The combination of product, price, promotion, and place strategies work together to create

In many ways, marketers are like cooks.

To concoct a delicious meal, a cook must balance the right ingredients carefully. A dash of salt, a splash of hot sauce, a pinch of garlic. Miss an ingredient or dump in a tablespoon of salt when you only need a teaspoon and the whole meal is ruined.

If you’re in marketing, you also have basic ingredients that you use every day when putting together a marketing plan.

These ingredients are called the 4 P’s, and by carefully balancing them in your marketing mix, you can make sure that you have a visible, in-demand product or service that is competitively priced and promoted to your customers.

Also called the Marketing Mix, the 4 P’s of marketing (place, price, product, and promotion) are the four pillars of a successful marketing strategy. Together, they get your product in front of the likeliest purchasers at the right price.

The 4 P’s concept was developed by Edmund Jerome McCarthy, a Notre Dame marketing professor, in his 1960 book, “Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach.”

Rather than studying marketing from a functional standpoint, defining traditional marketing roles and how they work within an organization, McCarthy’s approach focused more on problem-solving and the challenges marketers faced.

It was a revolutionary concept. Instead of just defining what marketing was, McCarthy sought to improve marketing practices by borrowing from fields such as sociology and psychology to gain insight into consumer behavior.

McCarthy’s research led to the 4 P’s—place, price, product, and promotion—and because they are so foundational, they are still used to teach marketing today and can be adapted to modern advances such as marketing software and internet marketing.

Read on to see why each P is so important, and how they fit into the overall marketing mix for your small business.

1. Place

Place: Whether brick and mortar or digital, place is how your business gets its products and services in front of interested consumers.

We’ve all heard the old real estate saw, “location, location, location.”

But we’re not talking about the 3 Ls, we’re talking about the 4 P’s.

Still, the concept is the same for both. In real estate, where your property is located is more important than its size or condition. In marketing, where and how your customer is exposed to your product is the foundation for any successful marketing mix.

EXAMPLE: In the recent past, this meant how visible your product was in the physical marketplace. That’s why Coca-Cola’s iconic packaging is so important. Even in the 1900s, a parched consumer could stroll into the local general store and spot a bottle of Coca-Cola with minimal effort.

In modern times, things are a little more complicated.

Where your product appears on the internet is even more important than where it appears in the physical world. Why? Because your reach in the physical world is limited by physical space, while your reach online can be global. For example, is your product promoted on the front page of Amazon, or an obscure web site?

THE TAKEAWAY: As a high-level concept, place can mean many things in many different situations, from a product display in a grocery store, to an internet pop-up ad, or even a product placement in a movie. The important question that marketers must ask themselves is: how can I make it easier for customers to find my product? And work from there.

2. Price

Price: How much consumers are willing to pay for a product or service.

There’s a reason that $9.99 is a more popular price than $10.

The marketer’s challenge is to come up with a price that is attractive to consumers while still turning an acceptable profit for the company. Even though there’s only a one-cent difference, 99 cents just sounds like a much better deal than one whole dollar.

There are many factors that come into play when determining the price of your product or service, such as:

Competitor’s prices
The actual cost of materials and production
Market fluctuations
Basic supply and demand

But beyond those factors, there are situations when companies artificially inflate the price of a product to increase perceived value, or even charge less than a product is really worth to build customer loyalty.

EXAMPLE: A liquor company might be able to charge tenfold what a bottle of vodka is really worth by putting it in a fancy package, or a grocery story might sell eggs for 50 cents on the dollar to get customers through the doors.

THE TAKEAWAY: What you charge for your product or service not only determines how much money you can make, but also how you’re perceived in the marketplace. Do you want to be known as the high-end, but also high-priced option for the elite? Or do you want to be known as the customer-friendly, affordable value option for the masses?

The first option typically means higher profits but fewer sales, while the second option usually yields a higher volume of sales but a smaller profit margin. For example, the Atlanta Falcons are using the latter approach with their “Fan First Pricing” at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

3. Product

Product: The goods and/or services your company offers.

In many ways, product is the most important ingredient in the marketing mix because without it, you don’t have a place in the market, and you certainly can’t sell or advertise something that doesn’t exist or doesn’t have any demand.

Your product or service should be the essence and lifeblood of your business.

Even if your product is intangible, such as an insurance policy or consulting service, it should still stand out in the marketplace either because it does something that nothing else in the market does, or because it does—or at least strives to do—something better than everything else on the market.

EXAMPLE: You want to open a lemonade stand. Unless you’re planning on selling something—say pink lemonade—that no other stand in your neighborhood offers, or you’re confident that your lemonade is going to taste better than your competition, you should focus on finding a new product.

THE TAKEAWAY: When considering your product’s place in the marketing mix, you should ask yourself questions such as:

What does my product or service do that nothing else in the market does?
How is my product or service better than the competition?
Why should a consumer pay for my product or service instead of the competition?

If you can’t come up with good answers to those questions, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

4. Promotion

Promotion: The case you make for your goods and services through advertising, PR, and other marketing channels.

This is the fun P.

Promotion includes concepts such as brand awareness, influencers, social media marketing, sponsorships … basically any interaction that your company has with the consumer regarding your product. In many ways, promotion allows for more creativity than any of the other P’s.

Just think: radio jingles, sweepstakes, street teams, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile… all promotional innovations.

Promotion is closely related to place in the marketing mix. The difference between the two is that place is more about passive visibility, while promotion is more about active communication.

EXAMPLE: Not to dwell on the Wienermobile, but this is a nice way to start and end this piece with frankfurters.

At any given time, Oscar Mayer has six official Wienermobiles piloted by Hotdoggers (brand ambassadors) touring the country, spreading the good news about Oscar Mayer’s meat products. The Wienermobile is a promotional win because just the sight of it is enough to make people smile and develop a positive image of the Oscar Mayer brand.

THE TAKEAWAY: Every last interaction you have with the consumer will become part of the story of your company in the mind of the consumer. Do you want them to think of your company as trustworthy, playful, or offbeat? Or do you want to be known as cold, uncaring, or greedy? Your brand voice should be reflected in every communication you have as a company.

Flavor your marketing mix with the 4 P’s

Now that you know more about each of the 4 P’s of marketing, remember to balance them all together to build a delicious marketing mix that ensures you have a desirable product or service that your customers can find and buy at a competitive price.

Are you still hungry for more marketing nourishment? Check out these articles to get your fix:

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:

Product
Price
Place
Promotion

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.

1. Product

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.

2. Price

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.

3. Place

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.

Featured Resource

Marketing Mix Templates

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Marketing Mix Examples from Real Businesses

Product

Mercaris

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.

Noirbnb

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.

Price

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.

Canva

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.

Placement

Hu

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.

Promotion

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.

Marketing Mix Templates

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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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