The 4 Ps of marketing and the marketing mix

The 4 Ps of marketing is a well-known concept that summarizes the 4 basic elements of a marketing strategy: product, price, place and promotion. The concept was originally introduced in McCarthy’s 1960 best-seller Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. While it’s 60 years old and digitalization of the world has changed the fabric of marketing forever, these are still some core, foundational principles that have stood the test of time. Before we look at this framework in more detail let’s take a look at its history.

Note: we’ve used the term consumers throughout this article as that was the focus for the studies at the time. However the principles are just as applicable to B2B marketing as B2B. It’s best to think of consumers as meaning ‘the person or entity that will use your product or service’, but that’s quite a mouthful, so let’s stick to ‘consumers’ for now!

What is the marketing mix?

The first known mention of a marketing mix has been attributed to a Professor of Marketing at Harvard University, prof. James Culliton. In 1948 Culliton published an article called ‘The Management of Marketing Costs’ where he described marketers as ‘mixers of ingredients’. Years later Professor Neil Borden published a retrospective article about the early history of the marketing mix as a concept where he claims to have been inspired by Culliton’s idea of mixers and credits himself with popularising the term. Borden’s original model included 12 codependent ingredients:

1. Product planning
2. Pricing
3. Branding
4. Channels of distribution
5. Personal selling
6. Advertising
7. Promotions
8. Packaging
9. Displays
10. Services
11. Physical handling
12. Fact-finding analysis

And here are the four different “market forces” that influenced the marketing mix:

1. Consumer buying behavior, as evidenced by wholesalers and retailers
2. Industry and trade behavior, as evidenced by wholesalers and retailers
3. Competitor positioning, behavior, and industry response
4. Governmental regulation of the industry and/or market

What are the 4Ps of marketing?

Professor E. Jerome McCarthy simplified Borden’s concept and distilled it down to four simple categories, now referred to as ‘the 4 Ps of marketing’.

1. Place
   Place refers to how the product will be provided to the consumer.
2. Product
   Refers to the physical product or service designed to meet a consumer need.
3. Promotion
   The marketing strategies used, including sales, PR consumer education etc.
4. Price
   What the consumer will pay for the product or service.

Are they even relevant today?

While the general consensus is that both of these concepts are better suited to companies selling traditional consumer products, we’d argue the process of defining your marketing mix and four Ps is a great exercise for developing a marketing strategy in any industry, including B2B. The marketing mix and the 4 Ps require us to:

1. Identify and articulate the market for the product or service.
2. Research potential customers and the unique need your product or service will fill.
3. Craft a value proposition that addresses the consumer needs identified.
4. Perform some competitor intel to identify how they’re pricing their product, their target market and the messaging they are using.
5. Identify the right time and place to promote the product to the target market. The above even applies to content marketing strategies, you need to know your audience, their pain points, what you're selling, and what your competition is up to. So, as you can see, even though the framework is 60 years old, the concept is timeless!