We’re so excited to celebrate four years of working with inspiring tech startups and helping them realize their goals and dreams. It only seems like moments ago that we were cheering for our third birthday and looking at how many lessons you can learn in a single year. This year, we thought we'd have a retrospective looking at the four traditional "Ps" of marketing and how they apply in the modern marketing landscape.

What Are the Four “Ps” of Marketing?

The foundational principles of all marketing strategies can be boiled down to these four elements:

• Product

• Price

• Place

• Promotion

Your product is what you're trying to sell and should fulfill a need or demand of your target audience.

Price should balance affordability with showcasing the value of the product.

Place is all about where you’ll sell your product. Traditionally, this means billboards, TV, radio, and face-to-face opportunities. Today, this covers all digital channels.

Promotion is the act of showing customers and clients why they need your product and what problems it solves.

All four “Ps” are connected, and one can’t function effectively without all the others.

Do These Four “Ps” Still Apply Today?

The four “Ps” have been in practice since the 1950s and are still relevant today. In 1964, Neil Borden of Harvard Business School stated that "Marketing is an art" and that it required the perfect mix of "ingredients" to procure both short- and long-term growth for companies.

Today, we accept that marketing is an art, but it's also very much a science. The most successful marketing efforts are heavily data-driven, utilizing information from previous campaigns, demographic data, market segmentation, and direct feedback from clients to hone marketing efforts sharper than ever.

Adapting Traditional Marketing Principles for a Digital Age

The four “Ps” are a good foundation for all marketing efforts. You must, however, make sure you’re adjusting them for a digital landscape.

Product has changed in that it now covers digital offerings. When designing your product, always consider actual user pain points and other digital solutions your target audience may already use.

Prices can be much more flexible these days. You can consider affiliate programs, where clients gain rewards for promoting your products, or free/discounted trials. You can also create highly bespoke pricing plans to ensure your tech offering truly matches the needs of your clients.

Consider switching out place for positioning. The digital channels you utilize to position your products and services matter, as your target audience won’t be active on all of them. You also need to consider positioning yourself as an expert in your field via effective content marketing.

This leads nicely onto promotion, which can also include another important “P”: People. Understanding the people you sell to, their needs, their frustrations, and their feedback helps you promote in a way that truly adds value and boosts your brand.

Final Word

Here at Arch Collective, we’ve spent four years exploring and deploying the latest marketing techniques for tech startups just like yours. Book your 15-minute introductory call and find out how our experience can benefit your business.

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