4P Strategies of Advertising Companies (Product Strategies, Channel Strategies)

4p refers to the channel promotion of products.

In the concept of marketing mix, 4Ps are product, price, channel and promotion respectively.

The combination of products mainly includes the entity, service, brand and packaging of products. Refers to the collection of goods and services provided by enterprises to the target market, including the utility, quality, appearance, style, brand, packaging and specifications of products, as well as services and guarantees.

The combination of pricing mainly includes basic price, discount price, payment time and loan terms. Refers to the economic returns that enterprises pursue when selling products.

Location is usually called distribution combination, which mainly includes distribution channels, storage facilities, transportation facilities and inventory control. It represents all kinds of activities organized and implemented by enterprises to make their products enter and reach the target market, including methods, links, places, warehousing, transportation and so on.

Promotion combination refers to the communication activities that enterprises use various information carriers to communicate with the target market, including advertising, personnel promotion, business promotion and public relations.

The above 4Ps (product, price, location and promotion) are the controllable factors in the marketing process and the main means for enterprises to carry out marketing activities. Their specific application forms the marketing strategy of enterprises.

In recent years, there is a view that the beginning of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) means that 4P has become a thing of the past, and the new marketing world has turned to 4C. 4C will replace 4P ". Experts who hold this view point out that we should put products aside and quickly study "consumers' needs and desires", instead of selling products that you can make, we should sell products that some people definitely want to buy. Forget the pricing strategy for the time being and understand the "cost" that consumers have to pay to meet their needs and desires. Never mind the channel strategy, think about the convenience of buying. Finally, please forget to promote. The correct expression is "communication".

Experts also pointed out that the 4P era is outdated and will be replaced by 4C. They think that 4P is more based on the enterprise itself, and its theory is no longer suitable for the current market situation. Enterprises must be guided by the pursuit of customer satisfaction and conduct market operation and management with 4C theory. So can 4C really replace 4P? Let's carefully analyze the real meaning of 4C and 4P.

4P was put forward by Professor McCarthy, an American marketing scholar, in 1960s, including products, prices, channels and promotions. He believes that a successful and complete marketing activity is to put the right products and services into a specific market with the right products, the right prices, the right channels and the right means of communication and promotion. 4C theory was put forward by American marketing expert Professor Lautern in 1990. Based on consumer demand, it redefines four basic elements of marketing mix: consumer, cost, convenience and communication. It emphasizes that enterprises should first put the pursuit of customer satisfaction in the first place, products must meet the needs of customers, and at the same time reduce the purchase cost of customers. When researching and developing products and services, we should fully consider the purchasing power of customers, and then pay full attention to the convenience of customers in the purchase process. Finally, we should take consumers as the center and implement effective marketing communication.

There are many far-fetched factors in summarizing the four marketing mix strategies of "product, price, channel and communication strategy" into 4P. In fact, foreigners, like us in China, will try their best to develop concepts such as "three disciplines and eight laws" and "five stresses and four beauties" in order to popularize an information system for everyone and facilitate their memory and communication. It is very correct to use products and prices in product strategy and price strategy. With these two words beginning with P, McCarthy, the originator of the theory, tried to make up the other two P's in order to enhance the spread of the theoretical system. Finally, place is used to summarize the channel distribution strategy, and promotion is used to summarize all communication strategies including advertising, public relations, promotion and personnel promotion. In fact, the most suitable words for channel distribution strategy should be distribution and channel.

Place is where consumers buy, which is the final result of channel distribution. It is inappropriate to replace "distribution" and "channel" with places, but it can be said. The most appropriate word for communication strategy should be communication, and the original meaning of promotion is "promotion". Promotion can only cover promotion and personal sales in communication strategy, but not advertising and public relations strategy. Replacing "communication" with promotion is barely qualified. It can be seen that although the last strategy in the 4P marketing mix theory uses the word promotion, which is literally translated into Chinese, the meaning of this promotion is not the same as that represented by the word promotion commonly used in China business practice at present (the promotion here mainly refers to price reduction, lottery, buy two get one free, shopping guide, etc.). ) .4p's pomotion actually includes all communication strategies such as advertising, public relations, promotion (promotion), that is, 4P emphasizes communication from the day it was born, and 4P emphasizes promotion as a misunderstanding, which is caused by not really understanding the essence of 4P.

Moreover, the 4P combination strategy is based on the premise of consumer-oriented and meeting consumer demand. As the first batch of students majoring in marketing in China in the last century, when I was studying marketing from 65438 to 0989, what I wrote in the book and what my teacher taught me was to study the psychology and behavior of customers first, plan STP marketing strategies, and determine market goals and market positioning on the basis of market segmentation.

It can be seen that 4P pomotion also emphasizes interactive communication and consumer-centered communication. Need to be reminded that, in fact, 4P is only a marketing tactic, and many famous industry experts actually use 4P as a marketing strategy to give lectures in universities and enterprises.

At the same time, anyone with basic concept recognition ability can see that 4P is a marketing strategy and means, while 4C belongs to marketing concepts and standards. 4C's concept of "meeting customers' needs, reducing customers' purchase cost, facilitating purchase and marketing communication" is a marketing concept and ideal marketing standard, while 4P's "product, price, channel, communication and promotion" is a marketing strategy and means. The marketing ideas and standards put forward by 4C will eventually be realized through the strategy and means of 4P. For example, to improve the convenience of customers' purchase, we need to complete it through channel strategy (place strategy), meet the needs of consumers (consumers), and achieve it through product strategy, advertising public relations and other promotional strategies. For example, Louis Vuitton's bags should meet consumers' demand for luxury, form product strategies with very elegant materials and classic designs, and decorate and publicize the grade and taste of active communication brand with top-class or even super five-star terminals. It can be seen that 4P and 4C are not contradictory, and 4C only emphasizes the importance of customer needs and two-way interactive communication.

4C is the concept and standard of marketing, and 4P is the strategy and means of marketing, which belong to different concepts and categories. The marketing ideas and standards put forward by 4C will eventually be realized through the strategy and means of 4P. 4C replacing 4P means that ideas and standards can replace strategies and means, and different concepts and categories can also replace each other, which is even more ridiculous than Guan Gong beating Qin Qiong. This lack of basic logic to infer common sense has also been advocated by many experts all over the country, and many respondents have gathered, which shows that the marketing circles in China lack independent thinking ability, and the wind of shallowness and impetuousness has become quite serious.