Marketing is a complex set of activities and processes many businesses use to positively impact their business’ brand, sales, and overall performance. It encompasses advertising, market research, and different kinds of surveys. Thus, here comes the 7 Ps of marketing.
Marketing is a highly diverse concept.
Thus, there is even a whole bachelor’s degree dedicated to studying marketing.
Meanwhile, the marketing mix is a marketing strategy tool controlled by a company or business to promote its brand and products or services.
Here are the 7 Ps of marketing examples:
Product, price, promotion, place, physical evidence, processing, and people.
In this article, we will walk you through each of these 7 Ps.
We will tackle how you can utilize these 7 Ps in your business.
Product
This is one of the most crucial things that will define your success in any type of business.
It is the object, experience, or service you sell to your customers.
It is virtually anything you will sell.
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Thus, it is what will give your customers value.
Marketing definition will vary depending on who you ask.
However, marketing goes beyond just promoting it.
Often, you need to create a product to meet a huge demand.
Meanwhile, there are certain products that you create but don’t necessarily have a demand yet.
How do I use this to improve?
The product aspect of the 7 ps of the marketing mix will surely get your creative juices flowing.
It is the heart of the marketing mix.
After all, this is what marketing is all about – getting you to sell to customers.
Firstly, think about your product’s design.
Do you think it’s something your customers will find appealing and innovative?
Design is what will set your product apart from others.
Thus, it is an important aspect of marketing, whatever you will be selling – whether it is physical or digital.
If it’s physical, is it compact, handy, or ergonomic?
Meanwhile, if it’s digital, is it well-formatted, and compatible with many devices?
These are just some of the things that your customers will look at.
Furthermore, you should also think about your product’s features.
Do these features improve your potential customers’ quality of life?
Do your product’s features add value?
If not, maybe you should think twice about whether your product is even marketable, to begin with.
This is where customer’s feedback will come into play.
If you’ve already released a product or service, it’s not too late to use the product aspect of the 7 Ps.
Listen to what your customers or client have to say.
Thereafter, you can apply this feedback to improve your product – whether it is the design, features, options, or quality.
Price
The price refers to the amount that your customers will pay in exchange for the product or service your business will deliver.
It’s pretty straightforward.
The price is the amount of money you will get from your customers.
It’s certainly one of the most challenging among the 7 principles of the marketing mix.
Furthermore, it involves accounting, budgeting, market research, and other processes.
Thus, you should expect to take a long time to figure out these 7 Ps of the marketing mix.
This is the aspect that will bring your company revenue.
Thus, you should create a balance between affordability and value.
You certainly don’t want to underprice as you want to generate profits.
However, you also don’t want to go beyond your ceiling price, which will affect your sales.
Ultimately, make sure that the price is justified.
How do I use this to improve?
Create an attractive price for your products.
For physical products, the simple $0.99 instead of $1 is always effective.
Moreover, you can also try to adjust your prices.
You can give discounts for bulk orders or offer a buy 1 get 1, or anything similar.
Furthermore, you can offer flexible payment schemes for products or services that cost a lot.
You can provide an installment option or a buy-now-pay-later option.
For digital products, you can certainly get more creative and flexible.
You may offer a free trial if your is a service.
Furthermore, you can offer subscriptions to cut the price instead of a huge one-time payment.
Promotion
Communicating with current and potential clients with what you have to offer is the basic essence of promotion.
It is letting them know how your product or service can bring value to them.
Moreover, it is an aspect of marketing that is like an invitation to check our products out.
You have to do things right when it comes to promotion or marketing.
Before your customer even tests your product or service, they will first get a sneak peek with whatever is in your promotion materials and tools.
Thus, it has to be perfect – or at least close to it.
In a layman’s perspective, promotion is marketing.
However, we already know that marketing is a complex concept that deals with so much more than promotion.
We know that promotion is just one P in the 7ps of the marketing mix.
How do I use this to improve?
Promotion is one of the marketing strategies for service firms 7ps can be applied.
Creativity will certainly play a huge role in the promotion aspect of your marketing mix.
If you will promote your business online, take advantage of social media platforms.
They are free, and almost everyone has at least one social media account.
Furthermore, there’s a lot of ways you can promote your business to users on the internet without being too pushy and in-your-face.
Meanwhile, if you are promoting through an ad on TV or radio, it seems obvious that it’s a marketing tactic.
Thus, customers are less likely to get convinced.
If you are going to promote through blog articles or posts, better take advantage of Search Engine Optimization or SEO.
More and more companies are using SEO to get their brand or product out there without spending a lot of money.
Thus, it is an ideal choice if you don’t have a lot of marketing budget.
Furthermore, you can certainly delegate this aspect to third-party companies if you have the budget.
Although you can do this by yourself, it won’t hurt to hire experts to get the job done the right way.
Place
The place is the marketing mix aspect, where you will ask where you will distribute or deliver your services.
You should think about where your customers can avail of whatever you are trying to sell.
Thus, it should be accessible and convenient to allow less friction between desire and possession.
Moreover, consider whether there is an actual market in the location you’re thinking about.
Will you make an actual sale if you sell in that location?
How do I use this to improve?
Ask yourself if what you are selling is something the customers need to feel for themselves.
For instance, are you trying to sell a car or expensive jewels?
Then, most likely, you will need a physical location to showcase them.
Typically, customers would like to see expensive items for themselves before making a purchase.
Furthermore, ask yourself and others if you need someone to talk to your customers in person so you can make a sale.
Do your potential or target customers need extra convincing to avail of a service?
Is it something that cannot get through a written ad or proposal?
However, for most products, you can easily sell them on an eCommerce website or other similar sites.
If you are a start-up and have a minimal budget, this is the place to be.
Meanwhile, businesses involving food and drinks are most likely going to have a physical store.
Thus, for this, you might need to consider which location is the most ideal and would get the most traffic.
Physical Evidence
Physical evidence is the aspect of the 7 p marketing mix that provides evidence to your customers.
It is proof you can give to them that what you’re selling is worth their money.
Moreover, it also tells them that it will bring your customers a lot of value.
For physical items, it is the packaging.
Thus, it is what your potential clients will see.
How do I use this to improve?
In physical products, the packaging is fairly straightforward.
It is the enclosure that your products come in, whether it’s a box or a packet.
Thus, you need to make sure the packaging reflects what your product has to offer.
However, it gets tricky because you need to deliver that message in the most creative and aesthetically-appealing way.
Meanwhile, for the most part, the physical evidence aspect of marketing is about branding.
Make sure your branding is consistent across all platforms.
Thus, if you have a physical store or office, make sure everything within it reflects what you’re trying to sell.
For example, if you are trying to sell a cleaning service to customers, everything in your store should be spotless.
Otherwise, your clients won’t buy the idea that you will deliver good service.
Your customers need evidence so you can convince them.
Process
The process is one of the 7 Ps that doesn’t deserve as much attention as it should.
It’s the systematics you implement within your business that gives it structure.
For example, in the carwash business, the process dictates how long clients have to wait for a complete carwash service.
This marketing mix aspect also includes how you will deal with customers in the future.
How do I use this to improve?
Think of ways you can improve your process to give even more value to people.
Will your customer service or tech support be available 24/7?
Furthermore, figure out how long it will take for you to respond to a client’s query or complaint.
If you master this marketing mix aspect, you will succeed in an aspect that most businesses have failed.
Thus, it’s important not to overlook it.
Furthermore, this aspect of marketing also calls you to figure out how many staff members you will need in case your demand goes up.
How will you deal if a crisis sets in?
People
The customers are the most important aspect of the marketing mix.
Knowing your target market is essential to boost your products’ sales and improve your branding overall.
Furthermore, you should look into your target market size.
Do you have a large enough target market?
Apart from the actual clients, you should also look at the other people who will play huge roles in your marketing mix.
This includes everyone on your team.
Salespeople, customer support, delivery team, packing team, tech team – everyone is in this the people aspect of the 7 Ps marketing mix.
Training your business team is a crucial part of your marketing strategy.
This may heavily dictate customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, this may also dictate the number of future clients.
Thus, the people in your team must know what your marketing goals are.
Remember that in marketing, you’re not only dealing with the product or service that you are selling.
Most importantly, you are dealing with people.
It doesn’t only include your clients, but other people from your team as well.
How do I use this to improve?
The people, both customers, and employees are at the heart of any 7 ps of marketing strategy or tool.
Thus, you need to devise ways on how you can improve your staff’s skills, which will translate to an improvement to your clients’ services.
Strategies like establishing a mailing list and keeping active social media accounts help with customer retention.
This is an essential component of marketing.
It’s a lot easier to do marketing on people who have already bought from you before, right?
Conclusion
These international marketing mix 7ps are important tools of the marketing mix that you can readily apply to your business or company.
Getting all these aspects in line will set you on the right path in marketing.
Remember to treat each aspect of the 7 Ps equally, keeping in mind that one is not superior over the other when it comes to marketing.
