7ps of marketing essay

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7Ps of Marketing Mix: Explained well with examples

Learn everything about the 7Ps of Marketing mix, Understand why this concept is still relevant today and will be relevant for the foreseeable future. The 7Ps of Marketing is the Price, Place, Promotion, Product, People, Process and finally, Physical Evidence.

It originally started as 4 Ps, but as the world, and the complexities of marketing grew; 3 more were added to formulate an effective marketing strategy. The ‘P’s stand for each of the pillars of a marketing strategy, and together are a part of the concept called the ‘marketing mix’. The term ‘marketing mix’ sounds a little confusing, but in essence, it is a foundation model for businesses. More easily explained, it is the operational part of a marketing plan- the nuts and bolts of it.

Funfact, there are actually 9Ps of Marketing: The above 7+2 viz. Packaging and Payments. But the 7Ps are popular given their wide and timeless application in the World of Marketing. Anyway, let’s just straight in the post.

The 7Ps of Marketing: With Examples

We can understand this with the example of a rainbow. The 7 colours of a rainbow and the 7Ps in a marketing mix bear a resemblance. Just as not all rainbows have the same the composition of the VIBGYOR colours, the same way every marketing plan is unique and contains varying amounts of the 7Ps of the marketing mix. The components are explained in the following points

One very important aspect of any product/success being a success in the market is the price at which it is marketed. The first colour of the marketing mix rainbow is one of the determining factors of what the people will see. Marketers tread very carefully while setting a price that is a win-win situation for both the company as well as the consumers.

There are several pricing models. One of the most famous ones is Competitive Pricing Strategy as is used by Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola’s main aim is to penetrate the markets and achieve the highest market share without compromising on its customer base and product positioning. Thus, the company charges its consumers what its competitor Pepsi is charging. It’s a simple, yet highly competitive strategy as the name suggests.

It is the channel through which your company’s goods/services get moved from the manufacturer to the consumer. Your good/service will need to be brought into the market through a mechanism, and ‘place’ is exactly that- a way for your offering to be seen by the correct audience. An example of this element of the marketing mix can be the numerous branches of McDonald’s all over the world. Almost every country in the world either has a McDonald’s franchisee, or knows of it. And each country has its unique menu, with the standard guarantee of tasty food, served fast, at low prices.

The Product

This is the P that starts it all. The need for this P to be known, positioned, and showcased gets the marketers working hard at strategies. ‘Product’ is the offering that your company has for the market whether it is a tangible good or intangible good (services). The product development has various stages, and it is instrumental in being the deciding factor in many strategies. Various aspects of a product like the product life cycle, the type of need it services, and its positioning come into play with this P.

We can consider the example of Starbucks here, which was solely established to make good quality coffee and coffee beverages accessible to people. Starbucks’ approach to marketing is very focused on its product and the quality of the product provided to its customers.

The Promotion

Directly speaking, the mainstream meaning of the word ‘Promotion’ also applies here. The essence of promotion lies in the activities that a marketer does in order to showcase the product in the market in the right sense. Promotional activities involve multi-channel, multi-level marketing communications in the technical sense. In a more simplistic sense, these activities are the communications that the companies indulge in like advertising, direct calling, using social media channels, as well as print media. There are many instances of how promotional activities have set a product apart from its competitors in the industry. One such is the launch of Sony Xperia Z3 Dual in 2014 as an underwater pop-up store.

The Physical Evidence

Physical evidence is a part of the product. If your product is a tangible offering, then all of its material cues (packaging, business cards, brochures, company branding) will be taken notice of, by the consumers. However, these tangible cues are also attached to a product that is intangible. The example can be, every time you encounter a FedEx delivery vehicle, you’ll immediately recognize it because of its purple and orange color scheme. That’s how they’re set apart from all the other delivery companies.

All the people involved in the making, distributing, and selling of your company’s product are also essential. Mostly, services (intangible offerings) have marketing mixes which are focused on the people presenting the product. The employees you have in the store, the delivery personnels, the sales executives, all of it and more leave a lasting impression on the people. Hotels like Taj, Hyatt, JW Marriott are known for the people that work there to serve the consumers. These brands have established themselves and built loyal customer bases due to the kind of people they employ.

The Process

Process involves all the ways the company and its customers can engage in order to facilitate the product to reach the consumer. It’s a map of how the company and its offerings are accessible to the market. It isn’t just a means to an end, but a roadmap of the company’s operations.

Here again, we can consider Starbucks as it has so many different ways in which the company operates- joint ventures, retail store licensing operations, food service accounts, depending on which country they’re operating in. They have an interactive website in order to collect customer feedback and suggestions, which also tells people how accessible the company is for the consumers.

Now, rounding up these 7 colors of the rainbow. We see that all these aspects ring in something essential for the business to gain competitive advantage. Though every product, every industry will have a unique marketing mix, the underlying structure will always be based on these 7 elements.

The 9Ps of Marketing you say?

Well yes, in the recent times, there appears to have introduced 2 more Ps vs earlier mix, now making the concept 9Ps of Marketing mix. We’ll keep this one short given you’ve gotten the gist. The 8th P is Packaging. Why? Given how connected the packaging has become to a customers journey, we cannot really let this one go, can we? Take the example of Paper Boat, the reason it connects so well is because of the simple packaging.

The 9th P of Marketing is Payments, it talks about the initiatives that companies can undertake in order to make your payment procedure a little more simple. That is introduce one click payment, EMI options, etc.

Anyway, that is all.

And well, the Author

No, this isn’t the 10th P of marketing. However, we believe, given the world has evolved today, there must exist a new P, a new dimension of Marketing. Something around Data Analytics, maybe, Programming? eh?

Anyway, the piece was written by Mahek Mirchandani , a co-author at Casereads. We’ve uploaded 10+ MBA starter concepts to kick start your MBA journey, directly click here .

Before you go, if you liked this piece, and if you have a friend starting their MBA; Why not be a good friend and share this with them on WhatsApp ?

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7Ps of the Marketing Mix

A marketing strategy is a company’s battle plan in the struggle of market competition. However, its task is in effect to outline the way the company plans to act in the market, which is made in a general way. To realize the marketing strategy, a company develops a marketing mix, which is a set of marketing tools used to influence the demand for the product (Kotler et al 2008, p.49). The first formula of the marketing mix included four elements, so-called 4Ps, which were: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Gradually the notion of the marketing mix has been extended to 7Ps by adding such elements as Processes, Physical Evidence, ad People (Schneider & Bowen 1998, p. 213).

Product is a service produced by the company; it can be tangible or intangible, produced on a large scale or individually. Each product has its life cycle, which includes the stages of development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline (Kurtz, MacKenzie & Snow 2009, p.341). Each of the stages requires specific marketing decisions. Another important point is a product’s competitive advantage, which also defines the product’s marketing: it helps to expand the company’s market segment and to increase the price.

Price is not simply the cost of the product for the buyer; it is a point of communication between the producer and the customer. Price defines the product’s position in the market, informing the client about its quality and originality. Depending on a good’s parameters and the life cycle stage, different pricing strategies can be used (Bangs 2002, p. 72): premium pricing (high quality or unique products), penetration pricing (lowering the price when entering the market), economy pricing, and price skimming (the product is new or has a strong competitive advantage). There are also some alternative approaches, such as psychological pricing ($99 instead of $100), optional product pricing (setting price for the additional services), etc (Armstrong et al 2009, p. 328).

The element of Place outlines the approach of the product’s distribution and includes the distribution chain which delivers the product from the manufacturer to the customer (Kotler et al 2008, p. 50). The product can be sold directly to the customer or the dealer; the shop can be physical or virtual. The place is defined according to the peculiarities of the product sold.

Promotion is a set of tools that help to communicate to the client, which is to attract his attention, provide information about the product, and stimulate the decision to buy. The company can use such tools as direct selling, personal selling, public relations, advertising, sponsorship, etc. As a rule, they are used in complex (p.51).

Schneider and Bowen emphasize the meaning of the last 3Ps: these factors help to overgrow the marketing of products and services and embrace marketing of the whole organization with its attributes, such as people, tangibles, etc. (1998, p. 213).

The component of People includes the company’s staff with its skills and knowledge. The staff which has appropriate interpersonal skills and attitude to the work, as well as the professional competence, creates an additional competitive advantage, becoming a face of the company.

Processes also make the company competitive, increasing the customers’ loyalty. They include efficient service delivery which meets the needs and requirements of the clients, for ex., preparing a burger the way a client wants (Strydom 2005, p. 196).

Physical Evidence implies taking care of the services’ performance which influences the judgments about the company. Providing a clean environment of the restaurant or comfortable accommodation for the college students, as well as the website and brochures about the company’s service or a logo at the ticket, are examples of this element (Strydom 2004, p. 197).

Some attempts to extend 7Ps to 9Ps take place (Dacko 2008, p. 335); however, the additional elements are disputable: for example, Packaging can be considered a separate element or be included in the category of the Product, and Professionalism can be combined with People.

• Armstrong, G et al 2009, Marketing: an introduction. Harlow, England, Financial Times Prentice Hall.
• Bangs, DH 2002, The market planning guide: creating a plan to successfully market your business, product, or service. Chicago, Dearborn Trade Pub.
• Dacko, SG 2008, The advanced dictionary of marketing: putting theory to use. Oxford; New York, Oxford University Press.
• Kotler, P et al 2008, Principles of marketing. Upper Saddle River, N.J., Pearson Prentice Hall.
• Kurtz, DL, MacKenzie, HF & Snow, K 2009, Contemporary marketing. Toronto, Nelson Education.
• Schneider, B & Bowen, DE 1998, Winning the service game. Boston, Mass., Harvard Business School Press.
• Strydom, J 2004, Introduction to marketing. Lansdowne, Cape Town, S.A., Juta.

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Table of Contents

Top 12 marketing models , 7 ps of marketing, importance of 7 ps of marketing, steps to develop a successful marketing mix, what are the 7 ps of marketing.

Marketing communicates the value of goods and services to the customers. While marketing is often thought of as the end promotional activity, marketing is a combination of activities that delivers an optimal mix of pricing, product development, distribution, and advertising for a business to achieve success. It is both a science and an art, and overlaps, but is not synonymous, with the concepts of advertising , promotion, market research, and sales. Several marketing models are available that help develop and implement the marketing strategies as per the business requirements and customer needs. To begin with, here are some of the most common marketing models.

Some of the popular marketing models that have stood the test of time and are relevant in today’s era of omnichannel marketing have been listed below:

• 7 Ps of marketing 
• USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
• Boston Consulting Group Matrix
• Brand positioning map
• Customer Lifetime Value marketing models
• Growth strategy matrix
• Loyalty ladder marketing models
• PESTLE (Asses impact on political, economic, social, technological, legal, and economic factors)
• Porter’s Five Forces
• Product Life Cycle
• Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
• PR Smith's SOSTAC (Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Actions, Control) model

In this article we will learn about one such commonly used marketing model mix, i.e., 7 Ps of marketing! 

The 7 Ps of marketing is a set of recognized marketing tactics, which can be used in any combination to satisfy customers in the target market. Combining these marketing tactics to meet the customers' needs and wants is known as using a 'tactical marketing mix'.

This marketing mix is a familiar marketing strategy tool that was traditionally limited to the core 4Ps - Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. In the 7 Ps, the new additions are People, Process, Physical evidence. 

Let's dive into these marketing tactics, starting with the most important one, product.

It definitely goes without saying that your product must be at the centre of your entire strategy. The entire marketing mix is about the product itself. Concentrate on what is the pain point that your product or service is solving. How your product is more efficient than other similar ones in the market. 

You can use research and development to help your company develop new products or create awareness about the existing one. The digital marketing mix is ideal for showcasing your products, such as through SEO , blogs or articles, paid advertising, influencer marketing , and viral video campaigns.

This refers to your pricing strategy for products and services, as well as how it will affect your customers. You should determine how much your customers are willing to pay, how much you need to mark up to cover overheads, your profit margins and payment methods, and other costs. You may also want to consider the possibility of discounts and seasonal pricing, subscription and membership programmes, or email marketing of promotions and sales to attract customers and maintain your competitive advantage.

The location of your products and services is where they are seen, made, sold, or distributed. Customer access to your products is critical, and it is critical that customers can find you.

You can distinguish yourself from the competition by designing your retail space and employing effective visual merchandising techniques. Even if you are not a retail business, location is an important part of your marketing strategy. Your customers may require a quick turnaround or prefer to purchase locally manufactured goods.

Finding the right business location will be an important marketing tactic if you are starting a new business.

All promotional activities across the marketing mix, including advertising, direct marketing, and in-store promotional activities, are included in successful marketing strategies. Digital promotion is only limited by your imagination and can include online events, chats, social media groups, and livestreams.

People refer to the employees and salespeople who work for your company, including you.

When you provide excellent customer service, you create a positive experience for your customers and, as a result, market to them. As a result, current customers may spread the word about your excellent service, and you may receive referrals. 

Give your company a competitive advantage by hiring the right people, training them to improve their skills, and retaining good employees.

The process of getting your product to the consumer should be designed for maximum efficiency and dependability, but it should also include features that are consistent with your brand, such as being environmentally or sustainably focused.

With the rise of online shopping, digital partnerships and logistics have become critical components of the marketing mix. Having a good process in place ensures that you consistently provide the same level of service to your customers while also saving time and money through increased efficiency.

Physical Evidence

Physical evidence includes elements that demonstrate your brand's existence and that a purchase occurred.

A physical store or office for your business, a website if your business only operates online, and printed business cards that you exchange when meeting people are all examples of proof that your brand exists. Physical or digital receipts, invoices, or follow-up email newsletters sent to customers as a retention exercise are all examples of proof of purchase.

Your marketing mix must also account for everything your customer sees, hears, and sometimes even smells in relation to your product or service.

This includes, of course, packaging and branding , but it should also include how products are displayed in stores, where they are placed, and the context in which they sit, as well as digital placement, such as on your website and social media.

The marketing mix of 7Ps is the mix of tactics applied and coordinated that positions the organization clearly in the minds of the customer. 

The 7Ps model helps us to:

• Set objectives and provide a roadmap for your business objectives. 
• Conduct SWOT analysis , and undertake competitive analysis. 
• Review and define key issues that affect the marketing of its products and services. 
• Evaluate existing business and work through appropriate approaches whilst evaluating the marketing mix elements.
• Market the right product, to the right people, at the right price and time.
• Help develop products and services that better serve the wants and needs of the target market.
• Help customers understand why the product or service is better than those of competitors.

The advantages of using the 7Ps model can be achieved only if each of the Ps is correctly understood and appropriate strategies are devised for them. It will be unwise to ignore an area unless it is completely outside one’s control.

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The following 10 steps will assist you in developing the perfect marketing mix:

Step 1. Set the Goals and Objectives - Clearly define the required result. For example, more customers, brand awareness, higher sales, etc. Every marketing plan will have its own marketing goals. Set a specific time frame in which to achieve the results.

Step 2. Prepare the Budget – Identify the amount that will be spent on product innovation, consumer research, product promotion, etc.

Step 3. Determine the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - Identify the benefits users will experience from using your product or service.  Also, determine the unique problem that the product/ service is solving better than anyone else.

Step 4. Identify the target Target Market – Understand the target audience and know who they are and how they prefer to be communicated. Create an in-depth  profile of the ideal customer . 

Step 5. Seek Customer Feedback – Understand from the customers what they think of the product, how satisfied they are with the quality, is the product effectively meeting their needs, etc. This will help to make the products more relatable and approachable to the audience.

Step 6. Define the Product in Detail - Describe the specific qualities and value of your product. Look for the unique features that define the product’s worth.

Step 7. Know the Distribution Channels - Identify the places your product will be marketed and which distribution channels you’ll make use of. This will influence your pricing and your promotion decisions. 

Step 8. Create Pricing Strategy - Discover ways of differentiating your product on price. Know the competitors and make sure the customers are not overcharged. Also, understand what the target audience might be willing to pay and what it costs to produce the product.

Step 9. Choose Promotional Techniques - The target audience needs to be made aware of the product offering. Successful promotion of the product includes various elements, like direct marketing, public relations, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, word of mouth, etc.

Step 10. Use Inbound Marketing - Inbound marketing  also plays a vital role in developing your marketing mix.An effective inbound marketing mix includes a website, email marketing, social media , and blogging .

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Home Marketing Strategy The Marketing Mix: Building a Strategy With the 7Ps

The Marketing Mix: Building a Strategy With the 7Ps

“The marketing mix” aims to provide a complete framework for modern business models and marketing strategies across the entire customer journey.

While there are many variations of the marketing mix, the most common framework consists of seven elements, collectively known as the 7Ps. The idea is that a business can adopt the 7Ps principle and use it as a seven-step framework for building a successful marketing strategy that covers every stage of the buying process.

In this article, we look at how you can use the marketing mix to build a complete strategy, plus a few tips for improving the 7Ps model.

What is the 7Ps model?

The 7Ps marketing model is a framework designed to help businesses build a complete marketing strategy, from start to finish. In theory, a new business should be able to use the 7Ps model to devise an entire marketing strategy from scratch.

The name derives from the seven elements outlined in the 7Ps model, which all begin with the letter “P”:

• Physical evidence

The 7Ps model is an evolution upon the 4Ps model originally founded by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960, in his book Marketing: A Managerial Approach . The original marketing mix concept was created during a time when the majority of businesses sold physical products and it was updated in the 1980s as more service-oriented businesses started to emerge.

The evolution from 4Ps to 7Ps

As mentioned in the previous section, Jerome McCarthy’s 4Ps model was created for businesses selling products to consumers.

As Smart Insights explains:

“The 4Ps were designed at a time where businesses were more likely to sell products, rather than services and the role of customer service in helping brand development wasn’t so well known.”

The original 4Ps included:

These same four elements still exist as the primary components of the 7Ps models. As business and consumer markets have evolved, the application of the marketing mix has adapted, too. In 1981, Bernard H. Booms and Mary J. Bitner expanded McCarthy’s model into the 7Ps marketing mix we know today.

While the original 4Ps remain in place, Booms and Bitner added a further three Ps in the mix:

The 7Ps model was created to reflect the emergence of service-oriented businesses where “Product” can mean either prospects or services. The expanded model also increases the emphasis upon customer service, as a result of increased consumer power and competition in every industry.

Like its predecessor, the 7Ps marketing mix has adapted to the evolution of consumer trends and new technologies.

In his book, Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice , digital strategist and co-founder of Smart Insights, Dave Chaffey, refreshed the 7Ps model for the modern digital age.

Some marketers argue that the 7Ps model is outdated but, even in 2021, it’s the backbone for business models and marketing theories. In fact, even the older 4Ps model is as relevant today as it was in 1960, even if it doesn’t cover the entire marketing mix in the modern, digital age.

This will become more obvious throughout the rest of this article as we look at each of the 7Ps individually and, later, assess whether there are any gaps or weaknesses in the model.

Applying the 7Ps to digital marketing

Now that you understand the basic premise of the marketing mix, let’s take a closer look at the 7Ps model that’s most widely associated with it today. Let’s start by reminding ourselves of what the 7Ps stand for and explain a bit about what they actually mean.

• Product: The product or service, including its features, unique selling points and the overall quality on offer.
• Promotion: The methods used to promote the product across multiple channels.
• Price: The long-term pricing strategy of the product in question, including sales, discounts & deals.
• Place: Where people find your product, learn about it and, ultimately, buy it.
• People: The people who come into contact with your target customers – both directly and indirectly.
• Process: Your methods for delivering the product to customers and providing the best possible experience.
• Physical evidence: Tangible items and experiences that tell customers your offer is real – for digital, this can include website visits, confirmation emails, testimonials, customer reviews and more.

Now, it’s worth reaffirming the point that the original 4Ps are solid figures in the updated 7Ps model but you will find some variation in the three additional Ps added into this model, depending on where you get your information from.

We’re sticking to the original 7Ps model for this part of the article but we’ll look at ways you can adapt and expand it even further to meet the needs of your business later on.

#1: Product

The first P in this marketing model is “Product” and this is almost unanimously featured as the first P in all versions of the marketing mix. This is because one of the core principles of this theory is that marketing begins with your product.

At the end of the day, if you’ve got a lousy product – especially in this day and age – you’re going to have a hard time marketing it.

The key elements of the product in your marketing mix can vary, depending on which market you’re and who your target audiences are. But, at the very least, you should invest good resources into the following:

• Quality: Higher product quality makes everything else you do in marketing and sales so much easier.
• Image: This refers to how people see your product and this is what separates products like the iPhone from Android devices or sports cars from cheaper, more practical vehicles.
• Branding: Closely linked to “image”, this is the brand story you build around your product and how it incorporates with your wider brand image.
• Features: The features of your product or service, which should place a heavy emphasis on USPs and benefits for your target customers.
• Variants: The different versions of your product or service, who they target and how you differentiate them.

The list could go on-and-on for Product and if you go back to Dave Chaffey’s version of the 7Ps we looked at earlier, you’ll see this is the longest list in his visualisation.

His list isn’t definitive or complete either; it’s up to you to decide which items belong on this list for your business. The point is that your product (or service) is the focal point of your marketing strategies and you want to do everything you can to ensure the right level of quality is there.

Take TrueNorth for example. The first thing you see on the homepage is the Product; It’s branding (both the name and visual style), product imagery, and a video walking through the product features.

#2: Promotion

Promotion refers to your marketing, advertising and sales activities across all channels. Once again, your channels of choice will vary depending on the nature of your business. For example, a B2B company may prioritise account-based marketing while a B2C company in the same industry might focus more on direct marketing methods.

Above all, you need to be present where your target audiences are active and interested in a brand like yours.

Given the rapid evolution of multi-channel marketing, this is one area where a version of the 7Ps model from as recent as five years ago can quickly look dated.

Here are some key elements to consider:

• Multi-channel marketing: The consumer journey takes place across more devices, sessions and platforms than ever before, making it all the more important that you’re present on the channels that matter most to your target audiences.
• Personalised experiences: The more relevant you can make experiences to individual users, the more engaging your messages become and the more “locked-in” customers are to your brand.
• Integrated marketing & sales: Today’s brands need seamless integration between marketing and sales strategies to prevent leads getting lost along the funnel.
• Lead nurturing: A lot of brands make the mistake of focusing all of their attention on lead generation without dedicated enough resources to lead nurturing – especially customer retention.
• Branding: Today’s consumers want authentic experiences and brands are scrutinised for their ethical practices, making brand image more important – and fragile – than ever.
• PR: Brands don’t always give PR the attention it deserves in the digital age but it’s an invaluable tool for building, maintaining and even changing your brand image.
• Automation: As the digital marketing workload increases, brands need to automate as many repetitive tasks as they can to manage multi-channel campaigns successfully, maintain costs and achieve the fastest possible growth.

There’s no doubt that the Promotion aspect of the 7Ps model is getting more challenging with every year that passes, as technology and consumer trends become more complex.

The days of running a few TV ads and blasting out some unsolicited email campaigns are long behind us.

Today’s brands need to use the right marketing and sales software to maximise productivity, automate repetitive tasks and manage campaigns across an ever-growing number of channels.

Take a look at some of our software recommendation articles for help with this:

• 30+ Best Free Marketing Tools
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Price is pretty self-explanatory but the mistake companies normally make is underestimating the amount of detail that goes into pricing a single product – let alone an entire range of products or services.

Here’s a list of just some of the things you need to strategise:

• Positioning: Where do you see your product, service or brand positioning in the market?
• Competition: The price of rival products, brand image of rival brands and competing quality of the products on offer.
• Justification: As soon as someone spends money on goods or a service, they instinctively spend time trying to justify the expense – and you need to make sure the result is worth the asking price.
• Discounts: Discounts should be strategic and planned out to maximise interest, demand and sales – not to clear unwanted items off the shelves.
• Credit: Are you going to offer credit options to make large purchases and expenses more manageable for your customers?
• Payment methods: Which payment methods are you going to provide your target customers?
• Free or value-added elements: Which freebies, value-added elements and incentives are you going to use to sweeten the deal for your prospects.

Value is highly subjective and the happiness of your customers with their purchases is determined far more by emotion than logic. As we’ve explained before in our articles on cognitive biases , you can influence consumer perception with simple psychological techniques.

A common example of this is software pricing pages where companies start with the most expensive price on the left side of the page. This exploits a cognitive weakness known as anchoring bias where people instinctively set the first piece of information they see as default, meaning any lower prices that follow naturally feel like good value.

Place is the final P in the original 4Ps model and this traditionally refers to the place where customers physically buy products and services. Of course, in the digital age, things are a little more complex and we have to expand the concept of place across multiple channels throughout the customer journey:

• Discovery: The “places” both online and offline where potential customers discover your brand and its products/services.
• Browsing: The locations where prospects can browse through your offers alongside competitors (e.g.: an online store) or within your own domain (e.g.: a product category on your website).
• Learn: Places where target audiences can learn more about your products or services, such as third-party reviews.
• Comparison: Where potential customers go to compare your offers against rival brands.
• Physical interaction: Any place where prospects are able to physically touch the product or service (if relevant) although this could apply to free trials and demos for digital products, too.
• Purchases: Online and offline locations where your customers can purchase from you.
• Customer services: The channels where customers can reach out for care after making the initial purchase.
• Retention: The channels you use to target customers after the initial purchase to entice further sales.

Place in the digital age refers to every strategic location where potential customers engage with your brand and its product or services – both before and after the sale.

The point is, you need to control these locations, which starts with choosing the right channels of discovery to capture new leads and then nurturing prospects along the sales funnel with targeted interactions.

In today’s customer-centric approach to marketing, you might assume “People” refers to your target audiences, buyer personas and customers. However, the People in the 7Ps model actually refers to the people within your organisation that interact with your customers – both directly and indirectly:

• Marketers: The 7Ps model highlights the importance of hiring the best talent for every position on your marketing team.
• Sales team members: These are the people who typically handle the first person-to-person interactions with your customers – and often seal the deal.
• Customer service team: The individuals tasked with keeping your customers happy, even when things aren’t quite going to plan.
• Recruitment: Hiring the best talent starts with having quality recruitment personnel.
• Training & skills: The people responsible for ensuring all of your team members encompass the brand ethos and meet your requirements.
• Managers: The people with people skills to manage teams, get the best out of everyone and ensure you hit targets.

Chances are, you’ll have several other groups or teams included in your People. Here at Venture Harbour, we’ve got the developers who build and test our products, designers who create the best possible experience for our customers and a pool of freelancers we turn to for a range of different tasks.

Everyone in our team contributes to building and delivering the best product and experiences we can to our customers – and it’s important we recognise the value in that.

For more information on how to build and manage a marketing team effectively, you can read our guide:

• Marketing Teams: How to Structure & Manage Them Effectively

#6: Process

Process in the 7Ps model refers to your processes for delivering the product or service to your customers, as well as any additional customer service and post-purchase systems you have in place.

At the very least, you should have processes in place for the following:

• Customer-end delivery: The customer’s process for attaining your product or service, whether it’s ordered online and delivered via a courier, bought in-store, downloaded from your website or accessed through an online sign-up process.
• Business-end delivery: Your processes for facilitating customer-end delivery and safeguards for resolving any potential issues (e.g.: technical issues preventing online purchases).
• Customer service: Your processes, systems and channels for providing customer service beyond the initial sale.
• Resolutions: Your processes for dealing with problems that prevent usual delivery systems from completing successfully and instances where customers are unhappy with the process/service received.
• Incentives: Measures designed to keep unhappy customers engaged with your brand so you can keep them on board and win them over.
• Returns & refunds: Your systems for dealing with returns, cancellations, refunds and any other processes for customers who refuse to stay on board.
• Feedback: Your processes for collecting customer feedback and applying these insights to product/service improvements.
• T&Cs: The terms and conditions that your customers agree to, specifying your processes and protecting your business in any instance where things don’t go to plan.

You have to carefully and strategically build processes for every customer interaction, down to the finest detail. When your primary method of delivering products or services to your customers fails, you need a solid backup plan – and another one for when your Plan B fails, too.

Today’s customers have more options than ever and modern businesses need to satisfy these expectations – from delivery methods and payment options to customer service channels and financial guarantees.

If you’re doing this properly, you’ll be forced to make some difficult decisions and it’s not always a question of doing what’s best for the customer. For example, you don’t want to make it too easy for customers to seek a refund, return items or close accounts. You want to carefully add some friction here and there to provide crucial time for resolving issues and encourage continued use.

Likewise, your customer service processes need to be effective in terms of keeping customers on your side but they also need to be affordable and it’s not always realistic to have an in-house team of customer care staff sitting by the phones every day.

Once again, technology can help you strike the right balance between customer care and profitability – for example, using chatbots to handle the first interactions with customers. Likewise, personalised automated email responses can cut the perceived time it takes for human team members to contact customers directly.

#7: Physical evidence

The final P in the 7Ps stands for Physical evidence and this used to refer to actual physical items and forms of interaction: products, stores, receipts, packaging, bags and other branded items that could be seen and touched.

Of course, these are all forms for physical evidence today but, in the digital age, we have to reconsider our definition of “physical”.

So what does physical evidence really achieve?

Well, on one hand, it helps customers feel more confident that they’re dealing with a legitimate business before they make a purchase. A company with stores across the country, great products and nice packaging must be doing pretty well for itself and, surely, this wouldn’t be possible if they weren’t taking good care of their customers – right?

The second key role physical evidence plays is after the initial sale by providing customers with evidence that the transaction took place, their payment was received and their products or services will be delivered.

• Places: This was the fourth P on our list of 7Ps and these locations act as physical evidence – whether it’s your website, physical stores or trusted third-party platforms.
• Third-party evidence: Customer reviews, press coverage in major publications and positive press are especially important in the digital age where simply having a website doesn’t provide the level of physical evidence real-world stores.
• Online experience: That said, the quality of your website and the user experience it provides are crucial forms of physical evidence in the modern consumer journey.
• Feedback: Sales staff provide all kinds of feedback through conversation, facial expressions and body language, which is lost in the online experience. So it’s important to design intuitive feedback into the experience – everything from click confirmations and animations to on-page feedback when forms are completed and payments are submitted.
• Order confirmation: Whether it’s physical receipts or confirmation emails, customers need to know their transactions are successful.
• Product packaging: Both the physical and digital packaging/branding of your products or services.

Physical evidence is primarily about easing consumer concerns and purchase anxieties by reassuring potential customers that your business is legitimate, their money is in good hands and the purchase is going to go smoothly.

By providing feedback across the entire customer journey, you can confirm that every little interaction is successful and build reassurance as they get closer to putting their money on the line.

What are the limitations of the 7Ps model?

There’s no such thing as a perfect marketing model and, no matter how comprehensive a list we make for each of the 7Ps, there’s no way it can cover every aspect of a digital marketing strategy.

In fact, there are various different versions of an 8th P added to the model of seven, depending on which marker you speak to. As Smart Insights explains in this article , “An eighth P, ‘Partners’ is often recommended for businesses to gain reach online… although some would argue it’s part of Place.”

Other incarnations of a proposed 8Ps model may include Performance, Productivity, Packaging or a range of other alliterated alternatives for the enigmatic title of the eighth P.

If this debate tells us anything, it’s that the 7Ps model clearly has its limitations and there have been plenty of expansions or alternatives proposed in the past.

For me, the glaring omission in the 4Ps and 7Ps models is the lack of reference to the end customer in both of them. In fact, on a broader scale, neither model even makes a reference to market research and ensuring there’s a large enough target audience for the product or a demand for it.

I guess you could solve this problem without changing the 7Ps model by simply including customers in People and market research in Product. However, stronger alternatives have been offered in “the age of the customer” while others can be used to expand upon the 7Ps model.

In 1990, Robert F. Lauterborn proposed his customer-centric alternative to the 4Ps model, which we can crudely call the 4Cs:

• Customer needs
• Convenience
• Communication

This offers a more customer-centric alternative to the traditional 4Ps model that feels a lot more suitable for the modern age. However, there are problems with simply replacing the Ps for Cs.

As we mentioned in the Process section earlier, if you only consider the customer in your delivery methods, you can easily overlook the business management side of things. Likewise, if you think of the customer with your customer service processes, then you can end up creating a system that hurts your bottom line – either by being too generous or overspending on your customer care systems.

While it sounds great to talk about the customer experience as the priority (perhaps it should be), it’s not the only factor in a successful business, by any means – or a complete marketing strategy for that matter.

As Hannah Tow suggests in her article for G2 , we might be better off extending the 7Ps even further to include the 4Cs, allowing us to look at Price from the business’ perspective and also the Cost from the customer’s point of view.

Create the model that works for you (and your customers)

The 7Ps model isn’t a fixed framework that you have to follow religiously. It’s more of a template that helps you consider every aspect of marketing across the entire journey – so you don’t overlook key factors like how physical evidence increases confidence and enhances the customer experience.

It’s a model that you should scrutinise, adapt and reshape to suit your business, your target audiences and your customers. Whether this means staying relatively true to the original 7Ps, expanding it with the 4Cs or coming up with your own version is entirely up to you.

Just make sure you cover all of the essential bases to avoid leaving gaps in your marketing strategy and the customer experience.

Getting your marketing mix structured & organised

We’ve broken down a lot of theory, but how do you actually apply this and ensure you have marketing activity across all stages of the marketing mix?

Well, initially you may consider running an audit across all seven areas to identify which areas need attention. From there, you will want to come up with ideas and begin tracking these as campaigns/tasks in whichever tool you use to manage your marketing.

In TrueNorth , for example, you could allocate budget across the 7Ps and even track your marketing activity and results according to the various 7Ps to ensure you are doing enough in each area and to separate the campaigns that are designed to improve each of the seven areas.

While there’s no right or wrong way to do it, the key is to ensure you take stock of where you are and have a clear system in place to constantly improve in all areas of the marketing mix over time.

Aaron Brooks is a copywriter & digital strategist specialising in helping agencies & software companies find their voice in a crowded space.

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7 Ps of Marketing and How They Apply to Your Marketing Mix Looking for picture perfect marketing formulas that will likely outlast and adapt to any trend? Read on.

By Brian Tracy Apr 26, 2023

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

No matter what industry your business operates in, there is competition to outperform and ever-evolving trends to keep up with.

You must find a way to get your business to stand out. Whether you are trying to build a name for your business or maintain its stature, marketing is the key to getting people's attention and showing them what you can do.

Marketing strategies are roadmaps that allow your company to grow brand awareness and boost consumer engagement, relationships, and trust. It takes time, effort, and sometimes budget to build a marketing plan; however, it can pay huge dividends.

Once you've developed your marketing strategy, there is a "Seven P Formula" you should use to continually evaluate and reevaluate your business activities. The formula can help you create a system of checks and balances for physical evidence that your business is constantly evolving to ensure your marketing efforts reach your target audience .

With technology as an ever-evolving factor, updating your marketing campaigns to include more than just word of mouth is essential. Nowadays, you can use many distribution channels, like digital marketing, social media, and podcasts.

No matter which platforms you choose as your marketing tools, the seven Ps can serve as tried and true basic marketing tactics that you can adapt into your marketing efforts to best fit your business.

The 7 Ps of Marketing include:

• Positioning

Read on to learn more about the 7 Ps.

To begin with, develop the habit of looking at your product as though you were an outside marketing consultant brought in to help your company decide whether or not it's in the right business at this time. Ask critical questions such as, "Is your current product or service, or mix of products and services, appropriate and suitable for the market and the customers of today? Is this product offering any remedy to a customer's pain point?"

Whenever you're having difficulty selling as much of your products or services as you'd like, you need to develop the habit of assessing your business honestly and asking, "Are these the right products or services for our customers today?"

Is there any product or service you're offering today that, knowing what you now know, you would not bring out again today? Compared to your competitors, is your product or service superior in some significant way to anything else available? If so, what is it? If not, could you develop an area of superiority? Should you be offering this product or service at all in the current marketplace?

The second P in the formula is price. Develop the habit of continually examining and reexamining the pricing strategy of the products and services you sell to make sure they're still appropriate to the realities of the current market. Sometimes you need to lower your prices. At other times, it may be appropriate to raise your prices.

And other times, you need to research the competition to see what similar products in your industry space are going for, to ensure you are listing competitive pricing. Many companies have found that the profitability of certain new products or services doesn't justify the amount of effort and resources that go into producing them. By raising their prices, they may lose a percentage of their customers, but the remaining percentage generates a profit on every sale. Could this be appropriate for you?

Sometimes you need to change your terms and conditions of sale. Sometimes, by spreading your price over a series of months or years, you can sell far more than you are today, and the interest you can charge will more than make up for the delay in cash receipts. Sometimes you can combine products and services together with special offers and special promotions. Sometimes you can include free additional items that cost you very little to produce but make your product prices appear far more attractive to your customers.

In business, as in nature, whenever you experience resistance or frustration in any part of your sales or marketing plan, be open to revisiting that area. Be open to the possibility that your current pricing structure is not ideal for the current market. Be open to the need to revise your prices, if necessary, to remain competitive, to survive and thrive in a fast-changing marketplace.

Related: How to Create a Marketing Plan - Entrepreneur.com

3. Promotion

The third habit in marketing and sales is to think in terms of promotion all the time. Promotion includes all the ways you tell your target market about your products or services and how you then market and sell to them.

Small changes in the way you promote and sell your products based on segmentation can lead to dramatic changes and booms in your results. Even small changes in your advertising can lead immediately to higher sales. Experienced copywriters can often increase the response rate from advertising by 500 percent by simply changing the headline on an advertisement.

Large and small companies in every industry continually experiment with different ways of advertising, promoting, and selling their products and services. Right now? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) , is meant to improve the quality and quantity of traffic to a website.

But no matter what the favored method of the time, there is one tried and true rule. Whatever method of marketing and sales you're using today will, sooner or later, stop working. Sometimes it will stop working for reasons you know, and sometimes it will be for reasons you don't know. In either case, your methods of marketing and sales will eventually stop working, and you'll have to develop new sales, marketing and advertising approaches, offerings, and strategies.

While many might guess that email marketing and Facebook ads are today's most popular marketing activities, much of the market has already moved on to new methods.

The top five advertising techniques in 2022 include:

• Sound-free, short-form video ads.
• Advertising on mobile games.
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence.
• Collecting and advertising third-party data.
• LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

The fourth P in the extended marketing mix is the place where your product or service is actually sold. Develop the habit of reviewing and reflecting upon the exact physical location where the customer meets the salesperson. Sometimes a change in place can lead to a rapid increase in sales.

You can sell your product in many different places. Some companies use direct selling, sending their salespeople out to personally meet and talk with the prospect. Some sell by telemarketing. Some sell through catalogs or mail order. Some sell at trade shows or in retail establishments. Some sell in joint ventures with other similar products or services. Some companies use manufacturers' representatives or distributors. Many companies use a combination of one or more of these methods.

In each case, the entrepreneur must make the right choice about the very best location or place for the customer to receive essential buying information on the product or service needed to make a buying decision. What is yours? In what way should you change it? Where else could you offer your products or services?

5. Packaging

The fifth element of the marketing mix is the packaging. Develop the habit of standing back and looking at every visual element in the packaging of your physical product or service through the eyes of a critical prospect. Remember, people form their first impression about you within the first 30 seconds of seeing you or some element of your company. Small improvements in the packaging or external appearance of your product or service can often lead to completely different reactions from your customers.

With regard to the packaging of your company, your product or service, you should think in terms of everything customer experience —what they see from the first moment of contact with your company through the purchasing process. Consider branded packaging to make an impactful first impression.

If your customer begins experiencing your brand with an eye-catching design, they are more likely to remember that experience with fond associations. Including your business logo and social media handles is another great addition to custom packaging that can invite customers to engage with your brand and promote repeat interactions.

Packaging refers to the way your product or service appears from the outside. Packaging also refers to your people and how they dress and groom. It refers to your offices, your waiting rooms, your brochures, your correspondence and every single visual element about your company. Everything counts. Everything helps or hurts. Everything affects your customer's confidence about dealing with you.

When IBM started under the guidance of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., he very early concluded that fully 99 percent of the visual contact a customer would have with his company, at least initially, would be represented by IBM salespeople. Because IBM was selling relatively sophisticated high-tech equipment, Watson knew customers would have to have a high level of confidence in the credibility of the salesperson. He therefore instituted a dress and grooming code that became an inflexible set of rules and regulations within IBM.

As a result, every salesperson was required to look like a professional in every respect. Every element of their clothing-including dark suits, dark ties, white shirts, conservative hairstyles, shined shoes, clean fingernails-and every other feature gave off the message of professionalism and competence. One of the highest compliments a person could receive was, "You look like someone from IBM."

6. Positioning

The next P is positioning. You should develop the habit of thinking continually about how you are positioned in the hearts and minds of your customers. How do people think and talk about you when you're not present? How do people think and talk about your company? What positioning do you have in your market, in terms of the specific words people use when they describe you and your offerings to others?

In the famous book by Al Reis and Jack Trout, Positioning , the authors point out that how you are seen and thought about by your customers is the critical determinant of your success in a competitive marketplace. Attribution theory says that most customers think of you in terms of a single attribute, either positive or negative. Sometimes it's "service." Sometimes it's "excellence." Sometimes it's "quality engineering," as with Mercedes Benz. Sometimes it's "the ultimate driving machine," as with BMW. In every case, how deeply entrenched that attribute is in the minds of your customers and prospective customers determines how readily they'll buy your product or service and how much they'll pay.

Develop the habit of thinking about how you could improve your positioning. Begin by determining the position you'd like to have. If you could create the ideal impression in the hearts and minds of your customers, what would it be? What would you have to do in every customer interaction to get your customers to think and talk about in that specific way? What changes do you need to make in the way you interact with customers today in order to be seen as the very best choice for the customer needs of tomorrow?

The final P of the marketing mix is people. Develop the habit of thinking in terms of the people inside and outside of your business who are responsible for every element of your sales, marketing strategies, and activities.

It's amazing how many entrepreneurs and businesspeople will work extremely hard to think through every element of the marketing strategy and the marketing mix, and then pay little attention to the fact that every single decision and policy has to be carried out by a specific person, in a specific way. Your ability to select, recruit, hire and retain the proper people, with the skills and abilities to do the job you need to have done, is more important than everything else put together.

In his best-selling book, Good to Great , Jim Collins discovered the most important factor applied by the best companies was that they first of all "got the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus." Once these companies had hired the right people, the second step was to "get the right people in the right seats on the bus."

To be successful in business, you must develop the habit of thinking in terms of exactly who is going to carry out each task and responsibility. In many cases, it's not possible to move forward until you can attract and put the right person into the right position. Many of the best business plans ever developed sit on shelves today because the [people who created them] could not find the key people who could execute those plans.

Excerpted from Million Dollar Habits

The Ps of marketing

Marketing is essential whether you run an eCommerce business, a physical store, a small business, or a large corporation. While trends may evolve, the 7Ps of marketing will likely remain true and evolve with any new trend.

Remember, as products, markets, customers and needs change rapidly, you must continually revisit the seven Ps marketing model to ensure you're on track and achieving the maximum results possible for you in today's marketplace.

Looking for more marketing resources? Explore Entrepreneur's Marketing Hub here to help grow your business .

Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, Speaker and Author

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The 7Ps of marketing

• 10 March 2023

The 7Ps of marketing are product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence.

This post and more is contained within our CIM ebook, 7Ps: a brief summary of marketing and how it works . 

Learn the 7Ps and you're well on your way to having your marketing fundamentals completed. Use the links below to jump to the one you want to learn more about:

• Physical Evidence

P1 - Product

There is no point in developing a product or service that no one wants to buy, yet many businesses decide what to offer first, then hope to find a market for it afterwards. Successful companies find out what customers need or want and then develop the right product with the right level of quality to meet their expectations, both now and in the future.

• A product does not have to be tangible – an insurance policy can be a product.
• The perfect product provides value for the customer. This value is in the eye of the beholder — we must give our customers what they want, not what we think they want.
• Ask yourself whether you have a system in place to regularly check what your customers think of your product and your supporting services.
• Find out what their needs are now and whether they believe these will change in future.
• Beware the product quality trap – don’t take it too far by trying to sell a Rolls-Royce when the customer really wants a Nissan Micra.

A product is only worth what customers are prepared to pay for it. The price needs to be competitive, but this doesn’t mean you have to be the cheapest in your market – small businesses can compete with larger rivals by offering a more personal service, value-adds or better value for money. You also need to make a profit. Pricing is the only element of the marketing mix that generates revenue — everything else represents a cost to you. When considering the price of your product, it’s important to look at it from the customer’s perspective:

• Price positions you in the marketplace — it tells customers where to place you in relation to your competitors.
• The more you charge, the more value or quality your customers will expect for their money.
• This is a relative measure. If you are the most expensive provider in your market, customers will expect you to provide a better service.
• Everything that the customer sees must be consistent with these higher quality expectations — packaging, environment, promotional materials, website, letterheads, invoices, etc.
• Existing customers are generally less sensitive about price than new customers — a good reason to look after them well.

The product must be available in the right place, at the right time and in the right quantity, while keeping storage, inventory and distribution costs at an acceptable level. The place where customers buy a product, and the means of distributing your product to that place, must be appropriate and convenient for the customer. This applies to brick-and-mortar operations, but is even more important in e-commerce.

• Customer surveys show that delivery performance is one of the most important criteria when choosing a supplier.
• Place also means ways of displaying your product to customer groups. This could be in a shop window, but it could also be online.
• E-commerce operations that sell exclusively on the internet must place even more emphasis on the company website and other online activities, as there are fewer points where the customer will interact with the company.
• For the same reason, all firms that sell online should consider how the product will be delivered to the consumer – even if this is handled by a third party.
• Mobile is an increasingly important purchasing channel for consumers, so it may be a good time to optimise your website. Does yours conform to the latest standards? For example, Google search now penalises websites that are not optimised for mobile, potentially making it more difficult for consumers to find you.

P4 - Promotion

Promotion is the way a company communicates what it does and what it can offer customers. It includes branding, advertising, PR, corporate identity, social media outreach, sales management, special offers and exhibitions. Promotion must gain attention, be appealing, send a consistent message and - above all - give the customer a reason to choose your product rather than someone else’s.

• Good promotion is not one-way communication — it paves the way for a dialogue with customers, whether in person or online.
• Promotion should communicate the benefits that a customer receives from a product, not just its features.
• Your website is often the customer’s first experience of your company – you only have one chance to make a good first impression, so make sure that information on the site is always kept up to date and the design is updated to keep it fresh.
• Explore new channels – from traditional print ads to the latest social media trends, there is now a world of possibilities to explore. The important principle is to always advertise where your target consumer goes.
• Printed promotional material must grab the attention of your customers. It should be easy to read and enable the customer to identify why they should buy your product – A brochure isn’t necessarily the best way of promoting your business. Unlike your website, the information is fixed once a brochure has been printed. A more cost-effective and flexible option might be a folder with a professionally designed sheet inside, over a series of your own information sheets produced in-house. These sheets can be customised by varying them to suit the target customers and/or changing them as required
• Promotion does not just mean communicating with your customers. It is just as important to communicate with staff/fellow employees about the value and attributes of your products. They can then pass on the knowledge to their customers.

P5 - People

Everyone who comes into contact with your customers will make an impression. Many customers cannot separate the product or service from the staff member who provides it, so your people will have a profound effect — positive or negative — on customer satisfaction.

• The reputation of your brand rests in the hands of your staff. They must be appropriately trained, well-motivated and have the right attitude.
• All employees who have contact with customers should be well-suited to the role.
• In the age of social media, every employee can potentially reach a mass audience. Formulate a policy for online interaction and make sure everyone stays on message.
• Likewise, happy customers are excellent advocates for your business. Curate good opinion on review sites.
• Superior after-sales support and advice adds value to your offering, and can give you a competitive edge. These services will probably become more important than price for many customers over time.
• Look regularly at the products that account for the highest percentage of your sales. Do these products have adequate after-sales support, or are you being complacent with them? Could you enhance your support without too much additional cost?

P6 - Process

Many customers no longer simply buy a product or service - they invest in an entire experience that starts from the moment they discover your company and lasts through to purchase and beyond.

• That means the process of delivering the product or service, and the behaviour of those who deliver it, are crucial to customer satisfaction. A user-friendly internet experience, waiting times, the information given to customers and the helpfulness of staff are vital to keep customers happy.
• Customers are not interested in the detail of how your business runs, just that the system works. However, they may want reassurance they are buying from a reputable or ‘authentic’ supplier.
• Remember the value of a good first impression. Identify where most customers initially come into contact with your company - whether online or offline - and ensure the process there, from encounter to purchase, is seamless.
• Do customers have to wait?
• Are they kept informed?
• Is your website fast enough and available on the right devices?
• Are your people helpful?
• Is your service efficiently carried out?
• Do your staff interact in a manner appropriate to your pricing?

Customers trying to reach your company by phone are a vital source of income and returning value, but all too often they're left on hold. Many will give up, go elsewhere and tell their friends not to use your company - just because of the poor process.

P7 - Physical evidence

Choosing an unfamiliar product or service is risky for the consumer, because they don’t know how good it will be until after purchase. You can reduce this uncertainty by helping potential customers ‘see’ what they are buying.

• A clean, tidy and well-decorated reception area – or homepage - is reassuring. If your digital or physical premises aren’t up to scratch, why would the customer think your service is?
• The physical evidence demonstrated by an organisation must confirm the assumptions of the customer — a financial services product will need to be delivered in a formal setting, while a children’s birthday entertainment company should adopt a more relaxed approach.
• Some companies engage customers and ask for their feedback, so that they can develop reference materials. New customers can then see these testimonials and are more likely to purchase with confidence.
• Although the customer cannot experience the service before purchase, he or she can talk to other people with experience of the service. Their testimony is credible, because their views do not come from the company. Alternatively, well-shot video testimonials and reviews on independent websites will add authenticity.

Each of the ‘ingredients’ of the marketing mix is key to success. No element can be considered in isolation — you cannot, for example, develop a product without considering a price, or how it will reach the customer.

The process of considering the seven Ps and pulling them together to form a cohesive strategy is called marketing planning.

Want to read more about the fundamentals of marketing? Check out our other posts in the series, What is marketing and Planning a marketing strategy , or take a look at our marketing fundamentals course which has all of this info and more to get you immersed in everything marketing.

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7Ps Marketing Mix Examples

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Understanding the 7Ps of a Marketing Mix

Marketing is like baking. With the right ingredients, measurements and conditions, your recipe is sure to be a success. Find out the 7 ingredients for the perfect marketing mix … or risk a soggy bottom!

A marketing mix is a set of actions that businesses and marketers use to help promote their brand, or to sell a product or service they offer. When selling a new product or service, it’s important to create a marketing mix strategy that essentially blends the key marketing ingredients together to achieve the desired result.

What are the 7Ps of a marketing mix?

A marketing mix always begins with a product to sell. In the early development phase of your product, it is extremely important to carry out extensive research on the life cycle of the product you are creating.

All products have their own life cycle including the growth phase, the maturity phase, and the sales decline phase. Once a product reaches the sales decline phase, marketers need to find new ways to increase sales again.

When developing the right product, it’s important to ask yourself a series of questions to make sure your product is better than your competitors, i.e. what does the client want from the product? Or, how, where and why the client uses the product?

In a marketing mix, place refers to the position and distribution of the product you are selling in a place that is accessible to your target audience, this could be a high street shop, an online store, or mail order. Examples of distribution strategies include: intensive, exclusive, selective and franchising.

To make sure you position your product in the best possible place, it’s vital to understand your customer and what their shopping habits may be. Therefore, to develop a distribution strategy, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• Where do clients look for my product?
• Where do clients usually shop for products?
• Should I sell the product online?

Pricing is an extremely important component to your marketing mix as it determines your profit and costing of your product. Altering the price of a product can affect the entire marketing strategy, whilst also affecting the sales and demand of your product.

As a newcomer to the market, it’s tempting to set your prices high, especially if you know your product is worth the price you are asking for. However, it’s unlikely that your target audience will be willing to pay the price, simply because your brand is only starting out so you’re not as recognisable or trustworthy – this comes with time.

Pricing also helps consumers to determine the perception of your product. For example, a lower priced product is deemed less inferior in terms of quality and ability, as opposed to a highly priced product.

In a marketing mix, promotion is an element that can boost sales and brand recognition through advertising, sales promotion, sales organisation, and public relations.

When promoting a product, you may decide on all of the promotion elements above, or simply choose the techniques that will target your audience more effectively. However, in order to create a successful product promotion strategy, here are a number of questions to ask yourself first:

• When is the best time to promote my product?
• What is the strategy my competitors are using?
• Should I use social media to promote the product?
• How can I send marketing messages to my target audience?
• What marketing channel is the best to promote my product for my audience?

The promotional strategy you use is also dependent on your budget, your communication and how you want to get your message across, and your target market.

Another important element in the marketing mix is people. This includes whether or not your target audience is large enough, and if there is a large enough demand for your product or not.

Consumers aren’t the only important people to consider in your marketing strategy, you also have to take into the account the people who will be delivering the marketing and sales of your product. To make sure you deliver excellent service and marketing, you’ll need people who are fully trained for the job, whether this is customer service assistants, copywriters, designers or a sales representative for example.

As for processes in the marketing mix, the process of your organisation can affect the performance of the service you provide, involving the delivery of your product to consumers.

As a business, it’s crucial to make sure you’re easy to do business with, meaning you’re efficient, helpful and timely.

By making sure your business has a good process in place, you will also save time and money due to greater efficiency, and your standard of service to customers will remain consistent, which is excellent for developing a brand reputation and customer loyalty.

Physical Evidence

The final P in a marketing mix stands for physical evidence and it refers to everything your customers sees or hears when interacting with your business.

T his includes your branding, your product packaging, a physical space such as a shop, and even the way your staff and sales representatives act and dress – it’s not all about the product! The way that you portray your brand physically has a great impact on consumers and can either lead or an increase, or decrease, in sales.

Using the Marketing Mix

Each of the 7Ps found in a marketing mix work together to ensure your business is a success. The 7Ps also have an impact on your positioning, targeting, and segmentation decisions, so it’s crucial to understand their benefits to create your own marketing mix.

If you would like more information on how you can create your own marketing mix, please call our strategic team on 01462 262020 or a no obligation chat, or email us at [email protected]

You can also view some case studies over at our client work area to see how we’ve already successfully helped businesses with their marketing mix.

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Using the 7Ps as a generic marketing mix: an exploratory survey of UK and European marketing academics

1995, Marketing Intelligence & Planning

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The world is relentlessly changing which creating new trades. A few ages past, speediness of these revolutions, maybe it was every fasten of years or every decade, but straightaway, every year or every month we are nearsighted new goods and products that in the history there was not any kind of them. Every company should not neglect to take virtuous maintenance of customers that helps to partake the right planning and aiming people, the right product or service, right place or distribution, right price, right promotion, right physical and psychological evidence, with the right amount of productivity & quality performance in carrying the Ps of Marketing. This paper aims to undertake an extensive literature review from the past studies related to the concept of the marketing mix and descriptive analysis is used to analyze the best practice among the 8Ps or more Ps of marketing mix towards business performance. Equally, a tool of marketing strategy and theoretical framework grants a vi...

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Better Knowledge. Your Insight Is Sharper

7Ps Marketing Mix: Importance and Components

December 14, 2020

What’s it:  7Ps is an extended marketing mix by considering the specific characteristics of services. The 7Ps marketing mix consists of:

• Product 
• Place 

Physical evidence

• Process 

7Ps components

7Ps are important. It provides the company with variables to create value and generate a competitive advantage in marketing. In the conventional marketing mix, marketers use four variables: product, price, place, and promotion. Then, they added 3 other variables to consider the service market’s characteristics: physical evidence, people, and processes.

Product refers to something to satisfy consumer needs. That we call goods to refer to tangible products. Meanwhile, we call those who are intangible as services.

To satisfy consumers, the company designs a unique selling value proposition. It is the uniqueness with which the company strives to satisfy customer needs and differentiate its products from competitors’ products. For example, it may be a low price or high quality.

The mass product offers a standardized product and is relatively similar to other products on the market. However, to attract customers, companies offer them at a lower price, so consumers spend less money to buy.

On the other hand, some companies offer differentiated products to accentuate high quality. They offer uniqueness, whether in terms of features, performance, style, or even packaging, as a way to entice people to buy. With this uniqueness, the company hopes consumers are willing to pay a higher price. That way, the profit margin per unit is higher than the standardized products.

Setting the selling price is an important decision for the product to be successful in the market. Companies consider the customer’s willingness to pay. They measure the maximum price that a customer is prepared to pay for the product (we call this the reservation price).

Price represents the product’s monetary value, which consumers see as the cost of satisfying their needs. If consumers perceive the product as having low value, they are reluctant to buy or choose alternative products. Conversely, if the consumers’ perceived value is higher than the price, they are willing to buy and are satisfied.

Under mass marketing, companies charge low prices to attract purchases. They offer standard quality products. Products have a low-profit margin per unit. Thus, to generate the total targeted profit, they are trying to generate high sales volume.

Meanwhile, under differentiated marketing, firms charge high prices. They offer uniqueness, so consumers are willing to pay more. Products have a high-profit margin per unit. Thus, to achieve the same total profit as mass products, the company only needs a lower sales volume.

How low or how high the company sets the selling price requires in-depth research. Whether for mass products or differentiated products, too-high prices will cause customers to switch to competing products. Conversely, a too-low price will result in a less than optimal level of profit.

The company considers various factors to carry out a pricing strategy , including:

• Production costs, covering variable costs and fixed costs per unit
• Consumer profile, for example, whether they are quality conscious or price-conscious consumers
• Types of product, for example, whether a mass product or a differentiated product
• Target market, for example, is it a new market or an existing market
• Competition in the market, including the number of competitors and their strategies
• Price elasticity of demand, how sensitive is the consumer if the company changes the price.

For example, some companies may consider production costs more to determine the selling price. They add a percentage of profit (mark-up) to the average cost to produce the selling price. This method is more straightforward than other pricing methods, such as value-based pricing and competition-based pricing.

Marketers take advantage of promotions and communication channels to inform products, influence consumer perceptions, and encourage them to buy. Promotion strategies can take forms such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing. They are often referred to as the promotion mix.

There are several specific objectives of promotion, including:

• Attract potential customers in the existing market to purchase products
• Communicate and encourage consumers to try new products
• Increase the number of consumers by targeting audiences in new markets
• Inform consumers about product quality improvements
• Influencing consumers to prefer the company’s products over competitors’ products

Place is not just about sales locations. It is broader, namely ensuring the product is available at the right location and time when consumers need it. For goods, selling near the target consumer’s location is one way. Another way is to develop effective distribution channels, both internally and by collaborating with external distributors or retailers.

Meanwhile, service companies have unique characteristics. They do not rely on distributors or retailers to provide services. Instead, they provide it directly through face-to-face interaction or special devices such as software.

For some service businesses, finding a strategic location for customers and the company is critical. Fine dining chooses a busy city center where a large number of potential customers are available. For customers they are comfortable because it is close to where they live or work.

Physical evidence refers to tangible elements that consumers can enjoy when interacting with companies. It may be the physical environment in which the company provides services. Or, it might be where the company sells products like retail space.

Layout, lighting system, or interior design is one way to provide comfort for consumers. They influence the consumer’s emotion when the interaction is taking place. For example, a messy interior design makes consumers uncomfortable. It creates an unpleasant atmosphere, thus giving consumers a lousy experience. Finally, they are reluctant to transact or visit the same location at a later date.

People may refer to staff or salespeople who work for businesses and interact with consumers. When they serve customers, in effect, they are building relationships and trust with customers. If they are proficient, they create a positive impression in the eyes of consumers. Ultimately, consumers are willing to buy and, perhaps, recommend to others.

The quality of human resources determines the success of a company. Education and skills are determining factors. Another factor is attitude and motivation. So, for example, sales staff know what they sell and how to sell it. And they also have to show a good appearance, body language, facial expressions, and compelling speech.

The process represents a series of actions or steps in selling products and providing services to consumers. Right processes allow companies to provide the same standard of service to all customers. Right processes also save time and money by increasing efficiency.

The process includes how companies interact and meet consumer demands. It is at the core of activity in the service sector. In purchasing furniture at a traditional retail store, for example, might include the process of selecting products, interacting with sales staff, paying at the checkout, and delivering the goods home. Because the process is the point of contact between the company and the customer, it is essential to achieve a competitive advantage in the service business.

Processes will vary depending on the nature of the company’s business. However, what is certain is that companies have a unique or special way of serving their customers. Take the restaurant, for example. Some restaurants provide open kitchen facilities. Visitors can see the process of making the food they ordered.

• Let's Build Brands
• Dec 20, 2021

The 7Ps Marketing Mix and Its Importance For Your Business

Updated: Jan 23, 2023

When a company needs to market its products/services, it needs to create a marketing strategy. A strategy helps combine multiple elements to serve its customers better and achieve specific business goals like capturing the market, improving business goals, etc. A marketing mix is a popular way to create a marketing strategy for your brand. We’ve discussed how you can use the 7Ps marketing mix to create a marketing strategy in this blog.

What is the 7Ps marketing mix?

A marketing mix refers to the business's activities to satisfy customer needs and position their product/service in the market. The 7Ps in the marketing mix stand for product, price, promotion, place, people, process, and physical evidence.

What are the elements of the 7Ps marketing mix?

The first step to creating the 7Ps marketing mix is to know its elements. In this blog post, we’ve answered the question businesses have, ‘’What are the elements of the 7Ps marketing mix?”

Taking the case of a mobile phone company, we have discussed the 7Ps marketing mix with examples.

Product refers to the key features and benefits the product brings for its user. The quality of the product, what problem it is solving, and how the product adds value to the customer are important factors that a brand needs to keep in mind while formulating the Product part of its marketing mix.

Application: A mobile phone company may provide customers with benefits like an enhanced camera to click better photographs, a high level of storage to download and use multiple applications, etc.

Price refers to the pricing strategy that the company will adopt to promote its product/service. This pricing strategy is based on multiple factors like the competition in that product segment, product features and benefits, level of demand and supply, etc.

Application: The mobile phone company may determine the price of the product/service based on factors like product positioning in the market, level of competition for that segment of product, product features, benefits and models/variants, etc.

Promotion refers to specific strategies that help marketers familiarize their audience with the brand and promote the product. For example, advertising campaigns through digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, or through offline media, etc.

Application: A mobile phone company may launch online advertisements related to the new models of phones that it launches in the market or leverage offline advertising techniques like billboards at multiple outdoor locations.

The place refers to the location where a product will be distributed/sold or where the target audience can avail of a specific service.

Application: The mobile phone company can first determine the geographies at the country level where it will sell the mobile phones. Next, it can plan out the specific locations in multiple cities like districts at the state level or neighbourhoods where it anticipates that selling its mobile phones will help it earn revenue.

People refers to the individuals directly or indirectly involved with a product/service. For instance, people can refer to employees from the production stage to the operations, to marketing, to sales, to after- sales service; whoever has been instrumental in the product’s journey to the shelf and beyond. In addition, people who have in-depth knowledge about the product and can represent the brand in communicating its value and offerings are also included in people.

Application: Everyone from the people in the sales, marketing departments, to the after-sales support departments in the mobile phone company who have been a part of the phone’s journey, from manufacturing to reaching the store to customer service are included in people. Moreover, people who can vouch for the product and its offerings are also included.

Process refers to the series of steps that a business takes while delivering the final product/service to its customers. These processes are constantly changed as per business requirements/needs.

Application: The process in the case of a mobile phone company can be from when a mobile phone is manufactured to when it is transported to a physical store to be sold to the customers. To make the buying process and purchase decision easier, mobile phone companies have experience centers where consumers can experience the product even before making a purchase.

Physical Evidence

Physical evidence refers to everything that a customer views while looking at a product/service, which proves that the brand exists. For example, the physical store, the website, or experience center. This physical evidence should be in sync with your brand/product to the extent that people associate your brand with what they see, hear, taste, listen and smell. For example, the interiors of a particular mobile store are as per the brand guidelines and the product packaging.

Application: In the case of a mobile store, the front interior of the mobile store, the outer box of the mobile phone, and the mobile phone design are examples of physical evidence.

Importance of the 7Ps Marketing Mix

Here are the reasons why it is important to create a 7Ps Marketing Mix:

Ensures the implementation of a holistic strategy

A marketing mix model enables the implementation of a holistic marketing strategy combining the 7Ps of marketing. The holistic marketing strategy creates a positive image of a business by demonstrating how different business functions can come together to help attain organizational objectives.

Helps in aligning and allocating organizational resources efficiently

The marketing mix model helps appropriately align & allocate resources to marketing activities. For example, the business may allocate costs to product manufacturing (product) or advertising activities (promotional activities) and align the other resources to fetch the common objective of marketing.

Helps in new product development and marketing planning

The marketing mix helps in the process of new product development and marketing planning. The 7 Ps of marketing combine to enable a product launch to take place, from conceptualization to delivery to the customer.

The 7Ps marketing mix is an integral part of a company’s marketing plan. If you wish to benefit from marketing strategy services that can help you grow your brand, contact Let’s Build Brands. You can visit our services page to learn more about our offerings.

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• 7 P’s of Marketing Essay Sample Singapore

7 P’s of Marketing Essay Sample

Developing a marketing strategy by just doing market research is not enough to stand steadily in a market rather other knowledge is also essential, the knowledge of 7 elements of marketing mix. There is a “7 P’s formula” for the marketing tycoons which they should use to regularly evaluate and re-evaluate their business activities.

In a consumer society, there are markets for specific merchandise and amenities, which are directed by the thought of supply and demand. Those ventures providing these items and facilities, regardless of whether food supplies, sports vehicles or medicinal services administrations, are confronted with showcasing their items or administrations to purchasers, the individuals who will purchase the items or administrations since they need or need them.

Get Quality 7 P’s of Marketing Essay Sample by Professional Singapore Writers

What is the 7 p’s of marketing rule.

Marketing structures are necessary for deliberately sorting out your work. You need to set out a solid substructure before executing your market plan exercises. At the point when you have a strong foundation fabricated on manoeuvres, at that point, you enhance your odds of accomplishment that your work is on pace with your corporate undertaking. Having a methodology limits the misuse of assets and better utilization of your marketing budget.

There are various essential frameworks which you can access from the industries for the purpose of marketing of your product and services. A very crucial structure among these is “7 P’s of Marketing” which you can utilize via your marketing toolset.

The framework of “7 Ps of marketing” comprises of: –

• Physical evidence

These 7 elements of this framework encompass the marketing mix. This mix deliberately puts a business in the market and can be utilized with shifting degrees of power. This is to safeguard that the target audience is convinced and fulfilled, esteem discernment is exact, and to stand apart from Actualizing these P’s in the most ideal manner you see fit for your organization can turn out to be very gainful, however, you should totally see each bit of the 7 P’s riddle first.

Product alludes to what you are selling, including the entirety of the highlights, focal points and advantages that your clients can appreciate from purchasing your products or services. When marketing your item, you must consider the key highlights and advantages your clients wish to have or need, including (however not restricted to) styling, quality, fixes, and adornments.

You can utilize innovative work to inform the advancement regarding the new items in your business.

Price alludes to your pricing procedure for your items and services and how it will influence your clients. You ought to recognize how much your clients are set up to pay, how much increase you have to serve for overheads, your net revenues and instalment strategies, and different expenses. To captivate clients and hold your upper hand, you may likewise wish to acknowledge discounts and seasonal pricing.

While figuring product value, you should consider all the expenses involved in manufacturing, promotions and conveying that item. On the off chance that production and promotion are set to display comparatively significant expenses, this ought to be reflected in an aptly significant price.

Place refers to the different locations where your product can be seen, created, sold or delivered. The essential key for marketing your product or services is easy to access of the customer to you and your services. It is very necessary to recognize that you should provide an easy way for your customer to find you readily.

The place thing can set you apart from the competition and make you unique in various means. The astonishing design of your business place employing effective and overwhelming visual marketing techniques can place eventually add glory to your products and services.

Finding the right business location is always a key tactic for your business which will help you in different ways-

• Acquaint your customers
• Provide easy access to your customers for you and your services
• Captivate those customers who wish to buy locally manufactured items
• Provide convenience to you to deliver your products on time (quick delivery)
• More publicity
• The benefit of mouth marketing from your customers etc.

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This includes the promotional activities you execute to make your customers aware of your products and services, features, relative qualities, advertisements, sales tactics, and other marketing activities.

The goods/ products must be promoted via appropriate channels in order to reach out to the audience effectively, encompassing the effective advertising techniques which coincide with the audiences.

The channels that can be used for the purpose of promotions can be: –

• Advertising
• Social media
• Sales management
• Corporate identity
• Exhibitions
• Influencer marketing
• Content marketing
• Digital marketing
• Search engine marketing
• Word of mouth marketing

This element of the 7 Ps framework refers to the people in marketing mix. Those people who work for your business including yourself. Those individuals of your staff, salesperson, customer service teams, marketing teams, individuals who are working remotely, and anyone who involves in the business process. All are equally important for the business and sales of its products.

Also, the people who avail your services, if they are impressed by your product quality and customer service, those people will play a crucial role for the marketing of your excellent product and services by means of words. Simply put, your customers can do mouth marketing for your services. And this will, in turn, help you as a customer-driven marketing strategy .

So, you should recruit the right people, train them effectively with the necessary skills & retain good staff in order to maintain your business in the competition.

The process includes the processes and activity which are involved in the delivery of the product to the customers. Overall, the process emphasizes on making you the one “easy to do business with”.

The essential factor “process” being perfect makes sure that you-

• Are maintaining your quality and standards in all the deliveries to your customers
• By increasing efficiency, saving time and money.

Physical Evidence

Physical evidence refers to every single thing that your customer will see while interacting with you and your service. For instance, how the braces give you straight teeth, how the straightener gives straight hair and an amazing new look but all the receipts give the proof of your purchase. The customers need confirmation of their purchase in a physical manner.

These includes: –

• The physical environment where your customer interacts with your business
• Interior design or layout
• Corporate website
• Social media accounts
• Service brochure
• Request for proposal
• Your staff, their dressing, and the act of them also influence the customers.

Why Are The 7 P’s of Marketing Important

It is very essential to know about the importance of marketing mix 7Ps. When any enterprise formulates a marketing strategy, it will believe that this strategy will effectively promote its products and services. But not every strategy come up with effective results and the ever-changing market always demands the 7 Ps of marketing.

Each and every aspect of the business is formulated on the basis of marketing. Marketing is an efficient and crucial role player in overall business performance as well as meeting the objectives of the business. This very crucial element of business requires the 7 elements of marketing mix.

We can explain the 7 Ps of marketing importance in the following way: –

• The demand of ever-changing market strategies
• Ever-evolving demands of the market as well as consumers
• To provide essential elements and guidance for marketing
• To enhance market analysis approach
• Support for making decisions
• Open new ideas
• Help in increasing popularity of product and service along with increasing the efficiency of the business
• These 7 Ps of marketing can make you efficient enough to create marketing strategies up to international marketing
• It improves the overall marketing management process and system

Get Quality Essay Writing Assistance for 7 P’s of Marketing Essay

Educational programs in business development, and MBA in marketing or any other marketing degree courses in Singapore etc. provide the students with crucial knowledge and skills of building an efficient marketing plan/ strategy for the business. In addition to that, the pupils also get a variety of assignments like 7 Ps of marketing assignment , the importance of marketing mix essay, making 7 Ps of marketing ppt and many others.

While studying these much critical things in their courses for the whole day, the students do not find enough time to complete their assignments on time. Although they learn the 7 Ps of marketing to make the marketing process easier but they become inefficient in getting any single P for their assignment making.

If you are also facing the same situation, you can freely get genuine assignment help from Singapore Assignment Help Service. We can assist you with all of your university assignments including the writing of 7 P’s of Marketing Essay. You can also get the best quality essay extended marketing mix pdf.

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The conclusion of 7 P’s of marketing can be stated as that the 7 elements of the marketing mix are very crucial for the making of marketing strategies and improves the marketing process as well as enhance the business performance. Which in turn opens the doors for global marketing too.

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