Marketing Basics
Two frameworks that have quietly run marketing for over a century — the 4 Ps and the AIDA funnel. Runs in your browser — no server call, no tracking.
The Marketing Mix — 4 Ps
The AIDA Funnel
Where the 4 Ps Came From
Coined by E. Jerome McCarthy in his 1960 textbook "Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach," then popularized worldwide through Philip Kotler's marketing textbooks — Product, Price, Place, Promotion became the standard checklist for building a go-to-market plan for over 60 years.
AIDA's 19th-Century Roots
The AIDA model — Attention, Interest, Desire, Action — is credited to American advertising theorist Elias St. Elmo Lewis as early as 1898, making it one of the oldest surviving frameworks in marketing. It still underlies most modern sales-funnel and landing-page thinking today.
Beyond the 4 Ps
As services and digital products grew, marketers extended the model to 7 Ps by adding People, Process, and Physical Evidence — acknowledging that a service's staff, delivery experience, and tangible cues matter as much as the original four for anything that isn't a simple physical product.
Push vs. Pull Marketing
Push marketing forces a message toward the customer (ads, cold calls, promotion). Pull marketing makes the customer come looking (SEO, content, word of mouth). Almost every real campaign blends both — the mix is a strategic choice, not an accident.