The “4 P’s of Marketing” – Part 1

by Katie Morse

I’ve always been fascinated by how, despite massive changes in technology and culture, some very basic business principles stay the same.   Any marketing student learns about the “4 P’s of Marketing”.  Product, Price, Place, Promotion.

These 4 P’s guide businesses large and small in developing their marketing strategy and defining their marketing mix.

This all may seem a bit boring (or irrelevant) to you as a musician, but these P’s are equally as useful to you as they are to a Fortune 100 business when planning and executing your marketing strategy.

For example, these 4 P’s can help you answer questions you ask yourself along all points of your career, including:

  • Am I going to sell my music or give it away?
  • If I give it away, how will I make money?
  • Where are my fans?
  • What is the best way to connect with my fans?
  • How can I get more people to listen to my music/attend my concerts/buy my stuff?
  • How can I keep track of it all?
  • Where should I spend my time promoting myself?
  • Should I hire someone to manage part of my workload, or is it better to do it myself?

With a plethora of choices about what you can, and should sell – how much (or little) you should sell it for, and where you should engage with fans and place your messages, it’s important for any musician to dedicate time and figure out exactly what their goals are and how they’re going to go about achieving those goals.

4 p's

There are quite a few lists about high-level questions to ask when you’re developing a marketing strategy, but I have yet to come across one that’s applicable for a musician.

Here are my top 5 questions that I suggest asking yourself (and your band) before you start formulating your marketing strategy:

  1. What is my ultimate goal?
  2. What do I want to achieve on the way to my ultimate goal?
  3. Why am I in the music business; what’s my motivation?
  4. If I’m going to make money off of this venture, what are the ways I see myself doing so?
  5. How in the hell am I going to measure success?

Remember not to limit yourself. These questions should help you brainstorm so the sky is the limit.  Worry about the plan later, as further scrutiny has a funny way of narrowing down your options while opening up new ones.

There aren’t any “right” or “wrong” answers to these questions. They’re personal, they’re hard, and they require work to answer.

Have questions to add to this list? Please comment and add your own!

This post is the first post in a series about how to develop a marketing strategy… next up, “What Is My Product?”

Tagged as: marketing, planning, strategy

  • djshakez

    Great post Katie!

    Very important for everyone providing a service or product to understand the basic principles of Marketing.

    Here is a question musicians should ask to add to your wonderful list:
    How do I differentiate myself from the over-saturated music industry?

  • http://www.mackcollier.com/ Mack Collier

    I've never been a musician (or played one on TV), but it seems that many play for 'the love of the music', and don't devote enough time to understanding the business and marketing side of the business. I think these are some good starter questions for bands to ask themselves and answer, in order to get a roadmap in place for the future.

    Good stuff, Katie!

  • djshakez

    Great post Katie!

    Very important for everyone providing a service or product to understand the basic principles of Marketing.

    Here is a question musicians should ask to add to your wonderful list:
    How do I differentiate myself from the over-saturated music industry?

  • http://www.mackcollier.com/ Mack Collier

    I've never been a musician (or played one on TV), but it seems that many play for 'the love of the music', and don't devote enough time to understanding the business and marketing side of the business. I think these are some good starter questions for bands to ask themselves and answer, in order to get a roadmap in place for the future.

    Good stuff, Katie!

  • http://www.candidkatie.com Katie Morse

    Thanks, Shakez! I think that question is one of the ones that musicians struggle with most. I’m looking forward to covering it in a future post.

    [WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

  • http://www.candidkatie.com Katie Morse

    Thanks, Mack. I can identify with “playing for the love of the music”, but I also realize the difficulty many musicians have in stepping away from that love to really evaluate how they can maintain their passion while making a living. I’m hoping that these posts will help and appreciate your feedback and kind words.

    [WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

  • http://candidkatie.com/2009/10/15/the-4-ps-of-marketing-part-2/ A Short Girl Living in a Tall City » The “4 P’s of Marketing” – Part 2

    [...] « The “4 P’s of Marketing” – Part 1 Oct 15 2009 [...]

  • http://candidkatie.com/2009/10/19/the-4-ps-of-marketing-part-3/ A Short Girl Living in a Tall City » The “4 P’s of Marketing” – Part 3

    [...] Posted by Katie Morse in marketing, strategy The first two posts in this series outlined how to define your overall goals as well as determining what your product will [...]

  • http://candidkatie.com/2009/11/03/the-4ps-of-marketing-part-5/ A Short Girl Living in a Tall City » The “4P’s of Marketing” – Part 5

    [...] – Part 5'} This is the fifth post in this series, covering promotion. Previous posts have covered developing your overall goals, figuring out what your product(s) could be, determining how to price those product(s), and [...]

  • http://candidkatie.com/2009/12/08/the-4-ps-of-marketing-part-6/ A Short Girl Living in a Tall City » The “4 P’s of Marketing” – Part 6

    [...] Part 1 – Introduction [...]

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