According to the four ps, which of the following is a product-related ethical question?

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Table of Contents

• Academic Thought Leadership on the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix
• 4Ps of the Marketing Mix Defined
• 4Ps of the Marketing Mix: Product
• 4Ps of the Marketing Mix: Price
• 4Ps of the Marketing Mix: Place
• 4Ps of the Marketing Mix: Promotion
• How Did the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix Become 8Ps?
• Conclusion

The 4 Ps of Marketing Mix consists of:

• Product includes options, quality, design, features,  packaging and other related services.
• Price includes list price, marked price, discounts, shipping costs and competitors’ prices.
• Place includes distribution channels, platforms, websites and other online presences, physical locations, inventory, and delivery.
• Promotion includes branding, content marketing, advertising, search, influencer relations, social media, PR, voice  and sales./li>

Use this “Ultimate 4Ps of the Marketing Mix Guide!” It’s your cheat sheet to get up-to-speed on this core marketing theory.

Even better, we updated the 4Ps concepts to meet today’s evolving marketing challenges. Additionally we extended the Marketing Mix from 4Ps to 8Ps. It adds People, Positioning, Process and Performance to meet current marketing needs.

As a bonus, we added the Marketing Mix 4Ps check list to guide you through building or updating your marketing strategy.

Academic Thought Leadership on the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix:

Examine the academic foundation upon which the 4Ps (and now the 8Ps) of Marketing Mix are based.

Neil Borden first coined the term “Marketing Mix.” It consists of:

1. Elements that make up marketing programs.
2. Forces bearing on a firm’s marketing and to which the marketer must adjust his mix for success. This includes consumer buying behavior, the marketplace, competitors and government. Also, examine your suppliers and distributors.

“At any time the mix represents the program that a management has evolved to meet the problems with which it is constantly faced in an ever changing, ever challenging market,” said Borden.

E. Jerome McCarthy reduced the Marketing Mix to “The Four Ps” in Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach (1960).

In Marketing Management (1967), Philip Kotler defined the “Marketing Mix” as the set of controllable variables a firm can use to influence buyer response.

“Marketing management is the art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping and growing customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value.” — Philip KotlerClick To Tweet

In One-To-One Marketing (1993),  Don Peppers and Martha Rogers shifted the focus of marketing from mass audiences to individual customers to reach loyal buyers. So communications went from mass-to-one to one-to-one. With social media, participants were ables to communicate many-to-many.

With Permission Marketing (1999), Seth Godin reimagined Peppers and Rogers.
Instead of pushing messages to your audience, they grant you permission to communicate with them. (BTW, I’d be thrilled if you signed up for the weekly Actionable Marketing Guide Newsletter)

By defining Internet communications, The Cluetrain Manifesto  (1999) transformed the marketing mix.

• Markets are conversations.
• Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
• Conversations among human beings sound human.

Mark Schaefer’s Marketing Rebellion takes this customer-focused approach further. In his view, marketers must put consumers at the center of their focus to survive and thrive.

4Ps of the Marketing Mix Defined

Why discuss the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix in today’s connected, content saturated world?
Because recent developments and changing customer habits and beliefs require marketers to evolve or become extinct. At its core, the marketing function remains the same!

BTW, I’m not the only marketer saying this! This message is at the heart of Mark Schaefer’s Marketing Rebellion.

4Ps of Marketing Mix Infographic

Here’s the case for the evolving 4Ps of the marketing mix.

► 4Ps of the Marketing Mix: Product

At the heart of your business, tangible and intangible products and services must fulfill your customers’ needs or wants. To maximize results, provide products and/or services that solve customer problems.

As part of the Marketing Mix, your product includes use, design, packaging, quality, features, colors and size options.

Avoid Marketing Myopia!

Define your products and services with care. Broadly specify products to solve specific customer needs.

Theodore Levitt recommended focusing on improving generic products and/or related marketing instead of on production and delivery efficiency.

Further, Philip Kotler defined the Product Hierarchy in terms of 5 Product Levels:

1. Core product fulfills the basic benefit or need.
2. Generic product provides the actual product with tangible qualities.
3. Expected product offers the generic product plus other attributes consumers want.
4. Augmented product gives consumers more than the physical product. It sets the product apart from competitors.
5. Potential product provides additional features, tangible and intangible,to delight consumers.

Philip Kotler’s 5 Product Levels of Product Hierarchy

Today, only providing functionality to meet consumers’ exact needs is no longer sufficient. Your offering must provide additional value relative to its cost. This includes an enhanced brand experience and/or supplemental features.

Of key importance, 92 million millennials have different buying patterns and expectations from their parents. (Goldman Sachs) For example, Millennials seek experiences over ownership.

BTW, as an intangible element of your offer, content marketing plays a key role.

► 4Ps of the Marketing Mix: Price

Since price influences profit margins as well as supply and demand, it’s core to your marketing strategy. Further products and brands may be positioned based on their price point. As a result price elasticity is related to place and promotion.

Price depends on packaging (including sizes), discounts, timing, location, shipping, and other offer-related elements.

Further your price depends on:

• Competitive offerings and prices,
• Market share,
• Product branding and quality,
• Materials and costs, and
• Customers’ perceived product value and fair price.

Price your offering fairly, competitively and consistently across distribution channels including voice. Since your prospect has at least one connected device handy to compare prices. So your competitors are only a click away regardless of where, when and how your prospect wants to interact with you.

Further, new competitors, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, may enter the marketplace closer to the point of purchase. So you make less profit since you’ll need more marketing.

Millennials seek maximum convenience at the lowest cost from brands. So, your brand is associated with price!

► 4Ps of the Marketing Mix: Place

Place makes your product accessible to potential buyers and their purchase influencers. Today, location includes retail, digital, phone, chat, voice, fax and multi-channel options.

When determining place, astute marketers consider consumer context, a key element of voice marketing, and product findability.

Expanded platform and device options require your business to be present when, where and how your audience spends their time. Take the time to understand your customer’s media consumption.

Determine how potential buyers will search for your offering. Where possible, survey your current customers because their habits may differ from those of your executives. This includes where they are physically and how they’re using their devices to find “Near Me”search results or voice commands.

From 2018 to 2019, Google’s search engine marketer share grew to 94% according to Sparktoro and Jumpshot.

2018 Search Market Share Chart via Sparktoro

Further, about two-thirds of  Google’s searches are zero click. This means that the user gets their answer and doesn’t leave the search results page. Or, they may make a voice request and only get one response.  (Source: Sparktoro)

► 4Ps of the Marketing Mix: Promotion

As part of the Marketing Mix, promotion consists of content, communications and messaging that persuades your audience including buyers and purchase influencers to purchase your product or service.

Beyond creating special deals, find a unique hook that makes your products or services memorable. Additionally your positioning must set your offering apart from that of your direct and indirect competitors. Al Ries and Jack Trout changed marketing in 1980 when they wrote Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind.

Driven by content and conversation, not marketing push, promotion consists of more than your offer. Promotion drives your prospects through the purchase process. It creates a quality experience that helps and answers customers.

How Did the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix Become 8Ps?

With dynamic markets influencing customer choices and decisions, your marketing approach must evolve to meet their current needs.

As a result, marketers have supplemented the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix with another 4Ps to create a total of 8Ps of the Marketing Mix.

How 4Ps of Marketing Mix Becomes 8Ps

► Additional 4Ps Defined: People

In terms of marketing, people includes everyone your business touches. Yes–you read that correctly! This translates to the BIO Approach including buyers, income makers and others.

Why?

Because how your employees, audience (including buyers), influencers, and others view your company has an impact on the type and amount of marketing needed to persuade people to purchase from your organization.

Remember:
People do business with people they trust.

Even better, your employees are more trusted by the public than your CEO and this remained consistent through 2020. (Source: Edelman Trust Barometer)

Further:
Your audience seeks personalized experiences. (Forrester 2015)  

But don’t create homogeneous experience, offer redundant or duplicate content, or get creepy about how you handle their personal data (Norman Nielsen Group)

Looking to build a personalization strategy? Checkout Personalization For Dummies ® , the holy grail of personalization!

► Additional 4Ps Defined: Positioning

Due to low trust, customers and employees turn to businesses and their leaders to lead change. As Edelman’s Trust Barometer continues to show: Businesses must stand for something more than making a profit. In 2020, trust in business and corporations exceeded trust in governments and media.

Twitter’s Stacy Minero said it best:

“It’s never been more important for brands to have a purpose. People are looking for brands to be more of a moral compass, and to stand for something.” — Stacy MineroClick To Tweet

According to Mark Schaefer, “[C]ompanies must be more human to survive and thrive in this rebellion.”

► Additional 4Ps Defined: Process

When applying Processes to the Marketing Mix, focus on using technology to improve the customer experience. This translates to delivering marketing messages where, when and how your audience wants them.

From a marketing point of view, this includes the MarTech stack including Marketing AI.

Further, your prospects and customers expect a timely, seamless process (Accenture research). They don’t care about your organization’s internal personnel and technology issues.

► Additional 4Ps Defined: Performance

Marketing Performance means measurable results aligned with your business’s financial and strategic objectives. Further, marketers must translate their marketing results into language finance and accounting executives can understand.

With increasing marketing budgets and more measurable platforms, marketers feel increased pressure to show marketing ROI.

Conclusion: How the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix Expanded to 8Ps

By using the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix (and now 8Ps) you maximize the impact of  every element of your marketing strategy.

Use these 8 components of the Marketing Mix as strategic levers to ensure business success.

The key to the 8Ps of the Marketing Mix:
You win by helping your audience, specifically prospects and buyers, to find a solution that provides value to them.

Don’t let the fact that the term Marketing Mix first came into being during the 1940s deter you from using it.

The reality:
The underlying strategy of the 4Ps and the Marketing Mix remain solid. What has changed are the tactics that depend on the media options, devices and consumption choices.

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

PS: Big tip of my hat to Mark Schaefer who inspired me to write this post!

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4Ps charts created by Heidi Cohen – (c)2022 All rights reserved- Permission to use with link to this article.
Note: This post was originally published on March 5, 2019. It has been update and revised. 

What ethical question relates to the product element of the marketing mix?

What is product in 4ps?

What are 4 P's quizlet?

Which of the following accurately represents the 4 Ps of the marketing mix?