How to use the 5 P’s to make customers choose you

The Marketing machine: A guide to the 5 P’s

Many people say they "hate" marketing.  Usually, that’s just code for feeling overwhelmed. Whether you are a business owner trying to sell a product, a professional looking for an edge, or someone new to the workforce, marketing often feels like a confusing cloud of terms: SEO, branding, digital ads, and hashtags.

But if you understand the machine in the back, the front-facing noise becomes much clearer. As Joe Schwartz puts it, marketing is simply anything you do to make it more likely for people to choose your goods or services.

The 3 pillars of Business

Before you can market, you must be in business. A real business requires three things:

1. A Good or a service: Something people actually want or need.

2. An offer: A way to connect what you have to the people who need it.

3. A profit: An exchange of money that sustains the operation.

If any of these are missing, you aren't in business, you're in a hobby. Marketing is the bridge that connects these pillars.

The bridge: How the 5 P’s drive the pillars

This is where the "jump" happens. You have your business tripod, but how do you actually get people to notice it? This is where the 5 P’s come in. They are the "anything you do" to make people choose you.

Think of the 5 P’s as the internal mechanics of your business pillars. By tweaking these five areas, you strengthen your offer and protect your profit. Let’s break down how to look at each one through the eyes of a practitioner rather than a theorist.

1. Product: features vs. benefits

The product is your foundation. Without a fresh "tomato," no amount of advertising will save you. When developing your product, you have to look at it through two lenses:

• Features: These are the technical specs. A cell phone with a camera is a feature. A wrinkle-free shirt is a feature.

• Benefits: This is what the customer actually buys. People don't buy a camera; they buy the ability to "never miss a moment." They don't buy tax preparation; they buy "financial peace of mind."

The Pro Tip: You can actually create your service by thinking about the benefit first. Instead of being a "CPA" (Feature), become the "Accountant for mid-sized businesses who finds hidden loopholes" (Benefit). People only buy what they want and need, your job is to show them how your product fills that gap.

2. Price: The value signal

Price is a lever you can tweak to change the likelihood of a sale.

• The low price ploy: If two products are equal, the cheaper one usually wins. But be careful: price it too low, and people will wonder what’s wrong with it.

• The high price position: Pricing yourself higher can signal quality, but it must be backed by features.

• The goal: Price shouldn't just be about "being the cheapest." It should be a "justified" price that allows for profit while remaining attractive to your specific market.

3. Placement: The right place at the right time

Placement is the most subtle "P," but it might be the most important. It is about removing obstacles between your product and the customer.

• Geography: If you sell canoes in the desert, you have a placement problem.

• Time: If you sell sunscreen in the winter or building services after the holiday has passed, you are out of sync.

• The Goal: Make it optimal. Whether it’s having enough parking, being on the top shelf of the grocery store, or having a website that loads instantly, placement is about being where the customer is when they are ready to buy.

4. People: The competitive edge

In "commodity" businesses, like insurance, where everyone sells the same thing for the same price, People are the only differentiator.

• The human factor: Friendly, motivated, and hustling employees make it more likely that a customer will choose you.

• The connection: In any industry, the way your team interacts with the world shapes your reputation. You can’t automate the trust that a real person builds with a client.

5. Promotion: telling the story

Promotion is what most people think of as "marketing": the ads, the logos, and the graphics. But promotion is just the "sizzle." If there’s no "steak" (the other 4 P’s), the sizzle won’t last.

• Branding is a wtory: A brand isn't just a logo; it’s a packaged message. If you had to explain what you do to an eight-year-old or your grandmother, how would you make it interesting? That’s your story.

• The "Kodak moment" lesson: Eastman Kodak owned the word "moment." They had a story about capturing memories. But they failed because they focused on the film (the feature) rather than the moment (the benefit). When the world moved to digital, they weren't ready to tell a new story.

The reality check: Marketing is grunt work

There is a glamorous perception of marketing: late nights in creative boardrooms drinking coffee. The reality? It’s often logistics and "grunt work."

Joe Schwartz recalls a famous campaign for Riverside Abstract where they gave out 70,000 cards. People loved the idea (The Sizzle), but the actual marketing was the "middle" part: scraping data, managing banners, coordinating couriers, and the exhausting logistics of delivery.

Understand the work before you start the project. A great idea is only as good as the coordination required to pull it off.

The 5 P’s vs. The 5 C’s: A customer-first wiew

To make this work, you have to flip the script. Stop looking at your business and start looking at the human on the other side.

Marketing is not a dark art. It’s a machine made of relatively simple parts. If you are overwhelmed, take a deep breath. Evaluate your product, your price, your placement, your people, and your promotion. When you align these five elements with the actual needs of your customer, success isn't just a "gut instinct", it’s a scientific result.