What Are 7Ps of the Marketing Mix?

7Ps helps you determine what needs to be reviewed and defined. These seven are: product, place, price, physical evidence, people, and process.

 

 

 

 

What’s 7P?

 

 

The marketing mix is an aspect of the market process which aims to streamline the goals and objectives of your strategy. It was first introduced by Jerome Mccarthy in 1964. It only involved 4Ps; product, place, price, and promotion. In 1981, we see Booms & Bitner, teo academics who added 3 crucial Ps, physical evidence, people, and processes to the marketing mix. These new additions saw the marketing mix evolve into the 7P or the extended marketing mix as it’s often known the needs, wants and expectations of customers are constantly changing and developing. So, it’s important for you to frequently revisit the 7formula, so that you can accurately segment your market. Then, you meet and exceed the requirements of your customers and also keep ahead of industry competitors. So, let’s take a look at each component of 7Ps.

 

 

Products

 

 

Product refers to a physical product service or experience, basically anything that’s being sold. You need to make sure that your product is right for the market in that it satisfies or exceeds the expectations of the customer.

 

 

Place

 

 

This is where you choose to distribute your offerings. It could be your warehouse, a high street store, an ecommerce shop, or a cloud-based platform. Wherever you choose to distribute, you need to make sure that it’s accessible to your audience and that you’ve taken your competitors into consideration because where you choose to distribute your products can dictate things like your product type and your budget.

 

 

Price

 

 

Price refers to your marketing, advertising, and sales techniques. You have traditional promotional channels such as TV, radio, billboards, and newspapers, or more modern methods like pop-ups,push notifications, native advertising, and email marketing or social media marketing. Your chosen promotional methods have great influencing power over the perception of your brand and its long-term success. Whichever promotional methods you choose if you want to break down through gathering and market segmentation analysis have to be meticulous and well thought out, so you’re reaching the right audience in the right place and at the right time.

 

 

Physical Evidence

 

 

Physical evidence in the sense of the marketing mix generally takes on two forms; 1. Evidence that a service or purchase took place. 2. Proof or confirmation that your brand exists. Physical evidence of a transaction comes in the form of things like recipes, tracking information, and invoices. Whereas proof of the existence of your brand is highly visual. It could be the appearance of your building, your social media channels, your website and logos, or your business cards. Choosing an unfamiliar brand or product is risky for a customer. They need to know that you’re legitimate and physical evidence achieves this.

 

 

People

 

 

People essentially refers to anyone who’s involved in the brand or product. It could be those selling it, designing it, creating it, managing teams, or representative customers. When you think about it, anyone who comes into contact with your customers can make an impression positively or negatively and this could impact the perception of your brand. There is no use in creating an amazing product having a lively social media presence and a strong brand if your employees aren’t behind you. You need to recruit people who will engage with your company culture and add value to your organization.

 

 

Process

 

 

Process is the 7th ingredient in the extended marketing mix. It describes the full experience of the buying process from where a customer becomes aware of your brand and enters the sales funnel to your distribution procedures and the post-purchase customer relationship management. Each step you take and the methods that you choose during the whole process must be done in a way that’s professional, cost effective and offers the most value in return to your wonderful users. Every aspect of the marketing mix is key to your success. No element should be considered in isolation. For example, you can’t develop a product without considering an appropriate price or how it will reach the customer. In the same way, you can’t promote your product using a channel that isn’t accessible to your target market.

 

By carefully analyzing and segmenting your target audience alongside the 7Ps, you can ensure your strategy will be as streamlined as possible.