Marketing Mix & The 7 P’s Of Marketing

What is a marketing mix?

A marketing mix is a selection of marketing tools that include several areas of focus that can be combined to create a comprehensive plan. The term refers to a classification that began as the 4 Ps: product, price, placement, and promotion, and it has been expanded to Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Packaging, and Process.

What are the 7 Ps of Marketing?

The 4 P’s marketing mix concept (later known as the 7 P’s of marketing) was introduced by Jerome McCarthy in his book: "Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach." It refers to the thoughtfully designed blend of company strategies and practices to drive business and successful product promotion. Initially 4, these elements were Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, which were expanded by including People, Packaging, and Process. These are now considered to be the “7 P’s” mix elements.

It can be difficult for a small business owner or marketing manager to establish a unique selling proposition or reach the right customers, especially on new platforms like the internet, with digital marketing.

Fortunately, the 7 Ps of marketing gives you a framework to use in your marketing planning and an essential strategy to effectively promote to your target market.

You can also consider elements of the mix in your day-to-day marketing decision-making process to successfully attract the right audience to market through your marketing campaigns.

The seven elements of the marketing mix include the following:

1. Product (or Service)

Your customer only cares about what your product or service can do for them. Because of this, prioritize making your product the best it can be and optimize your product lines accordingly. This approach is called “product-led marketing.” In a marketing mix, product considerations involve every aspect of what you're trying to sell. This includes:

• Design
• Quality
• Features
• Options
• Packaging
• Market positioning

There are five components to successful product-led marketing that are important for product marketers to take into consideration:

• You can get out of the way. Let your product or service sell itself. You can focus your marketing efforts on getting consumers to try what you offer so they can learn its value for themselves.
• Be an expert (on your customers). Know your customer's needs and use that knowledge to help communicate your product's value.
• Always be helping. Position yourself as an ally by creating informative content that meets your target customers’ needs, and they'll be more likely to buy from you. (This is also called content marketing.)
• Share authentic stories. Encourage happy customers to share their experiences and tell others why they appreciate your brand.
• Grow a product mindset. Focus on your product before you consider how to sell it. Invest in development, and the product quality will care for the rest.

2. Price

Many factors go into a pricing model. Brands may:

• Price a product higher than competitors to create the impression of a higher-quality offering.
• Price a product similar to competitors, then draw attention to features or benefits other brands lack.
• Price a product lower than competitors to break into a crowded market or attract value-conscious consumers.
• Plan to raise the price after the brand is established or lower it to highlight the value of an updated model.
• Set the base price higher to make bundling or promotions more appealing.

Please look at what you're trying to achieve with your pricing strategy and how price will work with the rest of your marketing strategy. Some questions to ask yourself when selling products:

• Will you be offering higher-end versions at an additional cost?
• Do you need to cover costs immediately, or can you set a lower price and consider it an investment in growth?
• Will you offer sales promotions?
• How low can you go without people questioning your quality?
• How high can you go before customers think you’re overpriced?
• Are you perceived as a value brand or a premium brand?

3. Promotion

Promotion is the part of the marketing mix that the public notices most. It includes television and print advertising, content marketing, coupons or scheduled discounts, social media strategies, email marketing, display ads, digital strategies, marketing communication, search engine marketing, public relations, and more.

All these promotional channels tie the whole marketing mix into an omnichannel strategy that creates a unified experience for the customer base. For example:

• Customers see an in-store promotion and use their phones to check prices and read reviews.
• They view the brand's website, which focuses on a unique feature of the product.
• The brand has solicited reviews addressing that feature. Those reviews appear on high-ranking review sites.
• The customer buys the product, and you’ve sent a thank you email using marketing automation.

Here are the ways you can use these channels together:

• Could you ensure you know all the channels available and make the most of them to reach your target audience?
• Embrace the move toward personalized marketing.
• Please segment your promotional efforts based on your customers' behavior.
• You can test responses to different promotions and adjust your marketing spend accordingly.
• Remember that promotion isn't a one-way street. Customers want you to pay attention to their interests and offer them solutions when needed.

4. Place

Where will you sell your product? The same market research that informed your product and price decisions will also inform your placement, which goes beyond physical locations. Here are some considerations when it comes to place:

• Where will people be looking for your product?
• Will they need to hold it in their hands?
• Will you get more sales by marketing directly to customers from your e-commerce website, or will buyers be looking for you on third-party marketplaces?
• Do you want to converse directly with your customers as they purchase, or do you want a third party to solve customer service issues?

5. People

People refer to anyone who comes in contact with your customer, even indirectly, so ensure you're recruiting the best talent at all levels—not just in customer service and sales force.

Here’s what you can do to ensure your people are making the right impact on your customers:

• Develop your marketers’ skills so they can carry out your marketing mix strategy.
• Think about company culture and brand personality.
• Hire professionals to design and develop your products or services.
• Focus on customer relationship management, or CRM, which creates genuine connections and inspires loyalty on a personal level.

6. Packaging

A company's packaging catches the attention of new buyers in a crowded marketplace and reinforces value to returning customers. Here are some ways to make your packaging work harder for you:

• Design for differentiation. A good design helps people recognize your brand at a glance and can highlight particular product features. For example, if you’re a shampoo company, you can use different colors on the packaging to label different hair types.
• Could you provide valuable information? Your packaging is the perfect place for product education or brand reinforcement. Include clear instructions or an unexpected element to surprise and delight your customers.
• Add more value. Exceed expectations for your customers and give them well-designed, branded extras they can use, like a free toothbrush from their dentist, a free estimate from a roofer, or a free styling guide from their hairdresser.

7. Process

Prioritize processes that overlap with the customer experience. The more specific and seamless your processes are, the more smoothly your staff can carry them out. If your staff isn't focused on navigating procedures, they have more attention available for customers—translating directly to personal and exceptional customer experiences.

Some processes to consider:

• Are the logistics in your primary distribution channel cost-efficient?
• How are your scheduling and delivery logistics?
• Will your third-party retailers run out of products at critical times?
• Do you have enough staff to cover busy times?
• Do items ship reliably from your website?

If you get more than one customer complaint about any process, please find out what's going wrong and figure out how to fix it.

Marketing mix FAQs

Understanding the marketing mix and the 7 P’s can raise many questions. Below, we’ve answered frequently asked questions to help you identify and establish your marketing mix.

What is a marketing mix example?

An excellent example of the marketing mix might be a convenience store. In this instance, we might consider a chain of convenience outlets that provide a wide range of products, including fresh and packaged food, tools, household and kitchen items, novelties, magazines, etc.

• Product: Chiefly, foods and various items are located and packaged in a way that provides convenience and utility.
• Price: Pricing will be considered competitive with supermarkets, with some exceptions where convenience, novelty, and fun add unique appeal.
• Place: Locations should be amenable to the value proposition of convenience. As such, locations should be strategically positioned near residential areas, shopping centers, educational centers, etc.
• Promotion: Advertising will be primarily constrained to posted promotional material, the outlet buildings themselves, local social media pages, and so on.

Here, we will consider the customer experience as the opportunity to access simple food items, snacks, and a range of valuable products for home, recreation, and more.

Another example might be a streaming service. Here, our 4 P's are as follows:

• Product: Original quality entertainment and convenient viewing access.
• Price: Free trial offer, premium packages, and a commercial-free subscription level.
• Place: The subscriber's digital device.
• Promotion: Extended advertising across various channels and platforms, including high-value metropolitan billboards, magazines, and word of mouth.

Here, the customer experience is appealing, with long-form video content primarily in the form of popular TV, films, comedy specials, and more, with an emphasis on convenient home viewing.

What are the types of marketing mix?

In reality, there are as many marketing mixes as functioning businesses in the world. We could fit our model within one of the seven standard, established marketing mix types listed below to simplify things.

• Product Mix
• Product Progression and Product Life Cycle
• Market Coverage Mix (aka Positioning Mix)
• Service Mix
• Marketing Program Mix (or Promotional Mix)
• Channel Mix/Vertical Integration
• Global Marketing Mix (or International Marketing Mix)

As you can see, making a given company's value proposition and promotional needs fit into one of these categories might not work well. Our convenient store example might fit into the service mix since convenience is the primary value we would be offering. But our streaming service might also be called a "service mix” or even a "product mix."

In most cases, it is best to generate an original marketing mix that describes the marketing needs of a real-life organization.

What are the 4 P’s of marketing mix?

The 4 Ps are product, price, place, and promotion.

• Product: The product is an item or service for sale. For marketing purposes, we should consider who it is for and why they would want it. We should also consider and compare our offering to that of the competition.
• Price: This is the amount customers will be willing or required to pay. Often, making prices competitive is a significant challenge. In cases where prices cannot be lowered below the market benchmark, additional value may need to be added to the offer.
• Place: This is the location/s where the product or service can be accessed and where it is used. For a restaurant, location is everything. For a streaming service, it is the user's home or the location where they buy computer devices and services.
• Promotion: This describes how, where, and frequently advertising materials will be produced and where they appear. Our convenience store's promotional material is mainly on and in the store itself. With our streaming service, it would be in locations all over the web and any other appropriate location/media.

The takeaway

The marketing mix and the 7 P's of marketing guide drafting and creating an outreach campaign for any commercial enterprise. They are guidelines that help us cover all of our bases regarding brand outreach. It should be noted that branding considerations should be covered in the concepts covered by these promotional frameworks.

The elements of these guidelines work together to create a functional framework for a complete marketing plan.

Develop your marketing mix and integrate it into your marketing essentials. As you develop your marketing mix, consider how each element affects the rest to create a unified brand experience for your consumers, from the user experience to the perceived value of your product. Think about how a product's price changes its promotion strategy, how specifications will contribute to pricing, and how your people carry out processes. Ensure that your people and their tools can communicate with each other and use the right tools to reach the right people.