The 4 P’s of Marketing

Marketing is one of the functions of business that is often misunderstood and therefore is not being used properly within a business. You will discover that the businesses and people that need marketing the most are often the ones that don’t do it. On the other hand the businesses that many a layman would say do not need marketing as they have succeeded already have grown and perhaps dominate the market.

Another one of the problems I have noticed especially amongst small businesses is that marketing is too often mistaken for so many things it is not. For instance:

• Marketing is not promotion
• Marketing is not advertising
• Marketing is not leafleting
• Marketing is not PR
• Marketing is not selling
• Marketing is not getting a product to market

Then what really is ‘market’? The simplest definition of marketing is getting the right product at the right price through the right promotion to the right place. Marketing is a function that contains all these things and not just one of them.

In fact the reason that a lot of people with potentially good business skills are not in business is because of their lack of understanding and proper use of marketing. For instance one of the key questions that face anyone in setting up a business is ‘do I have the right products or service?’ It is a question every businessperson asks themselves. And their inability to tell or not often creates cold feet and the business is never launched. But likewise the reason why a lot of businesses are facing problems is because of a lack of a well-developed marketing function, which small business often see as optional and an area for cost-saving. For instance you have a lot of businesses that will set up without considering whether or not the product or service is right. There are a lot of people out there who are conceited and programmes like X-Factor and Dragons Den clearly prove this. Don’t rely on your Gran and your Mam! Or you may very well end up short of a few bob and even owing.  However, as I have stated earlier marketing is not just about getting the right product, or right place etc. but all of these things.

If you ask or look at any successful business about the marketing function in their business they will tell you it is a consistent and constant function of their business. Not just for launching their products or services and increasing sales but also maintaining marketing share.

Any one of these factors could cause your business to fail.

For instance if you feel something is a very high price then you are likely to have low sales.

Again if you advertise in the local newspaper and your client group only reads the Telegraph you are not likely to get the impact you desire.

However this is a very simplistic view of how these factors may influence business, which was used to drive home the significance of each of the 4 P’s of marketing to your business (using just two of them). Things are a little more complex than this – for instance it is not strictly true that the higher the price the lower the demand. In some cases the higher price could increase the demand for a product. It depends on who you are selling the product to. Hence in dealing with each factor you need to consider the others as well.

The 4 P’s of marketing, otherwise known as the marketing mix, is an important business tool major companies use to achieve their marketing strategy. By offering a product or service with the right combination of the 4 P’s you can improve the effectiveness of your marketing.

The marketing mix can be likened to making a cake – there are basic ingredients to making all cakes: flour, milk, eggs and sugar. However, a child’s birthday cake will require a different recipe from a wedding cake. The marketing mix works in the same way, with the key ingredients being product, price, place and promotion but how you use these ingredients will differ depending on the product or service you provide.

James Kemsey (JK) Wilkinson opened his first Wilkinson Store in Charnwood Street, Leicester in 1930. In 2005 Wilkinson launched its Internet shopping service, offering over 800,000 product lines for sale online. Wilkinson currently has over 300 stores, which carry an average of 25,000 product lines. 40% of these are Wilko ‘own-brand’ products. The company’s target is to see this element grow and to have over 500 stores by 2012.

The question however is how did Wilkinson go from being a corner shop into a major supermarket brand despite the huge amount of competition?

Wilkinson built a successful brand by marketing currently getting the right product at the right price through the right promotion to the right place.

Here are recent examples of Wilkinson using the 4 Ps to increase the penetration of their brand and shops: they targeted the student population, knowing their prices would appeal and their product had already gained acceptance. The issue however was how to get to market and make the most awareness of their products.  Many businesses at this stage would have thought ‘throw money at it’ in the local press or student press, however research showed the best channel to market in was the fresher fairs.

Hence saving a whole lot of money on wasted promotion and big splashes on TV.