Marketing Mix 4P

Marketing Mix 4P is a method for determining product strategy and product portfolio. Father of this thought was Neil H. Borden. It was based on the analogy withe a cake mix. He claimed that the starting powder is a suitable basis for baking a good cake. It can be modified to some extent (sugar, flavour…), but it is no good to overdo it (e.g. too much sugar).

E. Jerome McCarthy continued on Borden’s thoughts. McCarthy conceived the mix as we know it today. According to him, the marketing mix of the enterprise (or product) consists of four components:

• Product - the product and its features from the customer perspective - quality, reliability, design, brand, warranty, service and other services, etc.
• Price - the price of the product and total pricing policy
• Place - the way of distribution the product from the manufacturer to the final customer (see Distribution channels)
• Promotion - the ways of product promotion

Individual components of the marketing mix are also known as:

• Product mix
• Contract mix
• Distribution mix
• Communication mix

Marketing mix 4P is one of the keystones of the marketing strategy of the organization within the marketing and sales management.

Marketing mix 4P is the marketing mix in business perspective, the alternative is marketing mix 4C, that comes from the customer perspective.

How to use 4P marketing mix in practice?

The 4P mix parameters are always set after STP (segmentation, targeting and positioning). It is strongly recommended to perform marketing mix 4C in parallel. The latest alternative is marketing mix 3V.