The Four Ps

During our article-based internet course on marketing and how marketing makes the world go round, we will investigate the role of price in the process of marketing. How does price affect marketing? In many different ways. Setting the price of a product is an exact science. You can't just slap any old number on your business card and call it the price. You must consult the market and determine not only what other people are charging for similar services but also what people in your area would be willing to pay.

During our discussion of product pricing, we will not simply confine ourselves to the concept of monetary value, although that is what most people think of when they hear the word 'price.' The price of a chlorine tablet at your pool cleaning store or pool closing company, comes not just from how much you paid for it at your supplier's warehouse but also from non-monetary concerns like how much time is devoted to stocking or creating the product, how much attention needs to be paid to it while it is in your care and how much energy, either from human endeavor or through electricity, went into this particular product.

Product pricing in relation to marketing will naturally lead us into a discussion of pricing science, which is the study and application of economics and mathematics, to the problem of how much a product should cost. Pricing science affects everything from how much a seller can expect when looking to unload homes for sale, to why a certain brand of chewing gum costs more in one store than in another. Regional, provincial and national market differences play into pricing science, which is a fast-growing field among today's business researchers.

Pricing science, of course, sets only the manufacturer's suggested retail price. There are many more aspects of pricing that operate on the company and individual store level, and we will discuss these as well. Time also plays a factor in pricing, as you will notice when shopping for something like aqua finishing solutions. The price is not always the same, depending on when you go to the store. This process of 'discounting' plays a significant role in marketing a product, whether done on a seasonal basis or by coupon distribution.

No discussion of pricing would be complete without talking about how the price of a product affects the decisions of a consumer. For instance, what goes through a bride's head when one hall is more expensive than another when she is searching for a wedding rental? Some real estate prices are less on one side of the city than the real estate prices on the opposite side. Why is that? Does a product being more expensive mean that it is better than a cheaper product, or that one company is trying to rip you off? Do all people think the same way, or are there differences of opinion? We will cover these topics and more in our lesson on pricing in Marketing 101.