4ps of marketing case study

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4p framework, the 4p framework is a powerful tool to set the right marketing mix within a case study, use the 4ps to align the products of a company with the right price, place, and promotion, the right  product.

The product must meet the needs of customers. This category also includes  packaging,  as well as  services  and  guarantees,  which could come with the purchase. The key area in this framework is to understand the  distinctive characteristics  of the product in comparison to the competitors' products (see benchmarking ).

The right  price

Generally, 3 different approaches are used to set the price of a product:

• Cost-Based Pricing
• Competitive Analysis
• Value-Based Pricing

The “right” price is the one, which maximizes the revenue. To sell the greatest amount at the best price possible, we need to know how people value the product; therefore  value-based pricing  is usually recommended.

The right  place

Place refers to the PLACEment of a product in the market rather than just the point of sale. This dimension includes the whole  distribution system:  transportation, storage, and choice of a distribution channel to the point of sale among others. To choose the right place you need to focus on the customers’ needs, wants, and behavior.

The most effective  promotion

Promotion bundles all  communication activities  with the customers. Ideally, the information of a product is presented in such a manner that it raises awareness of the target group and convinces them to purchase the product. Promotional costs often represent a sizable proportion of the overall costs . 

Example : Starbucks

• Product : a variety of caffeinated drinks and a distinct ambiance unavailable before Starbucks in the US.
• Price : premium price because of the uniqueness in the American market and willingness of people to pay.
• Place : establishing themselves as a coffee-to-go place, therefore they set up coffee shops in places with a high frequency of walk-in customers.
• Promotion : Starbucks is one of the most recognized brands today. Starbucks addresses its modern clientele using various kinds of advertisements such as mobile apps, social networks, and other types of viral marketing.

Key takeaways of the 4P Framework

• Classical  marketing tool
• Key elements:  product ,  price ,  place,  and  promotion
• A helpful framework for the  introduction of new products

Related Cases

MBB Final Round Case - Smart Education

McKinsey Digital / BCG Platinion: Oil & Gas Upstream Technology

Bain 1st round case – blissottica, bain + bcg - hot wheels with video solution, bcg - yodaphone.

The 4 P’s of Marketing + Marketing Mix Examples

The 4 P’s are a concept from the business world that helps you define your business offerings and create the best individualized marketing strategy possible. 

What are the 4 P’s of Marketing? 

The 4 P‘s stands for: 

• Price 
• Place 

All aspects of marketing can be categorized under one of these 4 terms. According to conventional marketing wisdom, optimizing each of these 4 categories is a successful strategy for marketing. 

Marketing Mix Definition 

Because each of t he 4 P’s are supposed to work together like ingredients in a recipe, the 4 P’s are also called The Marketing Mix.

What is the marketing mix? Just your business’s unique blend of the 4 P’s to create your own custom recipe for marketing success. 

History of the 4 P’s 

The term “marketing mix” came first, when Harvard professor James Culliton used the recipe metaphor to describe the components of marketing in a 1948 paper. The book The Concept of the Marketing Mix further refined the idea and by 1960 the elements had been reduced to the 4 P’s we know today. 

This concept has proved remarkably useful through the decades, even as businesses move increasingly online. 

The First P of Marketing: Product + Example 

Defining your product is the first step in determining your unique marketing mix. What do you sell or provide to the customer? 

This can be a physical product like cars or hair accessories; a service like business consulting, or even a digital product like a membership to an online forum. 

The marketing mix 4P approach suggests that you clarify your product as much as possible by defining the following attributes:

• Who is my target customer?
• What are they searching for?
• How does my product meet their needs? 
• What makes my product distinctive? 
• What makes my product stand out from competitors? 
• What are my product’s features? 
• What are my product’s benefits? 

This will help you craft the most appealing description of your product and drive more consumer interest and sales. 

4 P’s of Marketing Example: Product 

Let’s take a barbershop that caters to families with young children. Their product is - obviously - haircuts. 

Applying the 4 Ps, the barbershop might describe its product this way:

“ We know your kids may be nervous about a new haircut. We offer a fun, no-pressure shop where your kids can watch their favorite cartoons from our custom-painted chairs. Our trained stylists can give your little ones the latest style or just a trim quickly and easily. It’s so much fun, your kids will want to come back every week!”

In this example, the barbershop is offering a very ordinary product -haircuts. But they know that their target customers are parents who are worried about their children not sitting still for haircuts. Therefore, they position their product as unique - a “fun” haircut. 

The Second P of Marketing: Price + Example 

Much ink has been spilled determining the pricing sweet spot for any given product. The marketing mix strategy acknowledges that different businesses will use different pricing strategies. 

• Premium pricing - especially for “luxury” or “premium” brands
• Undercutting competitors 
• Offering a loyalty program
• Offering purchase points redeemable for rewards 
• Coupons 
• Sales 
• Free shipping 
• Bonus offers/free gift with purchase 
• Entry-level pricing 
• Accepting credit or pay-later systems 
• Financing 

4 P’s of Marketing Example: Pricing 

Google now offers a range of smartphones that are positioned to compete with the iPhone. 

We can see that Google is using several pricing strategies here to promote the Pixel: 

• Trade-in old phone for purchase credit
• Free shipping
• Added products (phone protection; Google One storage) 

As part of the 4ps, Google is choosing pricing strategies that will appeal the most to its customers: those who want a good phone but still want a deal and those who want easy integration with their existing Google products. 

The Third P of Marketing: Place + Example 

Since a big part of the marketing mix definition is place, it’s not a relevant concept in the digital age, right? Not quite. 

Keep in mind that some businesses will always be local: you can’t hire a remote plumber, for example. 

Furthermore, around 70% of Americans say that shopping locally is important to them. So actual geographic location is still quite important. 

That said, over 80% of consumers worldwide shopped online. Unquestionably, customers are online. But located exactly where online will be a key to deciding where to place your product’s promotion.

The Third P of marketing refers more to where your product is marketed than your actual physical location. This means finding where your customers spend time online and placing your product there. 

Do your target customers frequent any of the following sites:

Determining this will rely primarily upon your demographic research, but competitor research can help too. 

Are your competitors placing their products on Facebook? Have they ignored Instagram because your audience doesn’t spend time there, or is this an opportunity for you to locate your product near customers but away from competition? 

4 P’s of Marketing Example: Place 

Popular skincare brand Curology uses the marketing mix to reach its target customer on social media. The company’s headquarters is in San Francisco, but that is irrelevant to the “place” component 4P. 

Curology sells customized skincare 100% online, so it places its promotions where customers are - social media. 

Take a look at the promoted ad from Facebook below:

This ad uses the marketing mix concept well because it summarizes the product by highlighting a few of its key benefits - it's customizable, and it’s delivered to you (which means convenient). 

The ad is placed on a site that people check almost reflexively, so they are likely to see the ad and follow it for more information on the brand. 

Next, we’ll turn to the final element of the marketing mix definition: promotion .

The Fourth P of Marketing: Promotion + Example 

The 4Ps wouldn’t be complete without promotion. This refers to how you reach your customers and what strategies you use to incentive purchases.

This may include some of the following tools and types of digital marketing : 

• Search engine marketing
• Direct emails
• Targeted ads
• Content marketing 
• Word of mouth
• Influencer marketing
• Billboards 
• Direct Mail 
• Radio 

Anything that gets your product in front of your target audience is part of your marketing strategy. 

Now, many new businesses are inclined to go for all the promotion strategies.

As any seasoned marketer can tell you, this is a waste of time and effort. It’s better to research which strategies work best for your product and audience and build quality promotions. 

Remember, The 4 Ps of marketing maintain that each business has its own unique recipe. Just because billboard advertising works great for the auto repair shop down the street doesn’t mean it will work for your marketing consulting firm. 

4 P’s of Marketing Example: Promotion 

Email marketing is an effective strategy, with studies showing it has some of the highest return on investment of all digital marketing strategies. 

Here is how an online vitamin company, Puritan’s Pride, used email marketing over a holiday weekend sale: 

In this image, you can see how the company is using price to incentivize a sale in the form of 75% off. 

The promotion comes as an email. These are quickly skimmed, so this promotion is visual and easy to scan, relying on images rather than text to get its message across quickly before the potential customer moves on to a different email. 

Do You Know the 4Ps of Your Business?  

Does your business have a well-defined marketing mix? Here are some ways you can tell:

• Your marketing goals are clearly defined 
• You have a strong brand voice
• You know what percentage of business occurs in-person and online
• You know what online channels your customers frequent 
• You are clear about your product(s) benefits
• You’ve invested in market and competitor research
• You have chosen your distribution channels
• You have a clear pricing strategy

If your business is fuzzy on some of these basics, you probably need to revisit your unique marketing mix. 

How to Apply the 4Ps in Your Own Business 

So - what is the marketing mix you should be using? 

Your marketing mix may be different for any given product or phase of your business growth. Ideally, you will be determining your mix before you even finish developing your first product.

This is because you want to make sure you are actually offering something customers need. 

Step 1: Research: Customers, Competition, and Market

• What products or services are people looking for?
• Is there dissatisfaction with the current offerings? 
• How can you offer something distinctive?
• What is your competition doing well and poorly? 

Step 2: Determine your Pricing Strategy

• Will you position your product as a luxury/premium offering?
• Will you undercut existing prices?
• Do you plan to offer customer loyalty incentives?
• Do you plan to offer free services or loss leaders?
• Do you anticipate raising prices over time? 

Step 3: Placement 

• What are your primary distribution channels?
• Online, in-person, or hybrid purchase offers?
• Will you need a physical location for promotion?
• Do you plan to work through wholesalers and retailers?
• What online channels will you place your ads on? 

Step 4: Determine Promotional Strategies 

• What is your promotional budget? 
• Do you have a digital promotion strategy?
• What promotions are most effective with your target audience?

These are a lot of questions to ask. The more time and thought you can invest in the front-end of developing a new product, the more specific you can be about your approach to business. 

Ultimately, this means you can more effectively track the success of your chosen strategy and determine what is and is not working. 

Case Study: The 4Ps of SEOptimer.com 

Since we are a marketing company, after all, let’s use the SEOptimer website as an example of the 4 P’s at work. 

4 P’s of Marketing: Product 

SEOptimer offers numerous tools to make online marketing easier. One of our key products is the SEO Audit and Reporting Tool.

The headline of this page immediately tells visitors what they will get: a free, comprehensive SEO audit of their URL. When visitors scroll down, they learn the features and benefits of this product. 

Search Engines rely on many factors to rank a website. SEOptimer is a Website SEO Checker which reviews these and more to help identify problems that could be holding your site back from its potential.

Additionally, we provide a clear, actionable, prioritized list of recommendations to help improve.

This further defines the value of the product for potential customers and increases their chances of trying it out. 

4 P’s of Marketing: Price 

SEOptimer offers the free SEO audit tool (and lots of other SEO tools), as part of a “freemium” strategy. This means that our tools are freely available, but advanced features require a paid subscription.  

This is a pricing strategy. We also offer paid SEO consulting services. Customers use our free tools, which builds their confidence in us as digital marketing experts. If they need professional services, they are then more likely to turn to our company. 

4 P’s of Marketing: Place

Since our products are digital, they are accessible from anywhere in the world. For a company like ours with a global reach, “place” is more about reaching customers digitally. 

Maintaining a strong presence on multiple social channels is one way we do this. Another is by focusing on our SEO strategy, which reaches costumes across the world, rather than in one limited geographic location. 

4 P’s of Marketing: Promotion

While SEOptimer uses multiple promotional strategies, one good example is our organic search strategy.

Not only do we provide free and paid SEO tools, but we also offer valuable guides, articles, and how-tos to our customers. 

This content is indexed by Google and other search engines, making it more likely that potential customers will find our content, read it, and then engage with our brand. 

The 4P’S - Find Your Custom Marketing Recipe 

The 4 P’s of marketing have successfully guided marketers for over 6 decades. Far from being obsolete, combining these 4 elements is a tried-and-true method of defining your business’s overall goals and strategy. 

Try this exercise today: see if you can clearly define the 4 P’s for any given product in your company: 

If you’re clear on these 4 elements, then chances are you have the marketing mix for your business mastered. 

Adam Krzywda

SEOptimer's CEO and venerable leader. Adam has a wealth of experience across Digital Marketing, SEO and software, and enjoys sharing his learnings from growing SEOptimer to an audience of over 100,000 monthly users.

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Rethinking the 4 P’s

• Richard Ettenson,
• Eduardo Conrado,
• Jonathan Knowles

It’s time to retool the 4 P’s of marketing for today’s B2B reality. As a framework for fine-tuning the marketing mix, the P’s—product, place, price, and promotion—have served consumer marketers well for half a century. But in the B2B world, they yield narrow, product-focused strategies that are increasingly at odds with the imperative to deliver […]

It’s time to retool the 4 P’s of marketing for today’s B2B reality. As a framework for fine-tuning the marketing mix, the P’s—product, place, price, and promotion—have served consumer marketers well for half a century. But in the B2B world, they yield narrow, product-focused strategies that are increasingly at odds with the imperative to deliver solutions.

• RE Richard Ettenson is Professor and Keickhefer Fellow in Global Marketing and Brand Strategy, The Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University .
• EC Eduardo Conrado is a senior VP and the chief marketing officer at Motorola Solutions.
• JK Jonathan Knowles is the founder of the strategic advisory firm Type 2 Consulting and the codeveloper of the MAD approach to strategy .

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Marketing case study 101 (plus tips, examples, and templates)

Summary/Overview

If you’re familiar with content lines like, “See how our fancy new app saved Sarah 10 hours a week doing payroll,” you’ve encountered a marketing case study. That’s because case studies are one of the most powerful marketing tools, showcasing real-world applications and customer success stories that help build trust with potential customers.

More than 42% of marketers use case studies in their marketing strategy. Let’s face it — we love testimonials and reviews. People love hearing customer stories and experiences firsthand. In fact, 88% of consumers view reviews before making a purchase decision. Case studies work similarly by providing prospective customers with real-life stories demonstrating the brand’s success.

Case studies provide a more in-depth view of how your product solves an existing problem — something potential buyers can relate to and learn from.

In this article, we take a closer look at what marketing case studies are, why they’re important, and how you can use them to improve your content marketing efforts. You’ll also learn the key elements of a successful case study and how to turn a good case study into a great case study.

What is a marketing case study?

A case study is a narrative that documents a real-world situation or example. A marketing case study is a detailed examination and analysis of a specific strategy, initiative, or marketing campaign that a business has implemented. It’s intended to serve as an all-inclusive narrative that documents a real-world business situation and its outcome.

Marketing case studies are tools businesses use to showcase the effectiveness of a particular tool, technique, or service by using a real-world example. Companies often use case studies as sales collateral on websites, email marketing, social media , and other marketing materials. They provide readers with a firsthand look into how your product or service has helped someone else and demonstrate the value of your offering while building trust with potential customers.

Some common key components of a marketing case study include:

• Context: A case study begins by describing the business’s situation or problem. This often includes challenges, opportunities, or objectives.
• Strategy: An outline of the tactics or strategy utilized to address the business’s situation. This includes details such as the target audience, messaging, channels used, and other unique aspects of the approach.
• Implementation: Provide information about how the strategy was implemented, including timeline, resources, and budget.
• Results: This is arguably the most crucial part of a marketing case study. Present the results through data, metrics, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate the impact of the strategy. The results section should highlight both qualitative and quantitative data.
• Challenges and Solutions: A great case study not only focuses on the successes but addresses any obstacles faced during the campaign. Make sure to address any challenges and how they were overcome or mitigated.
• Customer Feedback: Including testimonials or quotes from satisfied clients is a great way to add credibility and authenticity to a case study. Choose customer feedback that reinforces the positive outcomes of the strategy taken.
• Visuals: Compelling case studies include visuals such as graphs, charts, images, videos, and infographics to make the information presented more engaging and easier to understand.
• Analysis: An optional way to conclude a case study includes discussing key takeaways, insights, and lessons learned from a campaign.

Case studies can help you connect your product to the customer’s needs by providing a real world examples of success and encouraging conversions.

Benefits of marketing case studies

Some of the key benefits of using case studies in your marketing efforts include the following:

• Building trust and credibility. You build trust and credibility with potential clients or customers by demonstrating real world success stories. In-depth looks at how your products or services have helped other businesses or people achieve success can increase customer loyalty and encourage repeat business.
• Learn best practices. Learn from strategies employed in successful case studies and apply similar approaches to future campaigns.
• Enhancing sales and conversions. By highlighting the real world results your products or services have delivered, case studies can be a powerful tool for boosting sales. They can help demonstrate the value of your offering and persuade your target audience to make a purchase.
• Explain how your business generates results. Case studies are a compelling way to share key takeaways with your target audience and showcase your brand.
• Use them as content marketing material. Use case studies as content for marketing purposes on websites, social media, and beyond.

Case studies can help your business stand out and achieve success. By highlighting the real world results you’ve delivered, you can use case studies to boost sales, build customer loyalty, and compellingly showcase your business.

Tips on how to write an effective marketing case study

Are you ready to write a compelling case study? Get started with these tips.

Develop a clear and compelling headline

You have about 10 seconds to communicate your value proposition to keep customer attention. Whether you’re designing a new landing page or making a long-term plan for your brand’s content marketing strategy , the headline is the most crucial part.

A compelling title should capture readers’ attention and make them want to read more. To craft a compelling headline:

• Understand your audience: Before crafting a headline, ensure you know your target audience — what are their pain points, interests, and needs?
• Highlight the most significant result: Focus on the most impactful result achieved in the case study. What was the primary outcome of the strategy implemented?
• Keep it brief: Keep your headline concise and to the point. Try to keep your headline under 12 words.
• Use action words: Incorporate action verbs such as “achieved,” “transformed,” or “boosted” to convey a sense of accomplishment.
• Include data: Numbers make your headline more credible. For example, if the case study achieved a 75% increase in sales, include that in the headline.
• Emphasize benefits: Focus on the positive changes or advantages the implemented strategy brought to the client or business. Use these as selling points in your headline.
• Make it unique and memorable: Avoid generic phrases to make your headline stand out from the competition.
• Use keywords wisely: Incorporate relevant keywords that align with the case study and your target audience’s search interest to improve search engine visibility through search engine optimization (SEO).
• Consider subheadings: If you cannot fit all the necessary information in a headline, consider adding a subheading to provide additional context or details.

Here are some examples of clear and convincing case study headlines:

• “Achieving a 150% ROI: How [XYZ] Strategy Transformed a Startup”
• “How Optimized SEO Tactics Skyrocketed Sales by 80%”
• “Mastering Social Media: How [ABC] Brand Increased Engagement by 50%”
• “The Power of Personalization: How Tailored Content Quadrupled Conversions”

Write relatable content

Almost 90% of Gen Z and millennial shoppers prefer influencers who they consider relatable. Relatability is part of building trust and connection with your target audience.

When writing your case study, make content that resonates with readers and speaks to their pain points. The best marketing doesn’t just increase conversion rates — it also serves your customers’ needs. To write content that really resonates with your target audience, make sure to:

• Understand your audience: To successfully write relatable content, you first need to understand your target audience — their interests, pain points, and challenges. The more you know about your target audience, the better you can tailor your content to their needs.
• Identify pain points: As mentioned above, identify challenges your target audience may face. Make sure to highlight how the product or service in the case study can effectively address these pain points.
• Tell a story: Create a narrative that follows a standard story arc. Start with a relatable struggle that the customer or business faced and describe its associated emotions.
• Use real customer feedback: Incorporate quotes or testimonials from actual customers or clients. Including authentic voices makes the content more relatable to readers because they can see real people expressing their experiences.
• Use relatable language: Write in a tone to which your audience can relate. Only include overly technical terms if your target audience solely consists of experts who would understand them.
• Use social proof: Mention any recognitions, awards, or industry acknowledgments that may have been received by the customer or business in the case study.
• Encourage engagement: Urge readers to share their own challenges or experiences related to the subject matter of the case study. This is a great way to foster a sense of community.

Outline your strategies with corresponding statistics

Whether you’re showing off the results your marketing team achieved with a new strategy or explaining how your product has helped customers, data and research make it easier to back up claims.

Include relevant statistics in your case study to provide evidence of the effectiveness of your strategies, such as:

• Quantitative data: Use numerical data to quantify results.
• Qualitative data: Use qualitative data, such as customer testimonials, to back up numerical results.
• Comparisons: Compare the post-campaign results with the pre-campaign benchmarks to provide context for the data.
• Case study metrics: Include specific metrics relevant to your industry or campaign if applicable. For example, in e-commerce, common metrics could include customer acquisition cost, average order value, or cart abandonment rate.

By incorporating relatable outcomes — such as cost savings from new automation or customer responsiveness from your new social media marketing campaign — you can provide concrete evidence of how your product or service has helped others in similar situations.

Use multiple formats of representation

People love visuals . It doesn’t matter if it’s an infographic for digital marketing or a graph chart in print materials — we love to see our data and results represented in visuals that are easy to understand. Additionally, including multiple representation formats is a great way to increase accessibility and enhance clarity.

When making a case study, consider including various forms of representation, such as:

• Infographics: Use infographics to condense critical information into a visually appealing, easy-to-understand graphic. Infographics are highly sharable and can be used across marketing channels.
• Charts: Use charts (bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, etc.) to illustrate statistical information such as data trends or comparisons. Make sure to include clear labels and titles for each chart.
• Images: Include relevant photos to enhance the storytelling aspect of your case study. Consider including “before and after” pictures if relevant to your case study.
• Videos: Short videos summarizing a case study’s main points are great for sharing across social media or embedding into your case study.
• Tables: Use tables to help organize data and make it easier for readers to digest.
• Data visualizations: Include data visualizations such as flowcharts or heatmaps to illustrate user journeys or specific processes.
• Screenshots: If your case study involves digital products, include screenshots to provide a visual walkthrough of how the product or service works.
• Diagrams: Use diagrams, such as a flowchart, to explain complex processes, decision trees, or workflows to simplify complicated information.
• Timelines: If your case study involves a timeline of specific events, present it using a timeline graphic.

Use a consistent design style and color scheme to maintain cohesion when incorporating multiple formats. Remember that each format you use should serve a specific purpose in engaging the reader and conveying information.

Get your case study in front of your intended audience

What good is a compelling case study and a killer call to action (CTA) if no one sees it? Once you’ve completed your case study, share it across the appropriate channels and networks your target audience frequents and incorporate it into your content strategy to increase visibility and reach. To get your case study noticed:

• Take advantage of your website. Create a dedicated section or landing page on your website for your case study. If your website has a blog section, consider including it here. Optimize the page for search engines (SEO) by including relevant keywords and optimizing the meta description and headers. Make sure to feature your case study on your homepage and relevant product or service pages.
• Launch email marketing campaigns. Send out the case study to your email subscriber list. Be specific and target groups that would most likely be interested in the case study.
• Launch social media campaigns. Share your case study on your social media platforms. Use eye-catching graphics and engaging captions to draw in potential readers. Consider creating teaser videos or graphics to generate interest.
• Utilize paid promotions. Use targeted social media and search engine ads to reach specific demographics or interests. Consider retargeting ads to re-engage visitors who have previously interacted with your website.
• Issue a press release. If your case study results in a significant industry impact, consider issuing a press release to share the exciting news with relevant media outlets or publications.
• Utilize influencer outreach. Collaborate with influencers who can share your case study with their followers to increase credibility and expand your reach.
• Host webinars and presentations. Discuss the case study findings and insights through webinars or presentations. Promote these events through your various marketing channels and make sure to encourage participation.
• Utilize networking events and conferences. Present your case study at industry-related conferences, trade shows, or networking events. Consider distributing printed or digital copies of the case study to attendees.
• Utilize online communities. Share the case study in relevant online forums and discussion groups where your target audience congregates.
• Practice search engine optimization (SEO). Optimize the SEO elements of your case study to improve organic search ranking and visibility.

Remember, the key to successfully promoting your case study is to tailor your approach to your specific target audience and their preferences. Consistently promoting your case study across multiple channels increases your chances of it reaching your intended audience.

Marketing case study examples

Let’s look at some successful marketing case studies for inspiration.

“How Handled Scaled from Zero to 121 Locations with HubSpot”

Right away, they lead with compelling metrics — the numbers don’t lie. They use two different formats: a well-made video accompanied by well-written text.

The study also addresses customer pain points, like meeting a higher demand during the pandemic.

“How AppSumo grew organic traffic 843% and revenue from organic traffic 340%”

This case study from Omniscient Digital leads with motivating stats, a glowing review sharing a real user experience, and a video review from the AppSumo Head of Content.

The case study information is broken down into clearly marked sections, explaining the benefits to their target audience (startups) and providing plenty of visuals, charts, and metrics to back it up.

“How One Ecommerce Business Solved the Omnichannel Challenge with Bitly Campaigns”

Download this Bitly case study from their site to see the details of how this company made an impact.

Not only is it well designed, but it also tackles customer challenges right away. The most compelling types of case studies serve their audience by showing how the product or service solves their problems.

Bitly nails it by listing obstacles and jumping right into how the brand can help.

Marketing case study template

Use this basic template to better understand the typical structure of a business case study and use it as a starting place to create your own:

Case Study Title

Date: [Date]

Client or Company Profile:

• Client/Company Name: [Client/Company Name]
• Industry: [Industry]
• Location: [Location]
• Client/Company Background: [Brief client or company background information.]

Introduction:

• Briefly introduce the client or company and any necessary context for the campaign or initiative.
• Problem statement: Describe the specific challenge or problem faced by the client or company before implementing the campaign or initiative.
• Strategy: Explain the strategy that was implemented to address the challenge. Include details such as target audience, objectives, goals, and tactics.
• Implementation: Provide a timeline of the strategy’s implementation, including key milestones and other notable considerations taken during execution.
• Outcomes: Present the qualitative and quantitative results achieved through the implemented strategy. Include relevant metrics, statistics, and key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Comparative data: Compare the post-campaign results to pre-campaign benchmarks or industry standards.

Analysis and Insights:

• Key insights: Summarize insights and lessons learned from the campaign and discuss the campaign's impact on the client or company’s goals.
• Challenges faced: Address any obstacles encountered during the campaign and how they were mitigated or overcome.

Conclusion:

• Conclusion: Summarize the campaign’s overall impact on the client or company. Highlight the value that was delivered by the implemented strategy and the success it achieved.
• Next Steps: Discuss potential follow-up actions, recommendations, or future strategies.

Testimonials:

• Include quotes or testimonials from the clients or customers who benefitted from the campaign.
• Incorporate relevant visuals to illustrate key points, findings, and results.

The above template is a great way to get started gathering your ideas and findings for a marketing case study. Feel free to add additional sections or customize the template to match your requirements.

Craft a compelling marketing case study for your business

Are you ready to make your marketing case study shine? With Adobe Express, you can make high-quality infographics and presentations that take your case studies to the next level.

Choose from our library of designed templates, or make it yourself with powerful tools and a library of ready-to-use graphic elements.

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What Are the 4 Ps of Marketing?

• Understanding the 4 Ps

4. Promotion

How to use the 4 ps of marketing in your marketing strategy, the bottom line.

• Business Essentials

4 Ps of Marketing: What They Are & How to Use Them Successfully

Product, price, place, and promotion are the four Ps in a winning "marketing mix"

The four Ps of marketing are:

These are the key factors that are involved in introducing a product or service to the public. Often referred to as a marketing mix , they provide a framework that companies can use to successfully market a product or service to consumers. Since the four Ps were introduced in the 1950s, more Ps have been added to the mix, including people, process, and physical evidence.

Key Takeaways

• The four Ps are the four essential factors involved in marketing a product or service to the public.
• The four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion.
• The concept of the four Ps has been around since the 1950s. As the marketing industry has evolved, other Ps have been identified: people, process, and physical evidence.

Investopedia / Julie Bang

Understanding the 4 Ps of Marketing

Neil Borden, an advertising professor at Harvard, popularized the idea of the marketing mix—and the concepts that would later be known primarily as the four Ps—in the 1950s. His 1964 article "The Concept of the Marketing Mix" demonstrated the ways that companies could use advertising tactics to engage their consumers.

Decades later, the concepts that Borden popularized are still being used by companies to advertise their goods and services.

Borden's ideas were developed and refined over a number of years by other key players in the industry. E. Jerome McCarthy, a marketing professor at Michigan State University, refined the concepts in Borden's article and named them the "four Ps" of marketing. McCarthy co-wrote the book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach , further popularizing the idea.

At the time the concept was introduced, it helped companies breach the physical barriers that could hamper widespread product adoption. Today, the Internet has helped businesses to overcome some of these barriers.

People, process, and physical evidence are extensions of the original Four Ps and are relevant to current trends in marketing.

Any successful marketing strategy should be revisited from time to time. The marketing mix you create is not intended to be static. It needs to be adjusted and refined as your product grows and your customer base changes.

Creating a marketing campaign starts with an understanding of the product itself. Who needs it, and why? What does it do that no competitor's product can do? Perhaps it's a new thing altogether and is so compelling in its design or function that consumers will have to have it when they see it.

The job of the marketer is to define the product and its qualities and introduce it to the consumer.

Defining the product also is key to its distribution. Marketers need to understand the life cycle of a product , and business executives need to have a plan for dealing with products at every stage of the life cycle.

The type of product also dictates in part how much it will cost, where it should be placed, and how it should be promoted.

Many of the most successful products have been the first in their category. For example, Apple was the first to create a touchscreen smartphone that could play music, browse the internet, and make phone calls. Apple reported total sales of the iPhone for FY 2022 at $205.4 billion. In 2021, it hit the milestone of 2 billion iPhones sold.

Price is the amount that consumers will be willing to pay for a product. Marketers must link the price to the product's real and perceived value, while also considering supply costs, seasonal discounts, competitors' prices, and retail markup.

In some cases, business decision-makers may raise the price of a product to give it the appearance of luxury or exclusivity. Or, they may lower the price so more consumers will try it.

Marketers also need to determine when and if discounting is appropriate. A discount can draw in more customers, but it can also give the impression that the product is less desirable than it was.

UNIQLO, headquartered in Japan, is a global manufacturer of casual wear. Like its competitors Gap and Zara, UNIQLO creates low-priced, fashion-forward garments for younger buyers.

What makes UNIQLO unique is that its products are innovative and high-quality. It accomplishes this by purchasing fabric in large volumes, continually seeking the highest-quality and lowest-cost materials in the world. The company also directly negotiates with its manufacturers and has built strategic partnerships with innovative Japanese manufacturers.

UNIQLO also outsources its production to partner factories. That gives it the flexibility to change production partners as its needs change.

Finally, the company employs a team of skilled textile artisans that it sends to its partner factories all over the world for quality control. Production managers visit factories once a week to resolve quality problems.

Place is the consideration of where the product should be available—in brick-and-mortar stores and online—and how it will be displayed.

The decision is key: The makers of a luxury cosmetic product would want to be displayed in Sephora and Neiman Marcus, not in Walmart or Family Dollar. The goal of business executives is always to get their products in front of the consumers who are the most likely to buy them.

That means placing a product only in certain stores and getting it displayed to the best advantage.

The term placement also refers to advertising the product in the right media to get the attention of target consumers.

For example, the 1995 movie GoldenEye was the 17th installment in the James Bond movie franchise and the first that did not feature an Aston Martin car. Instead, Bond actor Pierce Brosnan got into a BMW Z3. Although the Z3 was not released until months after the film had left theaters, BMW received 9,000 orders for the car the month after the movie opened.

The goal of promotion is to communicate to consumers that they need this product and that it is priced appropriately. Promotion encompasses advertising, public relations, and the overall media strategy for introducing a product.

Marketers tend to tie together promotion and placement elements to reach their core audiences. For example, In the digital age, the "place" and "promotion" factors are as much online as offline. Specifically, where a product appears on a company's web page or social media, as well as which types of search functions will trigger targeted ads for the product.

The Swedish vodka brand Absolut sold only 10,000 cases of its vodka in 1980. By 2000, the company had sold 4.5 million cases, thanks in part to its iconic advertising campaign. The images in the campaign featured the brand's signature bottle styled as a range of surreal images: a bottle with a halo, a bottle made of stone, or a bottle in the shape of the trees standing on a ski slope. To date, the Absolut campaign is one of the longest-running continuous campaigns of all time, from 1981 to 2005.

The four Ps provide a framework on which to build your marketing strategy. Think through each factor. And don't worry when the factors overlap. That's inevitable.

First, analyze the product you will be marketing. What are the characteristics that make it appealing? Consider similar products that are already on the market. Your product may be tougher, easier to use, more attractive, or longer-lasting. Its ingredients might be environmentally friendly or naturally sourced. Identify the qualities that will make it appealing to your target consumers.

Think through the appropriate price for the product. It's not simply the cost of production plus a profit margin. You may be positioning it as a premium or luxury product or as a bare-bones, lower-priced alternative.

Placement involves identifying the type of store, online and off, that stocks products like yours for consumers like yours.

Promotion can only be considered in the context of your target consumer. The product might be appealing to a hip younger crowd or to upscale professionals or to bargain hunters. Your media strategy needs to reach the right audience with the right message.

When Did the 4 Ps Become the 7 Ps?

The focus on the four Ps—product, price, place, and promotion—has been a core tenet of marketing since the 1950s. Three newer Ps expand the marketing mix for the 21st century.

• People places the focus on the personalities who represent the product. In the current era, that means not only sales and customer service employees but social media influencers and viral media campaigns.
• Process is logistics. Consumers increasingly demand fast and efficient delivery of the things they want, when they want them.
• Physical evidence is perhaps the most thoroughly modern of the seven Ps. If you're selling diamond jewelry on a website, it must be immediately clear to the consumer that you are a legitimate established business that will deliver as promised. A professionally designed website with excellent functionality, an "About" section that lists the principals of the company and its physical address, professional packaging, and efficient delivery service are all critical to convincing the consumer that your product is not only good, it's real.

What Are Some Examples of the 4 Ps of Marketing?

• Place refers to where consumers buy your product, or where they discover it. Today's consumers may learn about products and buy them online, through a smartphone app, at retail locations, or through a sales professional.
• Price refers to the cost of the product or service. Properly determining product price includes an analysis of the competition, the demand, production costs, and what consumers are willing to spend. Various pricing models may be considering, such as choosing between one-time purchase and subscription models.
• The product a company provides depends on the type of company and what they do best. For example, McDonald's provides consistent fast food in a casual setting. They may expand their offerings, but they wouldn't stray far from their core identity.
• Promotion refers to specific and thoughtful advertising that reaches the target market for the product. A company might use an Instagram campaign, a public relations campaign, advertising placement, an email campaign , or some combination of all of these to reach the right audience in the right place.

How Do You Use the 4 Ps of Marketing?

The model of the 4Ps can be used when you are planning a new product launch, evaluating an existing product, or trying to optimize the sales of an existing product.

A careful analysis of these four factors—product, price, place, and promotion—helps a marketing professional devise a strategy that successfully introduces or reintroduces a product to the public.

The four Ps of marketing—product, price, place, promotion—are often referred to as the marketing mix. These are the key elements involved in planning and marketing a product or service, and they interact significantly with each other. Considering all of these elements is one way to approach a holistic marketing strategy .

Neil Borden. " The Concept of the Marketing Mix ."

E. Jerome McCarthy. "Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach." Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1960.

Apple. " Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited) Q4 2022 ," Page 1.

Apple Insider. " At 2 Billion iPhones Sold, Apple Continues to Redefine What Customers Want ."

Harvard Business School: Technology and Operations Management. " UNIQLO: What’s Behind the Low-Cost High-Quality Casual Wear? "

Smart Insights. " Campaign of the Week: The Longest Running Print Ad Marketing Campaign in History ."

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