Origins
Borden described the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients", and McCarthy condensed the ingredients into the 4Ps. The mix implements the target market and positioning chosen through STP.
The 4Ps
- Product: quality, design, brand, packaging, product line
- Price: cost-, competition- and value-based pricing, discounts, penetration or skimming
- Place: channels, intensive, selective or exclusive distribution, logistics
- Promotion: advertising, sales promotion, PR, personal selling, digital
The 7Ps for services
Booms and Bitner added people, physical evidence and process to reflect intangibility and simultaneous production and consumption.
The 4Cs
Lauterborn recast the seller-centred 4Ps as customer value, cost, convenience and communication.
Analysing a firm
State the STP first, then judge whether each P is consistent with the positioning and whether the elements reinforce one another.
References
- Borden, N. H. (1964). The concept of the marketing mix. Journal of Advertising Research, 4(2), 2-7.
- McCarthy, E. J. (1960). Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. Irwin.
- Booms, B. H., & Bitner, M. J. (1981). Marketing strategies and organization structures for service firms. In J. H. Donnelly & W. R. George (Eds.), Marketing of Services (pp. 47-51). American Marketing Association.
- Lauterborn, R. (1990). New marketing litany: Four Ps passé; C-words take over. Advertising Age, 61(41), 26.
- Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2018). Principles of Marketing (17th ed.). Pearson.