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"4Ps of Marketing - Which one is the most important in Indian context?"
Ankit said : All of us are taught marketing in our first year of MBA. The most important thing of marketing is 4P's - Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Let us analyze the 4P's in the Indian context as India is very well diversified country and our numerous religions, values and culture make us think differently then our neighbours or friends. Hence, I may buy a product for its quality but my friend might buy it based purely on price. So the important thing for any marketer is to find out as to whether is it price, product, both or any other parameter that is most important in Indian markets. Product should be good and should suit the consumer expectations and desires. Otherwise, people will not like it and sales will go down. Once sales go down, the marketing manager will be questioned for the probabale reasons for decrease in sales. Many Gurus have terms price as the most important factor in consumer buying decision. Even 5% discount results in huge sales figures. But is it that the cheaper product will always sell? Is it that the quality doesn't play any role in buying decision? Let is have different opinions on this topic and hopefully during our discussion, I think we would be able to broaden our vision to include some more important factors other than these 4 P's.
Deepak Chordia said : Hi All, I am of the opinion that place of availability plays a vital role in the success of the product. Let me give you the justification on why place of availability plays a huge role, lets thinks of a hypothetical example of going for to have a soft drink and you ask for a PEPSI, the vendor don't have it and he give you a Coca-cola, will you mind? In a recent survey, it was noted that 98% of the people are not brand conscious in most of the product and only 2% will go for their preferred brand only. But one should generalizes this onto all the category best example will be cigarettes, but still the points hold good in most cases. DC
Ankit said : @Deepak - I agree that yes place does play a role, however, I believe this is category dependent. In the high involvement category like cars etc. availability does play a role but there the price and the product will play a much bigger role. Again taking your example forward, suppose, Pepsi reduces its price by Re 2 for a bottle that is prices at Re 15. The sales of pepsi will increase drastically because you will not mind it whether it is pepsi or coke as long as you are paying less.
arunava guha said : Yes ,i completely agree with Ankit Agarwal over the fact that price determines the indian market , but that too decided with respect to the product.There are 3 types of products 1> the general products , 2> inferior products & 3> superior products. Hope everyone is well aware of these terms but still general products are those which follows the law of demand, i.e "when price increases the demand decreases and the vice-versa " inferior products are those whose "demand increases with the decrease in income " and finally superior goods are those whose "demand increases with increase in price" So being a developing nation , its the PRICE that determines some ones wants , or more specifically if given a chance i would like to add one more alphabet "I" signifying income along with 4P's to determine the sales of marketing
siddharth gupta said : Well I believe as far as India is concerned,place of availability plays a major role. We can start by movies. Today even if a worthless movie is released in larger no. of screens then it can do a gud business. Similarly if we talk abt luxury goods then also distribution becomes an imp part to make that product avaliaible in the nearest place( suppose a toyota car at the capital of the state). Now talking abt the consumer goods say a camera roll like what Kodak did (it made it available at all the places where there is a refrigerator(in order to preserve the roll). Similarly why today Bisleri is losing its market share because when you go on a platform and ask for a bisleri and when the seller gives you a local brand saying that we dont have bisleri you dont mind havin it. Even HUL with its shakti project, ITC with its e-choupal project has improved their distribution network to tap the rural market. So as far as India is concerned distribution as of now plays major role followed by price,promotion.
santosh choudhary said : Whenever one thinks about launching a product, first thing that should come in mind is who will need it?, and the answer lies in the "place" , that is , where the maximum demand could be, if the demand is there , people are definitely going to buy it at reasonable price and certainly the place where there is scarcity of such product, people will get satisfied with what they are getting.( For example if village people need bicycles, , they wont be complaining about the product if they are getting simple HERO cycles and not other mountain bikes) and this scarcity will again create lesser need of promotion . (My point of view was with an assumption that the demand of a particular product is high at certain place.))
Shoaib said : In my view the quality of product is more important...because if the product is good even with less promotion,through word of mouth, the product sales pick up. take example of movies with big budget & lot of promotion but low quality content fail to gather crowd while movies which have quality script even with low budgets are a hit...A good product always finds its place in the market....As the earning power of an average is growing price is no more a concern but product is.
SAHIL BHARDWAJ said : All my friends are correct but let me voice my opinion as well I believe we cannot segregate any of the 4 P's of marketing in amy market All of them are important in any market. For eg Price of a product is important in case the company is targeting middle class income people. But for targeting the HNI people the product becomes more important than its price. take the case of maruti suzuki If price of models like zen, a star which are for middle income people is increased, the sales are bound to go down But take the case of Premium segment cars kike camry, mercedes. Quality of product becomes more important now then the price.
Ritika Mathur said : well I agree with what Sahil says..it is not possible..probably..to segregate the 4 Ps completely..the combined effect of the 4..influences the consumer..but having said that..I do believe that wen we talk of Indian consumers in particular..promotion gets an edge over the other 3..the reason being solely that Indians are emotional people..and are driven more by sentiments than by requirement..product is important..but the quality needs to be intact..not because of any other reason..but because of the sheer competition that markets today face..but effective promotion is what guarantees initial response frm teh consumers..to sustain tht however..the other 3 ..tht is to say....affordable price, proper availability and ofcourse..prodct quality..play a vital part.
Shashank Agarwal said : When we are talking in terms of India, we need to take care of the diversity that India has. when a product is targeted at niche segment, it is the product that matters most and price takes a backseat. When a product is targeted at lower middle class, price takes utmost importance. Similarly, a product for youth should be promoted intelligently. Therefore, it is the target segment which decides the the most important P.
ASHISH JAIN said : well I feel that promotion are the best tool of marketing in Indian context. because mostly Indian buy products when they see their visibility in the market and compare it with the competitors prices. They generally prefer to buy discounted product instead of buying them on MRP.
Debarshi Bhattacharya said : If I am asked to pick one out of the 4 Ps , it has to be price. The reason being all other Ps ie Place Promotion and Product can be directly attributed to the price of the product. If the product is of superior quality , consumers may think of paying an extra amount similarly if the product is being sold at a better place or the product is advertised / promoted properly the consumer might be willing to pay some premium . But never the less only price cant be "stand alone determinant" of success of any product so far as marketing is concerned.
Nishant Garg said : Friends, u all have given the valid points. We can discuss day and night on the vitality of any of these 4 P's. Just digressing a bit from the discussion, lets try to find out that is there any other factor apart from these 4P's which effect the Market??? I know I m just try to challenge the 4P theory, but i think it will be very interesting if we try to grill our minds and find out any other factor which do not fall in any of these listed category...:P
Shlok Mittal said : What i believe is that there is no single "P" which can define the whole India...For eg in case your product is targeted to middle or low income group, price may be more important. But if your product is targeted to high income group than place of distribution or promotion may be a vital factor. But since a major portion of our population is still middle class we can say price is most important of the 4ps'.
Prince said : Hi Friends, I think everything revolves around most imp "P" i.e. people so lots depend on how people priortize 4Ps of marketting while making any informed decision. And as said by Nishant there are also some other factors which may also be responsible for any decision like if any product also have some sort of service factor associate with it, then suddenly 3p's come into picture, taking example of banking industry where products instead of seen as a product only seen more as a service thus other 3P's of marketting i.e. People,Process and Phsical evidence are also becoming equally evidence. But still if i have to among all 7 P's of marketting I will rate Place and Price among top as still our economy is quite consumption driven and majority of people who consumes product are quite price sensitive and yes, if your product is not available at right Place then there is another similar product who is waiting in queue to be a part of consumer buying cart.
SHUBHANGI said : hi friends, taking the discussion furthur i would like to say that definitely price plays an important role but the demand of a good varies according to different strara of the society,that is the level of income of the consumer. In india as has been said only about 2 % people are brand conscious, that is brand loyalty can be associated with rich and affluent only and that too in case of high end products like cars. considering the middle income or rural consumer, convenience is still the key to their consumption pattern. the lower income group consumer does not mind replacing his regular purchase with new low priced product as long as it gives value for money and is available conviniently. so conclusion might be that place of availability (convenience) is the key driver of demand.
Mohit Chauhan said : Hi frds, As we all know that there are only 4 p's which were given by the Marketing guru Philip kotler. However, with the time the number of p's has been increased. If we look at the industry then there are more then 20 p's. However, the most important is the Product itself. If we look at our self the way we people do purchasing is we try to figure out the quality of the product, its features and so on. After deciding upon the quality, durability, maintenance etc we make decision that whether we should buy it or not. There was a time when people to give importance more on the promotion, price and place however, with the change in time they have also understood and made a perception in the mind about the product. Without the p product the other p's promotion, price and place are useless. Until the producer does not give a product which can serve the needs of the customer it will be useless to do promotions, set a lower price and to make it available in different locations. If the product part is ignored then the producer might make a product which will lead to a myopic situation. So the conclusion is without the marketing p of product other p's are nothing just a cost for the company.
arvind kumar meena said : 4p's of marketing is very important for any business. if any company want to launch any product in market firstly that should analyze 4p's . if we think about indian market though 70% population in india is living in village and nearly 60% depend on agriculture and this population include maximum people belongs to the middle class or lower class there income level is very low so first they think about PRICE first than about quality of product. according to my view PRICE is important in india amongst 4 p's
VINEETA MUDGIL said : gd evngs frnds i completely agree with arvind.,,,,,,,,We have to take care of the place n the class of the society for which product is launched...........If price is too high then most of the people wont buy it whatever the brand and quality is. With a high price product of any brand,only people who are capable of payinf for it,can buy it............Those who dont hav enough moey to pay,how cn they think about brand????????
Vishember said : I am agreed by Vineeta that class matters as Luxury products are purchased by high class and for middle and lower class price is main issue with some decent quality ,place matters but it is not dominative one ,promotion helps but Quality also needed only on basis of promotion u can sell only single time...
Aditya Zutshi said : @ Ankit Aggarwal: Hi Ankit ! First let me congratulate you for conceiving this great idea of starting dare2compete.com. Even though we can't differentiate 4Ps from one another, I quite agree with you when you say that in India, Price plays a very important role. But I feel Promotion plays a bigger role that price. We need to understand that, India is a nation with a high context culture. And as an effect of that, the word-of-mouth marketing plays a very crucial role in motivating people to buy a particular brand... Take the case of salt... Once a girl gets married and comes to her new home, her mother-in-law/mother would give her a lot of advice. For the smallest of things the new brides take advice from older generation... and whatever they hear, they generally abide to that... more so when the product is low involvement... because then they have less motivation to try new stuff... now unless there comes a competitor in market which offers delight, they might not like to switch the tested brands... Another example is sundrop oil which promotes to women that it's good for your husband's heart... these are very stong perception building advertisements. Take example of beautifying high involvement products. 2 Brands Facial Cream may be as good and even close to in price... but people (generally women) would consult her friends (for reassurance), advertisements (to make sure that it would elevate her status among peers) etc... Hence I feel, that Upper Middle Class onwards, Promotion plays the most critical role in people's choice to buy a particular brand... Note: Ankit, can you also introduce a text toolbar in this portal to make text bold, underline, italics etc? Aditya Zutshi School of Management, IIT Kharagpur Web: http://web.adityazutshi.com
Ashish said : First of all thanx to ankit for starting such a great thing. from my opinion its the price that plays the most important role.now regarding promotion a consumer can make a perception for buying coke,but if pepsi lowers the price say just by 2 rs. automatically its sale will rise. Promotion is also based on price.unless a consumer is loyal to a brand he will be always switching wherever price is low.
Aditya Zutshi said : @ Ashish: Yes it depends... change in demand to change in price also depends on the %change of the price. For eg: Rs 2 decrease in 10 rs cola drink is 20% reduction in the price. This is same as a car manufacturer reducing the price of a 4 lacs car by rs. 80000. now thats a huge amount. But where the change in price is not substantial... choosing a product then depends on the level of promotion... and perception built over time by word of mouth advertising or by promoting the brand as a tool to elevate the satisfaction of the need, having the maximum importance... think pepsi's price being 9.75 rs and coke being 10... would you still buy pepsi because itz cheaper... even though u relish coke??? Aditya Zutshi VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur
Vinod said : I feel that promotion would be the most important of the four P's because..lets face it ... given the oligopoly in the Indian market, products like Pepsi and Coke are NOT going to have a price war! i dont see them reducing their prices to increase sales even if that might look an obvious way, given the Indian consumer's mentality. I feel that good promotion of products, complemented by an efficient supply chain that delivers regularly and uniformly across markets would be the most important factor in the Indian context. There are a trillion products out in our market and none of them are going to keep reducing their prices to increase their sales because.. they cannot! so what i feel is, it all boils down to how well u promote your product and establish urself on the Indian consumers mind. The P that does it? promotion!
Nirvaan baid said : What I feel is that it depends on the nature of the product you want to push. If we remain confined to beverages, softdrinks and similar consumables then i guess price is hardly a significant element.In such cases promotion and place.If all the brands in competition are available at a certain place then promotion & consumer choice becomes the clear leader since u will rarely find a substantial difference in the price or quality of the product which are in neck to neck competition, As it is very rightly pointed out by Aditya Zutshi. For instance take the case of Desk Top Boxes, you will hardly find any difference in product or price or even place. What really differs in such a case are the brand ambassadors ,whether it is Shahrukh Khan or Aamir Khan. All said and done i would like to quote an instance where price has distinctly overpowered its better quality,better promoted and even better placed competitors.. Tata Docomo has registered a staggering growth of 52% growth in its users in the month of August leaving even the likes of Bharti, Vodafone and reliance way behind. before its launch tata was nowhere in the scene of telecom industry, but the launch of docomo really was a fate-changing step in the books of tata telecom. the sole reason of its popularity was the low tariffs priced at 1p/sec.No other telecom company was even near this price. Now lastly i guess in the case of luxury items ,a high class individual or a socialite would definitely go for product other any of the rest P's.Even in case of education most people would prefer quality even if it comes at a high price or is not available in the nearby regions.Who would mind goin abroad and pursuing a masters in Oxford if u are assured of secured future thereby,or in that case even in an IIM although the fee structure is high. So Marketing is a necessary evil and changes its colour depending on the object to be commercialized
NIRAJ said : Well i agre with what aditya said that in countries like india , price plays the most important role. The simple reason behind this is the purchasing power of people. In developing countries like india majority of people are struggling to full fill there basic needs so, how can they afford luxury??? If a product is developed by keeping in mind the higher middle class or higher class of the society then of course the quality will play the most important role..promotion of the product is also very crucial but it will go waste if the quality and price of the product is not up to the mark..
Amber said : I think it is promotion , that is very important and your real managerial skills come into existence.. In India one can quote example of lot of products that are in market due to their promotion....
Hemaxi D Gadhavi said : hello everyone... first of all let me thanks to Mr.Ankit Aggrawal to ask us such a question, which we all MBA students might be knowing very well but never thought about it.. OK let me come to the point that if i have to strickly follow any one from this 4ps then i will go for Product... Because now indian people are much Quality Concious about product, they need a Qualitative product rather than a Quantitative one. Ya if you keep the view of Traditional Indian culture than yes it's true that Price. but now the scenerio has been changed.. And Promotion of the product can promote the product once but if the product is not going to satisfied their need then again they will not going to buy.. If products like e.g Food, Automobiles etc then people are more depends on Quality and kind of Product. and then thought about the validity or effective durability of that product. so in Business we have to think about long term benefits rather then short term... But if I have been given liberalization that not to stick any one then I would like to say that all the 4ps are Inter-related.. and they depends on the kind of product.. and if we would like to run a effective and efficient business then all 4ps we must have to take in consideration. Hemaxi Gadhavi IABMI-AAU Anand.
Ashutosh Didwania said : I would wish to add a 5th 'P' over here without which all the 4Ps would arguably fall flat i.e. PACE, which pretty much refers to the speed at which the 4Ps function. Interestingly even marketing experts have started focusing big-time on the 5th P. The other important aspects of 'PACE' are quite self-explanatory. Cheers, Ashutosh XIMB
Amber said : well said anubhav....pace is d rite word that shoud be added to dese marketing principles..
Sushant Gupta said : Hi friends, My believe is that in a big, very big potential market in India, PRICE will play the major role because the price of the product actually defines the size of the target segment in the case of India. The cheaper a product is, more and more people are likely to buy it. And in case of India, population ready to buy the product will make the major difference.
Rikunj said : Product controlls the componant in the Price that is cost. & Promotion is regulated by the geographical & demographical nature of Place. So From My perspective in Indian Context where majority of the consumer segments is lying in BPL which definately prise sensitive and with highly varied and diversified nature of the Demography PRODUCT & PLACE are the major considerable factos in 4 P ( Indian Context) Rikunj - NICMARIAN
yash nigam said : hi guys... Well India is a developing country and majority of its population still comprises of middle class people.Therefore price is certainly a major factor.Here people earn less,spend less and save at the max as copared to the western countries. They are still not prepared to spend more and have the fear of loosing their wealth.Most of the population cant bear the high price tag and they look for the alternatives available at palika bazaar or sarojini market. The excessive care of their family members cease them from living a luxury life.The father tries to leave as much as he can for his kids.These all things stops them to spend more on their livelihood and live a luxury life. Thus the govt with the help of MNCs (taking in view the interest of MNCs as well) should take some initiatives so that the people may spend more on luxury items by implementing policies through which the customers should be given the opportunity to return the products if they are not satisfied with that.This will not only make them spend more but also check the companies and then the companies will themself try to provide better product and services to the customers. Yash Nigam K.R.Mangalam New Delhi
ashish vishal said : hi guys, the 4 p's of mkting r product price place promotion the most important amongst these is product and promotion.a brand can only b successful if and only if it is promoted well.promotion is very important in the initial phase of the launching of the product,but it will survive in the market if the product is of good quality and "better than the best" we all know whats the cost price of pepsi/coke but it is still surviving in the market because it has got big brand ambassadors to promote it. and good taste to make it survive in the market. if the promotion is not done well then it is difficult for the product to get a good start initially but if the product is good enough then no one can stop it from getting success ,though it might take some time. ashish vishal Amity Business School Noida
jojipsunny said : I think all of the four p's are equally imporatant as india is so diverse in her buying decisions...If we take product, indians are conscious about the quality of the product....because tech savvy consumers are increasing and so are the sources of information...So no company can no longer think to dump any product of cheap quality in 'port india'...but if we talk about cheap chinese products, yups!! they have a market in india because to put it simple as i said, india is diverse... Take the 'price' part of 4ps, anything with low price is now viewed with a 'low quality' tag by an average indian.....infact he'ill be rather willing to buy good quality ones though for a slightly higher price....think about maruti800 and alto, or alto and A-star....as far as the price difference is affordable the tendency of indian consumer is to jump to the next segment....but yes, low prices are attractive for tie-2 and tier-3 city consumers.... next comes the place...think about selling a blackberry to an indian farmer!!!!it won't work because in india place is not simply the 'place' ...its the people who symbolizes the place...... Promotion?????no comments please!!!!!!!the single wheel which drives the indian market....no shahrukhs,,,,no bacchans,,,no sachins,,, no aishwarya rais....???? simple, no extra-ordinary sales....... we can relate this to the earlier said 'sources of information'....we can also add a credibility factor to this.....since the customers cannot direct go and ask the endorser whether the product for which he endorses is really 'best' the former believes himself that "yes...it should be" ...but i think promos are taking its wrong ways...because now a days it lands customer in no mand's land......because same endorser is appearing for similar products of different companies......... so no P is specificaaly important but linked together and equally controls the profit generation as far a india is concerned
Vikash Anand said : In a developing country like India It is difficult to pinpoint which is the most important P. It is a huge market. If a product is able to specify its target and adapt according to the situtation the the sucess of product is very much guranteed. Any P can play an important part in sucess of a product. If a product is targeting rural India where people are very price sensitive then obviously Price is going to play an important role but if the potential target of any product is high income group, then quality of the product becomes the most important factor.
parag rastogi said : As far as I think 4P's of marketing follows a cyclical nature in case of their relative importance. Once product is at conceptual stage obviously its features are important so product has more importance. when it is ready then question of place and then price comes. then promotional strategy. after when product is once again in market its product features and prices become important because place has already been taken care of. as it grows more than place and price become important. at maturity level promotion and price become important since competition from new products is there. and subsequently promotion becomes important to keep it in people's mind.
Tarun Sharma said : Hi All !!, First of all let me congratulate Ankit for posting such a wonderful topic for discussion on which we can get as diversified ideas as India is diversified itself in terms of culture, language etc. In my views the position of most important P is changing over the preiod of time since our nation got independence. Let me validate my views in following facts: 1. At the time of independence, people of our nation were not having the purchasing power so at that time P for price stood tallest 2 In late 90's After India has started disinvestment and seen rapid development and with the manifold increase in industrial growth and people started spending since their source of income has increased, P for Price has taken aback and then comes the other P's into play out of which I consider P for Place the most 3. These days when India is really looking forward to become a superpower I vote for P for Promotion as the best candidate 4. In my views, the importance of P also depends on different classes of society. For eg for lower class or price sensitive middle class P for Price will always remains at the top whereas for higher class or say business class, P for Promotion can be a deciding factor 5. Last but not the least lets not forget the monsoon factor which has lot of say in Indian market. This factor can also decide the most important P of Indian market. I would love to have your comments on my post. Thanks a lot for reading it.
dewasish ghoshal said : India is one of the biggest market in the world. but there are certain charecteristics of Indian market which is associated with the nature of buyers and sellers. most of the people in the country belongs to the middle class, and this class of people is price sensitive. it means slight change in price leads to some changes in the demand, its depend on the type of commodity and goods. income is also a important factor to determine the demand. the 4ps concept of marketing mix is most important to established the product in the market. earlier indian people was most concerned about the brand but now a days consumer satisfaction is more important. now people want some more from product. the customers satisfaction is more important. so product is important, and has desined in such a fastion which satisfy the customers need and perception of that particular product.
ashish kumar shrivastava said : hi.all first of i would like to thank ankit to start this great discussion and now coming to the point, i will say that we cannot rule out the role of promotion the prior responsibility of the promotion is that first it attracts a customer to use that product then the customer will evaluate the value customer receives so the first priority is to first attract the customer and then retaining it by product, price, place. ashish shrivastava
Priyaranjanjha said : Hi everyone,the 4p's in marketing are not independent when it comes to the marketing stretegy developed by a company especially in developing countries like India.In my opinion the marketing strategy of a firm to sell their products based on the consumers whom they are targetting(Economically,Geographically,socially etc.) As we all know that the population of Middle income group in India is more than the total population of U.S,there is different strategy taken by the firms to target these sections. For the consumers who hails from lower and middle lower income groups the priorities for the selecting products is based on the "Price" of the goods rather than the quality and promotion of products."Place" is also an imp. concern for them next to Price. for the Upper Middle income group for the superior goods they give more weightage to the price than the quality of products,but for the general goods they are more concern over quality, price,promotion,and place respectively. Persons from high Income groups,never compromise on the product's quality.These groups have a unique characteristics in terms of marketing,sometimes they don't hesitate to pay even more what the quality of product demands if the product is unique in its feature.
Sumit Kejriwal said : in my opinion, I think each P's of marketing mix has its own significance and in india we have a different kind of customer. Each customer want are difrent from each others. it also depends as to what does the organisation targeting for. suppose they are targeting rural area and definately people out there are are price sensitive so company has too work upon thier pricing strategy. same way importance of p's differ in each scenario.
veena said : hi ankit........!!!!!!!!! thats a very tricky question !!!!!!! well, accord to me price plays a vital role in the market especially in the indian market bcz indian middle class consumers are prone towards the price in order to meet the day to day usage of commodities. Typical indian consumer can go miles to get 50 kgs rice with the affordability of 5 rps less per kg. iam talking about middle class consumers is as they occupy the highest proportion of the population. So for me, price is the main measuring domain in the market. thanks for posting topic.
vikas chugh said : hiii everyone .As we are living in country where firms are fighting with each other to expand their market share. due to increase in competition every company tries to reduce the price . best example would be a pouch of shampoo for the same to cater to bottom of the pyramid... so i think product is the most important P in all 4 P's because product is supposed to solve the problems of customers . as long as a company is providing best product ,its share in the pie would definately increase.....providing a product which is not acceptable in society ,can lead to failure of the company as happened with vanaspati ghee in Gujarat.
Rohit Agarwal said : In my opinion, PRODUCT is the most important among the 4Ps. Numerous companies have failed, even if they had all the other 3Ps in the strongest positioning. If your product is not good enough, you cannot retain customers, there will be no repeat purchases. Moreover bad word of mouth publicity, will not get you enough customers to keep you in the business.
bibhuti charan rout said : Among 4p’s price and product are more important than promotion and place. If the price is attractive and the product is good then promotion and place is not required much. (Promotion,place)=f(price,product) i.e promotion and place are depend upon price and product. For example Nano. You hardly find any ad in news paper,tv or in internet. Its main factor is its price that is one lakh which is very attractive and another is the product itself which is a small cheap car. Due to its price factor it does not require any promotion and place for it is the whole country. Due to its price and the product itself, the demand is high and other companies are thinking to unveil this type of cars in coming days. We can also interpret how price and product is important from another example i.e FMCG products of ITC and cavin kare. Its price is low and its target is low income groups and its place is the whole country. Its promotional part is not very high . low income group will prefer the products only due to its price. The sale wont increase or decrease much if the promotion is more. Place is not important because where ever you put it, it will be sold. So if pricing strategy is good for the product, then promotion and place is not important.
suruchi mittal said : hi ankit, i think out of the 4 p's in India the most important is price. still 75% of the people are living in rural areas and their purchasing capacities are not same as that for urban people. so the product has to be launched with gr8 care keeping in mind that it can be affordable for maximum people.
Abhishek said : I think that all 4Ps are important irrespective of the markets.
Bandana Handique said : Like it or not, no matter what marketers would like to propound, which P stands tallest is decided, more often than not, by a still taller C...the "Customer"/ "Consumer". And more often than not...the P that claims the majority of this territory is the Product !!! Think about it guys... Had it not been for the inherent nature of the product, how did place become important? Whether distribution should be exclusive like a merce or extensive like a cola depends on the product itself... same with the price. And no matter how lucratively you promote the product, if it doesn't meet its consumer's expectation, though it might have an initial peak due to hype, it is bound to fall flat. This is not to demean or lessen the importance of any P, but to emphasise that no matter how good the pricing, distribution and promotion strategies are, the bottomline is written by the product itself...and its relation with the customer. After all, the Customer is The King !!!!
Arun said : Lots of Intelligent discussion going on...Kool Guys. Lets change the question "4 legs of a chair- Which one is most important in Indian context"
Inderjeet Singh said : As said by one of our profs.... In Indian context we have 4Ps as Price, Price, Price & Price.......
Vinayak said : I think in Indian context only and only important p will be price price price price..........
chetan galage said : If we can add one more P, we can add People, because most of the companies have to change their strategies only for India then it may be Coca cola or it may be Walmart. In Indian context, product and price are two things which are closer to People. Now we have to decide the priority between these two- Take eg of Kellogs, the Indians have rejected the cereals because they have habit of taking breakfast with a bowl of hot vegetables and Kellogs came up with cold. After this also many people tried the product and they liked it but as the price of Kellogs is 3 times that of its competitor for 500g pouch they could not survive in the Indian Market. Now take eg of Honda twister 110 cc which will be launched in March 2010, the biggest automobile manufacturer has changed the product according to the Indian market because of market segmentation they found. Hence the price will be given the utmost priority, then product and then the remaining two.
jayasree said : hi everyone, first let me thank dare2compete.com. I think 4p's are necessary for marketing but among the 4 P's PRODUCT is most important because without a product promotion cannot be made, it cannot be priced and it cannot be placed anywhere. unless a product exist it cannot be priced or placed or promoted.
karthik.chilamantula said : hiiiiiiii friendzz ..according to companies evry p is important to them because .nw the present market is volatile and the consumers tates and prefrences in india are turining towards western culture.so current company should analyse the market and draw there startegies on 4ps .....in marketing one author says about market he says everything is situational..........we cannot judge one is better than other...............
Kamlesh said : sorry folks...can't exactly spend time reading all the discussion right now...but indeed went through some of the posts. Well! I have my views on this, but let me be helped by all of you guys in coming to the point. Take an example, Kellogg's corn flakes in India. Analyse it on the basis of company strength, brand image,promotions,price,product and place. Then analyse what happened to the product. Did it become what it hoped to become? Check this out.Do a research and then think about the answer. Anyways one example and retrospective thinking might not be the best way to deduce things..but lets make a start :) All the best. Kamlesh Chauhan IIM A
megha grover said : Megha Grover: no doubt, all the 4 P's plays a vital role in success of any marketing strategy. But it can not be said which is more important than other as it may vary from place to place and person to person. Marketing in rural and semi-urban sectors demands more promotion and wide availibility while in retailing its more about price, which can be explained through EDLP of Wal-mart or loss leadership of Big Bazaar. Megha Grover KIAMS, Harihar
megha grover said : and at the same time product cannot be ignored, as the price can be compromised but quality cannot.
Aditi Bathia said : As per my opinion, it really depends on the category of the product. let me explain this with the help of some examples. 1. Luxurious products: in this case, price and place take a backseat. product and promotion matter the most, especially product. Be it something like cars or Cellphones, product features, style element, quality, "Brand image" etc play a very important role in these cases. Even a restaurant for that matter. People will travel a distance to grab a bite of that special cuisine they can die for! 2. FMCG Products: Here, people tend to be less brand loyal. hence promotion, price and place plays most important role. While promotions may help attract customers to test the product, it is availibility, offers, price etc that help make and increase sales. A product which is available easily but is expensive will not sell. But a product which is highly price effective will tempt the buyer to maybe even wait for a day to make the purchase so long as the product itself is satisfactory (and the issue is not very urgent, of course). 3. Entertainment sector: Movies, for example, provide a perfect example here. People end up going for a movie which is heavily hyped, no matter what they personally think about it. The mere promotions and the hype created is sufficient to pull the customers to the cinema halls and make that ticket purchase. Hence, promotions are important when speaking of this matter. 4. Undifferentiated goods: These will be most impacted by price as well as availability. Take a simple thing such as a your local grocery store. You will buy from a store which is easily accessible to you. If its not available there, you will settle for another brand since it really does not matter, and you don't wish to spend effort and time going to a distant store for a product not providing much 'additional' benefit over the one available at current store. Hence, to conclude, in my opinion, it is the product category that determines the 'P' applicable. Aditi Bathia SIMSR
satya said : Well stretching my knowledge, I would strongly agree with many friends that yes product is the major "p" of all 4p's in marketing. We should not overlook the factor that all other "p's" are the followers of product itself. Once the product are well designed and well structured with basic utilization, the other 3 "p's" can be useful but if your product is not well defined then your other "p's" will hardly sustain. You can not rely on hit and win strategy with the poor product. Moreover, if we talk from Indian perspective point of view, well it is the product that would help you to sustain and grow in respective industry. People here are more brand concious than of price and place factor. Thus to conclude, my vote would really go for "Product" factor. Satya, MIB.
rahul kumar lakhera said : well thnks to ankit for this nice topic for discussion as i want ot say that in india today there is understanding with peoples in ther living pattern is necessary, so promotion play a crucial role in inside the indian ppl minds. promotion is an activty to create a huge response like take example with the dettol soap, this soap brand came up with a great promotional campaign social marketing and this brand has got ever success too in past several years. In india also word of mouth is also appropriate by ppls they share their views to thier next genration by in terms of product, place, price, and even promotion. so major role is played in my terms is promotion. """" take example if any day in media like -- TV, radio, newspaper,etc etc. there is not seen any kind of advertisement so how ppl know wht kind of product in the market, what quality its have , wht is the price, what place ppl will get this product.""""" so promotion is major part of 4ps in marketing mix to enhance the knowledge of the ppl also the uses of the product so its kind of all other things to come in mind of ppl. for word of mouth it is easy to express the views and also the utility to grab the information fro different sources so it is easier to understand that promotion for every company is important. hence to conclude, it is the part that express the marketing by word an visibility. Rahul lakhera ACCMAN Institute of management.
Mehul Joshi said : Hi all..! An amazin thread indeed. I went thru entire discussion and shall enlist d followin pts: 1. PEOPLE according to me are the most crucial in a country like INDIA. Each and every "P" is for this P only. Take it Product... whom is it made for? Price... whom is it determined by? Place... for whom do we use availability? Promotion... for the consumers only do we promote? Hence I feel that the most important P is PEOPLE !! 2. If asked to pick 1 P from the 4 P's already stated, the obviously If a PRODUCT doesn exist then theres no need for any other P in India. Thus, Product will be the guiding light for other 3 Ps. As mentioned earlier, what place will u decide if u dont have a good quality product? Which place? In India, one must not forget that a product that a companyu is no more sold. It has to be "SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM." Only then the product shall sell. If today, I go and purchase a talcum powder, If tomorrow i have rashes on mah body, then in my entire life i wont buy it again!!! 3. Different Product categories: However if we talk about the BASIC necessities like washing bar which is used by everone (even the lowest o the lowest class) then it comes down to PRICE AND PLACE. Luxury products obviously need PRODUCT and PROMOTION. Hence due to heteroginity in India, a marketer has to carefully first determine his Product Category and Target Segment which its aiming at. If this is clear, only then shall a marketer be able to decide the MOST RELEVANT "P" Thats all from my side. Couldn actually stop myself from sharing my views. Really a very nice topic by Ankit. With Warm Regards, Mehul
Gaurav Bhattar said : hi..everyone... what occurding to me is, PRODUCT, is the most important P omoung 4 P's.. Because if product is good ,it can be sold even at a higher PRICE,a good product can be sold at any place,wherever such product are required-so place role is also reduced and regarding promotion-if PRODUCT is good and people are satiesfied they will definately going to say to their contacts by appreciating about it, and this will lead to best promotion.
rohit kumar jain said : In my view the most important P in Marketing is People. Both in the sense of your Marketing Team as in the broader 'community' sense. I do agree that Participation became a very important element in our marketing environment. Therefore we indeed included it as a major element of our (renewed) brand (at Mobistar in Belgium). We are still struggling a little bit with the implementation of that (it's not easy to create a real interactive relationship when you have more than 3 mio custumers) but we are surely making progress. In order to reduce the number of P's, I propose to drop Price as a Marketing P. The objective of marketing is to create value. Quite a lot of marketeers nowadays just drop the price. Price is the P you use when all Marketing P's to create value fail.
gyan prakash gupta said : hi..........everyone I think PRICE is most important in indian context but we can add one more P in marketing that related to people because its depends on people mind what he want to buy........ Gyan Prakash Gupta CIIM Bhopal
mishul das said : Hi. Well that was a very insightful question. If we get down to the basics then for any country or economy or any market place the most important of the 4P's is definitely PRODUCT. The product is the most basic thing and without the PRODUCT any of the remaining P's would not come in to the picture. without having a product what would a person market.reviler
veena said : what are the main qualities that marketing person should possess????
Sreekanthpadma said : hai guys I think that in 4p's are Importent.Basically Product (quality) is very important. eg.Nokia, Herohonda companies..etc maintaining quality products.Because china mobiles ,toys products not sustaining the market, price also less,but not good . so Product importent Sreekanth.Padma Dhruva college of mgnt. HYD.
ramprakash said : Hi my friend i will say a blend of suitable proposition of all the four p's are important . Eventhough the product is excellent it will not succed in the wrong place and price plays a vital role in all the products a suitable price will get a good responce in the market so while fixing a price we need to be careful . In a place where the distribution is poor eventhough an excellent product with a suitable price will not suceed and also the product with the differentiation among competitiors and with uniqe futures also will suceed with the help of other three p's . So in my view a suitable proportion of all the 4 p's will play a vital role
zero ego said : hi buds! well if u ask me to choose just 1 p out of the four, i wud pick Product Becoz, if u dont get ur product rite, though u hav ya other Ps in place, the efficacy of the other 4Ps comes down drastically. lets hav a luk at the 5 marketplace philosophies according to wat kotler says 1.Production concept- consumers prefer products that are widely available and inexpensive 2.Product concept-consumers favor products that offer most quality performance and innovative features 3.Selling concept-orgs must undertake aggressive selling and promotion effort as the consumers if left alone dont buy enough 4.Marketing concept-be more effective than competitors in creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value to target segments 5.Holistic Marketing Concept- calls for all inclusive broader perspective in my view, the importance of the Ps in the 5 views is as follows 1.price, place 2.product 3.promotion 4.product,promotion 5.all commonsense tells us that, product is an important factor in all these philosophies even, goin by dumb majority wins principle, Product wins as its the only P important to 3 philosophies. thanks! akshr.
Sujay Saxena said : Sujay Saxena - Hi everyone I believe that a new era in marketing has started "marketing 3.0" as described by Kotler the "HUMAN" era. The product era has passed and the customer era too. Hence a new definition has to be given to the 4P's of marketing. Marketing is now not only about retaining your customers or making new customers with your USP (Unique Selling proposition) now its about making new customers and increasing the consumption of your retained customers since with time not only willingness to pay is increasing but also the ability to pay is increasing. So now coming on 4P's - 1. Product - company's has to find ways to influence people to increase the frequency of their products e.g What Lifebuoy has done in rural area "Wash your hands and feets 4- 5 times a day to keep urself healthy 2. Price - An era of "niches" is ahead of us and you have to decide which niche you have to serve. Percapita income of people in India is increasing, rural market is developing so oppourtunities are increasing so if your product is good you will be paid 3. Promotion - Promotion done by colas is quite popular as i can see in comments, but again i said "Human" era so you have to focus on not only on physical, mental or social needs but now "ENVIRONMENTAL" needs while promotion 4. Place - Be global, whole world is your market and 6 billion people are your customers. You have to select whom you have to serve. So now In Indian context Versatile Product and Environental & Social Promotion are the important tools, and ofcourse your unique value proposition Thanks Sujay Saxena KJ Somaiya
Shakil Aslam Ansari said : Hi guys, As we all know about 4ps, but it is very important to blend these 4ps according to industry and economic condition. This is because many a times these 4ps are affected by the economic condition. I would justify it by quoting an example, last year economic condition all over the world was doomed, every bank and financial institution changed their 4ps, though the market was same. They not only changed their product, place(they started focusing rural customers), price(they increased the interest rate on FD,etc.) but also the promotion(there was hardly any promotion of banks last year). Second example could be the Auto industry, every car and bike manufacturing company started making the economic cars and bikes (started focusing on mileage). Earlier it was not so, their concentration before the recession was Cubic Capacity. Indian market and Indian customers are very different from other developing and developed markets. If I have to choose 1p out of 4ps according to Indian context, I would choose PRICE. If you set this "P" in place there is more possibility of falling all other Ps in place. I am saying this because Indian market is the developing one and so are the customers. According to a survey, India has 300 million middle class customers, and this is not enough to prove my stance. In fact according to a latest National Sample Survey, 60.5% of the Indian population was capable of spending only Rs 20 a day (0.25 pence approximately). At last, I would like to say that if the price of a product is lower as compared to the customers' expectation, there are more chances of that product to be purchased by the customers at least in INDIAN MARKET.
amit bhatia said : hi everybody................. with the views on this topic, i would like to add on that while i was reading the above discussion i got the very good points, that the all p`s are essentially, but the utmost what i feel after is that if the product is of good quality, it will see off itself in the market, with out any hard promotions, place distribution, price. so in all if asked to rank these all p`s i would rank it in the way:- Product price place promotion but now a days many new p`s have also been introduced in the concept, and their number is around 20.
karthick said : hi to all As per my perspective, out of 4 p's the promotion is the most important one... because without promotion we can make sell anything.. for example.. here i taken product as india. many foreign countries wants to start a plant inn india. how? and why? because the government is giving more offers and tax benefits. here automatically it generates the promotion of india and offers many job oppoortunities in and out people. and ipl also promotes our india.. i feel ipl is the best way to promote our india because it increases the tourism.. in india many people are price concise. with the help of promotion we can make a change and make the customers to buy our products So i strongly says that PROMOTION plays a lead role in marketing... The only risk of failure is promotion.
hemendra kumar joshi said : first of thank you to ankit for starting this debt topic . I think the most important 4p is people because all other p are depend on this p. i will explain it. in india we have different type of people which have different background ,cultural and religeneous and many more where we cannot develop the same type of the product which is suited for all them and same case with the promotion and price, but we can treat all people with same level the reason is all people want only one thing that is satisfaction from the product
Dinesh Agarwal said : Price Promotion Place Product 4Ps: Among all these the first essential is the product itself which meets customer needs. Thus is has to be right. Now what goes into making product would determine price. However market forces might tell you to put a certain price tag. Again if your product is superior and we are able to communicate(Promotion) the value delivery and justify the same, customer may might pay the premium. But the premium also stems from the fact it is right product. All the more reason for a product to be at the right place is the fact is it was meant to be marketed and sold. Thus it takes a right product at the right place at the right price through right promotion medium and message to be a successful Marketeer and any one of them cannot be taken for granted. Talking about Indian context, we have more way beyond all of this: with all the new Ps of People, Physical evidence, Process and what not. Price become prominent when your product becomes a commodity. And its better to move out by then. Promotion can so long justify till the you have market to penetrate with underlying assumption of acceptability. Services talk about Process, people have lost customer there. People form mission critical in both running of an organization and when as a customer People talk about your product. Physical evidence goes a long way in building credibility(trust) and BRANDS as we call them. Check the difference between all with ATMs around and those without in Banking to know retail banking customer base just to take a cue. If all above have to deliver, first and foremost Product still has to be "right".

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