Question

One of the earlier views of marketing, established in the 1950s, is the four Ps concept of product, promotion, place, and price.

Choose a product and explain how the organization manages each of the four Ps for your chosen product. Today, the four Ps are considered to be tools of the positioning strategy; also explain the concept of positioning.

Answer 1

The product I would like to choose to study the marketing concept of 4 Ps: Product, Price. Place and Promotion would be on Colgate.
• Product: Colgate is a brand which primarily deals with the oral hygiene products like mouthwash, toothpaste, toothpowder etc globally. Colgate offers over 13 variants in the toothpaste segment with an addition in the children’s segment as well. The toothpaste is offered in various sizes ranging from 20 gms to 300 gms. It provides the product not only the urban but also to the rural areas which makes and gives this company a competitive edge. Its toothbrushes ranges from small brushes or large one from the kids range to the adults in variants which are preferred by everyone in accordance with their sensitivity problems, gums problems etc. It has a distinctive packaging and labelling too which makes the product easier to identify.

•Price: Colgate is a market leader especially when it comes to India. Colgate has over 50% of the market share and has been able to establish itself as a generic brand. The prices of this brand are comparatively a bit higher but what sustains it to be the market leader still is the quality and assurance it offers to its employees. Thus by adopting cost domination in the market, Colgate is having a competitive advantage of pricing techniques too.

•Place: Colgate is a company which has adopted the fats way of distributional channel. The manufacturers directly dispatch the products to the wholesalers who in turn pass on to the retailers. These retailers provide the products to the consumers/customers. Moreover, Colgate provides the option of online shopping as well where the products are available and can be bought over the website. Colgate products are available everywhere be it rural, semi urban or urban areas. It is such a big and common brand that every retail shops and owners are keeping this product to make it available anytime anyone wants.

•Promotion: Colgate has been very extensive is employing and using different sort of advertisement to make their product sell more and more. Being it on television, news, paper, billboards, online etc, the company hasn't left any source by not using it to effectively channelise its product through that medium. It is due to which colgate has been able to withstand such dynamic changes in the market and still be the global leader in the oral hygiene industry.

The concept of Positioning comes from the STP strategies used by the companies to make their product reach and able to sustain in the market. The first step is segmentation which is the division of the market you won't to produce your product for. The next step is targeting which talks about the targeting the market people to make them buy your product. At last is positioning which means to make the product and the name of the brand position inside their head. The name of the brand will be positioned by using extensive promotional techniques and assuring quality and customer satisfaction for the long run and sustainability of the business.