The 7 Ps of the marketing mix

The Marketing Mix (Borden, 1964) is a set of controllable marketing variables that we blend ('mix') together to create a marketing programme for a specific target market. Where once in marketing we had the marketing mix consisting of 4 P's - product, place, price and promotion, coined by Borden (1964) - we now have the 7 P's, with an additional people, process, and physical environment (Baines & Fill, 2014, 2019). The original four Ps are:

• Product (or service). This is what we are selling, and it needs to have 'value' for the cost; to be competitive in the target market. It is what people want, not what we think they want. The level of quality needs to be right: Bentley vs Kia for example
• Place. his is how we get our product/service to our market, or where our customers buy. Distribution networks often manage this for us, but we need to ensure we know enough to choose the right place, time, and quantities. We need to think about delivery times and provide realistic guidance for online orders.
• Price. Ahh: how much we charge for our product/service, which is only worth what a customer will pay for it. This is the only part of the marketing mix offering revenue, and pricing needs to be competitive – but this may not mean that we are the cheapest. If we provide more value - or value added – we can charge more. Think intangibles such as $2 for perfume ingredients, but $200 for the story with Chanel number 5. Our price positions our product/service in the market. And we need to remember that existing customers are usually less price-sensitive, but we shouldn't exploit that often.
• Promotion (the main element in sport). This is where we concentrate on SELLING the product. It is how we communicate with our customer, and involves 'vehicles' to convey our message about product, place & price, including: advertising; public relations; sponsorship (the most commonly used – and best returning – promotional type in sport); sales promotions; direct marketing; personal selling/contact; interactive/internet marketing; licensing; incentives ; and atmospherics (Baines & Fill, 2014, 2019).

And the three 'new' Ps are:

• People: where those people are trained, and we have the 'right' person for the job. Customers will attach the product to the person, so we need to ensure that our after sales support and care is seamless, and 'brokered' by the person the customer knows, where possible. We will get repeat business that way.
• Process: this is how services marketing is provided. Issues that arise in this areas include waiting times, and quality of information. Think call centre people who are unable to answer customer questions or approve a resolution! Tim Ferriss has a great solution, instructing call centre people to "Keep the customer happy. If it is a problem that takes less than $100 to fix, use your judgment and fix it yourself [...] without contacting me. [...] Do what you think is right, and we'll make adjustments as we go along" (Ferriss, 2006, p. 105). He didn't need to tweak this: most problems were resolved for less than USD$20, and customers were very happy. Customers want the system to work, which leaves us more capacity and fewer customers on hold. Processes should be designed by marketers, not by engineers.
• Physical Evidence (environment): This is what we get to hold in our hot little hands. Our invoice, our ticket, a photo of the event. When we buy something intangible - like perfume - it is the bottle, and the case. It might be case studies about how to use the product, recipes, or testimonials. This includes branding, story-telling, matching advertising, facilities, expectations of product consistency, and how feedback is handled (Baines & Fill, 2014, 2019).

That gives us 7 Ps.

Sam

References:

Baines, P. & Fill, C. (2014). Marketing (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Baines, P., Fill, C., Rosengren, S., & Antonetti, P. (2019). Marketing (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Borden, N.H. (1964). The concept of the marketing mix. Journal of Advertising Research, 24(4), 2–7.

Ferriss, T. (2006). The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich. Crown Publishers.