
It can be said that marketing is everything a brand or company does to satisfy consumers and, at the same time, make a profit.
To achieve that satisfaction of the needs and desires of the consumer, in marketing 4 controllable variables that are known as the marketing mix or marketing mix are used. This is the 4 P's: product, price, place and promotion.
Today we will explain briefly and easily each of the P's and the role that each plays in the marketing mix.
Product
What we call product in the marketing mix is any tangible good or service provided. In addition, it has two elements that make it up: the formal product, which is the product itself; and the expanded product that is all that the consumer receives when purchasing the product.
For example, when someone buys a Louis Vuitton bag, the formal product is simply a bag, but the expanded product is a luxury bag, which provides certain status and carries with it a whole series of social meanings and perceptions.
The expanded product can also consist of other tangible products (for example a watch that comes with several straps) or additional services that may come with the purchase (for example, hair extensions, which when you buy them also put them on) of a specific formal product.
Price
This refers to the amount the consumer pays for the product. It can be set by the company (almost always), by the government (in the case of regulated products), or by the market (as is, for example, the case of shares sold in the stock market).
When setting a price it is necessary to take into account the price-value relationship. The price is the amount of money a product costs, and the value is what a consumer considers that a product should cost according to what it brings.
If the price is set well above the perceived value of a product, it will not be sold. On the other hand, if the price is very low, it will not be able to meet the demand, it will be exhausted and there will be a shortage; or in the case of some particular products, consumers may distrust an extremely low price and decide not to make the purchase.
Square
Here all the efforts made to bring a product from the manufacturer to the consumer in a certain way are included. It is very easy to think that this is nothing more than the moment when the product enters a truck and is delivered to the points of sale, but this P is not only limited to the displacement or distribution of the product, but also includes factors such as storage, the location of the product on the shelves, and agents or brokers (as in the case of services such as insurance policies, for example).
Promotion
This is the P that most people think is marketing, leaving out the other three, and although it is the most visible of the four, it is actually just one facet of the marketing mix.
The promotion refers to all communication efforts that are made to position the product in the mind of the consumer and finally make the purchase (and ideally the re-purchase, until generating brand loyalty).
Within this P are elements such as advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal sales and social networks. Many times a single marketing action for this P will encompass more than one of the elements just mentioned.
For example, an energy drinks brand performs an extreme sports tournament (public relations), for which it makes an open call through its Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts (social networks), which in turn promotes with ads in press, billboards, radio spot, television commercial and web banners (advertising). He also looks for recognized extreme athletes and asks them to talk about the event (public relations), incorporating a strategy of influencers to the promotion of the event and also gives tickets for the final of the tournament with a raffle in which people who buy a six pack of the drink (sales promotion), and this contest is notified to the database of its consumers via mail (direct marketing).
For the event, the brand invites the press, which in turn covers the event (public relations), and has its own team making live coverage (social networks) and collecting material to show in photo, video, etc. . After the event on your website, your YouTube accounts and other social networks.
That is, the elements of the promotion will almost always be activated together (although not always all at once), and are intertwined with each other.
conclusion
None of the elements of the marketing mix is more important than the rest. Each of the P's is necessary to get the products sold as the company wants. You can have an excellent product, with an excellent distribution but if its price is not correct, nobody will buy it. Or a spectacular and powerful promotion may have been activated, taking care to place the product in all the relevant points of sale, but if it is of poor quality, no buyer will take it home; and so it is with all P's. In the end, the marketing mix is like a four-legged table: if it limps, the table wobbles and often collapses
So when making a good marketing strategy, remember not to neglect any of the legs!
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