THE IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD AND THE ROLE OF 4P’S IN MARKETING

The impact on the use of the 4 P's in Marketing in any business

A Review of the Literature

Nikkirey Arandia

Patricia Wijanco

De La Salle University

1.1 overview of the topic

There are many definitions of marketing. Some people say that marketing is how

you advertise a new product in a more personal manner. Marketing involves

those products available in stores and how these are displayed so that they can

attract consumers to buy their products. The definitions given are some ways to

describe marketing. According to Burrow and Busiljevac(2009), Marketing has

two facets; it is a philosophy, an attitude, a perspective or a management

orientation that stresses customer satisfaction, and a process and activity used to

implement the said philosophy. According to the American Marketing

Association, marketing in connection to the second facet is the activity, the set of

institutions, and the process for creating communicating and delivering. It is also

an exchange of offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and

society in large (Burrow & Bosiljevac, 2009).

Marketing has 4 P’s namely Price, Product (Services), Promotion and place

(Distribution) (Anselmo, 2010). In the world of Marketing they always focuses in

the 4 P’s. Why? Because it will help them to be more successful in your own

business, company and making a new product well-known. So, people are not

just focusing in the 4 P’s but they take or treat the 4 P’s a very important factor

The 4P’s (Price, Promotion, Product and Place) is not easy if they do not

understand well and know how to use the things in the proper way. Learning 4P’s

in marketing is one of the best key how to reach your dreams especially when

you dream about in business. Entering into a business world will lead you to

success in life. Earning money is very easy when you have business especially

when you rally know how to play in business world.

Marketing really focuses on their consumers. According to American Marketing

association they define Marketing as “Marketing is an organizational function a

set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to consumers

and for managing customers relationships in in ways that benefit the organization

and stakeholders.” For them marketing is all about the consumers, they are

evolving around the consumers in the market. They depend it to the consumers.

(Pride & Ferrell, 2008)

1.2 Purpose of the paper

The purpose if this paper is to discuss how important the 4 P’s of marketing for

their new business product or service and to widen their knowledge in every

definition of marketing and to understand well the world of marketing.

1.3 Organization

Our paper will discuss the importance of marketing in the business world, the

different definition of marketing and how marketing can help people in making

and doing their business then the researchers will discuss the role of the 4p’s in

marketing. The Product, Price, Place and Promotion will be enumerated, defined

and explained well as the paper goes deep after explaining and discussing the

4P’s of marketing the researchers will make a conclusion about the paper.

2. Body

2.1 Product: The Right Product

2.1.1 Definition of a product

According to Handley,Product is actually a complex, multidimensional concept. It

is defined as the services, programs, and attitudes and he also included that

whatever the producer are offering in the target market they will give an effort to

meet the consumers need. (Handley, 2013).

Launching a new product is very difficult because the successful rate is very low.

The producer do not know if they can attract lots of consumer to their new

product or service. For Balachandra and Friar they noted that “bringing new

products successfully to market is the lifeblood for most organizations, but it is

also a complex and difficult task.”. If the producer really want that their product

will become successful they really need a good marketing strategy about their

product. (Hamburg & Bornemann & Totzek, 2009).

Preaannouncement intensity is different from a new product success.

Preaanoucement aim to reduce the time that the marketer will be able to accept

and they are focusing in the product’s innovation. (Hamburg & Bornemann &

Totzek, 2009).

2.1.2 Decision made in Product

2.1.2.1 Functionality, Appearance and Quality

A product must have an appearance that can attract the consumers. An

appearance that it looks like when they see in the market they are already

attracted not just a colorful or a cute appearance but it should be more like a

need for them and it must be unisex.

The functions of the product or service must be usable for all. It should be

usable so that the consumers will not regret buying or use the product or service

and so that the consumers will buy again the product if they needed it.

The quality of the product must be highly. Having a high-quality product or

service will or can attract the consumers. The consumers who tried the product

will endorse it to their other friends because if having the high-quality. A high-

quality product can also gain a loyal buyers because they are satisfied using the

product.

2.1.2.2 Packaging

Packaging is very important in every product because it helps a company to

protect and and identify their own product. It also attracts consumers if the

packaging of the product is very attracting. Packaging also has a vital role in

marketing because it develops the company’s image and the product. If they fail

to have a good packaging and wrong labeling this will cause a big problem and it

will lead you to closing and stop producing your product. (Handley, 2013)

2.1.2.3 Branding

According to American Marketing Association (AMA), they difined branding as a

"name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to

identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to

differentiate them from those of other sellers. (Merz & He & Vargo, 2009)

Branding is not about getting the target market and compete with other

competitor in the market but branding is the one that the company use to let the

people remember it. (Merz &He & Vargo, 2009). Brand logic also brings a new

understanding that brand value is very important. (Anselmo, 2010)

The meanings of brand and branding is evolving already in the past several

decades in the business world. The evolution of brand and branding is

converging on a new conceptual logic, which views in brand collaborative, value

co-creation of the firm and in the stakeholders. (Anselmo, 2010)

2.2.1 Pricing strategies

There are several pricing strategies when it comes to the marketing mix. First of

which is the Market Introductory Pricing which is a type of introductory pricing;

products of this type of pricing have low starting prices in order to capture the

market. Second strategy is Market Skimming Pricing, another introductory pricing

but this time, products come with a higher price. Pricing strategies also include

Cost-Based Pricing that involves the mark-up to make up the suggested retail

price, Market-Based Pricing which involves the market forces: supply and

demand, and Competitive Pricing with the benchmark competitive as its basis for

pricing. Another pricing strategy is Value-Based pricing which emphasizes on the

perceived quality of the brand and oftentimes the products highlight its value for

money. (Liongson, 2013)

Another set of pricing strategies includes seasonal pricing. Seasonal pricing is

the type of strategy is based on peak and off seasons. Sales and discounts are

mostly applied in this strategy. Products often are air travel tickets, seasonal

clothing, fruits, and vegetables. Another kind of pricing is Promotional pricing

which makes the buyer make immediate purchases—for example, Buy 1 Take 1

items. The last pricing strategy is called Psychological Pricing which makes use

of odd or round number to make consumers think that they are paying for a lot

less, when in reality, they’re just paying 25 to 50 centavos off the price. Examples

of this strategy would include the items with the decimals in their prices and red

tag promotions. (Liongson, 2013)

2.3 Place: Product sold in the right place

The place or the distribution is a vital element of marketing because this is where

you decide where to distribute your product or service -- since marketing is about

having the right product, in the right amount, being brought to the right place and

at the right time (Anselmo, 2010). This is when you get to you use your product

or service by means of many distribution channels to the ultimate purchaser or to

the end-user of your product or service. This means this is where and how the

consumer buys your product or service. In addition, the place is important

because it is how you can reach your target market. This concerns with the

location of your business, location of your target market, how to reach your target

market, warehousing of your stock, and transportation of your stock. In planning

a product placement, one must think of the multiple possible ways and places

through which the product or service can be sold. At the same time, it should be

noted how these certain placements can match the marketing promotion

(Grönroos, 2013).

There are many choices in distributing one's product or service. One can choose

a convenient retail location to distribute and sell products, negotiate with sales

representatives, use online sales shopping, personal selling through mail order

strategy, or choose a wholesale channel. The sales and overall company

performance is directly affected by the convenience of the chosen distribution

channel to the target market (Levy, 2012)

To explain further, one type of a place channel is an indirect distribution. This

involves distributing your product by the use of an intermediary like a

manufacturer selling to a wholesaler and then on to the retailer. This is also chain

of intermediaries by means of moving a product in order to be made available for

purchase by a consumer. An indirect channel of distribution usually requires a

product passing through additional steps as it moves from the manufacturing

business distributors to wholesalers and then retail stores. Indirect distribution

has many advantages, which is why a large part in the business world chooses

this type of distribution channel. Different firms specialize in different categories,

which is why it's hard to specialize in all the aspects of the product lifecycle. This

leads firms to decide to focus on what they specialize in, and use outside

companies for the other tasks (Anselmo 2010). Another type is direct distribution,

which concerns distributing direct from a manufacturer to the consumer. One

example would example Dell Computers providing directly to its target

customers. This is an advantage of direct distribution because it gives a

manufacturer complete control over the product or service. Direct distribution

leads to lower prices for the consumer. Since the product is only marked up

once, the selling price is much cheaper. As a result, consumers that purchase a

product directly from the wholesaler or manufacturer will pay much less for a

product. While direct distribution is very appealing due to low prices, it can be far

from efficient. There is a legitimate reason why many manufacturers and

wholesalers do not distribute directly in order to gain competitive advantage. 

They are not adept in business to consumer type selling. Instead, they rather sell

in bulk to another business. It will be that business who will have expertise in

selling to consumers. These businesses will have proper logistics and consumer

relations in order to support high individual demand whereas manufactures and

wholesales do not have similar capacities. (Levy, 2012).

2.4 Promotion: Product using the most suitable promotion

The main aim of promotion is to ensure that customers are aware of the

existence and positioning of products. Promotion is also used to persuade

customers that the product is better than competing products and to remind

customers about why they may want to buy. It is the process of reaching,

communicating and influencing the firm's target market. This is what lures the

consumers to the company's marketing table. Consequently, it is the method

used to spread the word about the firm's product or service to customers,

stakeholders and the target market. It is all about communicating to your target

market because it is the way the firm or the business can make its products or

services known to its potential or current customers. Once the target market is

identified, it well help give a good idea of the best way to reach them, but most

businesses use a mix of advertising, personal selling, referrals, sales promotion

and public relations to promote their products or services.

One element of the promotions strategy is advertising. Many people think that

advertising and marketing are almost the same but in truth, advertising is just one

of the many elements of marketing. This is a form of nonpersonal promotion. It is

when companies pay to promote ideas, goods, or services in a variety of media

outlets. It can be found everywhere. With advertising, a company engages in a

one-way communication to the prospect or customer. Similar to the definition of

promotions itself, it is a form of communication designed to persuade the target

market. The goal of advertising is to increase profit by increasing the sales of the

company. It serves to make the business, product or service name known to the

public. This helps educate and inform consumers more about the product. And of

course, it aims to attract consumers to buy the product. There are many ways of

advertising a product. It can be through print or non-print media. This can include

brochures, bookmarks, pencils, pens, banner ads on websites, television

commercials, radio advertisements, public service announcements, and any

public relations method possible (Bjerrisgaard and Kjelgaad, 2013). Another

element is public relations activities, which enable an organization to influence a

target audience. Most of the time, public relation campaigns try to create a

favorable image for a company, its products, or its policies. Companies give

news releases to announce newsworthy developments about a company's

products or services, distribution channels, facilities, operations, partners,

revenues and earnings, employees, and events. Publicity is one tactic that public

relations professionals use. This means bringing newsworthy information to the

public. Public relations is another important element of the promotion mix and,

frequently, it is the least obvious but most effective method. This is because

information usually is spread to the media in hopes that it will generate news

coverage and therefore results in a form of free advertisements. Press releases

often are sent to editors, newsworthy promotional events are held, and charitable

contributions are given as methods to get this attention (Ali, 1998). Another

element is personal selling. This is when there is one on one communication

between seller and the customer. It generates direct contact the customer and

seller. It is one of the most expensive forms of promotion because itrequires a lot

of time, effort, etc. Examples of these are personal meetings, telemarketing, and

correspondence. The sellers promote the product through their attitude,

appearance and specialist product knowledge. They aim to inform and

encourage the customer to buy, or at least trial the product (Anselmo, 2010). An

additional element is direct marketing. It is a type of advertising directed to a

targeted group of prospects and customers rather than to a mass audience. Two

forms of direct marketing are printed by mail, or direct by e-mail. The goals of

direct marketing are to generate sales or leads for sales representatives to

pursue. Direct marketing allows a business to engage in one-way communication

with is customers about product announcements, special promotions, bulletins,

customer inquiries, and order confirmations (Geoffrey 2013).

Conclusion

Marketing is essential in every aspect of any business because it brings about

success. Marketing has many components as mentioned above, like advertising,

public relations, sales, and promotions which is the method companies use to

introduce their products, offers and services to potential customers. Good

marketing is what gets you customers, which is what you need in a business.

Without your consumers, your business will not have sales. Marketing involves all

of the ways in which you communicate with the consumers. Essentially,

marketing is presenting a message to customers and influencing customer

perceptions. According to Riviere, marketing is an investment in future sales. It is

what you need as a businessman, because as an entrepreneur, the goal must

always be to look forward to the next sale, (Rivière, 2013). In order to make your

to gain one's potential customer, they need to be aware of the existence of the

company. The customers need to know what the company is all about and what it

offers. Marketing is the solution in gaining those potential customers. Using the 4

elements stated above: Price, Place, Promotions and Product, these elements

will help generate consumer interest and prompt the buying response of the

consumers. These factors also help one's business sustain and grow because

this builds product or service demand from the consumers. These will help

promote the flow of goods and services from the company to the potential

customer. Once you have the right product or service, the right location or

distribution method, an effective promotion and sales programs then these will

yield to the success of the company's business. Small businesses may think that

marketing is a cost that can be cut but it is actually what will produce sales. For

the company to be able to make money, one must spend money. If the

company's brand, image, products or services are not marketed to the company's

potential consumers then the business will not be generating sales and

sustaining the company for a long time, (Levy, 2012).

Marketing is all about the consumer. If the consumer doesn't know anything

about the product or service then there is no point of the business. No customer

will go up to a company and just ask about the product or service, it is

marketing's task to communicate with the consumer and influence their decisions

when it comes to buying the company's product or service, (Burrow, 2009).

In addition, marketing helps build the company's brand. Marketing strategies and

decisions help in giving the company an edge compared to competitors. It helps

the company know what the company can do better than other companies and

what the company can offer from what others cannot. Once a company figures

out the 4 elements of Marketing, this will help as a core to determine how the

company can build a brand. It will create the company's corporate identity, which

is how potential customers will recognize the company, (Handley, 2013.)

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