What are the 5 P’s of Marketing?

The 5 P’s of marketing is one of the most popular digital marketing frameworks and it is used to describe the marketing mix a company uses to market its product.

Product

The product includes the functionality, appearance, warranty, quality, and packaging of your product or service. It also includes all the physical attributes of your product and helps you to identify how your product or service solves a problem for the consumer and how it’s different from your competition.

Price

The price includes selling price, discounts, payment/credit terms, and all pricing strategies that your business may use like price matching. It’s important to research pricing across your industry and see what price your customers are willing to pay for your product or service.

Promotion

The promotion element of the 5 P’s includes advertising, online media promotions, sponsorships, PR, and messaging on various online platforms. Promotion includes both offline and online marketing channels as well as third-party marketplaces (like Amazon and eBay).

Place

The distribution channels, location, logistics, and service levels are crucial to your operation. Are your products stored in your own warehouse? Are they shipped directly to your customer by the manufacturer? Or do you use a third-party fulfillment service like Amazon’s FBA?

People

The people element of the 5P’s includes the attitude, customer service, appearance, and service provided by the employees of the company. It’s particularly critical for service-based businesses but can also play an important role for firms that sell products.

Why are the 5Ps of marketing important?

The five Ps of marketing provide a useful framework to ensure that a business understands its target market and properly positions itself to target the ideal customer segment. The better a business understands its market the more effectively they spend its time and resources reaching out to them.

If one of these elements is not aligned with your target customer then your product or service could fail. You can apply these principles to your business as a whole or a particular promotional campaign or product launch.

Who invented the 5 Ps of marketing?

This framework was invented by Philip Kotler, a distinguished professor of international marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is also known for popularizing the definition of the marketing mix.



How to effectively use the 5 Ps

It’s super important to use the 5Ps framework when you are just starting a business or launching a new product category. It’s also a great tool to use when your sales are sluggish or you’re not hitting your KPIs in a certain channel or for a certain campaign. Use the framework to re-align your product, promotion, place, price, and people with your target audience and target market.