| Have you ever heard of the 4 "P's" of marketing? If | | | | the promotional pens and not take into account that |
| you have not had a basic business course or | | | | particular product (P) and its level of quality and |
| attended training on marketing and business, this | | | | appeal to your market audience. Quality is important |
| concept may not be something you are using when | | | | and cheaper (price) is not always quality (product). |
| planning your own annual marketing plan and | | | | Thinking about and planning for the third "P", place, is |
| strategies. This article is going to review the 4 "P's" | | | | also important to consider along with price and |
| briefly and use promotional pens as the example for | | | | product. Are you going to be distributing your |
| clarification and is really well worth a read to any | | | | promotional pens at your place of business, at a |
| marketing or advertising professional. | | | | trade show, at a conference or seminar etc.? You |
| Before identifying the 4 "P's", it is important that you | | | | may actually want to distribute your promotional |
| know there are many different kinds of marketing | | | | pens in all of these or one or more of these. Making |
| and promotional models floating around. The purpose | | | | this decision before selecting your product will save |
| of all these models, though, is the same - leveraging | | | | you a lot of grief when you realize the product you |
| the dollars that you spend on marketing to get the | | | | selected is not appropriate for the venue where it is |
| greatest outcome from those dollars. This leveraging | | | | being distributed. |
| is done by strategically balancing the price, product, | | | | The final "P" to consider is promotion or how are you |
| promotion and place so that you are able to grab | | | | going to set up a planned promotional event and/or |
| your target market, get their attention and ultimately | | | | how are you going to serendipitously, in a manner of |
| increase the value and profit of your business. | | | | speaking, disseminate or distribute your promotional |
| The principle of the 4 "P's" of marketing is that for a | | | | printed pens. Planning this out in advance helps in a |
| marketing to be successful each one of the "P's" | | | | number of ways including: knowing the deadline to |
| must be thoroughly considered as an individual | | | | have the pens available for your specific promotion |
| variable in your marketing plan. in addition, it is | | | | activities and determining the different kinds and |
| important that the planning process not favor one "P" | | | | varieties of promotional pens you will purchase to sit |
| over another "P". During the planning process each | | | | with each type of promotional activity. |
| variable or "P" must be considered equally. | | | | When you operationalize a "P's marketing plan, it will |
| Take promotional pens as an example. It is important | | | | look like this - P+P+P+P = increased visibility and |
| to consider your budget and price (P) when selecting | | | | profit. Another way to look at this is: Price + Product |
| promotional pens. This is obvious, of course. But it | | | | + Place + Promotion = increased visibility and profit. |
| would be mindless to only consider the price (P) of | | | | |