The 4Ps of marketing, also known as the marketing mix, were first introduced by marketer E. Jerome McCarthy in the 1960s. They represent four core elements that businesses should consider when developing their marketing strategies. The 4Ps include: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. The 7Ps is an integration of the 4Ps, adding an additional layer comprised of: People, Process and Physical Evidence.
Thus the 4Ps comprises:
Product: This element focuses on the tangible goods or intangible services that a business offers to meet the needs and wants of its target market.
Price: Price refers to the amount of money customers are willing to pay for a product or service. It is a critical factor in influencing purchasing decisions.
Place: Place, also known as distribution, involves determining how and where customers can access the product or service. It encompasses the distribution channels and locations where products are made available.
Promotion: Promotion includes all the marketing activities a business undertakes to communicate the value of its products or services to the target audience. This includes advertising, public relations, sales promotions, and more.
And the 7Ps adds in a layer for:
People: People refer to the individuals involved in delivering and receiving a service. This includes employees, customer service representatives, and customers themselves.
Process: Process involves the procedures, systems, and methods used to deliver a service. It focuses on ensuring a smooth and efficient customer experience.
Physical Evidence: Physical evidence relates to the tangible elements that represent a service. It includes everything from the physical environment (e.g., a hotel lobby) to digital touchpoints (e.g., a user-friendly website).
The 4Ps serve as a foundational framework for businesses to create and execute their marketing strategies effectively. Each element plays a unique role:
Product: It is about understanding customer needs and preferences and developing products or services that offer solutions or fulfill desires.
Price: Pricing directly impacts revenue and profitability. It is a key factor influencing consumers’ decisions to purchase.
Place: Effective distribution ensures that products or services are available where and when customers want them.
Promotion: Promotion builds brand recognition, creates awareness, and persuades customers to choose a product or service over competitors.
Strategies for Implementing the 4Ps
1. Product
Product Development: Invest in research and development to create innovative and high-quality products.
Product Design: Pay attention to product design and aesthetics to enhance appeal.
Product Features: Highlight unique features and benefits that differentiate your product from competitors.
Product Packaging: Design packaging that communicates the product’s value and brand identity.
Product Lifecycle Management: Monitor the product’s lifecycle and make necessary adjustments.
2. Price
Pricing Strategies: Choose a pricing strategy that aligns with your business goals, such as cost-plus pricing or value-based pricing.
Discounts and Promotions: Offer discounts, promotions, and bundles to attract price-sensitive customers.
Psychological Pricing: Use pricing tactics, such as ending prices with .99 or .95, to make prices appear more appealing.
Dynamic Pricing: Consider dynamic pricing, where prices change based on factors like demand or time of day.
Price Transparency: Be transparent about pricing to build trust with customers.
3. Place
Channel Selection: Choose the most appropriate distribution channels, whether through physical stores, e-commerce, wholesalers, or distributors.
Location Strategy: Determine optimal physical and online locations based on customer demographics and behavior.
Supply Chain Management: Ensure an efficient supply chain to meet customer demand and reduce lead times.
Inventory Management: Maintain adequate inventory levels to prevent stockouts or overstocking.
4. Promotion
Advertising: Develop advertising campaigns that communicate product benefits and resonate with the target audience.
Public Relations: Utilize public relations efforts to manage your brand’s image and handle crises effectively.
Sales Promotions: Run promotions, contests, or giveaways to incentivize purchases and create urgency.
Content Marketing: Create valuable and relevant content that educates, entertains, or solves problems for your audience.
Social Media Marketing: Leverage social media platforms to engage with customers, share content, and build a community.
Real-World Example: Apple
Apple is renowned for its product-centric approach. Products like the iPhone and MacBook are designed with cutting-edge technology and sleek aesthetics. The emphasis on product quality and innovation has helped Apple build a loyal customer base.
Introduction to the 7Ps of Marketing
While the 4Ps provide a solid foundation for marketing strategies, the 7Ps of marketing expand upon this framework, especially in the context of services marketing. The additional three Ps are:
People: People refer to the individuals involved in delivering and receiving a service. This includes employees, customer service representatives, and customers themselves.
Process: Process involves the procedures, systems, and methods used to deliver a service. It focuses on ensuring a smooth and efficient customer experience.
Physical Evidence: Physical evidence relates to the tangible elements that represent a service. It includes everything from the physical environment (e.g., a hotel lobby) to digital touchpoints (e.g., a user-friendly website).
Significance of the 7Ps
The 7Ps of marketing are particularly valuable in service-oriented industries where the intangible nature of services presents unique challenges. Here’s why each of the additional Ps is significant:
People: The behavior and interactions of service providers can greatly impact a customer’s perception of a service. Well-trained and customer-focused employees are essential.
Process: A well-defined and efficient process ensures consistency and reliability in service delivery. It minimizes errors and enhances the overall customer experience.
Physical Evidence: Tangible elements provide reassurance and credibility to customers. They help in setting expectations and building trust in service quality.
Strategies for Implementing the 7Ps
5. People
Training and Development: Invest in training to equip employees with the skills and knowledge necessary to deliver exceptional service.
Customer-Centric Culture: Foster a culture that prioritizes customer satisfaction and empowers employees to exceed customer expectations.
Hiring and Selection: Carefully select employees who align with your brand’s values and can effectively engage with customers.
Feedback and Improvement: Gather feedback from customers and employees to continually improve service interactions.
6. Process
Standard Operating Procedures: Develop and document standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure consistency in service delivery.
Automation and Technology: Utilize technology to streamline processes and reduce manual errors.
Quality Assurance: Implement quality control measures to monitor and improve the service process.
Customer Journey Mapping: Map the customer journey to identify pain points and areas for process enhancement.
7. Physical Evidence
Physical Environment: Invest in creating an inviting and comfortable physical environment for customers.
Branding and Packaging: Design branding elements and packaging that convey professionalism and trustworthiness.
Digital Presence: Optimize digital touchpoints, such as websites and mobile apps, for a user-friendly experience.
Customer Testimonials: Showcase customer testimonials and success stories as evidence of your service quality.
Real-World Example: Hilton Hotels & Resorts
Hilton, a global hospitality company, effectively incorporates the 7Ps into its marketingstrategy. Beyond providing luxurious accommodations (Product), Hilton focuses on well-trained staff (People), streamlined check-in processes (Process), and well-designed hotel lobbies and rooms (Physical Evidence) to create exceptional guest experiences.
Conclusion: Choosing Between the 4Ps and 7Ps
Both the 4Ps and 7Ps of marketing offer valuable frameworks for planning and executing marketing strategies. The choice between the two depends on your business’s nature and industry. For product-based businesses, the 4Ps often suffice, while service-based businesses benefit from the added dimensions of the 7Ps.
Related Frameworks
Description
When to Apply
7 Ps of Marketing
– An expanded marketing mix framework that includes additional elements beyond the traditional 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). The 7 Ps of Marketing framework includes People, Processes, and Physical Evidence, recognizing the importance of service marketing and customer experience.
– When developing marketing strategies for service-based businesses or experiences. – Applying the 7 Ps of Marketing framework to address the unique challenges of service marketing, emphasizing the additional elements of people, processes, and physical evidence in designing customer-centric experiences and enhancing service quality.
Extended Marketing Mix (7 Ps)
– An extension of the traditional marketing mix to accommodate services and service-based businesses. The Extended Marketing Mix adds three additional Ps: People, Process, and Physical Evidence, to the original 4 Ps framework.
– When marketing intangible services or experiences. – Utilizing the Extended Marketing Mix framework to consider additional elements such as people, processes, and physical evidence in service marketing strategies, ensuring alignment with customer needs and expectations.
4 Cs of Marketing
– A customer-centric marketing framework that reframes the traditional 4 Ps from the perspective of the customer. The 4 Cs of Marketing are Customer Needs and Wants, Cost to the Customer, Convenience, and Communication.
– When adopting a customer-focused approach to marketing. – Applying the 4 Cs of Marketing framework to understand and address customer needs, preferences, and concerns, emphasizing value creation, accessibility, and effective communication in marketing strategies.
4 As of Marketing
– A modern marketing framework that updates the traditional 4 Ps to reflect the digital age and consumer behavior trends. The 4 As of Marketing are Acceptability, Affordability, Accessibility, and Awareness.
– When developing marketing strategies for digital channels or online platforms. – Incorporating the 4 As of Marketing framework to prioritize factors such as acceptability, affordability, accessibility, and awareness in digital marketing strategies, adapting to evolving consumer behaviors and preferences.
STP Marketing
– A strategic approach to segmentation, targeting, and positioning in marketing. STP Marketing involves identifying market segments, selecting target segments, and positioning products or services to appeal to specific customer groups.
– When segmenting markets and targeting customers effectively. – Implementing STP Marketing strategies to analyze market segments, identify target audiences, and position offerings based on customer needs and preferences, maximizing relevance and appeal in marketing efforts.
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
– A strategic approach to aligning and coordinating marketing communications across multiple channels and touchpoints. Integrated Marketing Communications aims to deliver consistent and coherent messages to target audiences.
– When coordinating promotional activities and messaging. – Adopting Integrated Marketing Communications strategies to ensure consistency and synergy across various marketing channels and communication efforts, maximizing impact and effectiveness in reaching target audiences.
Digital Marketing Mix
– A variation of the traditional marketing mix adapted specifically for digital channels and online platforms. The Digital Marketing Mix includes elements such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, and Email Marketing.
– When developing marketing strategies for online channels and platforms. – Utilizing the Digital Marketing Mix framework to leverage digital channels and tools effectively, optimizing strategies for search visibility, social engagement, content distribution, and email communication to reach and engage target audiences online.
Relationship Marketing
– A marketing approach that focuses on building long-term relationships and customer loyalty through personalized interactions and ongoing engagement. Relationship Marketing emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction.
– When nurturing customer relationships and loyalty. – Implementing Relationship Marketing strategies to cultivate ongoing relationships with customers, deliver personalized experiences, and foster loyalty and advocacy through trust, satisfaction, and engagement.
Content Marketing Strategy
– A strategic approach to creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage target audiences. Content Marketing Strategy aims to build brand awareness, credibility, and affinity over time.
– When establishing thought leadership and brand authority. – Developing a Content Marketing Strategy to produce and distribute valuable content that educates, entertains, or inspires target audiences, positioning the brand as a trusted resource and industry leader, fostering engagement and loyalty.
Inbound Marketing
– A customer-centric marketing methodology that focuses on attracting, engaging, and delighting prospects and customers through relevant and helpful content and interactions. Inbound Marketing aims to earn the attention of potential customers rather than interrupting them.
– When generating leads and nurturing customer relationships. – Embracing Inbound Marketing methodologies to attract qualified leads, engage prospects through relevant content and interactions, and delight customers with personalized experiences, fostering trust, loyalty, and advocacy over time.
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy where the marketing and sales departments come together to create personalized buying experiences for high-value accounts. Account-based marketing is a business-to-business (B2B) approach in which marketing and sales teams work together to target high-value accounts and turn them into customers.
Ad Ops – also known as Digital Ad Operations – refers to systems and processes that support digital advertisements’ delivery and management. The concept describes any process that helps a marketing team manage, run, or optimize ad campaigns, making them an integrating part of the business operations.
Venture capitalist, Dave McClure, coined the acronym AARRR which is a simplified model that enables to understand what metrics and channels to look at, at each stage for the users’ path toward becoming customers and referrers of a brand.
Affinity marketing involves a partnership between two or more businesses to sell more products. Note that this is a mutually beneficial arrangement where one brand can extend its reach and enhance its credibility in association with the other.
As the name suggests, ambush marketing raises awareness for brands at events in a covert and unexpected fashion. Ambush marketing takes many forms, one common element, the brand advertising their products or services has not paid for the right to do so. Thus, the business doing the ambushing attempts to capitalize on the efforts made by the business sponsoring the event.
Affiliate marketing describes the process whereby an affiliate earns a commission for selling the products of another person or company. Here, the affiliate is simply an individual who is motivated to promote a particular product through incentivization. The business whose product is being promoted will gain in terms of sales and marketing from affiliates.
The bullseye framework is a simple method that enables you to prioritize the marketing channels that will make your company gain traction. The main logic of the bullseye framework is to find the marketing channels that work and prioritize them.
Brand building is the set of activities that help companies to build an identity that can be recognized by its audience. Thus, it works as a mechanism of identification through core values that signal trust and that help build long-term relationships between the brand and its key stakeholders.
According to inbound marketing platform HubSpot, brand dilution occurs “when a company’s brand equity diminishes due to an unsuccessful brand extension, which is a new product the company develops in an industry that they don’t have any market share in.” Brand dilution, therefore, occurs when a brand decreases in value after the company releases a product that does not align with its vision, mission, or skillset.
The brand essence wheel is a templated approach businesses can use to better understand their brand. The brand essence wheel has obvious implications for external brand strategy. However, it is equally important in simplifying brand strategy for employees without a strong marketing background. Although many variations of the brand essence wheel exist, a comprehensive wheel incorporates information from five categories: attributes, benefits, values, personality, brand essence.
The brand equity is the premium that a customer is willing to pay for a product that has all the objective characteristics of existing alternatives, thus, making it different in terms of perception. The premium on seemingly equal products and quality is attributable to its brand equity.
Brand positioning is about creating a mental real estate in the mind of the target market. If successful, brand positioning allows a business to gain a competitive advantage. And it also works as a switching cost in favor of the brand. Consumers recognizing a brand might be less prone to switch to another brand.
Business storytelling is a critical part of developing a business model. Indeed, the way you frame the story of your organization will influence its brand in the long-term. That’s because your brand story is tied to your brand identity, and it enables people to identify with a company.
Content marketing is one of the most powerful commercial activities which focuses on leveraging content production (text, audio, video, or other formats) to attract a targeted audience. Content marketing focuses on building a strong brand, but also to convert part of that targeted audience into potential customers.
One of the first mentions of customer lifetime value was in the 1988 book Database Marketing: Strategy and Implementation written by Robert Shaw and Merlin Stone. Customer lifetime value (CLV) represents the value of a customer to a company over a period of time. It represents a critical business metric, especially for SaaS or recurring revenue-based businesses.
Customer segmentation is a marketing method that divides the customers in sub-groups, that share similar characteristics. Thus, product, marketing and engineering teams can center the strategy from go-to-market to product development and communication around each sub-group. Customer segments can be broken down is several ways, such as demographics, geography, psychographics and more.
Developer marketing encompasses tactics designed to grow awareness and adopt software tools, solutions, and SaaS platforms. Developer marketing has become the standard among software companies with a platform component, where developers can build applications on top of the core software or open software. Therefore, engaging developer communities has become a key element of marketing for many digital businesses.
A digital channel is a marketing channel, part of a distribution strategy, helping an organization to reach its potential customers via electronic means. There are several digital marketing channels, usually divided into organic and paid channels. Some organic channels are SEO, SMO, email marketing. And some paid channels comprise SEM, SMM, and display advertising.
Field marketing is a general term that encompasses face-to-face marketing activities carried out in the field. These activities may include street promotions, conferences, sales, and various forms of experiential marketing. Field marketing, therefore, refers to any marketing activity that is performed in the field.
interaction with a brand until they become a paid customer and beyond.
Funnel marketing is modeled after the marketing funnel, a concept that tells the company how it should market to consumers based on their position in the funnel itself. The notion of a customer embarking on a journey when interacting with a brand was first proposed by Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898.
Funnel marketing typically considers three stages of a non-linear marketing funnel. These are top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU). Particular marketing strategies at each stage are adapted to the level of familiarity the consumer has with a brand.
A go-to-market strategy represents how companies market their new products to reach target customers in a scalable and repeatable way. It starts with how new products/services get developed to how these organizations target potential customers (via sales and marketing models) to enable their value proposition to be delivered to create a competitive advantage.
The term “greenwashing” was first coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 at a time when most consumers received their news from television, radio, and print media. Some companies took advantage of limited public access to information by portraying themselves as environmental stewards – even when their actions proved otherwise. Greenwashing is a deceptive marketing practice where a company makes unsubstantiated claims about an environmentally-friendly product or service.
Grassroots marketing involves a brand creating highly targeted content for a particular niche or audience. When an organization engages in grassroots marketing, it focuses on a small group of people with the hope that its marketing message is shared with a progressively larger audience.
Growth marketing is a process of rapid experimentation, which in a way has to be “scientific” by keeping in mind that it is used by startups to grow, quickly. Thus, the “scientific” here is not meant in the academic sense. Growth marketing is expected to unlock growth, quickly and with an often limited budget.
Guerrilla marketing is an advertising strategy that seeks to utilize low-cost and sometimes unconventional tactics that are high impact. First coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book of the same title, guerrilla marketing works best on existing customers who are familiar with a brand or product and its particular characteristics.
Hunger marketing is a marketing strategy focused on manipulating consumer emotions. By bringing products to market with an attractive price point and restricted supply, consumers have a stronger desire to make a purchase.
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is an approach used by businesses to coordinate and brand their communication strategies. Integrated marketing communication takes separate marketing functions and combines them into one, interconnected approach with a core brand message that is consistent across various channels. These encompass owned, earned, and paid media. Integrated marketing communication has been used to great effect by companies such as Snapchat, Snickers, and Domino’s.
Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy designed to attract customers to a brand with content and experiences that they derive value from. Inbound marketing utilizes blogs, events, SEO, and social media to create brand awareness and attract targeted consumers. By attracting or “drawing in” a targeted audience, inbound marketing differs from outbound marketing which actively pushes a brand onto consumers who may have no interest in what is being offered.
Integrated marketing describes the process of delivering consistent and relevant content to a target audience across all marketing channels. It is a cohesive, unified, and immersive marketing strategy that is cost-effective and relies on brand identity and storytelling to amplify the brand to a wider and wider audience.
The marketing mix is a term to describe the multi-faceted approach to a complete and effective marketing plan. Traditionally, this plan included the four Ps of marketing: price, product, promotion, and place. But the exact makeup of a marketing mix has undergone various changes in response to new technologies and ways of thinking. Additions to the four Ps include physical evidence, people, process, and even politics.
Marketing myopia is the nearsighted focus on selling goods and services at the expense of consumer needs. Marketing myopia was coined by Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt in 1960. Originally, Levitt described the concept in the context of organizations in high-growth industries that become complacent in their belief that such industries never fail.
Marketing personas give businesses a general overview of key segments of their target audience and how these segments interact with their brand. Marketing personas are based on the data of an ideal, fictional customer whose characteristics, needs, and motivations are representative of a broader market segment.
Meme marketing is any marketing strategy that uses memes to promote a brand. The term “meme” itself was popularized by author Richard Dawkins over 50 years later in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. In the book, Dawkins described how ideas evolved and were shared across different cultures. The internet has enabled this exchange to occur at an exponential rate, with the first modern memes emerging in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Microtargeting is a marketing strategy that utilizes consumer demographic data to identify the interests of a very specific group of individuals. Like most marketing strategies, the goal of microtargeting is to positively influence consumer behavior.
Multichannel marketing executes a marketing strategy across multiple platforms to reach as many consumers as possible. Here, a platform may refer to product packaging, word-of-mouth advertising, mobile apps, email, websites, or promotional events, and all the other channels that can help amplify the brand to reach as many consumers as possible.
Multi-level marketing (MLM), otherwise known as network or referral marketing, is a strategy in which businesses sell their products through person-to-person sales. When consumers join MLM programs, they act as distributors. Distributors make money by selling the product directly to other consumers. They earn a small percentage of sales from those that they recruit to do the same – often referred to as their “downline”.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of the ability of a product or service to attract word-of-mouth advertising. NPS is a crucial part of any marketing strategy since attracting and then retaining customers means they are more likely to recommend a business to others.
Neuromarketing information is collected by measuring brain activity related to specific brain functions using sophisticated and expensive technology such as MRI machines. Some businesses also choose to make inferences of neurological responses by analyzing biometric and heart-rate data.
Neuromarketing is the domain of large companies with similarly large budgets or subsidies. These include Frito-Lay, Google, and The Weather Channel.
Newsjacking as a marketing strategy was popularised by David Meerman Scott in his book Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage. Newsjacking describes the practice of aligning a brand with a current event to generate media attention and increase brand exposure.
A microniche is a subset of potential customers within a niche. In the era of dominating digital super-platforms, identifying a microniche can kick off the strategy of digital businesses to prevent competition against large platforms. As the microniche becomes a niche, then a market, scale becomes an option.
We can define pull and push marketing from the perspective of the target audience or customers. In push marketing, as the name suggests, you’re promoting a product so that consumers can see it. In a pull strategy, consumers might look for your product or service drawn by its brand.
Real-time marketing is as exactly as it sounds. It involves in-the-moment marketing to customers across any channel based on how that customer is interacting with the brand.
Relationship marketing involves businesses and their brands forming long-term relationships with customers. The focus of relationship marketing is to increase customer loyalty and engagement through high-quality products and services. It differs from short-term processes focused solely on customer acquisition and individual sales.
Reverse marketing describes any marketing strategy that encourages consumers to seek out a product or company on their own. This approach differs from a traditional marketing strategy where marketers seek out the consumer.
Remarketing involves the creation of personalized and targeted ads for consumers who have already visited a company’s website. The process works in this way: as users visit a brand’s website, they are tagged with cookies that follow the users, and as they land on advertising platforms where retargeting is an option (like social media platforms) they get served ads based on their navigation.
Sensory marketing describes any marketing campaign designed to appeal to the five human senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are enabling marketers to design fun, interactive, and immersive sensory marketing brand experiences. Long term, businesses must develop sensory marketing campaigns that are relevant and effective in eCommerce.
Services marketing originated as a separate field of study during the 1980s. Researchers realized that the unique characteristics of services required different marketing strategies to those used in the promotion of physical goods. Services marketing is a specialized branch of marketing that promotes the intangible benefits delivered by a company to create customer value.
Sustainable marketing describes how a business will invest in social and environmental initiatives as part of its marketing strategy. Also known as green marketing, it is often used to counteract public criticism around wastage, misleading advertising, and poor quality or unsafe products.
Word-of-mouth marketing is a marketing strategy skewed toward offering a great experience to existing customers and incentivizing them to share it with other potential customers. That is one of the most effective forms of marketing as it enables a company to gain traction based on existing customers’ referrals. When repeat customers become a key enabler for the brand this is one of the best organic and sustainable growth marketing strategies.
360 marketing is a marketing campaign that utilizes all available mediums, channels, and consumer touchpoints. 360 marketing requires the business to maintain a consistent presence across multiple online and offline channels. This ensures it does not miss potentially lucrative customer segments. By its very nature, 360 marketing describes any number of different marketing strategies. However, a broad and holistic marketing strategy should incorporate a website, SEO, PPC, email marketing, social media, public relations, in-store relations, and traditional forms of advertising such as television.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
