. Since the four Ps were introduced in the 1950s, more Ps have been added to the mix, including people, process, and physical evidence.

Key Takeaways

• The four Ps are the four essential factors involved in marketing a product or service to the public.
• The four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion.
• The concept of the four Ps has been around since the 1950s. As the marketing industry has evolved, other Ps have been identified: people, process, and physical evidence.

Investopedia / Julie Bang

Understanding the 4 Ps of Marketing

Neil Borden, an advertising professor at Harvard, popularized the idea of the marketing mix—and the concepts that would later be known primarily as the four Ps—in the 1950s. His 1964 article "The Concept of the Marketing Mix" demonstrated the ways that companies could use advertising tactics to engage their consumers.

Decades later, the concepts that Borden popularized are still being used by companies to advertise their goods and services.

Borden's ideas were developed and refined over a number of years by other key players in the industry. E. Jerome McCarthy, a marketing professor at Michigan State University, refined the concepts in Borden's article and named them the "four Ps" of marketing. McCarthy co-wrote the book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach , further popularizing the idea.

At the time the concept was introduced, it helped companies breach the physical barriers that could hamper widespread product adoption. Today, the Internet has helped businesses to overcome some of these barriers.

People, process, and physical evidence are extensions of the original Four Ps and are relevant to current trends in marketing.

Any successful marketing strategy should be revisited from time to time. The marketing mix you create is not intended to be static. It needs to be adjusted and refined as your product grows and your customer base changes .

Creating a marketing campaign starts with an understanding of the product itself. Who needs it, and why? What does it do that no competitor's product can do? Perhaps it's a new thing altogether and is so compelling in its design or function that consumers will have to have it when they see it.

The job of the marketer is to define the product and its qualities and introduce it to the consumer.

Defining the product also is key to its distribution. Marketers need to understand the life cycle of a product , and business executives need to have a plan for dealing with products at every stage of the life cycle.

The type of product also dictates in part how much it will cost, where it should be placed, and how it should be promoted.

Many of the most successful products have been the first in their category. For example, Apple was the first to create a touchscreen smartphone that could play music, browse the internet, and make phone calls. Apple reported total sales of the iPhone for FY 2022 at $205.4 billion. In 2021, it hit the milestone of 2 billion iPhones sold.

Price is the amount that consumers will be 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, and retail markup.

In some cases, business decision-makers may raise the price of a product to give it the appearance of luxury or exclusivity. Or, they may lower the price so more consumers will try it.

Marketers also need to determine when and if discounting is appropriate. A discount can draw in more customers, but it can also give the impression that the product is less desirable than it was.

UNIQLO, headquartered in Japan, is a global manufacturer of casual wear. Like its competitors Gap and Zara, UNIQLO creates low-priced, fashion-forward garments for younger buyers.

What makes UNIQLO unique is that its products are innovative and high-quality. It accomplishes this by purchasing fabric in large volumes, continually seeking the highest-quality and lowest-cost materials in the world. The company also directly negotiates with its manufacturers and has built strategic partnerships with innovative Japanese manufacturers.

UNIQLO also outsources its production to partner factories. That gives it the flexibility to change production partners as its needs change.

Finally, the company employs a team of skilled textile artisans that it sends to its partner factories all over the world for quality control. Production managers visit factories once a week to resolve quality problems.

Place is the consideration of where the product should be available—in brick-and-mortar stores and online—and how it will be displayed.

The decision is key: The makers of a luxury cosmetic product would want to be displayed in Sephora and Neiman Marcus, not in Walmart or Family Dollar. The goal of business executives is always to get their products in front of the consumers who are the most likely to buy them.

That means placing a product only in certain stores and getting it displayed to the best advantage.

The term placement also refers to advertising the product in the right media to get the attention of target consumers.

For example, the 1995 movie GoldenEye was the 17th installment in the James Bond movie franchise and the first that did not feature an Aston Martin car. Instead, Bond actor Pierce Brosnan got into a BMW Z3. Although the Z3 was not released until months after the film had left theaters, BMW received 9,000 orders for the car the month after the movie opened.

The goal of promotion is to communicate to consumers that they need this product and that it is priced appropriately. Promotion encompasses advertising, public relations, and the overall media strategy for introducing a product.

Marketers tend to tie together promotion and placement elements to reach their core audiences. For example, In the digital age, the "place" and "promotion" factors are as much online as offline. Specifically, where a product appears on a company's web page or social media, as well as which types of search functions will trigger targeted ads for the product.

The Swedish vodka brand Absolut sold only 10,000 cases of its vodka in 1980. By 2000, the company had sold 4.5 million cases, thanks in part to its iconic advertising campaign. The images in the campaign featured the brand's signature bottle styled as a range of surreal images: a bottle with a halo, a bottle made of stone, or a bottle in the shape of the trees standing on a ski slope. To date, the Absolut campaign is one of the longest-running continuous campaigns of all time, from 1981 to 2005.

The four Ps provide a framework on which to build your marketing strategy. Think through each factor. And don't worry when the factors overlap. That's inevitable.

First, analyze the product you will be marketing. What are the characteristics that make it appealing? Consider similar products that are already on the market. Your product may be tougher, easier to use, more attractive, or longer-lasting. Its ingredients might be environmentally friendly or naturally sourced. Identify the qualities that will make it appealing to your target consumers.

Think through the appropriate price for the product. It's not simply the cost of production plus a profit margin. You may be positioning it as a premium or luxury product or as a bare-bones, lower-priced alternative.

Placement involves identifying the type of store, online and off, that stocks products like yours for consumers like yours.

Promotion can only be considered in the context of your target consumer. The product might be appealing to a hip younger crowd or to upscale professionals or to bargain hunters. Your media strategy needs to reach the right audience with the right message.

To put this into perspective, let's consider a fictional skincare company that produces organic skincare products. Here's how the four Ps might be utilized:

• Product: The company offers a range of organic skincare products, including cleansers, moisturizers, and serums. These products are formulated with natural ingredients, free from harsh chemicals, and designed to promote healthy and radiant skin.
• Price: The pricing strategy for these skincare products is positioned as premium, reflecting the high quality of ingredients and the company's commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing.
• Place: The products are sold through multiple channels, including the company's website, select retail stores specializing in organic products, and high-end spas and salons. This distribution strategy ensures accessibility to environmentally conscious consumers seeking natural skincare solutions.
• Promotion: The company's promotional efforts focus on emphasizing the benefits of organic skincare, such as nourishment, hydration, and skin rejuvenation. This includes social media campaigns, influencer partnerships, and educational content highlighting the importance of using non-toxic products for skincare routines.

Apple utilizes the four Ps of marketing by focusing on:

Product innovation: Evident in its continuous development of cutting-edge technology like the iPhone, MacBook, and Apple Watch.

Pricing strategy: Apple often positions its products as premium offerings, targeting a more affluent consumer base.

Place: Apple emphasizes distribution through its own retail stores, online platforms, and strategic partnerships with authorized resellers.

Promotional efforts: Apple emphasizes sleek design, user experience, and aspirational branding, creating a sense of exclusivity and desirability around its products.

How Do You Use the 4 Ps of Marketing?

The model of the 4Ps can be used when you are planning a new product launch, evaluating an existing product, or trying to optimize the sales of an existing product.

A careful analysis of these four factors—product, price, place, and promotion—helps a marketing professional devise a strategy that successfully introduces or reintroduces a product to the public.

When Did the 4 Ps Become the 7 Ps?

The focus on the four Ps—product, price, place, and promotion—has been a core tenet of marketing since the 1950s. Three newer Ps expand the marketing mix for the 21st century.

• People places the focus on the personalities who represent the product. In the current era, that means not only sales and customer service employees but social media influencers and viral media campaigns.
• Process is logistics. Consumers increasingly demand fast and efficient delivery of the things they want, when they want them.
• Physical evidence is perhaps the most thoroughly modern of the seven Ps. If you're selling diamond jewelry on a website, it must be immediately clear to the consumer that you are a legitimate established business that will deliver as promised. A professionally designed website with excellent functionality, an "About" section that lists the principals of the company and its physical address, professional packaging, and efficient delivery service are all critical to convincing the consumer that your product is not only good, it's real.

What Are Some Examples of the 4 Ps of Marketing?

• Place refers to where consumers buy your product, or where they discover it. Today's consumers may learn about products and buy them online, through a smartphone app, at retail locations, or through a sales professional.
• Price refers to the cost of the product or service. Properly determining product price includes an analysis of the competition, the demand, production costs, and what consumers are willing to spend. Various pricing models may be considering, such as choosing between one-time purchase and subscription models.
• The product a company provides depends on the type of company and what they do best. For example, McDonald's provides consistent fast food in a casual setting. They may expand their offerings, but they wouldn't stray far from their core identity.
• Promotion refers to specific and thoughtful advertising that reaches the target market for the product. A company might use an Instagram campaign, a public relations campaign, advertising placement, an email campaign , or some combination of all of these to reach the right audience in the right place.

The four Ps of marketing—product, price, place, promotion—are often referred to as the marketing mix. These are the key elements involved in planning and marketing a product or service, and they interact significantly with each other. Considering all of these elements is one way to approach a holistic marketing strategy .

Neil Borden. " The Concept of the Marketing Mix ."

E. Jerome McCarthy. "Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach." Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1960.

Apple. " Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited) Q4 2022 ," Page 1.

Apple Insider. " At 2 Billion iPhones Sold, Apple Continues to Redefine What Customers Want ."

Harvard Business School: Technology and Operations Management. " UNIQLO: What’s Behind the Low-Cost High-Quality Casual Wear? "

Smart Insights. " Campaign of the Week: The Longest Running Print Ad Marketing Campaign in History ."

• Terms of Service
• Editorial Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices

The 4 Ps Of Marketing

Updated: Jun 18, 2024, 8:52am

Table of Contents

What are the four ps of marketing, the first p: product, the second p: price, the third p: place, the fourth p: promotion, examples of the four ps in marketing, how to use the 4 ps of marketing, what’s the difference between the four ps and the seven ps, frequently asked questions (faqs).

The four Ps of marketing—product, price, place and promotion—serve as a framework for marketing success. Sometimes referred to as the marketing mix, the four Ps help guide businesses in the creation of winning business ideas that deliver what customers want, where and how they want it at a price that’s most appealing.

Building a solid marketing plan structured around the four Ps can help you increase awareness for your brand and its products or services, drive sales and achieve overall stronger bottom-line results.

The idea of a marketing mix was first popularized in the 1950s by Neil Bordon, a Professor of Advertising at Harvard. Drawing from Bordon’s work along with the work of other prominent marketing and business leaders, E. Jerome McCarthy introduced the four Ps of marketing in his book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach .

You may recall from your Intro to Marketing college course that product, price, place and promotion are the four Ps of marketing. While the four Ps have been around for decades, the concept is just as relevant to businesses today as it was when the four Ps were first introduced.

The first P in the four Ps of marketing is product. A product can come in a variety of forms, such as a physical product, digital product, service, event or experience. The product is the actual item you are selling; the features or attributes you include or build into your products can help you differentiate your offerings from your competitors.

There are many dimensions that you must consider when deciding which products to develop and sell. Does your product solve a problem? Or does the product fulfill consumers’ wants and desires? Why would someone want to buy it? Product quality, design, packaging, variety, adaptability, sustainability, safety and production must all be considered.

Your marketing plan should outline the key features of your product, what makes it unique and who your target audience is for that product. This will help ensure you meet the needs and desires of your ideal audience.

The second P in the four Ps of marketing is price. Naturally, you need to price your products in a way that allows you to operate profitably. However, pricing is far more complex than calculating the cost of goods and adding on an additional amount that will let you meet your desired profit margin. How you price a product will convey its relative value and quality.

Walmart uses low-cost pricing to attract a broad audience of value-driven shoppers, while Saks Fifth Avenue sustains much higher prices, which is common among luxury goods sellers who target wealthy buyers. If you decide to serve different types of customers, you’ll need to develop a customer segmentation strategy , which will include pricing strategies for each segment you serve.

There’s also a psychological factor in product pricing, which is why products are often priced at $9.99 rather than $10. Products with prices ending in .99 seem cheaper than those that end in zero, and hence more shoppers are drawn to the $9.99 price tag.

The third P in the four Ps of marketing is place, which refers to the channels or locations where you sell your products and services.

You may want to sell products via a brick-and-mortar store or at less permanent physical locations, such as special events, fairs, pop-ups or temporary markets. Or, you may prefer to list your products for sale via an e-commerce software —by either building your own e-commerce website or by selling through popular online marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon or Etsy .

Where you sell your products will influence how you manage product inventory and product transportation or shipping. Location also influences the relative size of your reachable market. Some businesses find they can optimize sales by offering goods and services via multiple outlets.

The fourth P in the four Ps of marketing is promotion, which is how you get the word out about your products and what tactics you use to convert prospects into buyers. Your promotion strategy may include advertising, public relations, social media marketing, content marketing, direct marketing and influencer marketing, as well as the discounts and special offers you extend to generate sales.

Even the best product in the world doesn’t stand a chance if you don’t have a strong promotion strategy behind it. While there are some promotional tactics that can be done on a shoestring budget—such as do-it-yourself blogging and social media—others can be costly. It’s important to factor anticipated promotional costs into your product pricing strategy.

Featured Partners

Sprout Social

Standard $199/seat/month; Professional $299/seat/month; Advanced $399/seat/month *pricing is based on annual subscriptions

30 day free trial (all plans)

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Yelp!, Glassdoor, Trip Advisor, Google My Business, and more

On Sprout Social's Website

Professional $99/month; Team $249/month *pricing based on annual subscriptions

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Threads (beta), Google Business Profile and more

On Hootsuite's Website

Understanding the four Ps is the first step in creating a strong marketing mix. Knowing how to execute the four Ps correctly is key to achieving success. Let’s look at examples of how different organizations use the four Ps in different ways.

Examples of Product

The music industry offers many examples of how related products are sold in different formats––from physical products to digital downloads to digital streaming to live events.

While compact discs—a physical product—are no longer the norm, they are still available in some brick-and-mortar locations as well as in online marketplaces. Vinyl albums are making a comeback among certain audiophiles, which is a reminder to consider your audience’s specific interests when designing your product.

The popularity of various product formats can change as new technologies emerge. There was a time when you needed an Apple iPod or similar device (i.e., “product”) to listen to music online. Now you can use just about any internet-enabled device to purchase music via digital downloads, or you can subscribe to popular subscription-based audio streaming sites such as Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music, which grant you access to millions of songs.

Live performances are another popular music product—just ask any Taylor Swift mega-fan about the magic of scoring a ticket to one of her sold-out concerts. Of course, when you attend a live event, you will find there is plenty of physical music merchandise to purchase—from T-shirts to pins to caps and hats to collectible programs.

Examples of Price

You can buy a watch for under $100 or spend $100,000 or more; both watches will tell you the time. The price a person is willing to pay for a watch says a lot about their means, interests, style and quality preferences and what they value in a timepiece.

Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace and Armani all sell high-priced clothes, jewelry and accessories. Yet, what these brands are actually selling is a luxurious lifestyle. The premium prices these luxury brands charge reflect quality and exclusivity; their target audience has the means to purchase the products and the desire to live a rich life.

Old Navy, meanwhile, targets budget-conscious shoppers with its everyday modest prices and regular promotional discounts. Dollar Tree is an example of a brand that appeals to lower-income consumers and those seeking extreme values. Dollar Tree, which has had to raise average product prices up from $1.00 to $1.25, has seen profits surge in recent years.

No one magic price range will produce exceptional results for all product lines. When pricing your product, you must consider not only the cost to produce the item but who your ideal buyer is and what they’re currently spending on the products they purchase.

Examples of Place

Today’s businesses have more options and flexibility in places to sell their goods and services. The best point-of-sale (POS) systems and credit card readers let you accept payments from nearly anywhere.

You used to need a brick-and-mortar building to open a restaurant, and now budding restaurateurs and bakers can sell their edible creations via food trucks, pop-up events or shared kitchens.

Artists and crafters can sell their goods via their own galleries or display their works at others’ galleries. Artists also sell art online via their own websites or popular online marketplaces such as Creative Market, Etsy, Amazon Handmade and Fine Art America. Art and craft fairs are growing more popular, as are festivals and pop-up markets that invite artisans to showcase their work.

Many businesses start by selling their products online or via a retail location and then expand to other outlets once sales grow. A multi-location strategy is often the best way to boost your product sales.

Examples of Promotion

If you want your business to be successful, you must find ways to promote your business effectively. Some promotional efforts—such as national paid advertising—require a relatively large promotional budget, which is feasible for mega-brands like McDonald’s, Amazon and Toyota, but can be difficult for smaller businesses.

Examples of promotions that work for small businesses include creating a business website where you offer discount coupons and promote current sales. You can also ask customers for their email addresses and use email marketing software for ongoing business promotion. If you have a brick-and-mortar business, consider placing attention-grabbing banners, flags or a blow-up character in front of your business to draw the attention of those passing by.

Free; Unlimited contacts

On Brevo's Website

Constant Contact

Advanced Automation (Abandon Cart Reminders, etc.)

On Constant Contact's Website

Free for all customers

AI email content generator

Email marketing, SMS & Web Push Notifications

On Omnisend's Website

Email, SMS, mobile push, and more

350+ integrations, no coding needed

Predictive analytics, personalized feeds, benchmarks

On Klaviyo's Website

Starting at $39/month

Automation, segmentation, onsite popups

99.9% delivery rate, Customer support, Free implementation

On Drip's Website

Other types of promotions can work for a wide array of businesses, such as customer loyalty programs. Kohl’s loyalty program, called Kohl’s Rewards, gives members cash back each month based on their spending. Since Kohl’s requires you to submit your contact information to join the program, the company can use that information to regularly email you to tell you about current sales and new products.

Think of the four Ps of marketing as your road map for introducing and launching successful products and services. Your marketing strategy should include extensive details on how you intend to approach each of the four Ps.

For example, when developing your product, consider what’s already available and what features you can embed in your product to serve a need or solve a problem better than any other available product. How will your product stand out in a crowded marketplace? Also, think about who your ideal audience is and what they value most.

When developing your pricing strategy, don’t just consider the price point where you make a sufficient margin. Be sure you understand your ideal customer’s sensitivity to pricing. Is this a luxury item? Then deliver the quality that appeals to high-end buyers at a price point that affirms luxury and exclusivity. Are you providing the best value on the market? Then use a value-based pricing model.

Placement is also key. Where does your target market already go to purchase similar products—online, in specialty retail stores, big-box stores, discount stores or elsewhere? It’s important to place your products where your ideal clients already shop, which may mean placing them in multiple sales channels.

Finally, give special attention to how you promote your products. Your promotion strategies must be compelling and give you maximum reach for your promotional dollars.

How and where you choose to promote your product needs to align with the type of customer you are pursuing. The promotional choices you’ll select for more traditional middle-aged suburbanites will be considerably different than those you’d use to appeal to members of Generation Z. Always make sure your advertising choices and messaging align with who you’re targeting.

While the four Ps came first, you may have also heard of the seven Ps of marketing, which rose in popularity in the 70s and 80s. The seven Ps include the original four Ps plus people, process and physical evidence.

The fifth P refers to the people within your organization who work together to create an exceptional experience for your customers. You can differentiate your business from competitors by creating a customer-centric culture that consistently delivers a memorable, high-quality customer experience.

If you are a service-based business, it’s vital that you pay close attention to the people you hire to interact with your customers. Bad reviews on Google Reviews or Yelp can put you out of business.

The sixth P, process, is how you get your product to the customer. Is it easy and seamless to purchase from you, or are there barriers that make the buying experience difficult or issues with your shipping or delivery system that negatively impact the experience?

For example, did you ship a product to an environmentally conscious customer via a styrofoam container—or did you use sustainable, eco-friendly shipping and packaging methods? Make sure the processes you use make sense for what you’re selling and who you’re selling to.

Physical Evidence

The seventh P, physical evidence, involves things that enhance or detract from the shopping or purchase experience. Physical evidence includes branding and packaging.

When a physical environment is involved—such as in a retail store, restaurant or service office—physical evidence includes the layout, ambiance and overall aesthetics of the physical location that contribute to the impression you make on prospects and customers.

What are the seven Ps of marketing?

The seven Ps of marketing—sometimes referred to as the marketing mix—include product, place, price, promotion, people, physical evidence and process.

Which of the four Ps of marketing is the most important?

Many consider the product to be the most important of the four Ps of marketing. That being said, even excellent products can only be successful if a business strategically deploys all vital aspects of the marketing mix, including the remaining three Ps: place, promotion and price.

What are the marketing four Ps and four Cs?

The four Ps of marketing are product, place, price and promotion. In an article in Advertising Age , Bob Lauterborn introduced the four Cs, which he stated was a more customer-centric marketing model. The four Cs are consumer, cost, convenience and communication.

What is the purpose of the four Ps of marketing?

The purpose of the four Ps of marketing is to help businesses create a viable, complete strategy for selling goods and services. The four Ps are essential pillars for success that can help you drive better results when launching any product or service.

What’s the difference between the four Ps and the seven Ps of marketing?

The seven Ps include the original four Ps—product, price, place and promotion—plus people, process and physical evidence.

• Best SEO Software For Small Business
• Best Social Media Management Software
• Best Email Marketing Software
• Best SEO Services For Small Business
• Best Mass Texting Services
• Best Mailchimp Alternatives
• Best ActiveCampaign Alternatives
• Top SEMRush Alternatives
• Top ahrefs Alternatives
• Hootsuite Review
• MailerLite Review
• ActiveCampaign Review
• Constant Contact Review
• Sprout Social Review
• SEMRush Review
• Mailchimp Review
• Small Business Marketing
• What Is Marketing?
• What Is Digital Marketing?
• Digital Marketing Strategy Guide
• Digital Marketing Tips
• Search Engine Marketing Guide
• SEO Marketing Guide
• Social Media Marketing
• Content Marketing
• PPC Advertising Guide
• Tips For Generating Leads Online
• How To Get More Followers On Instagram
• How To Start A Podcast
• E-Commerce SEO
• WordPress SEO Guide
• Porter's Five Forces: Definition & How To Use The Model

Best Montana Registered Agent Services Of 2024

Best Iowa Registered Agent Services Of 2024

Best Idaho Registered Agent Services Of 2024

Best Kentucky Registered Agent Services Of 2024

How To Get A Business License In New Hampshire (2024)

Best Kansas Registered Agent Services Of 2024

Janette Novak is a freelance journalist and consultant who specializes in teaching online business and small business marketing. Previously, Janette owned a boutique marketing agency and served as a Chief Marketing Officer for a leading professional training services provider.

Marketing mix

This article contains analysis of each element of marketing mix by using a variety of secondary data sources. The notion of marketing mix refers to a balance of marketing methods needed to sell products and services. Marketing mix consists of four core elements – product, price, place and promotion that are jointly known as ‘four Ps’. Extended marketing mix contains additional ‘three Ps’ consisting of people, process and physical evidence.

Product element of marketing mix

Anything that has a potential to satisfy specific customer needs can be specified as product. In modern marketplace learning about customer needs and wants through marketing research precedes development of products and services. Product variables include but not limited to its design, durability, technical features and capabilities, ease of maintenance and others.

Businesses use branding in order to differentiate their products and services from other products and services offered in the market. For example, while there is a wide range of soft drinks offered in the market, Coca-Cola drink in particular has a large market share, partially due to successful branding strategy of the company.

Importantly, benefits of successful branding go beyond any particular single product to assist the sales of other products offered by the company as well. Positive image of Apple brand assists sales of MacBook desktop computers, as well as, other products offered by the company such as IPhone and IPad.

Benefits of products and services have tremendous on the levels of revenues and these benefits can be divided into three categories: core, tangible and augmented benefits. Core benefits are associated with core functions of the product. For example, a mobile phone offers a core benefit of facilitating a wireless phone communication.

Tangible benefit relates to tangible design, dimensions or functionalities of products, whereas augmented benefits relate to customer perceived value associated with the product. For a mobile phone, tangible benefits may include large screen size and dual-camera, and intangible benefits include a sense of being trendy and modern due to the ownership of the latest model of mobile phone.

Price element of marketing mix

Price can be simply defined as the amount of money received from customer in exchange to products and services. It has to be stressed that “pricing is an area of marketing with a tremendous potential for increasing short-term profits, but unfortunately if managed badly can quickly bring a business its knees” (Meldrum and McDonald, 2007, p.11).

Pricing strategies can be divided into two broad categories: skimming and penetration. Market skimming pricing strategy is associated with charging higher prices for advanced product functions and capabilities, but selling fewer products and services. For example, market skimming pricing strategy is employed by Bugatti, an automobile manufacturer to sell its products such as Bugatti Veyron and Bugatti Vetise.

Market penetration pricing strategy, on the other hand, is associated with setting competitive prices for products and services and increasing the volume of sales. For example, in automobile industry Tata Motors markets the majority of its products via market penetration pricing strategy.

An important distinctive characteristic of price element of marketing mix compared to other elements can be specified in a way that price impacts revenues in direct manner, whereas other marketing mix elements effect costs of production. Moreover, price is the easiest to manipulate with compared to other elements of marketing mix when attempting to impact competition in the market.

Place element of marketing mix

Place element of the marketing mix is associated with the distribution channels of products and services. According to rough estimations, about one fifth of cost of production is spent on distribution, although this figure may greatly vary due to industry-specific and company-specific differences.

Most popular distribution channels include retailers, wholesalers, selling through agents, and direct selling. Certain patterns of distribution channels such as franchising and licensing have enabled some brands sell their products in multiple markets in global scale. Case studies of McDonald’s and Starbucks Coffee can be mentioned to illustrate this point.

Advent of online sales channel a couple of decades ago had significant impact on place element of marketing mix in the global scale. Specifically, online sales channels offer businesses cost-saving advantages to a significant extent. Moreover, there are certain types of products that are sold exclusively via online channels.

Promotion element of marketing mix

It has been noted that “the promotion element of the marketing mix is concerned the ways of communicating with customers and potential customers” (Meldrum and McDonald, 2007, p. 12). Therefore, promotion is based on marketing message about product and the brand that needs to be able to communicate value to target customer segment in an efficient manner.

Promotion can be used for a wide range of purposes such as increasing the volume of sales, attracting new customers and retaining current customers, and communicating marketing message of the brand.

Promotion element of marketing mix can be divided into the following five groups: advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations, and direct marketing (Kotler and Keller, 2011). Specific methods belonging to each of these groups are associated with advantages and disadvantages, therefore, the choice of promotional mix from the groups above depends on a set of factors such as the amount of promotional budget, unique specifications of target customer segment, and the behavior of competitors.

Viral marketing marks the latest trend in the field of marketing and viral marketing promotional technique offers a set of advantages such as the possibility to spread the marketing message across the globe in an engaging way in a short duration of time.

Additional elements of marketing mix

Traditional set of four Ps of marketing mix has been extended to comprise additional three Ps that are people, process and physical evidence.

People element of marketing mix primarily deals with the role of employees in achieving customer satisfaction. Importance of people element of marketing mix is usually greater in service industry compared to manufactured products due to intangible and perishable nature of services.

Processes related to customer services represent another important element of marketing mix. Such processes include but not limited to face-to-face interactions with customer, process of handling customer complaints, process of issuing refunds etc. Panda (2009) associates the level of effectiveness of processes element of marketing mix with people element.

In other words, despite high levels of technological integration in various business processes, the levels of competency of human resources in general, and customer services representatives of the firm in particular play important role in the formation of customer perception about processes with direct implications on customer satisfaction.

Physical evidence is associated with visual aspects of the brand such as factory or store layout, facilities, the quality and types of furniture used etc. This particular element of marketing mix greatly varies according to the nature of the business and its industry.

Competition in markets becoming ever-intensive further increases the importance of marketing mix in practical level. Not a single element of marketing mix can be specified as the most important because marketing products and services in an effective manner is associated with effective approach to be adopted towards each individual element of marketing mix.

In other words, while businesses can focus on one element of marketing mix to a greater extent as a primary source of competitive advantage compared to other elements, severe shortcomings in a particular element in a marketing mix can not be compensated by other elements.

For example, if a particular product has advanced features and capabilities and is offered at a competitive price, but the distribution channel is not organised in an appropriate manner chances to gain solid market share with the product would be compromised.

Alternatively, creative promotional techniques and effective distribution channel can not compensate flaws associated with a product and it will be difficult for the product to succeed.

To summarise discussions, business managers in general, and marketing managers in particular are required to be constantly exploring sources for competitive advantage in the market in relation to each individual segment of the marketing mix. Nevertheless, as it has been illustrated within the body of this article by referring to real-life case studies one particular element of marketing mix can be adopted as a primary source of competitive advantage according to the chosen business strategy of the firm.

Meldrum, M. & McDonald, M. (2007) “Marketing in a Nutshell: Key Concepts for Non-Specialists” Butterworth-Heinemann

• Add Event Listing

Juvie Reyes

Success often hinges on finding the right combination to achieve the desired outcome.

This principle holds particularly true in the realm of marketing, where certain elements must be blended to produce an effective marketing strategy. This combination makes up the marketing mix.

However, consumer behavior sets the standard for marketing mix. Understanding why consumers choose, reject, or engage with certain products forms the foundation for successful marketing strategies. 

Thus, navigating consumer behavior becomes crucial for a business marketing team to stay ahead and remain relevant in today’s competitive market landscape.

This guide will teach business owners everything they need to know about the relationship between consumer behavior and marketing mix and how they interact to influence marketing strategies.

What is Consumer Behavior?

Consumer behavior studies individuals, groups, or organizations and how they select, secure, and use products and services. It also deals with how they dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy their needs and desires. 

Consumer behavior is influenced by various factors, including cultural, social, personal, economic, and psychological factors. Understanding consumer behavior helps with pricing, consumer retention, product development and design, and overall customer satisfaction.

Read: What Are the Factors That Influence Consumer Behavior?

What is A Marketing Mix?

The marketing mix, often referred to as the 4Ps (product, price, place, and promotion), is a framework marketers use to define the critical elements of a marketing strategy. 

It is also a strategic tool for marketers to formulate and implement marketing strategies to achieve the organization’s marketing objectives and meet customers’ needs effectively.

The marketing mix consists of four core elements that are controllable variables and can be adjusted to meet the target market’s needs. 

Read: Why Is Consumer Behavior Important in Marketing?

The Key Elements of A Marketing Mix Framework

The marketing mix framework is always associated with the 4Ps, which comprise a marketing strategy’s fundamental elements.  

Below are the four fundamental aspects of a marketing mix framework:

Products are goods or services a company offers to meet customers’ needs and wants. They also include decisions on product features, design, quality, branding, packaging, and any additional services associated with the product. 

Products directly answer customers’ needs, influence brand perceptions, generate revenue, and create value. They also enable companies to adapt to market dynamics. 

Price represents the amount customers are willing to pay for a product or service. Businesses must make pricing decisions to determine the optimal price point that balances profitability with customer value perception. 

What price point will ensure your business makes a profit while aligning with your customer’s perceived value of your product? Price takes into account factors like production costs, competitor pricing, and pricing strategies.

Price is a crucial part of the marketing mix because:

• It directly impacts revenue generation for a company while remaining competitive in the market.
• Price affects the profitability of products or services by providing a reasonable profit margin.
• It plays a significant role in determining a company’s competitive position within the market.
• It can help to manage demand for products or services based on supply and demand dynamics, seasonality, and other factors.
• The price of a product can shape a company’s brand image and positioning.

3. Place (Distribution)

Place focuses on how products or services are made available to customers. Where are your customers looking for your product? Where can they get your product? 

It also involves decisions regarding direct sales, retailers, wholesalers, E-commerce platforms, and a combination of these channels.

The distribution of products and services is a significant element of the marketing mix because:

• It determines how easily customers can access products or services.
• Distribution helps companies reach their target market effectively. By selecting appropriate channels.
• Distribution influences customer convenience by offering multiple purchase options and locations.
• It contributes to brand visibility and exposure by increasing brand awareness and attracting potential customers.
• Distribution facilitates market expansion into new geographical areas or market segments by establishing distribution channels in new regions. 
• A well-executed distribution strategy can give companies a competitive advantage in the market.
• The place plays a crucial role in delivering excellent customer service.

Effective distribution ensures that products reach the target market promptly and conveniently. Indeed, a well-planned and executed distribution strategy is critical for achieving marketing objectives and maximizing business performance.

4. Promotion

Promotions are the various marketing activities businesses use to communicate the value of a product or service to the target audience. They seek to raise awareness and persuade consumers to purchase a product. To effectively promote your product, you need a promotion strategy. 

Promotion strategies may include advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and personal selling .

A well-planned and executed promotion strategy is essential for achieving marketing objectives and sustaining business success. Promotion is a crucial element of a marketing mix because:

• It creates awareness
• Promotion generates interest and desire from consumers
• It dramatically influences purchase decisions
• Promotion builds brand image and identity
• It can drive sales and increase revenue
• It also encourages repeat purchases and loyalty
• Promotion helps to launch new products successfully
• It serves as a platform to educate customers
• It enables you to adapt to changes in the market

7 Ways Consumer Behavior Can Influence Marketing Mix

The marketing mix represents businesses’ tactics for influencing consumers’ purchasing decisions. But it’s not a one-way street. Consumer behavior influences the marketing mix, so companies must understand consumer behavior to create the right marketing mix.  

Let’s explore how consumer behavior interacts with each element of the marketing mix:

1. Product Development 

Consumer behavior, preferences, needs, and desires drive the development of new products. That’s why understanding consumer behavior helps businesses design products that align with consumers’ preferences and offer value-added features. 

To understand your consumer preferences, you must conduct thorough market research, including analyzing demographic data, conducting surveys and interviews, and analyzing trends and competitors. 

Also, you can innovate and adapt your products based on changes in consumer trends and preferences.

For example, if consumers prefer eco-friendly products, companies may develop sustainable alternatives to meet this demand.

2. Pricing Strategy

It is a fact that understanding the relationship between price and consumer behavior is crucial for business owners, as it impacts sales, revenue, and overall profitability.

Once you understand and effectively manage the relationship between price and consumer behavior, you must optimize your pricing strategies. 

The following demonstrates the relationship between consumer behavior and pricing strategies:

• Consumers are sensitive to price changes. While higher prices may deter some customers, lower prices may attract some.
• Consumers often associate price with quality. For instance, higher prices create a perception of higher quality, while lower prices may be perceived as low quality.
• How competitors price similar products or services is essential.
• Temporary price reductions or promotions can influence consumer behavior. Temporary price changes can encourage purchases during specific periods or in response to certain stimuli.
• Pricing strategies based on psychological principles can influence consumer behavior.
• Discrimination strategies involve different prices to different consumer groups based on their perceived value or ability to pay.
• You can get valuable insight from monitoring how changes in pricing affect consumer behavior.

3. Distribution Channel Selection

Consumer preferences and buying habits influence decisions regarding distribution channels. Hence, your business must align its distribution strategies with consumers’ preferences and buying habits. This means ensuring that products are available through channels your target audience prefers.

The relationship between distribution channels and consumer behavior shapes each element of the marketing mix. Understanding where and how consumers prefer to shop helps create winning distribution strategies that maximize accessibility and convenience, whether brick-and-mortar stores, traditional retail outlets, E-commerce platforms, or direct sales.

Marketers can effectively reach their target audience by selecting the proper distribution channels and providing seamless product access.

4. Promotional Tactics

Consumer behavior influences the effectiveness of promotional tactics and messaging. Therefore, as a business owner, you must tailor promotional campaigns to resonate with the preferences and behaviors of your target audience. 

Knowing how consumers engage with different promotional channels helps marketers allocate resources effectively when promoting a product. 

It also helps maximize the impact of marketing efforts when marketers leverage the various marketing channels. 

Some marketing channels that capture consumer attention and drive desired actions include advertisement, social media, influencer marketing, and content marketing.

5. Brand Positioning and Differentiation

Consumer behavior insights inform brand positioning and differentiation strategies, and business owners can leverage this insight to create unique value propositions. 

These propositions set your brand apart from competitors and can help you build brand loyalty and drive customer engagement.

Once you understand your consumer behavior, you can exploit your market niche to enhance brand relevance and competitiveness. Thus, effective brand positioning and differentiation provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

6. Customer Experience Optimization

Consumer behavior influences customer experience, from pre-purchase research to post-purchase satisfaction. This is why business owners must focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences that meet or exceed customer expectations at every touchpoint. 

Positive experiences drive customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy, which are critical for business success. Moreover, satisfied customers are more likely to make repeat purchases and patronize the business in the long run.

In addition, positive customer experiences were proven to give brands a competitive advantage. In fact, unique customer experiences can be difficult for competitors to replicate, providing a sustainable competitive advantage. 

You must also be open to customer feedback to refine and optimize customers’ experiences. Whether the feedback is negative or positive, you must pay attention to it as it mirrors your customers’ experiences, helping you understand how to serve them better. 

7. Market Expansion and Innovation

Understanding consumer behavior helps identify new market opportunities and areas for innovation, including developing new products and entering new market segments. 

You can also expand into new geographical regions, which will allow your business to grow and compete more effectively in the marketplace. 

Business owners can benefit from market expansion driven by consumer behavior by:

• Tapping into new customer segments, geographic markets, or product categories to generate new revenue streams.
• Expanding into new markets or innovating with new products or services to capture a larger market share.
• Helping businesses differentiate themselves and their brand from competitors in the marketplace.
• Creating opportunities for business owners to form strategic partnerships and collaborations with other businesses.
• Enabling business owners to adapt to changing market dynamics and consumer preferences is essential for long-term success.

Also Read: 10 Benefits of Studying Consumer Behavior

Conclusion: Creating the Perfect Marketing Mix

The relationship between consumer behavior and the marketing mix is intricate and dynamic, offering numerous implications for business owners. Understanding consumer preferences, needs, and buying behaviors as a business owner will help you develop effective marketing strategies that align with consumer expectations. Ultimately, this will drive your business success.

Consumer behavior is the foundation for crucial marketing decisions and identifying the right marketing mix. The right and effective marketing mix can meet the evolving needs and preferences of the target audience, enhancing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and brand equity.

Business owners must understand customer behavior and its implications for the marketing mix. Doing so will help you stay ahead of the curve, build strong customer relationships, and achieve sustainable success. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Understanding consumer behavior provides invaluable insights into developing a successful marketing mix, but it isn’t the only factor to consider. Achieving the “perfect” marketing mix requires consideration of multiple factors. Hence, business owners should integrate consumer behavior insight and other relevant factors to develop effective marketing strategies. In addition to consumer behavior, businesses can also consider: (a) Competitive landscape (b) Market dynamics (c) Internal capabilities and resources (d) Regulatory and legal considerations (e) Strategic objectives

Undoubtedly, technology has a profound impact on the four key elements of the marketing mix. Here’s how technology can affect each component of the marketing mix: (a) Technology affects product development, enhancement, and creation of digital products and services. (b) It enables a dynamic pricing strategy, provides online price transparency, and transforms payment processes. (c) It facilitates retail distribution through e-commerce platforms, and omnichannel retailing optimizes the supply chain. (d) Technology transforms promotional strategies, enables data-driven marketing, and automates repetitive marketing tasks.

A promotional mix is the combination of promotional tools or activities a business uses to communicate with its target audience. Companies use these promotional tools to build brand awareness and persuade customers to purchase products or services.  A promotional mix comprises various elements that work together to achieve specific marketing objectives and goals. They typically include: (a) Advertising (b) Sales promotion (c) Public relations (d) Personal selling (e) Direct marketing (f) Digital marketing (g) Social media marketing

Creating a compelling marketing mix ensures that your product or service reaches the right audience at the right time.   Here is the simplified outline of these steps: (a) Understand your target audience to help tailor a marketing mix that resonates with them. (b) Define your unique selling proposition (USP) to address your target audience’s specific needs or wants.  (c) Develop and enhance products based on USP. (d) Determine the price point that reflects the value of your offering while remaining competitive in the market. (e) Decide how you will make your product or service available to customers. (f) Develop a plan to communicate your product or service to your target audience. (g) Put your marketing mix plan into action. (h) Continuously monitor the performance of your marketing mix elements and gather feedback from customers. (i) Based on performance data and customer feedback, adjust your marketing mix to improve results. (j) Continuously refine your marketing mix based on market dynamics, changes in consumer behavior, and evolving business goals. Follow these steps and stay flexible to create and maintain a compelling marketing mix that will drive your business’s success.

Related Posts

• Top 10 Strategies for Marketing to Current Customers
• What Are the Benefits of Studying Consumer Behavior?
• How To Start and Grow Your Product-Based Business
• The Role of Consumer Behavior in Your Marketing Strategy

Get Genius Insights for Your Business

Don’t Miss Out. Get Genius Insights for Your Business.

Ask Ramon Ray, Get Featured on USA Today and more

Why Thought Leadership Matters for Small Business Leaders: Insights, Strategies, and Pitfalls

How to use credit cards to fund your business growth, mastering asana: tips, strategies, and hacks for better project management, christmas season planning starts now for businesses, the power of affirmations: elevate your confidence and wealth.

Tips and Insights for Your Business Success

Marketing Mix

The 4ps and the 4cs.

You’ve done your market research. You’ve learned about the history and life-cycle of products like yours and the trends and key drivers that determine where your products or services “fit in the industry” Now it’s time to distill your research findings into a concentrated effort to generate a product that reflects your business goals and objectives while providing solutions (price, packaging, convenience) for the customer.

Under the old marketing model, we sold what we made or produced. Under the new model, we must sell what the customer wants. The old Marketing Mix looked at the 4Ps of marketing - product, price, place, and promotion. Whether you are thinking of setting up, starting or expanding your business, or selling any product or service, these four elements should be top-of-mind all the time:

THE PRODUCT

Exactly what product or service are you going to sell to this market? Define it in terms of what it does for your customer. How does it help your customer to achieve, avoid or preserve something? You must be clear about the benefit you offer and how the customer’s life or work will be improved if he or she buys what you sell.

Exactly how much are you going to charge for your product or service, and on what basis? How are you going to price it to sell at retail? How are you going to price it at wholesale? How are you going to charge for volume discounts? Is your price correct based on your costs and the prices of your competitors?

Where are you going to sell this product at this price? Are you going to sell directly from your own company or through wholesalers, retailers, direct mail, catalogs or the Internet?

THE PROMOTION

Promotion includes every aspect of advertising, brochures, packaging, salespeople and sales methodology. How are you going to promote, advertise and sell this product at this price at this location? What will be the process from the first contact with a prospect through to the completed sale?

Everyone who has studied marketing in the last 50 years has been introduced to the 4Ps. It was E. Jerome McCarthy who originally developed the mnemonic, the 4Ps of marketing, which serves as a neat and memorable classification system of the various elements of marketing. Originally, McCarthy defined the marketing mix as a combination of controllable factors at a marketer’s command to satisfy a target market.

Creative marketing with the 4Ps dictates constantly questioning existing situations and looking for ways to enhance your marketing mix - deleting existing products or services, selling them at a different price, offering them in different places, or promoting them differently. However, it does not require abandoning your core marketing concepts.

In recent years, there have been attempts to develop a package (mix) that will not only satisfy the needs of the customer, but simultaneously maximize the performance of the organization. This model suggests the expansion of the marketing mix to 5Ps to include People or Personnel. However, this mix does nothing to address the “uncontrollable” factors affecting your marketing.

Controllable factors vs. uncontrollable facts can be defined as:

CONTROLLABLE: The 4Ps representing the elements of marketing we can control internally. They depend upon such “givens” as your budget, personnel, creativity, etc.

UNCONTROLLABLE: The current economic environment including such elements as consumer confidence, degree of unemployment, new technologies, the threat of displacement, competitors, government regulations, or changing consumer preferences.

Many marketing specialists are now seeing the 4Ps as too product-oriented and have adopted the 4Cs marketing mix. This model looks at the marketing from the customer’s point of view.

These C’s reflect a more client-oriented marketing philosophy. They provide useful reminders - for example, that you need to bear in mind the convenience of the client when deciding where to offer a service. To apply the 4Cs approach to marketing you must consider the impact of the “uncontrollable” elements on your marketing mix. The 4Cs explicitly require you to think like a customer.

Discover More in Marketing 101

What is marketing, defining a market, market research, writing a marketing plan, marketing plan outline, marketing strategies, test and track, implementation.

Training Industry

How to define the 4 p’s in l&d: your training solution’s marketing mix.

As organizations aim to improve employee skills and stay on top of industry trends, the ability to successfully market corporate training solutions to learning and development (L&D) buyers is crucial. To achieve success in their L&D marketing campaigns, training vendors must understand their marketing mix.

A traditional marketing mix outlines the 4 P’s of marketing: product, price, place and promotion. This article explains how to identify these principles for a successful marketing strategy in the corporate training market.

Before You Kick Off Your Marketing Campaign

Before launching a comprehensive marketing campaign, the first step is to identify your L&D marketing mix, or the 4 P’s.

1.      Product.

First, identify what product you’re offering. Your L&D training solution may fall into one of the following categories:

• Learning management system (LMS).
• Online learning library.
• Leadership development.
• Custom content or course development.
• Learning strategy formulation.
• Information technology (IT) and technical training.

When deciding which product to market, consider the product’s value proposition as well as how it specifically resolves a problem in the market today.

2.    Price.

Setting your price can be tricky because you don’t want to price yourself out of what your audience can afford, but you also don’t want to undervalue your training solution.

For example, a strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis as well as a competitor review can help corporate training organizations identify the pricing structure of their courses, products or services.

Here are examples of what this structure can look like, depending on the type of solution you are offering:

• Enterprise license.
• Per access.
• Per course.
• Per training kit.
• Per instructor certification

Product (learning technology):

• License per user or range of users.
• Software as a Service (SaaS) per user/period.

Training services (e.g., consultancy, coach/mentor):

• Service-based.
• People-based.
• Time- or sprint-based.
• Project-based.

3.      Place.

Choose where to market your training solution to maximize visibility of both your product and your brand. The goal is to put your product in front of consumers who are actively looking for solutions like yours.

L&D solutions are often marketed and sold in one of the following distribution channels:

• Digitally: 50% of L&D professionals say web search is a very important information source when looking for vendors.
• In person: 53% of L&D professionals say attending an industry conference is a very important information source when looking for vendors.
• On the phone: 54% of L&D professionals say a direct sales outreach is a very important information source when searching and selecting a vendor.

Additionally, marketers should consider both accessibility and localization when determining location. Providing accessible marketing channels as well as location-based considerations, like global reach and cultural differences, can allow viewers to easily consume the information you are providing. This removes a large barrier for viewers when attempting to read and learn from your content.

4.      Promotion.

Determine the channels and the messaging you will use to convince buyers to purchase your product. In L&D marketing, there are several channels that corporate training providers use to reach their target audience, including:

• Email marketing .
• Events (webinars, product demonstrations, conferences and expos , panels).
• Website (banner ads, articles, topic sponsorships).
• Content marketing (e-books, infographics).
• Social media.

Using a tool such as the L&D sales funnel can help guide marketers in selecting which channel they should use based on the buyer’s journey.

Another part of promotion is the messaging used to compel buyers to follow through with a purchase. This messaging should be curated based on the channel being used. In L&D, the message is often conveyed via thought leaders on social media or at events.

Translating the 4 P’s to L&D Marketing Success

Understanding and implementing the 4 P’s of L&D is essential for crafting a successful L&D marketing strategy. By defining your product’s unique value proposition , setting competitive prices, selecting the channels to sell your product and crafting compelling promotional messages, L&D marketers can optimize their marketing strategy to reach the optimal corporate training buyers.

If you need help marketing your training company,  let us help  connect you with over 250,000 learning and development professionals.

Want L&D Marketing Insights Right to Your Inbox?

• #content marketing
• #L&D marketing
• #marketing for L&D

Sarah Barnes

Sarah Barnes is a corporate training marketer at Training Industry, Inc. who specializes in L&D marketing strategy.

Related Content

Leveraging l&d podcasts to amplify your brand, email marketing best practices for l&d: engage training managers effectively, the power of research-driven content in corporate l&d marketing.

Stay up to date on the latest articles, webinars and resources for learning and development.

Privacy Overview

• DOI: 10.35794/emba.v11i4.52397
• Corpus ID: 265363458

ANALISIS PENGARUH MARKETING MIX (4P) TERHADAP KEPUTUSAN PEMBELIAN PADA HARDCORE GYM

• Herliana Juice Kaniu , Silcyljeova Moniharapon , Sjendry S. R. Loindong
• Published in Jurnal Riset Ekonomi… 9 November 2023

Related Papers

Showing 1 through 3 of 0 Related Papers