The four P’s of marketing are Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. This model of the marketing mix was documented in 1960 in the text book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach by co-author E. Jerome McCarthy, a marketing professor at Michigan State University, revising previous models down to the following four simple points.

Product (or Service), Price, Place (i.e. distribution), Promotion

Product – the item/service that satisfies a customer/user demand and all its features and benefits

Price – what

customer/user exchanges for the product – setting or changing price is part of overall business and marketing strategy; for nonprofits this might include a membership fee, prices on items sold for fundraising, the time or resources given up in exchange for a service, the action requested by a cause, the other ‘costs’ for using a service or attending an event (e.g. hard to get transportation to the library or an event, so ‘cost’ too high to attend)

Place – how and where the user/customer gets the product; marketing via changes in Place might include adding a new location, increasing hours, adding a kiosk at seasonal location, taking services to community, live-streaming an in-person event or changing your website, adding a donation button online

Promotion – the methods (channels) of communication to a user/customer about the product and its price and place (i.e. tactics; advertising, public relations, sales, sales promotions, etc)

Some marketing experts and teachers have expanded this to more Ps and to cover services and service-based organizations:  Physical evidence (that service was performed or delivered), People (the employees delivering the service and way they do so), Process (systems that affect delivering service)