The Simple “5 Ps” Marketing Plan

The Simple “5 Ps” Marketing Plan

ByRon Marcus

If you studied business for your undergraduate degree, doubtless you took a Marketing 101 class and learned about the “4 Ps of Marketing.” These were drummed into every business student’s mind, so much so that you probably are reciting them to yourself right now.

“Product, Price, Place, Promotion.”

This concept for visualizing your “marketing mix” or plan was created in the 1950s, and holds up well. But, some have rightly realized that it is incomplete. There should be more Ps. Some models include as many as 7. 

I’m going to make the case for 5. 

That’s all you need for a complete, yet simple marketing plan. The simpler, the better, so you can get going sooner. 

Don’t worry if you discover mistakes in your plan after launching it — that’s how you learn, and it’s easy to iterate on the plan to make it better as you move forward.

Here are my suggested 5 Ps of marketing:

1. People

Who are you marketing to? This is the most important question in the entire plan, in my opinion. (Curiously, it didn’t make the cut in the original 4 Ps; maybe it was assumed.)

Define your target market as specifically as you can. 

  • Create buyer personas — detailed demographic and psychographic profiles of your customers.
  • Understand what it’s like to walk in your customers’ shoes, what specific pain point or aspiration they have that you can uniquely solve, and why your solution is better than any alternative for that specific pain point or aspiration.
  • Develop a customer journey map — the journey your customers take from initial awareness of your product to interest, evaluation, purchase, and use. You’ll use this to inform other Ps of your plan, including Place and Promotion.

[I will talk more about buyer personas and customer journey maps in subsequent blog posts, so please stay tuned.]

2. Product

This one is obvious — what are you selling? 

But, we need a little more detail:

  • What specific customer pain point or aspiration does it solve?
  • Why is it better for your customers than alternatives?
  • What are its specific benefits, and what unique features enable these benefits?
  • How many variations and options do you provide — from “one size fits all” to custom-tailored one-off solutions.
  • How are you ensuring the quality of your offering? This goes beyond the product itself, encompassing every aspect of the customer experience related to evaluating, purchasing, and using your offering. I.e., can you guarantee a superlative customer experience from start to finish? What if your offering doesn’t meet your customers’ expectations? How will you take care of your customers in those instances? Do you have a way to maintain a positive perception of your company if customers are unsatisfied with a particular product or service?
  • This is arguably as important as any other aspect of your product.

3. Price

There are many factors affecting what price you should set for your product, such as:

  • How much your competitors charge
  • What customers are willing to pay for such a product
  • The premium customers are willing to pay because of unique product benefits
  • The premium customers are willing to pay because of the strength of your brand
  • The sweet-spot price that maximizes both sales volume and profit (a.k.a., what is the elasticity of demand)

4. Place

This is really “Distribution” but they needed a word that starts with a “P.” Distribution refers to where and how your customers can obtain your product or service. How do you best meet your customers where they are?

  • Physical storefront, online store, or both?
  • Physical office? Zoom calls?
  • Delivery or pickup?
  • Same-day shipping or 10-day ground?
  • Distributor network, reseller network, or direct-to-consumer (or business)?
  • Fulfillment center or out of your garage?

Which options strike the perfect balance of meeting customer expectations while keeping your distribution costs down?

5. Promotion

This is the part of the plan where you’ll define your communications channels. What are the most cost-effective ways to reach your prospects? How and where do they like to get their information? (You will have defined this in your buyer personas.)

For each of your available communications channels, assess:

  • Potential audience reach and engagement
  • Optimum frequency to establish awareness, interest, and evaluation
  • Maximum acceptable marketing cost per impression
  • Maximum acceptable marketing cost per lead
  • Maximum acceptable marketing cost per sale
  • Budget you can allocate to each channel
  • Mechanisms for measuring the success of each channel

Channels include (a partial list):

  • Digital media
  • Social media (including influencer marketing)
  • Print media
  • Earned media (public relations, analyst relations)
  • Broadcast media
  • Streaming media
  • Outdoor media
  • Trade shows
  • Content marketing
  • Direct mail
  • In-store point-of-purchase displays

You may have heard the expression, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” 

With well-defined mechanisms for measuring success, this won’t be an issue for you.

Bonus P: Plan

This kind of goes without saying. Planning is assumed. As they say, “Failure to plan is planning to fail.” 

It’s easy to fall into the “paralysis by analysis” trap, though, delaying action for fear the plan isn’t fully thought out yet, and missing out on opportunities while the market is hot. 

Keep it simple instead. By following this simple 5 Ps format, you can create a solid plan that has just what you need to launch, test, iterate, and continually refine your marketing effort to steadily increase results. 

To your marketing success,


Note: No part of this blog post, or any post on this site, was written by A.I. You’re getting pure human writing based on years of professional experience.