Marketing changes quickly and it’s very easy to become focused on looking for new developments in technology that will reach your customer base faster and much more efficiently. This is especially true in today’s world of mobile technology. But sometimes this kind of thinking can distract from the foundations that marketing campaigns were built on. We’re sharing marketing tips to get you back on track.

Marketing Managers in today’s companies should review the “Four P’s of Marketing” annually.

Marketing Tips: Understanding The 4 P’s

Product

It is the tangible object or an intangible service that is getting marketed by the company. To retain competitiveness in the market, continuous product extensions though innovation to differentiate a product from competitors.

Price

The price is the simply amount a customer pays for the product or service. If the price outweighs the perceived benefits for an individual, the perceived value of the offering will be low and it will be unlikely to be adopted, but if the benefits are perceived as greater than their costs, chances of trial and adoption of the product is much greater.

Place

Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. This may include any physical store (supermarket, departmental stores) as well as virtual stores (e-markets and e-malls) on the Internet.

Promotion

This represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace to increase awareness about the product and its benefits to the target segment. Promotion has four distinct elements: advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion.

Once reviewed, marketing managers need to ask themselves a few questions to see if they are getting full value from their existing marketing channels to promote their products/services.

• What is everyone else doing and is there anything I can do to make myself stick out from the rest?
  • For example, if everyone else is doing mass emails, would a phone call or handwritten note work better?
• Did we abandon anything that worked before – and why?
  • Sometimes marketing programs are too expensive to continue; however, new revenue streams can increase a company’s cash flow as the organization matures. Don’t be afraid to revisit marketing ideas you once deemed as costly.
• Has anything changes that might allow for new ventures?
  • Have macro-economic conditions changed. Back in 2008, no one wanted to be anywhere near real estate, but today things have settled down and housing is experiencing a recovery. Take a look for any changes that might have impacted your industry.
• Can we expand our market?
  • Are there untapped markets that you can exploit? If your business is in website development, the large corporations may not need your services. However, there could be plenty of small-to-mid-sized businesses that you desperately need your help.

We all like the new shiny expensive toys in marketing. But it should blind us to the original foundations of marketing. An annual study of the Four P’s of marketing and en evaluation of your company’s campaigns can be highly beneficial.