Product first: what you sell sets the limits on the other three

1. The product is where the mix starts, because price, promotion and place can only work with qualities the product actually has.
2. A well made, well designed product pushes the other three elements in one direction.
   1. Price: the extra durability gives the customer a reason to pay above the market average, so the business can hold a higher price without losing the sale.
   2. Promotion: the advertising has to show the materials and the making, since quality is the reason the price is high, and money off would contradict it.
   3. Place: it has to be sold somewhere that feels as careful as the product, because where a customer buys becomes part of what they think they are buying.
3. Dr Martens sells boots on durability at a premium price, and the identical boots stacked in a discount shop would fetch less, because the surroundings tell the shopper the product is ordinary.

Price, promotion and place pull on each other

1. Price and promotion: a low price propped up by constant discounting teaches customers that the full price is never the real price, so they wait for the next offer and full-price sales fall.
   1. A premium price needs promotion that builds an image instead, because an advert shouting about money off tells the customer the product was overpriced to begin with.
2. Place and price: selling through a retailer or an e-tailer hands over a share of every sale, so the business must either accept a thinner margin or set a higher price than it would charge selling direct.
   1. A maker selling a bag direct at £20 keeps all £20, while a marketplace taking a fifth of the price returns £16, so the shelf price has to rise to £25 to leave the maker where it started.
3. Place and product: a product that has to be explained, fitted or tried on sells badly through a marketplace where nobody serves the customer, while a simple repeat purchase such as printer ink suits online selling because the buyer already knows exactly what they want.
4. Promotion and place: there is no point promoting to customers who cannot conveniently buy, so a campaign has to be matched by availability, or the interest it creates is collected by a rival who is stocked nearby.

A consistent mix: four signals that say the same thing

Every element is a signal, and the table sets a premium mix against a budget one, then shows what the customer sees when one element does not fit.

1. Read the table down a column rather than across, because the customer meets all four elements and builds one impression out of them.
2. The third column shows the cost of a clash: a shopper who cannot tell which signal to believe assumes the cheaper one, so the high price stops looking credible and the spending on the other three elements is wasted as well.

Change one element and you must re-check the other three

1. A price cut is never only a price decision, so trace it through the rest of the mix before deciding it is worth making.
   1. Product: the lower price may only be affordable if cheaper materials are used, which loses the customers who were buying for the quality.
   2. Promotion: the message has to move from quality to value, otherwise the new price and the old advertising contradict each other.
   3. Place: the extra volume a lower price is meant to bring has to be sold somewhere, so wider distribution or an online channel is usually needed to carry it.
2. The same re-check follows any change, so a move from shops to online selling cuts rent, allows a lower price and shifts who the promotion should aim at.