Marketing is a creative and a constantly evolving discipline which is an essential part of a company’s strategy if it does not want to be left behind in this fiercely competitive world. The Marketing Mix is basically a set of different tools used by marketers for determining a product offering.

Since the 4 Ps of Marketing were invented by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960, there has been an ongoing need to modify the traditional marketing mix as per the growing and changing needs of the market to redefine it, which gave rise to a more developed 7 Ps of Marketing therefore giving an additional depth to the traditional marketing mix principles.

Once a company develops their marketing strategy, they need to use the “7 Ps” which is significant for constantly evaluating your business activities. Here we will discuss the 7 Ps of Marketing in detail so that you can be sure that you are on the right track for getting the best results for the organization in this complex marketing landscape.

Product

Product refers to all that you have been offering and selling to your customers out there. The customer is the heart of marketing. So while marketing your product or service, you definitely need to go into great depths and research about the requirements and needs of your customers related to your product. You need to ponder about the major benefits associated with them to the customer including quality and styling.

If you are offering a product or service which they need, the product will be successful in the market. You require to also know that whether your products are the right ones for the customer of today, keeping in perspective your competitors so that you know that your product is in some significant way superior to anything the others in the fray are offering. Also, customer feedback is vital for your growth.

Price

The marketer needs to keep a sharp eye on the price of their product or services to make sure that they are not a misfit and are in sync with the current market. It can be indeed challenging for a company to decide the price tag on any item.

Your pricing strategy is crucial and needs to be worked out efficiently as it will affect your customers. The profit margins, payment methods and other costs need to be identified properly to thrive in this marketplace.

Since the market does keep changing, you might have to lower your price or even raise your price accordingly to be in the market with your other competitors. In fact it has been found that companies also at times change their terms and conditions. Others apply a strategy of combining special promotions or even giving out freebies which might cost them pennies but to the customer it appears to be an attractive preposition.

Promotion

Promotion is something every marketer needs to lay emphasis on as it includes all the different methods and ways you can let your customer know about your products and services while using various methods of selling it to them.

It becomes imperative for companies to keep on experimenting and trying out new methods of doing advertising and selling the products and services. The fact is that if the method you are using today is bringing results, it might stop working tomorrow.

Ultimately you will have to be innovative and develop new advertising approaches and strategies. In fact, at the end of the day promotion is an awesome way to win trust of your customers as well as potential customers so that they give you priority over other products available in the buzzing market.

Your method of promotional tactics affect the way your customers perceive your product and these must portray a consistent message across while focusing on the benefits they get. At times small changes in the advertising methods lead to a boom in the sales which is fantastic, so a long term planning your promotions required which will pave the way for evolving your products over time.

Place

The fourth P is the place where the product or service is sold manufactured or distributed. It also refers to all the distribution methods used to bring products to the market. A product can be sold at umpteen places such as through catalogs, telemarketing or as simple as personally interacting and talking and in other cases it could be a combination of two or more methods.

With the advent of digital revolution, customers globally can also access your products which is phenomenal. Therefore it is vital for the owner to make the right decision about the place where the customer is being provided essential info about the products.

The vital questions which as marketer you have to ask yourself are – Will my product be more successful selling in my country or somewhere outside it? Will online selling or brick and mortar stores or a combination be more apt as per the nature of my product? Which are the locations required for distribution of my product?

All this is an important part of your marketing strategy as the product’s availability and distribution should be at a location convenient to your customer. Which will be the prime locations where your product will be offered? All these are note-worthy and thought provoking questions which a marketer need to think upon.

People

 

The next P of the marketing mix refers to the People who are selling your product which sure is quite significant as they will be the ones who are the point of contact for your customers. In fact they can also be called the backbone of this marketing mix. It is vital that the people who are selling your products have been adequately trained to do that.

To determine the target audience is most crucial for your campaign as that will decide all the people for whom your products are designed for. They are ones who will determine the success or failure of the product line. All this entails the fact that your decisions pertaining to recruit and hire the right people on-board with proper skills to do the job is extremely important and cannot be emphasized enough.

Thinking and training correct decisions determining which person will perform what duties and tasks also becomes critical in a marketing campaign. Having it all jotted down in theoretical terms and not getting enough capable people to execute the task has placed companies in jeopardy.

An exceptional quality customer service creates a long lasting impression in the customer’s mind which in turn helps to retain your product advocates in the long run! The bottom line therefore remains the significance of giving your business a competitive advantage by hiring and retaining capable staff personnel in order to provide the best possible service to your audience.

Process

Process is the procedure involved in order to deliver your product or services to the customers you are trying to reach. There are a zillion steps between the product and the consumer which constitutes the entire process. If you have an efficient process in place in your business, things become much more easier as it ensures that you will be able to ensure quality service to your customers repeatedly. This will also enable you to save on your time and increase efficiency at the same time.

In fact, you should start asking yourself questions that – Is the process being used by you at present increasing your ability for producing revenue or not and all the different ways you can improve upon it. In fact, the process cannot be perfect till you subject it to various trials and errors and analyze your shortcomings while rectifying all of that to achieve long term efficiency.

All in all, the service provider needs to clearly demarcate the process and this should ensure quality product, should be able to generate revenue and deliver the same level of service delivery to each and every customer at all times of the day thus increasing their efficiency.

Physical Evidence

Physical evidence is literally everything all your customers are able to see while they interact with your business, including the branding, packaging and the environment or physical layout where your product or services are available. This direct experience allows a customer to perceive whether he has receive value or not. It also includes the way your staff personnel present themselves or dress.

Keeping the premises neat and tidy all ultimately leads to the way your present your brand and this will ultimately determine the way your brand is positioned in the market. This all ties into how you promote your brand, and how you promote it will determine how you are perceived in the market place.

An amicable environment does make a lot of difference as it provides customers the motivation to return using your products.  Your signage, fixtures and so forth also fall into this category. In fact another great way to overcome uncertainty from the minds of your customers is to provide them with good case studies or testimonials.

This will make a huge difference as customers are assured that an organization keeps its promises for these are opinions expressed by people who are not a part of the business and do not come from within the company. In fact, probably one of the easiest ways to explain the concept of “physical evidence” with respect to the marketing mix is its proof to exist as a brand. Also, in the service industry it is vital to note that there is no physical evidence of the service being delivered. 

Conclusion

This lets us to conclude that the 7 Ps are the most popular and widely recognized concept. Put together, they are the key to your success. Just as the original marketing mix which had 4 Ps evolved with time and changed into 7 Ps, similarly companies surely require to adjust their strategies within the marketing mix for increasing their productivity, while focusing on customer-centric marketing policies. 

If you are a small business owner, take a look at the video for an array of free marketing tools to promote your business: