The Four Ps In Marketing – Flogging a Dead Horse?

The Four Ps In Marketing

An old friend of mine asked me to call him yesterday. His business had been having some problems, we chatted about the business.  I immediately thought about the four ps in marketing as this is hardwired in my brain nowadays.

He and his Father had delivered a great service for many years but there was a clear issue to face of “flogging a dead horse”, we discussed marketing and business and gave some thought to the four ps in marketing.

The Four Ps In Marketing Are:

  • Product
  • Price
  • Place
  • Promotion

Like many companies the product was the problem. It had been “disrupted” by modern technology, the technology that they used for delivering their product has been bought by a lot of their customers, who can now look after their own requirements with the help of perhaps the odd engineer or technical resource.

the four ps in marketing

He had all sorts of people commenting on the thread on Facebook, someone said you need to get a good social media marketing company and there were lots of other wacky ideas, but I took the time to look at the bigger picture and he explained in detail their problem was the lack of demand.

We chatted a little bit about his problem and both pretty much agreed that it was perhaps time to call it a day and move into some other line of business, as it is in the middle of a town obtaining a change of use for a different type of business usage would be very hard, he has a few good solid business ideas and I am sure he will make it work so it wasn’t a catastrophe, unfortunately in business sometimes you need to make these decisions and the people you have working for you have to adapt and retrain or find another job, which is at times very hard.

Social media may not be the answer!

Before you automatically thinking social media or marketing is the solution, taking a long hard look at the business and the marketing fundamentals like the four ps of marketing.

The four ps In marketing

The four ps of marketing are still valid to this day, I know everyone thinks marketing is all about digital and social, but without getting these nailed it doesn’t work and you’ll end up flogging a dead horse!

Product, Price, Place, Promotion – in this instance it was the product part of the four ps in marketing foundation.

The problem of decreased demand is awful, because the product or service you are selling is not relevant any longer, some serious revamping of the product is needed, or a complete change of direction could be prudent in this case.

Taking time to think about what a great product would be fit for that location is the first place to start if you own the venue. If nothing sticks then perhaps selling it for redevelopment is an option and go and move location, it is much easier selling something that firstly everyone needs and secondly is in the right location, as opposed to trying to flog a dead horse!

If you try and edit all four ps in marketing at the same time you will fail miserably, changing everything at once without an element of testing can land your business in some serious problems. My colleagues and I always recommend taking the time to do some serious research first before changing any element to a business.

If you have a problem with your marketing or your business and are reading this, please email me nat@natschooler.com and we can arrange a conversation to discuss if we can help your business.

Great picture from https://www.pexels.com/photo/mountains-nature-arrow-guide-66100/

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