4P Marketing Mix

What is 4P? Reading through class articles and research papers on marketing, I wanted to learn more about the 4P and marketing strategies, and I wanted to share with you what I've found.

First of all, according to Amy Carlson, marketing is "putting the right product in the right place with the right price at the right time" (Mindtools, 2015). This can be explained using 4Ps. 4Ps are product, place, price, and promotion. These elements are key mix for marketing plan and all business planners or entrepreneurs might want to consider this before launching a business. To look into this in a deeper level, I want to explain this as following:

. Product: What our customers want from this product or services? If we think about selling a lamp, for example, customers would look for "warm and natural lights". What can be "differentiated points" in this specific lamp from existing products (lamps)? This can be the questions we need to ask in terms of product element in 4P.

. Place: "Where" would buyers look for this lamp (product or services)? Store? On-line? From previous classes, we know that this place element should be narrowed down, so we can start small.

This picture can remind us "start small" strategy for our social enterprise. If we want to change the whole world, we need to find one channel or one customer first, so we can impact one person first before we make an impact to five people or the whole community. So, place can be distribution-related (Picture source: the class reading called The Dragonfly Effect).

. Price: Ask questions, such as "Are our customers price-sensitive?" or "Would customers value the product?" And decide your price.

. Promotion: Promotion is related to the questions, such as "How would you deliver this product? What would be the right "timing"?" To answer this question with regard to the lamp, winter would be better than summer seasons.

I found it was a bit tricky to distinguish "promotion" and "place" in terms of marketing, because those two elements can be both related to distribution. But I think "place" is more related to "where", whereas "promotion" is more so with "when" or "how". Do you think the same or would you want to add more on that?

Here is a very useful website and YouTube video explaining marketing and 4P that I learned about the above (Mindtools, 2015): http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_94.htm

Also, there was a criticism that 4Ps are more about seller perspective rather than buyer perspective, although marketing should be buyer-perspective more than seller perspective. One article explained 4Ps in aspect of customers, using 4Cs:

. Customer solutions (product): What is the customer values or solutions to their problems through the product?
. Customer cost (price): What will be the total cost of acquiring the product for customers?
. Convenience (place): Where would be the most convenient for customers to purchase the product or services?
. Communication (promotion): It is important to have two-way communication between customers and sellers.

This was found from the link: http://www.marsdd.com/mars-library/the-marketing-mix-in-marketing-strategy-product-price-place-and-promotion/

If we want to make 5Ps or 5Cs for marketing strategies, what would you include as fifth element? People (target customer or co-founder of business)? Or packaging (service or product package? customer benefit package)? Thanks, all!

Source: http://www.4p.com.au/4P_Marketing/About_Us.html