24. What are the famous ‘4 Ps’ of marketing?

Product

The foremost of the marketing four Ps is the product that a company intends to sell. It can be a car, toothbrush, nail polish, utensil, clothing item, etc. Although manufacturing a product does not fall in the work of the marketing department, yet how the product should look, how it should function, and how it can be used by the customers, is mainly determined by market research. Based on this same marketing strategy, the position of the product in the market is determined. To be successful in developing the right product, the marketing department should give regular inputs with regards to the needs and wants of the customers to the manufacturing department. Guarantees, warranties, and support services for the product should also be decided after researching about the offerings of the competitors.

Price

The price should be determined in accordance to a number of factors such as the number of product features, the price of similar products in the market, how much the customers are willing to shell out for the conveniences offered by the product, etc. As price is the revenue for a business so special attention should be paid while determining the pricing strategy. Discounts, allowances, and financing options fall under the pricing marketing mix strategy too.

Place

"Place" refers to making a product available to a customer at the right place and at the right time. For this, a business needs to have a proper distribution network in place along with appropriate storage facilities. A business should ensure that there is never a shortage of the product in the market. A business should determine which is a proper marketing tool and technique - retailing a product directly or letting others do the wholesaling and retailing.

Promotion

The last one is promotion i.e. making the end customer aware of the uses of the product. Advertising, managing public relations, branding, and sales promotion, all fall under this category. These promotional methods help a customer make his choice with regards to buying or not buying a particular product. Since the cost of promotions can be extremely high so the company should wisely decide upon which customers to target and how, by planning creative and intelligent marketing promotion methods.

As can be seen, developing your marketing 4 Ps - product, price, place, and promotion, is what ultimately determines how much profit a business is making. So a business, before devising strategies for a perfect marketing mix, should be absolutely thorough with its market research.

25. What do you know about brands and branding?

Branding has become one of the most important aspects of business strategy. Yet it is also one of

the most misunderstood. Branding is sometimes considered to be merely an advertising function.

And many managers and business writers hold the view that branding is about the management of

product image, a supplementary task that can be isolated from the main business of product

management. This note provides an alternative perspective, arguing that:

• Branding is a strategic point of view, not a select set of activities.

• Branding is central to creating customer value, not just images.

• Branding is a key tool for creating and maintaining competitive advantage.

• Brands are cultures that circulate in society as conventional stories.

• Effective brand strategies must address the four distinct components of brand value.

• Brand strategies must be “engineered” into the marketing mix.

This note develops a set of concepts and frameworks to guide the design of brand strategies

Think of the brand as the culture of the product.

While the product has a name and a trademarked logo, and perhaps other unique design features—all aspects that we

intuitively think of as “the brand”—in fact the brand does not yet exist. Names and logos and designs

are the material markers of the brand. But, because the product does not yet have a history, these

markers are “empty.” They are devoid of meaning. Now think of famous brands. They have markers

also: a name (McDonald’s, IBM), a logo (the Nike “swoosh,” the Traveler’s umbrella), a distinctive

product design feature (Harley’s engine sound), or any other design element that is uniquely

associated with the product. What is different is that these markers have been filled with customer

experiences, with advertisements, with films and sporting events that used the brand as a prop, with

magazines and newspaper articles that evaluate the brand, with conversations with friends and

colleagues that mention the brand. Over time, ideas about the product accumulate and “fill up” the

brand markers with meaning. A brand culture is formed. Let us consider how this happens.