E. Jerome McCarthy

For the South African footballer, see Jerome McCarthy.

Edmund Jerome McCarthy (born 1928) was an American marketing professor at Michigan State University and others such as the University of Notre Dame. McCarthy received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1958. He passed away December, 2015.

He is the author of the influential textbooks Basic Marketing: A Marketing Strategy Planning Approach (now in its 19th edition with co-authors William D. Perreault, Jr. and Joseph P. Cannon) and Essentials of Marketing: A Marketing Strategy Planning Approach (now in its 14th edition).

The Marketing Mix (The "4 Ps")

In 1960, McCarthy introduced the Marketing Mix (sometimes called the "4 Ps") as 4 controllable variables the company puts together to satisfy a target market: product, price, place and promotion.

• Product: The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants. The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements such as branding, packaging, warranties, guarantees, and support.
• Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need not be monetary; it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services, e.g. time, energy, or attention. Methods of setting prices optimally are in the domain of pricing science.
• Place (or distribution): refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point-of-sale placement or retailing. This third P has also sometimes been called Place, referring to the channel by which a product or service is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business people), etc. also referring to how the environment in which the product is sold in can affect sales.
• Promotion: This includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, PR, direct marketing, digital marketing, sponsorship, and personal selling and refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.