The 4 P's

In Enterprise and innovation we have been introduced to "The 4 P's of marketing" also known as the "marketing mix". I have been ticking over about how these 4 P's relate to me, so here's the run down:

Product:
This means physical products and services provided and aspects such as Brand name, Function, styling and quality have to be taken into account for the target market:

In my case this could be commissioned illustrative work as a physical product (.eg, print, 3-dimensional work like vinyl figures) and in order for this to be a successful product with successful service I would have to think about delivery, packaging and protection to the product, for an example.

Price

Pricing stratergies have to be considered in order to be successful in buisness. Bridget talked about something called penetration pricing which is where the product starts off at a low price to gain makret share and then the price is bumped up after this is achieved. This seems like a good way to introduce yourself into a market and its seen all the time in the food stores and also with TV. (Sky T.v did this according to www.marketingteacher.com). So as I said before the stratergy and how I use it to integrate myself in the market are key factors of becoming successful in the freelance design field I feel definitely.

Another stratergy is price skimming. This can be seen in games consoles all the time, the new PS3 comes out, 500 quid or something stupid, within a year or two its 300 pounds. This is because they charge high at first because they have an advantageous position, after a while they cant sustain this position so they have to make their price more reasonable (and often more realistic) to keep their target audience interested and buying.


Place

Distribution of product is really important and can often be the true test for a designer. A good example related to me would be, If I have a website from which i sell products, do I limit my shipping to UK only for ease of transport and to keep cost down? (this is called selective distribution) Or do I up the cost of my product to take into account inclusive shipping fees? A sounder move would be to use exclusive fees for shipping.


Promotion

This is the communication of information to the world about a product in order to help reinforce a target audience. Half the time the design is the promotion and designers have to be really innovative in order to strike a chord with the people and make them engage with either the product they are promoting or the promotion itsself. This P merges with all the other P's if you want to be innovative when using promotion as a tool in a design context.

public relations and advertising are a huge part of promotion and I imagine one of the biggest limitations would be the said budget for this promotion. I think this last P is the most important one because it isnt very often that a product sells itsself!