Summary. The 7Ps of marketing—Product, Place, Price, Promotion, Physical Evidence, People, and Process—are essential in forming a successful marketing plan. This framework aids in attracting and retaining customers, adapting to business needs for effective marketing strategies.
As marketers, we are aware that underestimating the importance of planning is a fool’s game. This means developing a solid marketing plan. One with your goals established, your target market determined, and the strategies you’ll use to get there. Depending on the business you operate in, your target market, and the goods or services you provide, you’ll use a distinct set of blueprints. But regardless of your line of business, many marketers will use the same, ageless paradigm. The 7ps of the marketing mix.
Firstly, here’s a brief overview of what it means: Product, Place, Price, and Promotion are the four basic components of the marketing mix. The next component is the expanded marketing mix, which includes the previous four elements as well as an extra three: Physical evidence, people, and processes.
The marketing mix is not a one-stop shop, despite the fact that it can help you focus your strategy and offer you a better grasp of the larger market as well as your company internally. The marketing mix is a strategy that performs best when used as a structure for planning, carrying out, analysing, and re-evaluating your marketing actions on a regular or semi-regular basis.
What is the marketing mix?
The idea of the marketing mix is credited to professor and scholar Neil H. Borden, who developed James Culliton’s idea of corporate leaders as ingredient mixers. Ingredients being different marketing features and practices. Jerome McCarthy, a professor and author, later refined the marketing mix to precisely include the following four elements: product, place, price, and promotion. In the 1960s, McCarthy authored a book titled Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach that discussed the “4 Ps.”
You’d be right in thinking the four Ps seem to cover the core components of business and marketing, and they undoubtedly cover the foundations. But, as time passed, aspects of commerce such as customer experience and customer service gained prominence.
The 4Ps then cleared the path for two contemporary academics, Booms and Bitner, who recognised 3 additional factors—Physical Evidence, People, and Process—in 1981. This resulted in the creation of the extended marketing mix, often known as the 7Ps of marketing mix.
The three components that make up the extended framework clearly make a difference once you are aware of the extended marketing mix. Every business is centred around its customers. Without people, you have nobody to market to and nobody to use your services or buy your goods. It should be obvious, right?
Define the 7Ps of the Marketing Mix
Now that you have a bit of context and background, let’s look more closely at each of the 7Ps of the marketing mix.
1. Product
A product is anything that is being marketed, whether it be a tangible item, a service, or an experience.
Your product or service will always be at the core of your strategy and will, therefore, have an impact on every component of the 7PS marketing mix, regardless of how you position yourself as a brand. Think about your product’s quality, unique features, packaging, and the problem it will solve for your customers when developing it.
Although factors like customer service are important, your product—what the consumer actually gets—is what they will care about most in the end. Naturally, if your customer is dissatisfied with what you’re offering, they won’t buy from you again. However, if the product is of sufficient quality and addresses their problem, it will sell itself.
2. Place
Where do you offer your goods or services for sale? Businesses can sell in a variety of places and ways. Therefore, “place” refers to more than just a specific geographic area. It might entail using a website, catalogue, social media, trade exhibitions, and, of course, physical storefronts. Place includes all possible channels of distribution. Most businesses can’t or won’t establish themselves somewhere.
There are some things to take into account first. The distribution methods you choose will depend on your target market. For instance, selling through a single high-street store is useless if your target market is primarily online or if you wish to sell internationally. It’s usually a good idea to test things out. Would an eCommerce website do better than a real-world pop-up shop? Maybe a combination of the two would be best for your company.
If you want to decide where to contact clients and make money, you need to have a comprehensive understanding of your target demographic. You must live and distribute in areas that are both appropriate for your brand and convenient for your audience if you want to continuously turn a profit.
3. Price
What is the price of your product or service? Everyone has a price, thus you can forget about attaining a good ROI if you target a particular demographic but misjudge the pricing structure for this particular group of purchasers.
The price you decide on should be in line with your budget, reflect the value your customers perceive in your goods, and ensure a profit. Pricing has a significant impact on your company’s success and can affect your marketing plan, sales, and product demand. Businesses use a wide range of pricing techniques today, and each one has its own advantages, disadvantages, and purposes. And the one you decide to put into practice will depend on both what you’re offering and your brand’s identity.
6 Common Pricing Strategies:
- Price skimming: setting a high price for your product and then progressively lowering it over time is known as price skimming.
- Competition-based pricing: pricing based on the level of competition in the market means comparing your price to that of the competition and setting it either slightly higher or lower.
- Economy pricing: pricing with an eye toward consumers looking for a deal or a low price is known as economy pricing.
- Premium pricing: putting a high price on your products is known as premium pricing. For this method to work, the product or service must first be of a high calibre before being given the “luxury” name.
- Value-based pricing: value-based pricing is the practice of determining a product’s price based on what a consumer is prepared to pay and how much they value your company’s reputation and your goods.
- Cost-plus pricing: this strategy bases prices simply on your product’s production costs, then adds a markup to prevent losses.
Whatever your pricing approach, be sure it’s consistent with your brand, a price your customers would pay, and that you can turn a profit. Always keep an eye on your competition, the overall market, and the state of the economy.
4. Promotion
Promotion. That is what drives us. Marketing professionals excel at promotion, whether it be through direct marketing, public relations, advertising or content marketing.
Raising consumer awareness of a brand, product, or service requires engaging them with a compelling narrative through promotion. Promotional tactics function on a number of levels. They increase sales, build brand recognition, and produce income.
Why would someone choose to buy from you rather than your rival? How would you improve their situation or make their lives better?
You need to answer questions like these:
- Where can your target audience find you? Should I shop in person or online?
- Does the season have an impact on your business? When creating your plan, you must consider whether you exclusively offer swimwear or, on the other hand, only sell Christmas decorations.
- What is the personality of your brand? Your advertising messaging and design will be influenced by the type of identity you have. Do you present yourself as personable, competent, playful, sincere, and exciting?
- How do your rivals market their businesses? You can improve your own methods by researching the marketing tactics employed by your rivals or general industry trends. Think about routinely performing a SWOT analysis so you can thoroughly delve into your own strategies and the competition in the industry.
There are two main types of promotional tactics used by marketers. digital and conventional. Print media, broadcasting, direct mail, billboards, posters, and referral, or word-of-mouth, are all examples of traditional marketing. Email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), mobile marketing, and paid advertising are all examples of digital tactics.
Your brand’s success will be directly impacted by the methods you use to engage with your audience and advertise your products. Your sales will probably suffer if you send a message at the wrong time, to the wrong person, or at the incorrect location.
Through astute market segmentation and targeting, you can learn about your consumers and their needs. By combining your marketing data and developing seamless omnichannel campaigns, you can also meet their demands.
Related: Social Media For Engineering Companies: 4 Ways It Can Help You Grow
5. Physical Evidence
The marketing mix must account for every interaction your customer has with you during their relationship, from the first time they learn about your brand to the point of sale and beyond.
Physical proof entails more than just a receipt for a purchase. Physical proof includes not only this crucial element but also your brand’s overall existence. Consider your website, branding, social media, the logo on your building, the furnishings in your shop, the product packaging, and the email you send to customers after they make a purchase.
All of these components give your customer the tangible proof they require to be assured that your company is real, reputable, and viable.
Both online and offline, there are a tonne of frauds and phoney businesses. You must assure customers of your trustworthiness and worthiness of their time to encourage them to make purchases, show loyalty, and recommend your business to others.
To develop a well-thought-out strategy that guarantees you give excellent customer care, be sure to deliver products and receipts quickly and reliably and to offer a seamless client experience at all times.
6. People
Anyone participating in the business side of the company, whether directly or indirectly, is referred to as people in the marketing mix. That includes anybody involved in marketing, team management, customer representation, product design, sales, or training.
Everyone representing your company, including chatbots, should demonstrate kindness, professionalism, and knowledge, with proper training to ensure brand success and customer satisfaction. As a business, you should resolve customer problems by providing training, comfortable working conditions, and other factors essential for employee happiness.
Any business that wants to succeed in today’s customer-focused market needs to provide excellent customer service. According to digital strategist Dave Chaffey, people buy from individuals because we all yearn for the human connection. This does not necessarily imply that customers are more likely to make in-store purchases from an actual person. Human experience-focused marketing campaigns can be as influential as the best, most persuasive salesperson when marketers develop a strategy that is highly personalised and individualised.
Make sure to address client complaints and find solutions in order to uphold your brand’s good reputation. If managed properly, this will aid in your recovery and assist you prevent further harm to your brand’s reputation.
Success in the long and short terms depends on hiring and keeping the right people.
7. Process
Now that you have a product and you have your target audience. How do you deliver the product to the customer? This journey in-between is called the process.
It involves running your business, delivering the service, packaging the product, guiding customers through the sales funnel, managing checkout, shipping, and delivery, etc. The process essentially outlines the sequence of steps or essential components involved in providing the product or service to the consumer.
Your consumers will be happier the more streamlined and customised your processes are. You probably won’t hear any complaints if your product is of good quality. However, you must take into account a variety of factors when developing your marketing plan. Customers frequently experience frustration or dissatisfaction due to delayed deliveries, extra charges, inadequate communication, or a lack of support.
By monitoring reviews, you can reduce complaints and improve your processes. If customers complain, it’s time to review and reorganise your operations. Word of mouth has the ability to make or ruin a brand, particularly in the digital world. The buyer’s journey must therefore be efficient and flawless throughout.
Of course, you must design your procedures to maximise the advantages and value for your customers while minimising your own costs.
Regular process evaluation, modification, and adaptation can help you organise your business activities so that you may operate with the most efficiency possible.
7PS of Marketing: Conclusion
With the correct set of principles, marketers may plan and create campaigns that attract and keep very important clients. The 7Ps of the marketing mix can serve as a well-organised checklist for marketers who want to develop a successful plan that meets their objectives and fully develops the company.
If you want to discuss how the 7PS of marketing applies to your business contact Sarah today at sarah@aiminternet.co.uk or call her on 07816071112.
