Marketing is a food truck business function that identifies consumer needs, determines your target markets and applies menu items and services to serve these markets. It also involves promoting such food products and services within the marketplace. Marketing is integral to the success of your food truck business. A strategy commonly utilized is the marketing mix. This tool is made up of four variables known as the 4Ps of marketing. The marketing mix blends these variables together to produce the results it wants to achieve in its specific target market.

The 4Ps Of Food Truck Marketing:

Product: Products of course are your menu items and services that your food truck provides for sale to your local market. When developing a product you should consider quality, design, features, packaging, customer service and any subsequent after-sales service.

Place: Place is in regards to distribution, location and methods of getting your food truck products to your customer. This includes the location of your food truck stops and any distributors that sell your products directly to consumers.

Price: Price concerns the amount of money that customers must pay in order to purchase your food truck products.

Promotion: Promotion refers to the act of communicating the benefits and value of your product to the customers in your market. It then involves persuading general consumers to become customers of your food truck business using methods such as advertising.

How to Use the 4Ps of Marketing

The 4Ps of marketing model can be used to help you decide how to launch your truck or find a new market to operate in. It can also be used to test your existing marketing strategy.

As a part of this process, incorporate the 4Ps through a series of questions. Here are just a few of the questions you can use:

  • What do consumers want from your product or service?
  • How does your product meet those needs?
  • Where do potential customers look for your particular product or service?
  • How do you differentiate from your competitors?
  • What is the perceived value of your product or service?
  • What current interactions do you have with potential customers?

The Bottom Line

Of course this list isn’t everything you can ask, but we hope the few questions listed above can give you a good starting point in understanding the 4Ps of Marketing and how to apply them to your food truck business.

RELATED: Marketing Tactics To Lead Your Food Truck To Success

Do you use the 4Ps in your food truck marketing? We’d love to hear some of your questions. Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment section, our food truck forum or social media. Facebook | Twitter