The marketing mix is the set of things a company controls when it takes a product or service to market. It's usually summed up as the 4 Ps of marketing: product, price, place and promotion.
HubSpot describes the marketing mix as the actions a company takes to market its products or services, and says it works as a framework for breaking marketing into those four parts so you can organise the work by task and by department. If you've searched for the 4 Ps of marketing, you're in the same place: it's the same idea under a different name.
Where the 4 Ps came from
HubSpot says the framework's roots go back to the 1940s and that the core four Ps have stayed consistent for decades. Its 4 Ps article credits E. Jerome McCarthy, who introduced the four Ps in his book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach in the 1960s, at a time when marketing was changing. So the idea is old, and it's still the first checklist most marketers reach for.
The 4 Ps of marketing at a glance
| P | What it covers | The question to answer |
|---|---|---|
| Product | What you sell and the problem it solves | Who is the customer and what do they need? |
| Price | Price point, positioning, margin | What do competitors charge, what will buyers pay, and what does the price say about us? |
| Place | Where it's sold or reached | Store, retailer, online or phone: where is the buyer? |
| Promotion | How the market hears about it | Paid ads, content, PR or word of mouth? |
| People, Process, Physical evidence | The 7 Ps extension | Who delivers it, how smoothly, and what proof can a buyer see? |
Product
Product is whatever you sell: a physical product, an app or a service such as house cleaning. HubSpot says to think about brand messaging, the services you offer and packaging, and to ask what problem the product solves and how it's different from what competitors sell. Getting it right means research and development, understanding the need, a launch plan and timeline, and educating both customers and salespeople.
Price
HubSpot says arriving at a price takes several pricing strategies, a look at similarly priced products and consumer surveys or focus groups. It also says price speaks to positioning, to how fast you want to get into the market and to your revenue and profit margin goals. Apple is HubSpot's example of pricing at the higher end of the market, backed by a reputation for innovation, quality and design.
Place
Place is where the product or service is sold: your own store, a retailer that resells it, online or over the phone. Not every place suits every product. HubSpot's example is that a product aimed at seniors makes no sense marketed on TikTok, and it says to think about whether you're B2B or B2C. Its Hu example shows the opposite approach: the chocolate brand sells through major retailers such as Walmart, Target and Whole Foods, an Amazon storefront and its own website, which HubSpot says maximises earning potential and brand awareness.
Promotion
Promotion is everything that makes your target market aware of you and excited about you. HubSpot includes paid work such as commercials and advertising and organic work such as word of mouth, content marketing and public relations. Its Avant-Garde Vegan example is a good one: chef Gaz Oakley built an audience on YouTube first and then released a cookbook, and HubSpot says that promote-then-launch route works because it adds value instead of selling.
The catch: price is a signal, not just a number
Most explanations stop at four words. The part people miss is that price tells buyers what to think of you before they've tried anything.
HubSpot's Warby Parker example shows it. The brand's pricing starts at $95 and undercuts many competitors (HubSpot's figure, as of October 2026). In interviews, the founders said they first planned to price frames as low as $45, then doubled the price after considering that low prices for something like glasses can read as low quality. Cheap would've been easier to promote and worse for the brand.
That's why price belongs next to positioning in your planning, not in a spreadsheet on its own. If you're working out where you sit against competitors, this guide to brand positioning covers that side.
The 7 Ps and the 4 Cs
HubSpot's 4 Ps article adds three more Ps, which matter most when you sell a service or sell online:
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
- People: sales teams, customer service, influencers and brand advocates.
- Process: how quickly you ship and whether you have stock.
- Physical evidence: reviews, about pages and a company address, the proof a buyer looks for online.
HubSpot also cites Smart Insights extending the mix with Process, People, Partners, Physical evidence and Packaging, and says every good mix should still rest on a thorough look at the first four Ps.
The 4 Cs flip the whole thing round to the customer's view: Customer, Cost (value perception and effort, not only price), Convenience and Communication. If your mix was built product-first, running it through the 4 Cs is the quickest way to spot where you've been talking to yourself.
How to build your marketing mix in five steps
- Define the product and the problem it solves.
- Research and set the price against competitors and what buyers will pay, and ask what that price says about you.
- Choose the places your buyer already is.
- Pick your promotion channels and a message for each.
- Check the extra Ps (people, process, physical evidence) and the buyer's four Cs.
If you want somewhere to write it down, my free marketing plan template gives the mix a home. One thing this page doesn't cover is measuring which parts of the mix drive sales, which is a different job: this marketing mix modeling cheat sheet covers the measurement side.
Where I come in
I work with SaaS marketing teams and small businesses on turning the marketing mix into a one-page plan they'll use: what the product promises, what the price signals, where the buyer is and which promotion is worth doing first. You can see how I work on my work with me page.
The verdict on the marketing mix
The four Ps are a checklist, not a strategy. Use them before you spend anything on ads, because promotion can't fix a product sold in the wrong place or a price that sends the wrong signal. Warby Parker didn't win by being cheapest. It won by picking a price that said the right thing.
Frequently asked questions
What are the 4 Ps of the marketing mix?
Product, price, place and promotion. HubSpot describes them as the four key components of marketing that the mix breaks down.
Who created the 4 Ps of marketing?
HubSpot credits E. Jerome McCarthy, who introduced the four Ps in his book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach in the 1960s.
What are the 7 Ps of marketing?
The 4 Ps plus people, process and physical evidence, which cover who delivers the product, how smoothly it's delivered and the proof a buyer can see.
What are the 4 Cs of marketing?
Customer, Cost, Convenience and Communication. They rewrite the 4 Ps from the customer's point of view.
