hello and welcome to today's lesson where we're looking at the four ps of marketing now the four ps of marketing also known as the marketing mix is a tool that can help you offer the right product in the right place at the right time and for the right price it can help you think about the customer focus choices you have to make when bringing a product to market so the four ps are product what is it that you sell and how does it fulfill your customers needs place where do you promote and sell your product price how much is your product and finally promotion how do your ideal customers find out about you so let's take a look at each of the four p's in a bit more detail creating a successful marketing mix begins with creating a product or service that fulfills a significant customer need so customers purchase your product because it satisfies a need or a want now these needs and desires are rarely basic so for example a customer may buy a luxury car to fulfill their need for status good marketers understand these needs and create and position products to cater to these needs now note that the definition of a product not only refers to the actual good or service you offer but also to how you package your product and by packaging we mean amongst other things the features of your product its unique selling proposition or usp it's branding packaging and any guarantee or warranty you offer now product is deliberately the first element of the four p's and the reason for this is that it's almost impossible to determine any of the other p's if you haven't clearly defined what your product is so for example how can you set the price of a car if you don't know whether you're building a mazda or a ferrari so the second p is place and this refers to how and where people will buy your product you want to make sure that your products are available when and where customers want your products to be available place also means making sure that your product is available in the right quantity to ensure that you're able to satisfy demand for your product other questions to answer in this element include what form of transportation will you use to get your product to where you're selling it and how will you manage inventories now really the key question to answer during this stage is what is the most appropriate distribution channel for your product or service will you sell directly to the customer as you can see here on the left if not how will you get your product to where you are selling it you can see two other options here both involving one or more intermediaries be aware that each middleman or intermediary you recruit to help you sell your product will expect to be paid to perform this role so the third p is price and this refers to the price a customer must pay to purchase your product or service price is the easiest element of the four ps to manipulate you can change your price overnight and immediately see an impact on your revenue now determining a price for your product can be complex typically you want to consider three variables cost so how much your product costs to produce price how much you charge customers for your product and finally value how much value your customers get from your product where you focus amongst these three variables will depend on your business strategy if your business strategy focuses on cost leadership then you'll want to minimize your costs and the price you charge if your business strategy focuses on differentiation so that is being unique in the marketplace then you'll want to focus on maximizing the value you provide the final p is promotion promotion aims to persuade customers to buy your product now promotion is concerned with where when and how you will advertise your products and services examples of promotional channels include billboard advertising facebook advertising radio advertising and trade show stands now when non-marketers think about marketing it's often only promotion that they think of as being marketing if you're not a marketer it's important to realize that a marketer's brief covers all of the four ps of marketing now promotion is broader than just advertising as it includes public relations outreach and any discounting strategies that you use if you want to create your own marketing mix and use the four ps of marketing then you can follow this six step process so step one is to align your product or service to serve specific customer needs step two is to find out where your target audience hangs out or where they shop step three is to determine a price or your product taking into account your business strategy and the cost price and value variable step four is to determine your messaging and channels so what will your advertising messages be and what advertising channels will you use step five is to check all the pieces fit together so at this stage you've set your four ps and you're trying to make sure that everything makes sense and step six is to revisit your marketing mix over time and that could be because customers behavior changes over time maybe your competitors have done something that will cause you to need to change your marketing mix so to bring everything we've covered together let's work through an example of using the four ps of marketing in practice for this example imagine you're creating a course teaching english speakers to speak fluent spanish let's work through each of the six steps so the first step is to align your product to serve specific customer needs now there are hundreds of other spanish courses out there so why should someone choose yours well one way to think about this problem is that right now your potential customers are living unhappily on an island where they don't speak spanish and what they want to do is get to the island where they do speak spanish now unfortunately there are many bridges available to them to get them from one island to the other so why should they choose your bridge crafting your unique selling proposition is all about giving potential customers a reason to cross your bridge rather than your competitors your usp boils down to how you slice and dice your product to offer something unique so ideally to determine your usp you should go out into the marketplace and talk with potential customers and get feedback so assuming you've done this and for the purposes of this example then you might come up with usps like these learn the 1000 most common spanish words quickly watch your way to spanish fluency which might be appropriate if you've got a video based course learn spanish in just 10 minutes a day speak like a local in just three months now each of these usps gives potential customers a reason to choose your bridge instead of the competitors you can curate a usp even if your product isn't all that different from your competitors the key is that you slice and dice how you describe your product so that your potential customers perceive a difference step two is to find out where your target audience shops so for this example you identify the following options customers could purchase your course directly from your website you can work with bloggers to promote your course and in return pay them a commission for each sale they make and finally you could provide your course on an app step 3 you need to determine how much you will charge for your spanish course let's examine the three variables so first we have cost well your course may have cost a lot to produce the additional cost or the marginal cost of selling one additional subscription to your course is minimal in terms of price then your product strategy is one of differentiation so you'll be looking to charge a high fee for access to your course and finally value so while the value of speaking a second language is considerable people are used to paying low monthly amounts to access online language courses so taking all of that into account then your pricing options might be something like charge 10 a month for access or certain features are free forever but people need to pay to access your premium features step four is to determine your messaging and channels so suppose your usp was watch your way to spanish fluency you might decide to keep this as your messaging but add some additional messages to complement it such as why read a book when you can watch yourself the spanish fluency or how about sit back relax and get fluent in spanish in this step you also decide that your primary channels to attract new customers will be facebook and instagram advertising step five is to check all the pieces fit together you've now completed all of the four p's and your completed marketing template will look something like this and so now it's time to sanity check that everything makes sense in this example you're going to do this by running test ads with facebook the point of these tests is to determine if people are engaging with your messaging and therefore if they're interested in what you have to offer fortunately for this example people do engage with these test ads so you're in a position to launch when you're ready and finally step six is to revisit your marketing mix over time now you haven't launched yet so this step isn't relevant to you right now but you make a note to revisit the four ps later on so there are several advantages and disadvantages associated with the four ps in terms of advantages then it helps you to understand what your product can offer to your customers it provides a way to build a complete marketing plan that begins by focusing on aligning your product to your customers needs it allows you to see the critical components of even the most complex marketing plans on a single page in terms of disadvantages then it provides no mechanism to measure the success of your marketing efforts also price is fundamental to the model but brand building isn't now this focus on price rather than brand can be corrosive to your ultimate profitability also the model is high level and doesn't go into detail another point is while the model can help you put together a marketing plan the quality of your marketing plan will really be determined by the quality of the people who put your marketing plan together and finally it can take a lot of time to put a four piece of marketing plan together so in summary the four ps of marketing model is a tool that can help you offer the right product in the right place at the right time and for the right price the model begins by helping you create a product that your customers actually want to buy and moves on to help you to determine where to sell your product how much to charge and finally how you will promote your product so that's it for this lesson i really hope you enjoyed it and i look forward to speaking to you again soon