4 Steps to become a best marketer Using the 4Ps approach Marketing

Using the “4Ps” approach, explain how you would market your new company.

What are the 4Ps of Marketing?

The 4Ps of marketing is a model for enhancing the elements of your ‘marketing mix’ – the way in which you take a new product or service to market. It helps you to determine your marketing options regarding price, product, promotion, and place so that your offering meets a specific customer need or demand.

These variables are better known as the marketing mix or 4Ps and are manipulated to suit specific market segments. For example, General Motors South Africa, the manufacturers and importers of Opel, Isuzu, Chevrolet and Suzuki vehicles, compete with a particular product (1.4i Corsa Lite), available at a specific price (R68 600) from General Motors dealerships across the country (place). The Corsa Lite is advertised using various forms of promotion (print, radio, television and others using mainly the Raj 1 and 2 characters) directed at a specific target market (mostly younger, first-time car buyers). Different marketing strategies are employed by General Motors South Africa to market its Opel Corsa, Opel Astra, Opel Meriva, Isuzu one ton pick-ups and Opel Corsa half-ton pickups, all of which would be intended for different target markets too.

The 4 Ps of Marketing

Product

Price

Promotion (communications)

Place (distribution)

Step 1: Product branding

You need to ask your self the following question about the brand you are planning to market,

What does the customer want from the product /service? What needs does it satisfy?
What features does it have to meet these needs?
Are there any features you've missed out?
Are you including costly features that the customer won't actually use?
How and where will the customer use it?
What does it look like? How will customers experience it?
What size(s), colour (s), and so on, should it be?
What is it to be called?
How is it branded?
How is it differentiated versus your competitors?
What are the most it can cost to provide and still be sold sufficiently profitably? (See also Price, below.)

Step 2: Place - distribution

Where do buyers look for your product or service?

If they look in a store, what kind? A specialist boutique or in a supermarket, or both? Or online? Or direct, via a catalogue?

How can you access the right distribution channels?

Do you need to use a sales force? Or attend trade fairs? Or make online submissions? Or send samples to catalogue companies?

What do your competitors do, and how can you learn from that and/or differentiate?

Step 2: Price

What is the value of the product or service to the buyer?
Are there established price points for products or services in this area?
Is the customer price sensitive? Will a small decrease in price gain you extra market share? Or will a small increase be indiscernible, and so gain you plus profit margin?
What discounts should be offered to trade customers, or to other specific segments of your market?
How will your price compare with your competitors?

Step 4: Promotion

Where and when can you get your marketing messages across to your target market?

Will you reach your audience by advertising online, in the press, on TV, on the radio, or on billboards? By using direct marketing mailshots? Through PR? On the Internet?

When is the best time to promote? Is there seasonality in the market? Are there any broader environmental issues that suggest or dictate the timing of your market launch or subsequent promotions?

How do your competitors do their promotions? And how does that influence your choice of promotional activity?