How one company approaches its marketing efforts can vary quite a bit from another, depending on the product or service each company is trying to sell. By focusing on the elements of the marketing mix, the 4 Ps (product, price, place, and promotion), marketers can work to ensure that the product or service in question successfully reaches its identified target market. And part of what marketers must understand is how the potential customers in that market are driven to make decisions. In other words, what factors will most strongly motivate the buyer to make the purchase? Based on that understanding, strategies can be developed to highlight one or more aspects of the marketing mix (such as price and place, for example) to encourage consumers to buy.

Postan analysis of the impact of persuasion on consumer behavior and the importance of the 4 Ps in making marketing decisions, to include the following:

• Describe a buying experience in which you were unsure of whether you wanted or needed a particular product or service but ultimately made the purchase.
• Analyze the impact of persuasion on your decision to purchase this product or service. Include how the product or service's marketing campaign influenced your decision and what you think the strategy was behind that campaign. Provide specific examples to support your analysis.
• Identify which of the 4 Ps of the marketing mix played the largest role in your decision to purchase the product or service.