7Ps in Marketing Mix – What are They? (Explained)

The 7Ps of Marketing Mix refer to the various elements that go into creating a successful campaign. Some of these elements include price, packaging, branding, product placement, and digital placement.

In this article we have explained the 7P’s in the marketing mix as well as show you why and how they are so important to be implemented in your business.

If you’re unsure of which elements to use and how to implement them for your startup, contact an experienced digital marketing agency, such as us, at WinSavvy. We’ll show you exactly how we shall implement the 7Ps for your startup and industry.

What are the 7Ps in Marketing Mix?

Marketing is the process of placing the right product or service in front of the right people at the right time. It involves all aspects of the business cycle, including product creation, distribution strategies, and sales. It also involves understanding customer needs and creating campaigns that communicate those needs. The 7Ps of marketing can be applied to many different types of business.

In today’s increasingly digital world, brand image has never been more important.

Consumers expect authenticity, and brands are scrutinised for their ethical practices. That means that PR is a vital tool in creating, maintaining, and changing a brand’s image.

Moreover, as technology advances, the workload of marketing professionals is increasing. To cope with this, marketers should automate processes.

Marketing begins with choosing the right channels for discovery, followed by nurturing the prospective customer along the sales funnel. To achieve this, a brand must hire the right talent. For example, sales representatives handle the first human-to-human interactions with customers.

And, in all that chaos, the 7Ps in marketing provide for a framework to streamline any marketing campaigns used by startups. The 7Ps are product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence.

1st of 7P’s in Marketing Mix – Product

The first of seven P’s of marketing, the Product, is critical to a successful marketing campaign. Product marketing is closely related to the brand story and should focus on benefits and USPs that target customers will find useful.

Product marketing should also focus on differentiating versions and variants. A product can be the most complex aspect of a marketing campaign, but there are a few guidelines that can help a business succeed.

Today, consumers want authentic experiences and are more demanding of brands. This means that brand image is more fragile than ever. This makes PR a key tool in building, maintaining, and changing a brand’s image. As technology advances, the role of PR is increasing, and automation is crucial to the process.

However, if your product is bad, no amount of PR or promotion (the 4^th P) can fix it. There’s that old saying – build a good product and people will come. Maybe that’s not all that true, as you definitely need to promote your product or service.

However, build a bad product and no customer is going to come.

How to Make an Amazing Product

The best way to go forward when creating a product or service is to use the lean startup methodology, that is –

Do a thorough market research. You can hire a market research analyst like us, at WinSavvy or you can use these market research tools that can help you do it yourself.
Create a proof of concept and test it,
Create a Minimum Viable Product and test it, (Read: What is a Minimum Viable Product?)
Create a Prototype and test it among your intended customers,
Fine-tune your prototype into a prototype, while avoiding these design thinking mistakes.

2nd of 7P’s in Marketing Mix – Price

Price is a crucial element in marketing and can make or break the success of a product. Price is based on perceived value and is important for both consumer and business decisions.

How to Set the Right Price for Acing the Second P of the 7Ps in Marketing

While product pricing seems logical, it is a complex process. However, if you are a startup, make sure you are never competing on price. It is a sure-loss formula that will sabotage your startup. Instead, what you should do, is focus on creating as much value as possible, differentiate yourself, using a definitive marketing strategy and charge a premium for your product or service.

Remember: Never compete on price. Otherwise, you create a very easy ground for a larger competitor or upcoming competitor (potential competitors can be analyzed using the Porter’s Five Forces Model or PESTLE analysis of your business plan.)

3rd of 7P’s in Marketing Mix – Place

The 3rd of the 7P’s of marketing focuses on place. This is the physical or digital location of the product or service, the way it is delivered to its intended market, and how it is promoted.

There are several ways to distribute products and services, from physical stores to websites and television shows.

Framework for Getting the Best Place in Front of Your Customers

A simple framework for acing the place segment in your marketing mix is by ensuring you follow the 3P rules of marketing, which are –

People,
Personalization, and
Permission

Gone are the days, when you bombard your product in front of every random person under the son. Now, you have to make use of data and data analytic tools to make sure your product reaches the right person at the right time. There are several CRO software that can help you do just that.

A great way to do this, is by using permission marketing coupled with content amplification to generate leads. That helps you combine the best parts of traditional product/ service placement along with the new-age digital permission marketing.

4th of 7P’s in Marketing Mix – Promotion

While the other P’s may be more traditional and passive, promotion allows for more creativity in marketing. Promotion involves communicating directly to potential customers.

Public relations, advertising, digital marketing and social media marketing are all examples of promotion. In order to get the most out of promotion, it is important to understand brand identity and differentiation.

You can try to achieve that by getting prominent media mentions (use HARO!) or hire an SEO agency to help grow your online reputation.

Promotion involves all marketing, advertising, and sales activities. The choice of marketing channels depends on the type of business. For example, a B2B company may prefer account-based marketing to get leads, while a B2C company may focus on direct marketing.

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However, no matter the type of business, marketers need to be present where their target audiences are.

The concept of the marketing mix has evolved over time. Originally, the 4Ps model focused only on products and services. Later, the 3Ps were added to the mix, resulting in the 7Ps. While the 4Ps model was widely used in the business world, it is now outdated, particularly for small enterprises selling standard products.

While the 4Ps model is useful in many cases, it is not ideal for internationalization. A more useful approach would be the 7Ps model.

The 4P’s of marketing are still very relevant in today’s world, and they should be part of a marketing plan. It’s critical for a business to think about what consumers want, provide it at a fair price, and distribute it in an accessible location.

The principles of marketing have not changed since the 4P’s were first put forth, but new forms of marketing have been introduced.

5th of 7P’s of Marketing – People

Marketing is a process of connecting with people and getting them to take an action.

By connecting with people, companies can create brand loyalty and promote ethical business practices. In today’s age of information and technology, consumers are demanding more from brands and are more aware of their ethical practices.

As such, brand image is more fragile than ever.

How to Connect with People as Part of the 7Ps in Your Marketing Campaign

This makes PR an invaluable tool for building, maintaining and changing brand image. Marketing has also evolved from a traditional approach to digital channels, requiring the integration of automation and technology.

Traditional marketing concepts focus on physical evidence, product, price and process, but there are differences between products and services.

While a product is sold to a customer, a service is an intangible and must be tested by the customer before they choose it. In addition, the service must be customized to the needs of the customer.

People are the most important component of marketing. Consumers will choose a brand based on how they feel about it. In other words, they want to be confident about the company they’re dealing with. Therefore, the physical evidence of a brand must fit with the brand story and values.

This is also a place where most marketers may make mistakes. This is a place where marketing myopia often sets in.

Also customer service is a make or break factor, when it comes to the 5^th P in the Marketing Mix. That’s why always try to ensure your customers get exceptional customer service. That creates strong word-of-mouth branding and helps improve your inbound marketing results.

Related Reads: How to Perfect Your Outbound Prospecting Strategy and Best Prospecting Tools to Jump Your Sales Growth

6th of 7P’s of Marketing Mix – Process

The process is the sixth part of the seven Ps of marketing. It’s the part of marketing that no one ever talks about, but it’s probably the most important. It is heavily inter-related with all the 7 functions of marketing.

Process also involves the way a product is manufactured and sold. Streamlining the production and selling process can lead to more product sales.

However, the process must also align with the brand’s values. For example, an ethical clothing brand may use sustainable and environmentally friendly methods for their production.

In order to be successful in any business, you must have a plan for how you’re going to get your product or service into the hands of your customers.

The process is the key to success because it allows you to:

Understand what needs to be done.
Decide how you’re going to do it.
Set goals and benchmarks for measuring progress towards those goals.
Communicate with stakeholders (the people affected by your decisions).

As a result, it is heavily connected with the business strategy of your startup.

The process needs to be simple enough that anyone can follow it, but also detailed enough that you can track each step along the way and make adjustments as necessary.

7th of 7P’s of Marketing – Physical evidence

One of the most important aspects of customer satisfaction is the physical evidence that a customer has experienced a service or product.

This can be both physical and digital, and can confirm that a customer has received a positive experience with a company. It can also be in the form of reviews, which can be used to build trust in a brand.

Physical evidence is important because it gives customers peace of mind about the purchase they’ll make. . This can be particularly useful for new customers who are paying before receiving the service.

This can be in the form of a product’s packaging, receipts, or contact experience. This evidence can even be in the form of a website, staff uniforms, menus, and online reviews. It can also be included in an agency’s website, such as case studies and testimonials.

Secondly, it’s important to consider the perception that customers have about the product in the marketplace. A consistent branding campaign can help consumers form a good opinion about a product. For example, when most people think about fast food, they often picture McDonald’s.

That’s because McDonald’s has been extremely successful in using physical evidence as part of their marketing mix strategy, which has resulted in making their brand extremely strong.

Wrapping Up on the 7P’s of Marketing Mix

The 7Ps marketing mix can be applied to a variety of channels, including online and multichannel businesses.

The 7Ps in marketing mix is one of the most reliable ways to help a business reach its intended market. The trick to using it effectively, though, is to make sure people notice you. Otherwise, your product will just mix in with the crowd and get lost among the other options that are readily available.

So, if you need help in implementing this core marketing concept for your brand / startup, let us know at adhip@winsavvy.com!