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7 Ps of Marketing and How They Apply to Your Marketing Mix Looking for picture perfect marketing formulas that will likely outlast and adapt to any trend? Read on.

By Brian Tracy • Apr 26, 2023

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

No matter what industry your business operates in, there is competition to outperform and ever-evolving trends to keep up with.

You must find a way to get your business to stand out. Whether you are trying to build a name for your business or maintain its stature, marketing is the key to getting people's attention and showing them what you can do.

Marketing strategies are roadmaps that allow your company to grow brand awareness and boost consumer engagement, relationships, and trust. It takes time, effort, and sometimes budget to build a marketing plan; however, it can pay huge dividends.

Once you've developed your marketing strategy, there is a "Seven P Formula" you should use to continually evaluate and reevaluate your business activities. The formula can help you create a system of checks and balances for physical evidence that your business is constantly evolving to ensure your marketing efforts reach your target audience .

With technology as an ever-evolving factor, updating your marketing campaigns to include more than just word of mouth is essential. Nowadays, you can use many distribution channels, like digital marketing, social media, and podcasts.

No matter which platforms you choose as your marketing tools, the seven Ps can serve as tried and true basic marketing tactics that you can adapt into your marketing efforts to best fit your business.

The 7 Ps of Marketing include:

• Positioning

Read on to learn more about the 7 Ps.

To begin with, develop the habit of looking at your product as though you were an outside marketing consultant brought in to help your company decide whether or not it's in the right business at this time. Ask critical questions such as, "Is your current product or service, or mix of products and services, appropriate and suitable for the market and the customers of today? Is this product offering any remedy to a customer's pain point?"

Whenever you're having difficulty selling as much of your products or services as you'd like, you need to develop the habit of assessing your business honestly and asking, "Are these the right products or services for our customers today?"

Is there any product or service you're offering today that, knowing what you now know, you would not bring out again today? Compared to your competitors, is your product or service superior in some significant way to anything else available? If so, what is it? If not, could you develop an area of superiority? Should you be offering this product or service at all in the current marketplace?

The second P in the formula is price. Develop the habit of continually examining and reexamining the pricing strategy of the products and services you sell to make sure they're still appropriate to the realities of the current market. Sometimes you need to lower your prices. At other times, it may be appropriate to raise your prices.

And other times, you need to research the competition to see what similar products in your industry space are going for, to ensure you are listing competitive pricing. Many companies have found that the profitability of certain new products or services doesn't justify the amount of effort and resources that go into producing them. By raising their prices, they may lose a percentage of their customers, but the remaining percentage generates a profit on every sale. Could this be appropriate for you?

Sometimes you need to change your terms and conditions of sale. Sometimes, by spreading your price over a series of months or years, you can sell far more than you are today, and the interest you can charge will more than make up for the delay in cash receipts. Sometimes you can combine products and services together with special offers and special promotions. Sometimes you can include free additional items that cost you very little to produce but make your product prices appear far more attractive to your customers.

In business, as in nature, whenever you experience resistance or frustration in any part of your sales or marketing plan, be open to revisiting that area. Be open to the possibility that your current pricing structure is not ideal for the current market. Be open to the need to revise your prices, if necessary, to remain competitive, to survive and thrive in a fast-changing marketplace.

Related: How to Create a Marketing Plan - Entrepreneur.com

3. Promotion

The third habit in marketing and sales is to think in terms of promotion all the time. Promotion includes all the ways you tell your target market about your products or services and how you then market and sell to them.

Small changes in the way you promote and sell your products based on segmentation can lead to dramatic changes and booms in your results. Even small changes in your advertising can lead immediately to higher sales. Experienced copywriters can often increase the response rate from advertising by 500 percent by simply changing the headline on an advertisement.

Large and small companies in every industry continually experiment with different ways of advertising, promoting, and selling their products and services. Right now? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) , is meant to improve the quality and quantity of traffic to a website.

But no matter what the favored method of the time, there is one tried and true rule. Whatever method of marketing and sales you're using today will, sooner or later, stop working. Sometimes it will stop working for reasons you know, and sometimes it will be for reasons you don't know. In either case, your methods of marketing and sales will eventually stop working, and you'll have to develop new sales, marketing and advertising approaches, offerings, and strategies.

While many might guess that email marketing and Facebook ads are today's most popular marketing activities, much of the market has already moved on to new methods.

The top five advertising techniques in 2022 include:

• Sound-free, short-form video ads.
• Advertising on mobile games.
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence.
• Collecting and advertising third-party data.
• LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

The fourth P in the extended marketing mix is the place where your product or service is actually sold. Develop the habit of reviewing and reflecting upon the exact physical location where the customer meets the salesperson. Sometimes a change in place can lead to a rapid increase in sales.

You can sell your product in many different places. Some companies use direct selling, sending their salespeople out to personally meet and talk with the prospect. Some sell by telemarketing. Some sell through catalogs or mail order. Some sell at trade shows or in retail establishments. Some sell in joint ventures with other similar products or services. Some companies use manufacturers' representatives or distributors. Many companies use a combination of one or more of these methods.

In each case, the entrepreneur must make the right choice about the very best location or place for the customer to receive essential buying information on the product or service needed to make a buying decision. What is yours? In what way should you change it? Where else could you offer your products or services?

5. Packaging

The fifth element of the marketing mix is the packaging. Develop the habit of standing back and looking at every visual element in the packaging of your physical product or service through the eyes of a critical prospect. Remember, people form their first impression about you within the first 30 seconds of seeing you or some element of your company. Small improvements in the packaging or external appearance of your product or service can often lead to completely different reactions from your customers.

With regard to the packaging of your company, your product or service, you should think in terms of everything customer experience —what they see from the first moment of contact with your company through the purchasing process. Consider branded packaging to make an impactful first impression.

If your customer begins experiencing your brand with an eye-catching design, they are more likely to remember that experience with fond associations. Including your business logo and social media handles is another great addition to custom packaging that can invite customers to engage with your brand and promote repeat interactions.

Packaging refers to the way your product or service appears from the outside. Packaging also refers to your people and how they dress and groom. It refers to your offices, your waiting rooms, your brochures, your correspondence and every single visual element about your company. Everything counts. Everything helps or hurts. Everything affects your customer's confidence about dealing with you.

When IBM started under the guidance of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., he very early concluded that fully 99 percent of the visual contact a customer would have with his company, at least initially, would be represented by IBM salespeople. Because IBM was selling relatively sophisticated high-tech equipment, Watson knew customers would have to have a high level of confidence in the credibility of the salesperson. He therefore instituted a dress and grooming code that became an inflexible set of rules and regulations within IBM.

As a result, every salesperson was required to look like a professional in every respect. Every element of their clothing-including dark suits, dark ties, white shirts, conservative hairstyles, shined shoes, clean fingernails-and every other feature gave off the message of professionalism and competence. One of the highest compliments a person could receive was, "You look like someone from IBM."

6. Positioning

The next P is positioning. You should develop the habit of thinking continually about how you are positioned in the hearts and minds of your customers. How do people think and talk about you when you're not present? How do people think and talk about your company? What positioning do you have in your market, in terms of the specific words people use when they describe you and your offerings to others?

In the famous book by Al Reis and Jack Trout, Positioning , the authors point out that how you are seen and thought about by your customers is the critical determinant of your success in a competitive marketplace. Attribution theory says that most customers think of you in terms of a single attribute, either positive or negative. Sometimes it's "service." Sometimes it's "excellence." Sometimes it's "quality engineering," as with Mercedes Benz. Sometimes it's "the ultimate driving machine," as with BMW. In every case, how deeply entrenched that attribute is in the minds of your customers and prospective customers determines how readily they'll buy your product or service and how much they'll pay.

Develop the habit of thinking about how you could improve your positioning. Begin by determining the position you'd like to have. If you could create the ideal impression in the hearts and minds of your customers, what would it be? What would you have to do in every customer interaction to get your customers to think and talk about in that specific way? What changes do you need to make in the way you interact with customers today in order to be seen as the very best choice for the customer needs of tomorrow?

The final P of the marketing mix is people. Develop the habit of thinking in terms of the people inside and outside of your business who are responsible for every element of your sales, marketing strategies, and activities.

It's amazing how many entrepreneurs and businesspeople will work extremely hard to think through every element of the marketing strategy and the marketing mix, and then pay little attention to the fact that every single decision and policy has to be carried out by a specific person, in a specific way. Your ability to select, recruit, hire and retain the proper people, with the skills and abilities to do the job you need to have done, is more important than everything else put together.

In his best-selling book, Good to Great , Jim Collins discovered the most important factor applied by the best companies was that they first of all "got the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus." Once these companies had hired the right people, the second step was to "get the right people in the right seats on the bus."

To be successful in business, you must develop the habit of thinking in terms of exactly who is going to carry out each task and responsibility. In many cases, it's not possible to move forward until you can attract and put the right person into the right position. Many of the best business plans ever developed sit on shelves today because the [people who created them] could not find the key people who could execute those plans.

Excerpted from Million Dollar Habits

The Ps of marketing

Marketing is essential whether you run an eCommerce business, a physical store, a small business, or a large corporation. While trends may evolve, the 7Ps of marketing will likely remain true and evolve with any new trend.

Remember, as products, markets, customers and needs change rapidly, you must continually revisit the seven Ps marketing model to ensure you're on track and achieving the maximum results possible for you in today's marketplace.

Looking for more marketing resources? Explore Entrepreneur's Marketing Hub here to help grow your business .

Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, Speaker and Author

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• Marketing Mix

Marketing Mix & The 7 P’s Of Marketing

The classic marketing mix, as established by Professor of Marketing at Harvard University, Prof. James Culliton in 1948 and expanded upon by Jerome McCarthy, incorporates Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion into a theory of marketing that has been important to the industry for more than 70 years. Since then, the theory has been expanded into the 7 P's of marketing. Which are: Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Packaging, and Process.

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Today, we refer to these interchangeably as the 7 P's or as the Marketing Mix. Here, we will discuss this concept, its components, and answer some common questions about the marketing mix and its applications.

What is a marketing mix?

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 P’s: product, price, placement, and promotion, and 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 strategies and practices a company uses to drive business and successful product promotion. Initially 4, these elements were Product, Price, Place and Promotion, which were later 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 know how to establish a unique selling proposition or to reach the right customers, especially on new platforms like the internet, with digital marketing.

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

You can also take into consideration elements of the mix in your day to day marketing decision making process with the goal to attract the right audience to successfully market to through your marketing campaigns.

The 7 elements of the marketing mix include the following:

1. Product (or Service)

Your customer only cares about one thing: 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:

• Market positioning

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

• Get out of the way. Let your product or service sell itself . Focus your marketing efforts on getting consumers to try what you have to 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 take care of the rest.

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.

Consider 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 right away, 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 together into an omnichannel strategy that creates a unified experience for the customer base. For example:

• A customer sees an in-store promotion and uses their phone 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:

• Make sure you know all the channels available and make the most of them to reach your target audience.
• Embrace the move toward personalized marketing .
• Segment your promotional efforts based on your customers' behavior.
• Test responses to different promotions and adjust your marketing spend accordingly.
• Remember that promotion isn't a one-way street. Customers expect you to pay attention to their interests and offer them solutions when they need them.

Where will you sell your product? The same market research that informed your product and price decisions will inform your placement as well, 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 own 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?

People refers to anyone who comes in contact with your customer, even indirectly, so make sure 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 also highlight particular features of your product. For example, if you’re a shampoo company, you can use different colors on the packaging to label different hair types.
• 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.

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 main distribution channel cost-efficient?
• How are your scheduling and delivery logistics?
• Will your third-party retailers run out of product 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, pinpoint what's going wrong and figure out how to fix it.

Marketing mix FAQs

Understanding marketing mix and the 7 P’s can bring up a lot of questions. Below, we’ve answered some frequently asked questions to help you identify and establish your own marketing mix.

What is a marketing mix example?

A good 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 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 special 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 largely 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 useful 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 a range of channels and platforms, including high-value metropolitan billboards, magazines, and word of mouth.

Here, the customer experience is appealing, 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 types of marketing mixes as there are functioning businesses in the world. To make things simpler, we might try to make our model fit within one of 7 common, established marketing mix types as listed below.

• 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 P's 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 how frequently advertising materials will be produced and where they appear. With our convenience store, the promotional material is largely 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 are a guide to drafting and creating an outreach campaign for any given commercial enterprise. They are guidelines that help us cover all of our bases when it comes to brand outreach. It should be borne in mind that branding considerations are not covered in the concepts covered by these promotional frameworks.

The elements of these guidelines work together to create a functional framework for the creation of 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 the tools they use can communicate with each other, and use the right tools to reach the right people.

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Home Marketing Strategy The Marketing Mix: Building a Strategy With the 7Ps

The Marketing Mix: Building a Strategy With the 7Ps

“The marketing mix” aims to provide a complete framework for modern business models and marketing strategies across the entire customer journey.

While there are many variations of the marketing mix, the most common framework consists of seven elements, collectively known as the 7Ps. The idea is that a business can adopt the 7Ps principle and use it as a seven-step framework for building a successful marketing strategy that covers every stage of the buying process.

In this article, we look at how you can use the marketing mix to build a complete strategy, plus a few tips for improving the 7Ps model.

What is the 7Ps model?

The 7Ps marketing model is a framework designed to help businesses build a complete marketing strategy, from start to finish. In theory, a new business should be able to use the 7Ps model to devise an entire marketing strategy from scratch.

The name derives from the seven elements outlined in the 7Ps model, which all begin with the letter “P”:

• Physical evidence

The 7Ps model is an evolution upon the 4Ps model originally founded by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960, in his book Marketing: A Managerial Approach . The original marketing mix concept was created during a time when the majority of businesses sold physical products and it was updated in the 1980s as more service-oriented businesses started to emerge.

The evolution from 4Ps to 7Ps

As mentioned in the previous section, Jerome McCarthy’s 4Ps model was created for businesses selling products to consumers.

As Smart Insights explains:

“The 4Ps were designed at a time where businesses were more likely to sell products, rather than services and the role of customer service in helping brand development wasn’t so well known.”

The original 4Ps included:

These same four elements still exist as the primary components of the 7Ps models. As business and consumer markets have evolved, the application of the marketing mix has adapted, too. In 1981, Bernard H. Booms and Mary J. Bitner expanded McCarthy’s model into the 7Ps marketing mix we know today.

While the original 4Ps remain in place, Booms and Bitner added a further three Ps in the mix:

The 7Ps model was created to reflect the emergence of service-oriented businesses where “Product” can mean either prospects or services. The expanded model also increases the emphasis upon customer service, as a result of increased consumer power and competition in every industry.

Like its predecessor, the 7Ps marketing mix has adapted to the evolution of consumer trends and new technologies.

In his book, Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice , digital strategist and co-founder of Smart Insights, Dave Chaffey, refreshed the 7Ps model for the modern digital age.

Some marketers argue that the 7Ps model is outdated but, even in 2021, it’s the backbone for business models and marketing theories. In fact, even the older 4Ps model is as relevant today as it was in 1960, even if it doesn’t cover the entire marketing mix in the modern, digital age.

This will become more obvious throughout the rest of this article as we look at each of the 7Ps individually and, later, assess whether there are any gaps or weaknesses in the model.

Applying the 7Ps to digital marketing

Now that you understand the basic premise of the marketing mix, let’s take a closer look at the 7Ps model that’s most widely associated with it today. Let’s start by reminding ourselves of what the 7Ps stand for and explain a bit about what they actually mean.

• Product: The product or service, including its features, unique selling points and the overall quality on offer.
• Promotion: The methods used to promote the product across multiple channels.
• Price: The long-term pricing strategy of the product in question, including sales, discounts & deals.
• Place: Where people find your product, learn about it and, ultimately, buy it.
• People: The people who come into contact with your target customers – both directly and indirectly.
• Process: Your methods for delivering the product to customers and providing the best possible experience.
• Physical evidence: Tangible items and experiences that tell customers your offer is real – for digital, this can include website visits, confirmation emails, testimonials, customer reviews and more.

Now, it’s worth reaffirming the point that the original 4Ps are solid figures in the updated 7Ps model but you will find some variation in the three additional Ps added into this model, depending on where you get your information from.

We’re sticking to the original 7Ps model for this part of the article but we’ll look at ways you can adapt and expand it even further to meet the needs of your business later on.

#1: Product

The first P in this marketing model is “Product” and this is almost unanimously featured as the first P in all versions of the marketing mix. This is because one of the core principles of this theory is that marketing begins with your product.

At the end of the day, if you’ve got a lousy product – especially in this day and age – you’re going to have a hard time marketing it.

The key elements of the product in your marketing mix can vary, depending on which market you’re and who your target audiences are. But, at the very least, you should invest good resources into the following:

• Quality: Higher product quality makes everything else you do in marketing and sales so much easier.
• Image: This refers to how people see your product and this is what separates products like the iPhone from Android devices or sports cars from cheaper, more practical vehicles.
• Branding: Closely linked to “image”, this is the brand story you build around your product and how it incorporates with your wider brand image.
• Features: The features of your product or service, which should place a heavy emphasis on USPs and benefits for your target customers.
• Variants: The different versions of your product or service, who they target and how you differentiate them.

The list could go on-and-on for Product and if you go back to Dave Chaffey’s version of the 7Ps we looked at earlier, you’ll see this is the longest list in his visualisation.

His list isn’t definitive or complete either; it’s up to you to decide which items belong on this list for your business. The point is that your product (or service) is the focal point of your marketing strategies and you want to do everything you can to ensure the right level of quality is there.

Take TrueNorth for example. The first thing you see on the homepage is the Product; It’s branding (both the name and visual style), product imagery, and a video walking through the product features.

#2: Promotion

Promotion refers to your marketing, advertising and sales activities across all channels. Once again, your channels of choice will vary depending on the nature of your business. For example, a B2B company may prioritise account-based marketing while a B2C company in the same industry might focus more on direct marketing methods.

Above all, you need to be present where your target audiences are active and interested in a brand like yours.

Given the rapid evolution of multi-channel marketing, this is one area where a version of the 7Ps model from as recent as five years ago can quickly look dated.

Here are some key elements to consider:

• Multi-channel marketing: The consumer journey takes place across more devices, sessions and platforms than ever before, making it all the more important that you’re present on the channels that matter most to your target audiences.
• Personalised experiences: The more relevant you can make experiences to individual users, the more engaging your messages become and the more “locked-in” customers are to your brand.
• Integrated marketing & sales: Today’s brands need seamless integration between marketing and sales strategies to prevent leads getting lost along the funnel.
• Lead nurturing: A lot of brands make the mistake of focusing all of their attention on lead generation without dedicated enough resources to lead nurturing – especially customer retention.
• Branding: Today’s consumers want authentic experiences and brands are scrutinised for their ethical practices, making brand image more important – and fragile – than ever.
• PR: Brands don’t always give PR the attention it deserves in the digital age but it’s an invaluable tool for building, maintaining and even changing your brand image.
• Automation: As the digital marketing workload increases, brands need to automate as many repetitive tasks as they can to manage multi-channel campaigns successfully, maintain costs and achieve the fastest possible growth.

There’s no doubt that the Promotion aspect of the 7Ps model is getting more challenging with every year that passes, as technology and consumer trends become more complex.

The days of running a few TV ads and blasting out some unsolicited email campaigns are long behind us.

Today’s brands need to use the right marketing and sales software to maximise productivity, automate repetitive tasks and manage campaigns across an ever-growing number of channels.

Take a look at some of our software recommendation articles for help with this:

• 30+ Best Free Marketing Tools
• 10 Best All-in-One Email Marketing, Automation & CRM Platforms
• 53 Business Automation Tools That Skyrocketed Our Growth by 330%

Price is pretty self-explanatory but the mistake companies normally make is underestimating the amount of detail that goes into pricing a single product – let alone an entire range of products or services.

Here’s a list of just some of the things you need to strategise:

• Positioning: Where do you see your product, service or brand positioning in the market?
• Competition: The price of rival products, brand image of rival brands and competing quality of the products on offer.
• Justification: As soon as someone spends money on goods or a service, they instinctively spend time trying to justify the expense – and you need to make sure the result is worth the asking price.
• Discounts: Discounts should be strategic and planned out to maximise interest, demand and sales – not to clear unwanted items off the shelves.
• Credit: Are you going to offer credit options to make large purchases and expenses more manageable for your customers?
• Payment methods: Which payment methods are you going to provide your target customers?
• Free or value-added elements: Which freebies, value-added elements and incentives are you going to use to sweeten the deal for your prospects.

Value is highly subjective and the happiness of your customers with their purchases is determined far more by emotion than logic. As we’ve explained before in our articles on cognitive biases , you can influence consumer perception with simple psychological techniques.

A common example of this is software pricing pages where companies start with the most expensive price on the left side of the page. This exploits a cognitive weakness known as anchoring bias where people instinctively set the first piece of information they see as default, meaning any lower prices that follow naturally feel like good value.

Place is the final P in the original 4Ps model and this traditionally refers to the place where customers physically buy products and services. Of course, in the digital age, things are a little more complex and we have to expand the concept of place across multiple channels throughout the customer journey:

• Discovery: The “places” both online and offline where potential customers discover your brand and its products/services.
• Browsing: The locations where prospects can browse through your offers alongside competitors (e.g.: an online store) or within your own domain (e.g.: a product category on your website).
• Learn: Places where target audiences can learn more about your products or services, such as third-party reviews.
• Comparison: Where potential customers go to compare your offers against rival brands.
• Physical interaction: Any place where prospects are able to physically touch the product or service (if relevant) although this could apply to free trials and demos for digital products, too.
• Purchases: Online and offline locations where your customers can purchase from you.
• Customer services: The channels where customers can reach out for care after making the initial purchase.
• Retention: The channels you use to target customers after the initial purchase to entice further sales.

Place in the digital age refers to every strategic location where potential customers engage with your brand and its product or services – both before and after the sale.

The point is, you need to control these locations, which starts with choosing the right channels of discovery to capture new leads and then nurturing prospects along the sales funnel with targeted interactions.

In today’s customer-centric approach to marketing, you might assume “People” refers to your target audiences, buyer personas and customers. However, the People in the 7Ps model actually refers to the people within your organisation that interact with your customers – both directly and indirectly:

• Marketers: The 7Ps model highlights the importance of hiring the best talent for every position on your marketing team.
• Sales team members: These are the people who typically handle the first person-to-person interactions with your customers – and often seal the deal.
• Customer service team: The individuals tasked with keeping your customers happy, even when things aren’t quite going to plan.
• Recruitment: Hiring the best talent starts with having quality recruitment personnel.
• Training & skills: The people responsible for ensuring all of your team members encompass the brand ethos and meet your requirements.
• Managers: The people with people skills to manage teams, get the best out of everyone and ensure you hit targets.

Chances are, you’ll have several other groups or teams included in your People. Here at Venture Harbour, we’ve got the developers who build and test our products, designers who create the best possible experience for our customers and a pool of freelancers we turn to for a range of different tasks.

Everyone in our team contributes to building and delivering the best product and experiences we can to our customers – and it’s important we recognise the value in that.

For more information on how to build and manage a marketing team effectively, you can read our guide:

• Marketing Teams: How to Structure & Manage Them Effectively

#6: Process

Process in the 7Ps model refers to your processes for delivering the product or service to your customers, as well as any additional customer service and post-purchase systems you have in place.

At the very least, you should have processes in place for the following:

• Customer-end delivery: The customer’s process for attaining your product or service, whether it’s ordered online and delivered via a courier, bought in-store, downloaded from your website or accessed through an online sign-up process.
• Business-end delivery: Your processes for facilitating customer-end delivery and safeguards for resolving any potential issues (e.g.: technical issues preventing online purchases).
• Customer service: Your processes, systems and channels for providing customer service beyond the initial sale.
• Resolutions: Your processes for dealing with problems that prevent usual delivery systems from completing successfully and instances where customers are unhappy with the process/service received.
• Incentives: Measures designed to keep unhappy customers engaged with your brand so you can keep them on board and win them over.
• Returns & refunds: Your systems for dealing with returns, cancellations, refunds and any other processes for customers who refuse to stay on board.
• Feedback: Your processes for collecting customer feedback and applying these insights to product/service improvements.
• T&Cs: The terms and conditions that your customers agree to, specifying your processes and protecting your business in any instance where things don’t go to plan.

You have to carefully and strategically build processes for every customer interaction, down to the finest detail. When your primary method of delivering products or services to your customers fails, you need a solid backup plan – and another one for when your Plan B fails, too.

Today’s customers have more options than ever and modern businesses need to satisfy these expectations – from delivery methods and payment options to customer service channels and financial guarantees.

If you’re doing this properly, you’ll be forced to make some difficult decisions and it’s not always a question of doing what’s best for the customer. For example, you don’t want to make it too easy for customers to seek a refund, return items or close accounts. You want to carefully add some friction here and there to provide crucial time for resolving issues and encourage continued use.

Likewise, your customer service processes need to be effective in terms of keeping customers on your side but they also need to be affordable and it’s not always realistic to have an in-house team of customer care staff sitting by the phones every day.

Once again, technology can help you strike the right balance between customer care and profitability – for example, using chatbots to handle the first interactions with customers. Likewise, personalised automated email responses can cut the perceived time it takes for human team members to contact customers directly.

#7: Physical evidence

The final P in the 7Ps stands for Physical evidence and this used to refer to actual physical items and forms of interaction: products, stores, receipts, packaging, bags and other branded items that could be seen and touched.

Of course, these are all forms for physical evidence today but, in the digital age, we have to reconsider our definition of “physical”.

So what does physical evidence really achieve?

Well, on one hand, it helps customers feel more confident that they’re dealing with a legitimate business before they make a purchase. A company with stores across the country, great products and nice packaging must be doing pretty well for itself and, surely, this wouldn’t be possible if they weren’t taking good care of their customers – right?

The second key role physical evidence plays is after the initial sale by providing customers with evidence that the transaction took place, their payment was received and their products or services will be delivered.

• Places: This was the fourth P on our list of 7Ps and these locations act as physical evidence – whether it’s your website, physical stores or trusted third-party platforms.
• Third-party evidence: Customer reviews, press coverage in major publications and positive press are especially important in the digital age where simply having a website doesn’t provide the level of physical evidence real-world stores.
• Online experience: That said, the quality of your website and the user experience it provides are crucial forms of physical evidence in the modern consumer journey.
• Feedback: Sales staff provide all kinds of feedback through conversation, facial expressions and body language, which is lost in the online experience. So it’s important to design intuitive feedback into the experience – everything from click confirmations and animations to on-page feedback when forms are completed and payments are submitted.
• Order confirmation: Whether it’s physical receipts or confirmation emails, customers need to know their transactions are successful.
• Product packaging: Both the physical and digital packaging/branding of your products or services.

Physical evidence is primarily about easing consumer concerns and purchase anxieties by reassuring potential customers that your business is legitimate, their money is in good hands and the purchase is going to go smoothly.

By providing feedback across the entire customer journey, you can confirm that every little interaction is successful and build reassurance as they get closer to putting their money on the line.

What are the limitations of the 7Ps model?

There’s no such thing as a perfect marketing model and, no matter how comprehensive a list we make for each of the 7Ps, there’s no way it can cover every aspect of a digital marketing strategy.

In fact, there are various different versions of an 8th P added to the model of seven, depending on which marker you speak to. As Smart Insights explains in this article , “An eighth P, ‘Partners’ is often recommended for businesses to gain reach online… although some would argue it’s part of Place.”

Other incarnations of a proposed 8Ps model may include Performance, Productivity, Packaging or a range of other alliterated alternatives for the enigmatic title of the eighth P.

If this debate tells us anything, it’s that the 7Ps model clearly has its limitations and there have been plenty of expansions or alternatives proposed in the past.

For me, the glaring omission in the 4Ps and 7Ps models is the lack of reference to the end customer in both of them. In fact, on a broader scale, neither model even makes a reference to market research and ensuring there’s a large enough target audience for the product or a demand for it.

I guess you could solve this problem without changing the 7Ps model by simply including customers in People and market research in Product. However, stronger alternatives have been offered in “the age of the customer” while others can be used to expand upon the 7Ps model.

In 1990, Robert F. Lauterborn proposed his customer-centric alternative to the 4Ps model, which we can crudely call the 4Cs:

• Customer needs
• Convenience
• Communication

This offers a more customer-centric alternative to the traditional 4Ps model that feels a lot more suitable for the modern age. However, there are problems with simply replacing the Ps for Cs.

As we mentioned in the Process section earlier, if you only consider the customer in your delivery methods, you can easily overlook the business management side of things. Likewise, if you think of the customer with your customer service processes, then you can end up creating a system that hurts your bottom line – either by being too generous or overspending on your customer care systems.

While it sounds great to talk about the customer experience as the priority (perhaps it should be), it’s not the only factor in a successful business, by any means – or a complete marketing strategy for that matter.

As Hannah Tow suggests in her article for G2 , we might be better off extending the 7Ps even further to include the 4Cs, allowing us to look at Price from the business’ perspective and also the Cost from the customer’s point of view.

Create the model that works for you (and your customers)

The 7Ps model isn’t a fixed framework that you have to follow religiously. It’s more of a template that helps you consider every aspect of marketing across the entire journey – so you don’t overlook key factors like how physical evidence increases confidence and enhances the customer experience.

It’s a model that you should scrutinise, adapt and reshape to suit your business, your target audiences and your customers. Whether this means staying relatively true to the original 7Ps, expanding it with the 4Cs or coming up with your own version is entirely up to you.

Just make sure you cover all of the essential bases to avoid leaving gaps in your marketing strategy and the customer experience.

Getting your marketing mix structured & organised

We’ve broken down a lot of theory, but how do you actually apply this and ensure you have marketing activity across all stages of the marketing mix?

Well, initially you may consider running an audit across all seven areas to identify which areas need attention. From there, you will want to come up with ideas and begin tracking these as campaigns/tasks in whichever tool you use to manage your marketing.

In TrueNorth , for example, you could allocate budget across the 7Ps and even track your marketing activity and results according to the various 7Ps to ensure you are doing enough in each area and to separate the campaigns that are designed to improve each of the seven areas.

While there’s no right or wrong way to do it, the key is to ensure you take stock of where you are and have a clear system in place to constantly improve in all areas of the marketing mix over time.

Aaron Brooks is a copywriter & digital strategist specialising in helping agencies & software companies find their voice in a crowded space.

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• 7P Marketing Mix

What is the 7P Marketing Mix?

The 7P Marketing Mix is a set of 7 factors you should focus on when developing your Marketing Strategy .

Why is this definition so similar to the 4P Marketing Mix one? Because is the same concept.

The 7P Marketing Mix is nothing but an extended 4P Marketing Mix .

While the classic 4P Marketing Mix analyzes the:

• Promotion .

The 7P Marketing Mix , simply adds the next 3 factors to this:

Physical Evidence .

We explained in our “ 4P Marketing Mix ” page, the main factors to study within a 4P analysis.

• If you have not visited that page yet, we encourage you to do so right now since here, we’ll just explain the additional 3 factors that a 7P Marketing Mix includes .

What do these 3 new factors mean?

Now, we’ll explain you what these new factors add with some examples and why should you worry about them:

1. Physical Evidence - 7P Marketing Mix

This factor tends to have more than one meaning.

Depending on who you ask you can receive a different answer.

It Usually means 2 things :

• Literally, giving the customer Physical Evidence about what they are buying .
• Show, with Physical Evidence, why your product is the best in the Market .

We know that both of them seem to be the same.

Now, we’ll explain the difference with helpful examples:

1.1 Give Physical Evidence about what they are buying

Sometimes, Companies offer intangible products or some intangible values that are associated to their physical products.

Customers are like “serial killers”: they like keeping evidences about what they purchased .

• The higher the price of the product, the bigger the evidence should be.

This evidence can be in :

• With the Logo of the Brand everywhere.
• Usually in luxury brands.
• With VIP Memberships, for example.

Rolex - Physical Evidence - 7P Marketing Mix example

The Rolex example is the best one we could have chosen since it offers lots of Physical Evidences.

1. As soon as you enter in an authorized Rolex shop :

• If you are intended to buy a Rolex, you’ll surely receive a glass of Champagne .

2. Together with your Watch, you’ll receive:

• A serial number that guarantees that it is not a fake watch.
• A high quality leather box containing the watch.
• Access to the Rolex community ; events, notifications, etc.

3. The watch has a perfectly identifiable design .

• You receive a watch that everybody identifies as synonym of high economical status.

All these things are not assuring you that Rolex is the best technical option you could have made.

These Physical Evidences tell you that you are purchasing a luxury product, nothing else :

• The box may seem very beautiful, but its price is nothing compared to the watch you are acquiring.
• The glass of Champagne may feel very sophisticated, but it represents nothing to the shop: the whole bottle may cost $50.
• If Rolex changed its famous designs, the people wouldn’t identify their watches so easily (and lets be honest; 80% of the people owning a Rolex want to brag about it).

1.2. Physical Evidence about why your product is the best in the Market

This is a different Physical Evidence approach.

While the previous one was more “whim-oriented”, this one is a more Technical approach .

When you are stating that your product is either the best one, or different, you have to give proof about it to your customers before they buy your product .

We will give you an example about what may happen if you don’t or can’t give Physical Evidence to your customers :

Nintendo 3DS - Physical Evidence - 7P Marketing Mix example

As soon as Nintendo announced the Nintendo 3DS we were sure about its success.

• A portable device that can generate 3D images without any glasses : Amazing!

However it didn’t succeeded as much as Nintendo expected … Why?

The problem they had was that Nintendo couldn’t give Physical Evidence about its technically-amazing product through conventional Marketing campaigns .

• You could see a TV commercial where they explained to you how good the 3D images were, but unless you were in front of it, you would never experience the effect .

Nintendo 3DS case is very curious, because Nintendo couldn’t do much for giving Physical Evidence about its product .

This example shows how, sometimes, having the best product in not enough: you always have to give proof about what you offer .

• That is why that many food brands offer you little pieces of cheese, chocolate, drinks… at the supermarkets.

2. Process - 7P Marketing Mix

The process represents all the actions that take place when developing, showing and delivering your product to the final customer .

This is a commonly forgotten factor but for some companies, it represents the real key to success.

Think about how many businesses success mainly, because they have a proper process:

• Automotive companies that elaborate their cars efficiently .
• Websites that have a nice and friendly user interface.
• Fast food companies that have defined a elaboration process that saves time and money.

A proper process can :

• Increase your margins by reducing the costs .
• Allow you to engage more with your customers .
• Ensure the best quality .

Nespresso - Process - 7P Marketing Mix example

If there is a company that has understood how important the “purchasing process” is for engaging your customers, is Nespresso .

• Nespresso is a good example for lots of things: Design, Physical Evidence, Branding…

However, we’ll focus on how good its selling process is :

• They design elegant stores that customers identify with the company’s essence.
• As soon as you enter in its stores, you find stylish people that are always very kind to you .
• The product is placed in perfectly neat shelves .
• They offer you a free coffee .
• You can enter in the Nespresso club , with nice discounts and access to promotions.
• Finally, there are always new flavors so you “feel the obligation” of coming back periodically .

This “purchasing process” generates a desirable experience for the customers and allows Nespresso to project its coffee as a more exclusive product.

If you think about it, Nespresso just sells coffee, nothing else (ok, coffee machines) then… Why do you feel that they are offering you something else?

So, from now on, don’t focus just on the product itself.

Regard it as an entire Manufacturing and Delivery Process :

• From the moment it was being developed to the moment the final client received it.

3. People - 7P Marketing Mix

The People factor refers to everyone involved in the Marketing and Manufacturing process .

Sometimes, this factor only considers people within a Company: Designers, Managers… but Clients should also be taken into account .

Hence, we’ll divide this factor into 2:

• The People involved in the product’s development .
• Clients ‘ profiles.

3.1 People involved in the product's development

This is an extension of the 7P Process factor, previously explained.

A company is as good as the people integrating it , so you should analyze all the professionals involved at key positions:

• Commercials.

Apollo XI - People - 7P Marketing Mix example

It’s been 50 years since the first man reached the moon with the Apollo XI.

Undoubtedly, it is one of the biggest achievements in history of mankind.

But, how on earth could they reach the moon with 1969’s technology?

• They had the best scientists and engineers in the world . That is how.

If you wanted to replicate this big achievement, you would have to hire the best brains in the world.

This simple but effective example shows how sometimes, the key thing for guaranteeing a project’s success is the people involved .

• You can also appreciate this fact at Movies, where the success normally relies on one single actor’s interpretation.

3.2 Clients' profiles

This factor highlights how important is to take into account your clients:

• Who they are .
• Where they come from .
• What they like .

YouTube - People - 7P Marketing Mix example

Some years ago, while I was having a beer at a friend’s house and, I remembered an interesting video I had watched on YouTube.

It was a video that had been suggested to me repeatedly, so I expected to find the same video at the first page of my friend’s computer .

However, I found completely different suggestions at his main page.

Now, we all know that YouTube suggests certain videos to certain profiles.

But at that moment that shocked me, since it was a similar person, with similar cultural background , from the same city, with the same age.

• We went to the same school… so I was surprised YouTube had not suggested this video to my friend.

YouTube analyzes all the videos you have seen so far, the ones that you liked the most, the language of the videos, where you come from… So they can suggest the content that better fits you .

And that is why YouTube is of king of content nowadays.

Categorize customers is very difficult.

Even between brothers and sisters you would have it difficult: how different we are from our parents, cousins, brothers…

No matter how difficult it is: you have to adapt your Marketing strategies to your client’s tastes, cultural backgrounds and preferences .

Otherwise you’ll never engage with them.

Never forget: Your client must be the centre of all the decisions you take .

Summarizing

The 7P Marketing Mix is nothing but an amplified 4P analysis.

To the traditional:

The 7P Marketing Mix adds :

• Give physical evidence about what the customer is buying .
• Give proof about why your product is the best in the market.
• Analyze the actions that take place when developing, showing and delivering your product to the final customer .
• Which are the clients’ profiles .
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The 7P Marketing mix – A quick guide with examples

You don’t need to know much about marketing, strategy or even business to have heard about the 7P marketing mix. And if you still weren’t aware. Then you can easily apply logic to understand there are always factors affecting how products and services are marketed. The marketing mix is a favorite for marketers when designing tactics that shape the overall marketing strategy. As with nearly everything, your goals and objectives set the direction. Setting SMARTER goals can help you establish what you want to achieve. This makes it easier to plan strategy and as a result, tactics.

History of the Marketing Mix

The origins of the marketing mix date back to the late 1940s by some accounts. However, it took a while, until 1960, for Jerome E. McCarthy to be credited with the creation of the 4P marketing mix in his book Basic Marketing – A Managerial Approach. . This is now referred to as the traditional 4P Marketing mix.

What were the 4 Ps?

We will get to these shortly.

What you need to know here, is simple. This model worked great. But only for the marketing of products. So over 2 decades later, in 1982, Booms & Bitner extended the 4P marketing mix to the 7P marketing mix. Why? To incorporate new elements that supported the marketing of services. 

What did they add?

Physical Evidence 

And it doesn’t just stop there. The 7P marketing mix has seen a few variations since the 1980s. The 8P extension included Positioning into the mix. Then, the 9P marketing mix brought in Partners. But despite the countless variations of the marketing mix, the 7P version is still sufficient to cover enough ground as you prepare marketing tactics.

So what’s with all the Ps? Well, that’s what we are going to discuss in the next section.

The 7P marketing mix

Let’s individually assess each tenet of the marketing mix and understand how it can be used with an example.

Firstly, the marketability of your offering is going to center around the product or service you are offering. So this is always your first consideration. After all, what you offer has been created to meet your customer’s needs, or fill a gap that exists. Capitalizing on that should lead to any tactics that you create as part of your marketing strategy.

It is no longer sufficient for you to just list out features and specifications. You can’t assume that’s what your customers and audiences will be drawn to. People are driven by emotions. So you need to make them FEEL. How? By turning your functional attributes into emotional benefits and then communicating that clearly.

It doesn’t just end there, under the product P you can consider: Design & features, Product line & range, Support & Customer service, Guarantees & warranty, Packaging & branding, and more. 

An example:

You are selling an XYZ smartphone that has a 50 MP camera and a 5,000 mAh battery capacity. That’s a great phone with high specifications!

But if and only if, you know what MP and mAh mean. You also need to know that a 50 MP camera will give you ultra high-quality and clear photos. You should also be aware that 5,000 mAH is 20% greater than most flagship smartphones out there, so that means longer battery life! But if you don’t know that, then those listed attributes in-store or online won’t help you.

So go after the emotional triggers behind those functional benefits. You don’t need to be technically sound to feel. It’s natural for all humans! Longer battery life means you’ll be connected to your world without disruption. It reduces the hassles of running out of battery. With a 50 MP camera, you can capture special moments clearly and have them available at your fingertips!

Obviously, you are marketing your product or service to SELL it. The price you sell determines your profitability. This directly affects your success and growth. The distinction with price in the marketing mix is simple. This is the only P that generates revenue directly. The others usually require an investment or a cost. So, pick your price carefully. Furthermore, you have to consider discounts and value-adds here. These directly affect your bottom line. Look at payment methods, lines of credit, and allowances or commissions for your partners and distributors as well.

If your product is aimed at the luxury market and audience. Then you have to adopt a premium pricing strategy. Steer clear of discounts. Possibly further supplement sales with add-ons. Even for a non-luxury brand, high brand equity or trust can validate a premium pricing model, which maximizes your profitability.

Quickly following your product and price is PLACE. After all, customers can’t buy what they cant find. So think beyond where your customers will buy, but also where they can experience your product. You can include physical or online storefronts. It’s important to strategically place locations for the convenience of the customer and appropriate market coverage.

All your channel marketing through distributors, affiliates, and franchisees is also included here. You might be limited on resources or have restrictions that require partnerships to maximize where you are available. But structuring and nurturing relationships with these partners can mean great market coverage, and that availability coupled with the logistics and transportation operations can make your entire process smooth and effective.

With eCommerce growing exponentially over the last decade, you have to consider a delivery network and areas of delivery coverage. Your after-sales service touchpoints also need to be outlined! Further, boosting your local SEO with Google My Business provides another place for customers to get accurate information about your business.

If you are operating a woman’s jewelry and accessory business that has 2 storefronts. You can easily consider taking your business online via an Instagram shop and/or Amazon seller’s account. But this would mean coordinating delivery and logistics. You are going from limited area coverage to city-wide operations. That has its own benefits and risks. Furthermore, you can also implement a click-and-collect option, where they can pay and buy online, and pick it up from one of your stores. So you have cross-channel traffic to your stores.

Regardless of which stage your customer is in the consumer journey, you have to be able to communicate the value your product or services brings to them. You have to consider choosing the right channels and what you are going to say, given the parameters. You can look at the content distribution model of P.E.S.O here and get an idea of all the platforms you have to choose from. Then use either a marketing funnel model or a great framework like the STDC . That will help you focus your efforts on different segments. 

A lot of your content marketing efforts are concentrated here. You need to know how often to communicate and what to say. And find the right balance between sales, PR, digital, and advertising. Lastly, you also have to consider your internal marketing and the different tools at your disposal to help you promote your brand and business!

If you have an eCommerce business selling adventure gear in your city. You probably want to diversify your content and communications. It’s a close-knit community of adventure seekers. So you want to hold events and outings. You could run product-specific ads based on your understanding of them. Or can even manage an active email newsletter and a Facebook group for the community to interact with. You will want to be active and serve as a powerful voice for those seeking adventure. They should not only get the gear they need. But also get accurate information about the local adventure activities when they interact with you!

Everyone associated with your brand represents your brand to a varying degree. You have to consider staff and associates related to service delivery. How are they recruited and trained? Even service staff at a contracted 3rd party provider have to be aligned with the values and promises of the brand. Increased employee engagement can work wonders for productivity. The simpler it is for frontline staff who face customers to share the right information and truly help customers, the higher your retention and this recurring revenue!

You want to be able to understand your customers so you can meet their needs, but you also need to know your people’s limitations and strengths so you can ensure they reach their potential and boost your success as a result. Now companies even leverage their employees’ personal brand to their advantage!

When launching a new event to promote a product launch at a physical store, say a fashion boutique you own. You have to manage temporary and permanent staff to successfully execute it. But you also need to train them to provide the right information to customers, provide uniforms, set a behavior code, handle complaints, organize inventory or displays and lastly, manage queues and wait times.

Processes are everywhere, in manufacturing, packaging, delivery, wholesale, retail, sales, and even beyond. Every part of your supply chain will have its own process, and a lot of it will be on the terms you set or agree to. Creating workflows for automation of your marketing based on insights and data from research and analytics is one common process establishment most companies have undergone in the last few years. Even in your sales and service manuals, SOPs are essential to meeting service delivery standards. 

A customer-centric ecosystem relies on the strength of your processes because it creates the opportunity to delight customers with quality care throughout the consumer journey , regardless of the touchpoint they prefer. Choosing the right metrics and KPIs and actively measuring and reporting them brings accountability to your marketing efforts and needs to be done regularly.

You manage the marketing of a pet store in your city. A large chunk of your awareness and promotion strategy is digital via social media and blogs on pet care. You will need a content development process and a calendar to organize yourself. You also have partners in a clinic who handle pet care and you need to create a good affiliate process with them to work together. Further, you have a network of freelancers who write your blog content and you need a standardized template and process on how they work and deliver content to you.

Your store will have SOPs on operations, petcare, hygiene, cleanliness, animal checkups, regulatory guidelines, and handover paperwork. These processes need to be clear and approved for a smooth customer and employee experience.

Physical Evidence

You can’t price a product as a luxury item and then deliver it in shoddy packaging. In the same way, upscale restaurants represent their superiority in many ways, like their menu design, the furniture, silverware, glassware, lighting, and ambiance. And that’s where the description of physical evidence usually ends in other forums. But let’s take it a step further, if you walk into an Apple store now, it is a different experience altogether. It “feels like Apple”. This collection of cues and environment all add up to your physical evidence.

So don’t just limit it to tangible elements as was previously done, but if there’s something that can be done to evoke a feeling of belonging in alignment with the brand identity, then that’s what you consider.

You own a custom furniture store, targeting a colorful and playful aesthetic (aimed at 25-34-year-olds). Your store should be colorful, down to the detail, and set up a playful atmosphere with a games corner. Align your theme into every stage of the customer journey so it is identifiably YOU. Your visual brand elements on the website, your emails, how your ads look, even the way people in your ads are dressed should reflect the playful nature of your brand!

Using the 7P Marketing Mix

Now you can use the findings of your 7P marketing mix and benefit from them in multiple ways:

• Plug them into a SWOT analysis to prioritize what actions you will undertake to reach your goals.
• Use it as a template for a marketing audit or even a content audit
• Create a multi-faceted marketing plan full of effective tactics
• Position your brand and offerings in a unique way to your customers and stand out!

Any marketing mix activates multiple avenues for success. Whether you limit yourself to just the traditional 4Ps or expand into the popular 7P marketing mix. Your considerations will serve to provide relevant and effective tactics to support your marketing strategy. After setting your objective, and choosing a marketing planning framework like SOSTAC , you develop tactics, and the marketing mix helps do that better than most models. 

Remember to have the right product fit for your target audience. Solve a problem or add value to their lives. Set a pricing strategy that works within your industry and is reasonable for your customers. Pick the places you can interact with your customers across channels, media, and touchpoints. And promote your product and services with effective marketing communication to maximize reach, hold attention, and boost conversions.

Then, get your processes in place to deliver customer-centric experiences that impress. Ensure you have the right people with adequate skills and training, equipped with the right tools to put your best foot forward as a brand. And lastly, let your physical environment represent what your brand stands for. Let your customers feel what your company is about. 

And there you have it. The 7P Marketing mix. Simplified.

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The 7Ps of The Marketing Mix: Streamline your Strategy

As marketers, we should never underestimate the power of planning. For most of us, that means creating a water-tight marketing strategy, informed by analysis and data - one that has objectives, a target market, and proven tactics. 

We all use different blueprints depending on our industry, our target audience and our products and services. But there’s one, timeless model that any marketer can utilise regardless of their field of work and that is the marketing mix.

What is the marketing mix?

Traditionally, the marketing mix is a framework for your marketing strategy containing four key elements: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. Then we have the extended marketing mix - or the 7Ps - which contains the first four elements, plus Physical Evidence, People and Processes. 

It’s important to note that while the marketing mix can influence your strategy and provide a greater understanding of the wider market, as well as your business internally, it doesn’t work in isolation. The marketing mix is a tactic that works best when it’s implemented regularly or semi-regularly as a structure for planning, executing, evaluating and re-evaluating your marketing activities. 

Who created the marketing mix?

The marketing mix is a concept developed by professor and academic, Neil H. Borden , who elaborated on James Culliton’s concept of business executives being mixers of ingredients - ingredients being different marketing features and practices.  The marketing mix was later refined by professor and author, Jerome McCarthy, to specifically include four key components: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. McCarthy wrote about the 4Ps in the 1960s in his book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach .

The 4Ps vs the 7Ps

These original 4Ps of the marketing mix covered the fundamental factors of business and marketing at the time.  But as we know, marketing and business as a whole have evolved exponentially since then, so it was only a matter of time before the marketing mix needed to be expanded.  In 1981, the 4Ps were built upon by two modern academics, B.H. Booms and M.J. Bitner, who identified three additional elements they saw as key to the marketing mix: Physical Evidence, People, and Process, thus providing us with what we now know as the 7Ps of the marketing mix.  And it makes sense that these three were the elements Booms and Bitner added to the marketing mix framework. People are at the heart of every business. Without people, you have no one to market to; no one is there to buy your product or make use of your services. It’s a no-brainer.

What are the 7Ps of the marketing mix?

Now that you know what the 7 Ps of the marketing mix are and their origins, let’s dive a little deeper into the definition of each aspect.

Product refers to what is being sold - a physical product, service, or experience.  No matter how you position yourself as a brand, your product or service is always going to be at the centre of your strategy and will influence every aspect of the marketing mix. When you think of your product, consider factors such as:

• Specific features
• Packaging/presentation
• The problem that it will solve for your customers

Product in this case, then, is about crafting something that meets the needs and desires of your target audience. This means understanding their preferences, pain points, and aspirations. By meticulously aligning your product with customer expectations, you create a solid starting point for your marketing endeavours. Over 30,000 consumer products are launched yearly. Out of these 30,000 new products, 95% of them fail woefully without having any significant impact on the market. 

Choosing the right distribution channels significantly impacts your product's accessibility and visibility. Effective placement ensures your product is available when and where your target audience needs it. Place in the marketing mix doesn't just mean physical locations—it encompasses websites, catalogues, social media, trade shows, and brick-and-mortar stores.

Source: Zippia

Place covers all distribution channels. Factors like your target audience influence your choices. Selling via a single high-street store won't work if your audience is mostly online or global. Test options—could an eCommerce site or a pop-up store work? A mix might suit your business. Understanding your target audience is vital for the right distribution. To profit consistently, distribute where your brand fits and your audience can access. Make your presence felt where it matters most.

The right pricing strategy is critical for a product's success. A misstep in pricing can jeopardize your ROI. Bain & Company research found that 18% of companies lack internal processes for pricing decisions. Your price should mirror customer perception, align with your budget, and ensure profitability. Pricing significantly impacts your business's success, affecting marketing, sales, and demand. Various pricing strategies exist , each with unique benefits and considerations, depending on your product and brand image.

6 Common pricing strategies:  

• Price Skimming : Begin with a high price, gradually lowering it over time.
• Competition-Based Pricing : Set prices above or below competitors' rates.
• Economy Pricing : Target budget-conscious buyers with lower prices.
• Premium Pricing : Attach a high price, emphasizing product quality.
• Value-Based Pricing : Determine price based on perceived customer value.
• Cost-Plus Pricing : Set price based on production cost plus markup.

Whatever your pricing strategy is, ensure it aligns with your brand, appeals to customers, and maintains profitability. Monitor the market, economy, and competitors to adjust as needed.

4. Promotion

Promotion is at the core of our marketing expertise. Whether through direct marketing, PR, advertising, content strategies, or in-store presentations, as marketers, we excel in raising awareness and engagement. Promotion involves telling a compelling brand story that resonates with consumers, guiding them to consider your offerings. Effective promotional strategies achieve various goals, from elevating brand recognition to driving sales and revenue. Addressing key questions sets the stage:

Where is your audience able to find you? Online or in a physical store? 

Does seasonal impact influence your business?

What is your brand personality and how does it shape your messaging and design? 

• How do competitors promote themselves? A SWOT analysis helps here.

Promotional tactics fall into two categories: traditional and digital . Traditional methods encompass print media, broadcasting, mail, billboards, and word of mouth. Digital avenues include email, social media, content marketing, SEO , mobile outreach, and paid ads. Digital marketing generates 50% more customer interactions than traditional methods.

Source: MarTech Alliance

The way you communicate and promote directly affects your brand's success. Misplaced messages or poor timing can negatively impact sales. Understanding your audience through segmentation and targeting, along with integrating marketing data, helps cater to their needs and ensures seamless omnichannel campaigns.

5. Physical Evidence

Physical evidence means more than just proof of purchase - it encompasses the overall existence of your brand. Think website, branding, social media, the logo on your building, your store’s decor, the packaging of your product, the post-purchase thank you email, even the ambience of your store. All of these elements offer your customer the physical evidence they need to be certain that your business is viable, reliable and legitimate.  For consumers to truly be comfortable with you, to complete a purchase, remain loyal and advocate for your brand, they need to be confident that you’re legitimate and worth their time.

To create a well-crafted strategy that ensures you offer great customer support, be sure to deliver products and receipts efficiently and reliably, and provide a customer experience that is seamless across each and every touchpoint. 

6. People People, in the marketing mix, refers to anyone directly or indirectly involved in the business side of the enterprise. That means anyone involved in selling a product or service, designing it, marketing, managing teams, representing customers, recruiting and training.  It’s critical to the success of your brand, and the satisfaction of your customers, that everyone who represents the company (including the chatbots) is polite, professional, knowledgeable and fully trained. Employees need to be able to solve the problems that customers have, so as a business, you need to offer training, good working environments and anything that will safeguard the contentment of your employees. 

50% of consumers will switch to a competitor after a single bad experience, while 80% will switch after multiple bad experiences. Excellent customer service is a must for any brand operating in today’s customer-centric market.  Digital strategist, Dave Chaffey, says that people buy from people because of the human connection that we all typically crave. When marketers create a strategy that’s highly tailored and personalised, they can be as influential as the best, most persuasive salesperson. Having the right people is key for both long and short-term success. Each part of the marketing mix can help your customers see you as reliable and dependable, which is crucial to any branding strategy.

Process encompasses what goes into every step of the customer journey - from making an enquiry to requesting information and making a purchase. The efficiency and consistency of your processes can significantly impact your overall effectiveness. From lead generation to customer support, having well-defined and streamlined processes ensures a seamless customer journey.  The more intentional and personalised your processes are, the happier your customers will be. Even with the best product in the world, your business can be let down by processes.

You want your customer interactions to be seamless from beginning to end, so think about things like:

• Your customer response time
• The time between booking with sales and actually having a meeting
• What happens once they make a purchase
• How to generate positive reviews after purchase
• What tools can make your processes more efficient i.e. AI, CRMs, email clients, KPI tracking , etc.

Source: Oracle

Marketers who plan their projects and campaigns against their strategy are 365% more likely to report success. Regularly assessing, adjusting and adapting your processes will help to structure your business efforts so that you can function at optimal efficiency. 

Why are the 7Ps of the marketing mix important?

In the dynamic realm of marketing, where strategies evolve and consumer behaviours shift, having a reliable and comprehensive framework is essential. The 7Ps of the marketing mix provide precisely that – a versatile toolkit that empowers intermediate marketers to construct impactful strategies and achieve sustainable success. At the core of the 7Ps framework lies a profound focus on understanding and catering to the needs of your target audience. This customer-centric approach is a cornerstone of successful marketing. By delving deep into your customers' preferences, pain points, and aspirations, you gain insights that guide your decisions across the 7Ps. This empathetic understanding ensures that your product is tailored to meet specific demands, your pricing resonates with perceived value, your distribution channels are optimized for accessibility, and your promotional efforts strike a chord. The 7Ps framework also equips marketers with the agility to respond to shifting market dynamics. Whether it's adjusting pricing strategies to remain competitive, leveraging new promotional platforms to reach wider audiences, or refining product offerings based on customer feedback, the flexibility inherent in the 7Ps allows marketers to stay relevant and effective. Additionally, the 7Ps facilitate measurement and optimisation, a key element of any successful marketing strategy. Each "P" provides distinct metrics that can be tracked and analysed which allows marketers to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. This data-driven approach enables informed decision-making, leading to continuous refinement and enhanced results.

How can I use the 7Ps?

The 7Ps marketing mix is more than just a theoretical concept; it's a versatile toolkit that can be wielded by intermediate marketers to create impactful and effective strategies. Here's a concise guide on how you can leverage this model to your advantage: 1. Start with Solid Research Understanding your target audience is paramount. Conduct thorough market research to unearth insights into their preferences, behaviours, and needs. This foundational knowledge will inform every decision you make across the 7Ps. 2. Tailor Your Product Offering Craft your product or service with your audience in mind. Strive to meet their unique needs and desires, differentiating yourself from competitors by adding value and addressing pain points. 3. Pricing Precision Develop a pricing strategy that aligns with customer expectations and provides a clear reflection of the value you offer. Consider factors such as production costs, competitor pricing, and perceived value when setting your prices. 4. Strategic Placement Determine the optimal distribution channels to ensure your product or service reaches your target audience conveniently. Whether it's through physical stores, online platforms, or a combination of both, choose avenues that enhance accessibility and visibility. 5. Powerful Promotions Craft compelling promotional campaigns that resonate with your audience. Utilize a mix of advertising, public relations, social media, and other marketing channels to amplify your message and create a buzz around your offering. 6. Prioritize People Invest in your employees and ensure they are well-trained and aligned with your brand's values. Their interactions with customers can significantly impact their experience and perception of your brand. 7. Streamline Processes Efficiency is key. Optimize your marketing processes to ensure a seamless customer journey from awareness to purchase and beyond. This includes lead generation, customer support, and post-purchase interactions. In the ever-evolving landscape of marketing, a robust framework is essential, and the 7Ps of the marketing mix offer just that. As marketers, this versatile toolkit empowers us to craft impactful strategies for enduring success. By delving into customer preferences, pain points, and dreams, we tailor our decisions across the 7Ps. Harnessing the power of the 7Ps, allows us to shape strategies that resonate, adapting to the ever-shifting marketing landscape, and ensuring lasting success.

Track and visualise your KPIs in real-time with Hurree. Try Hurree today and discover how to truly harness the power of analytics and transform your company reporting using cross-platform dashboards. If you have any questions then feel free to get in touch ! 

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Mastering the Marketing Mix: A Comprehensive Guide to 7Ps

Home » Marketing » Mastering the Marketing Mix: A Comprehensive Guide to 7Ps

In the world of marketing, the concept of Marketing Mix is crucial. It is a set of tools and tactics that businesses use to promote their products or services to the target market. The traditional Marketing Mix consisted of four Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. However, with the changing times, businesses realized that to provide a better experience to customers, they need to consider more elements than the traditional four Ps. Thus, the Marketing Mix 7P was introduced. In this article, we will take an in-depth look at the Marketing Mix 7P and understand how businesses can benefit from it.

Table of Contents

The 7Ps of Marketing Mix

The Marketing Mix 7P is an extension of the traditional Marketing Mix , and it includes the seven Ps: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence. Let’s take a look at each of these elements in detail.

The product P refers to the goods or services that a business offers to its customers. The product includes the design, features, quality, packaging, and branding of the product. The key to creating a successful product is to understand the needs and wants of your target market and to differentiate your product from your competitors.

• Conduct market research to understand the needs and wants of your target market.
• Conduct a competitive analysis to understand your competitors’ products and identify areas where you can differentiate.
• Use customer feedback to improve your product.
• Continuously innovate and improve your product to stay ahead of the competition.

The price P refers to the cost of the product or service. The pricing strategy of a business must be aligned with its overall marketing objectives and target market. The price of a product must reflect its perceived value and the cost of producing it.

• Conduct a pricing analysis to understand the pricing strategies of your competitors.
• Determine the perceived value of your product and price it accordingly.
• Consider the cost of producing and delivering the product when setting the price.
• Use promotions and discounts strategically to encourage customers to buy your product.

The place P refers to the distribution channels that a business uses to reach its target market. The distribution strategy must be tailored to the target market, and the product must be available at the right time and in the right place.

• Identify the most effective distribution channels for your target market.
• Ensure that your product is available in the right locations and at the right times.
• Use technology to improve the efficiency of your distribution channels.
• Continuously evaluate and optimize your distribution strategy to ensure that it is meeting the needs of your target market.

The promotion P refers to the communication strategies that a business uses to promote its product or service to its target market. The promotion mix includes advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, and public relations.

Promotion drives sales by creating awareness and communicating value

• Develop a clear and compelling brand message that resonates with your target market.
• Use a mix of advertising, personal selling, and other promotional techniques to reach your target market.
• Use social media and other digital channels to reach your target market.
• Continuously monitor the effectiveness of your promotional activities and adjust them as needed.

The people P refers to the employees who interact with customers and provide support to them. The staff must be well-trained and motivated to provide excellent customer service.

• Hire employees who have the skills and qualities needed to provide excellent customer service.
• Train employees on how to interact with customers and provide support to them.
• Encourage employees to take ownership of their work and to be proactive in solving customer problems.
• Recognize and reward employees who provide excellent customer service.

The process P refers to the processes and procedures that a business uses to deliver its product or service to its customers. The processes must be efficient and effective, and they must be designed to meet the needs and wants of the target market.

• Identify the key processes that are involved in delivering your product or service to customers.
• Streamline and optimize these processes to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Ensure that the processes are designed to meet the needs and wants of your target market.
• Continuously evaluate and improve your processes to ensure that they are meeting the needs of your customers.

Physical Evidence

The physical evidence P refers to the tangible elements that customers can see and touch when they interact with a business. This includes the physical environment, packaging, and branding. The physical evidence must be aligned with the overall brand image of the business.

• Ensure that your physical environment is clean, comfortable, and visually appealing.
• Use packaging that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
• Use branding that is consistent across all physical touchpoints.
• Pay attention to the details, such as signage, lighting, and decor, to create a positive customer experience.

Physical evidence refers to tangible elements customers use to evaluate a product or service, such as packaging or store atmosphere

Importance of 7Ps Marketing Mix

The Marketing Mix 7P is important for businesses as it helps them to provide a better experience to their customers. By considering all the elements of the Marketing Mix, a business can ensure that its products or services meet the customers’ needs, preferences, and expectations.

It also helps businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors and create a unique brand image. Furthermore, by adapting the Marketing Mix to different industries and target markets, businesses can increase their reach and effectiveness.

Marketing Mix 7P vs 4P

The Marketing Mix 4Ps model and the Marketing Mix 7Ps model are both frameworks used by marketers to develop effective marketing strategies. The Marketing Mix model was originally proposed by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960, including Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. 

The model was later expanded by Booms and Bitner in 1981 to include three additional Ps: People, Process, and Physical evidence. Today, the 7Ps Marketing Mix model is widely used in marketing theory and practice.

Examples of 7Ps Marketing Mix in Action

Let’s take a look at some examples of companies that have successfully implemented the 7Ps Marketing Mix:

Apple is a company that is known for its innovative products and excellent customer experience. Their products have a unique design, packaging, and features that set them apart from their competitors. Apple also offers excellent customer service and has a well-trained staff that provides support to customers. Its physical stores have a unique layout and atmosphere that creates a premium brand image. Apple’s Marketing Mix is an excellent example of how a company can create a unique brand image by considering all the elements of the Marketing Mix.

Starbucks is another example of a company that has successfully implemented the 7Ps Marketing Mix. Starbucks has a unique product range, which includes coffee, tea, food, and merchandise. Its pricing strategy is based on the premium experience that it offers to its customers. 

Starbucks has a strong distribution network, and its stores are located in prime locations to reach its target market effectively. Starbucks’ promotional activities focus on creating a unique experience for its customers, such as personalized drinks and promotions. The staff at Starbucks are well-trained to provide excellent customer service, and the physical stores have a unique atmosphere that creates a premium brand image.

How to apply Marketing Mix 7P?

As a marketer or business owner, you can use the 7Ps Marketing Mix model to design and implement an effective marketing strategy that meets the needs and wants of your target market, drives sales and revenue, and establishes a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Here are some steps you can follow to use this model effectively:

• Understand your target market: Conduct market research to understand the needs, wants, and preferences of your target market. 
• Define your marketing objectives: Identify your marketing objectives, such as increasing sales, launching a new product, expanding into new markets, or improving customer retention.
• Develop a product or service: Use the insights from your market research to design a product or service that meets the needs of your target market. 
• Determine your pricing strategy: Decide on a pricing strategy that reflects the perceived value of your product or service and aligns with your marketing objectives.
• Choose your distribution channels: Identify the most effective distribution channels to reach your target market. Ensure that your product or service is available in the right locations and at the right times.
• Develop a promotional strategy: Develop a promotional strategy that effectively reaches your target market. This may include a mix of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, and public relations.
• Train and motivate your staff: Ensure that your staff are well-trained and motivated to provide excellent customer service.
• Streamline your processes: Streamline your processes to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Create a positive physical environment: Pay attention to the physical environment, packaging, and branding to create a positive customer experience.

In conclusion, the Marketing Mix 7P is a powerful tool that businesses can use to provide a better experience to their customers. By considering all the elements of the Marketing Mix, businesses can create a unique brand image and differentiate themselves from their competitors. Furthermore, by adapting the Marketing Mix to different industries and target markets, businesses can increase their reach and effectiveness. We hope this guide has helped you understand the importance of the Marketing Mix 7P and how businesses can benefit from it. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below.

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The 7 Ps of Marketing Mix

The Seven Ps of Marketing is a relatively simple framework that can be used by any organisation or manager to plan marketing activities and a marketing strategy .

It is useful because it ensures that you look across each area together, and consider how they might be related.

The Seven Ps started as just four: product, price, place and promotion. Over time, as marketers became more aware, and practices and businesses changed, three more have been added: people, processes, and physical evidence.

This page explores each of these areas in turn, looking at the important aspects to consider when planning marketing activity.

Product first, or customer?

Apple is said to have developed the iPod without checking for customer demand first. Steve Jobs was apparently convinced — correctly, as it turned out — that people would want to buy his product.

History, however, is littered with less successful examples of companies who have developed a product first, and worried about finding customers later. It is true that customers do not always know what they want . They do, however, often have an idea of what they lack, or the problem they are trying to solve.

Doing some good customer research in advance of any development costs will ensure that you do not waste any time or money on products that nobody wants to buy.

It is also helpful to check back with your customers during the development to ensure that you are still developing the right product. In particular, check that you are not over-engineering the quality: sometimes good enough is all that is necessary or required.

The price that you charge is important, because it will determine the profit that you make on the product or service.

It must, therefore, be greater than the cost of producing the goods or services.

However, a product is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it, so it needs to be priced competitively: consistent with what others are charging for similar goods or services.

Pricing also sends a signal to your customers:

• Cheap often indicates a ‘no-frills’ product, without any added extras.
• Expensive may indicate a ‘luxury’ product, or one that has some added value such as improved customer service.

What you charge will therefore influence your customers’ expectations of your product or service, and you need to ensure that you meet those expectations .

‘Place’ describes where and how your customers will buy your product or service, and how it will reach them.

This might be, for example, through your website, or in a particular shop or shops.

In considering ‘place’, you need to decide two things:

• How you will get the goods to that place; and
• How you will get the goods to the customer.

Research shows that delivery of goods bought online is very important to overall customer satisfaction, so should be a part of your overall strategy.

Promotion is how you communicate what you do and/or sell to your customers.

'Promotion' includes a whole range of activities, from branding through social media activity and advertising to sales management and special offers. It is designed to show customers why they should buy your product or service , and should therefore focus on benefits, and not just features.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that promotion is NOT one-way . Instead, you should see it as the way to start a conversation with your customers, and with your employees, who also need to understand the product.

It is important to look at a variety of channels, including print, online and mobile. Your promotion activity should focus on where your customers are, whether that is particular social media sites, or newspapers.

Your customers are unlikely to separate the product or service from those who provide it.

Your staff—and that means anyone who comes into contact with customers, even remotely, through something that they have written for the company website—are therefore vital. They will have an important effect on customer satisfaction . This is even more important now, because so many people are active on social media, and staff therefore can (and will) communicate with customers directly.

Staff will need to be adequately trained to understand their importance, and how to deal with customers.

Further Reading from Skills You Need

The Skills You Need Guide to Business Strategy and Analysis

Based on our popular management and analysis content the Skills You Need Guide to Business Strategy and Analysis is a straightforward and practical guide to business analysis.

This eBook is designed to give you the skills to help you understand your business, your market and your competitors.

It will help you understand why business analysis is important for strategy—and then enable you to use analytical tools effectively to position your business.

Processes was originally added for service industries, but there is increasing recognition that processes also affect customer experience in product companies.

What’s more, it is very clear that customer experience shapes customer satisfaction.

The experience starts from the first point of contact, and goes on until after the sale, including after-sales service. The process of handling customers at first contact, during sales and beyond, is therefore crucial to overall customer satisfaction. This might include:

• The website, and how the pages load;
• The ordering process: one-click or not, how the customer can pay and so on;
• The information provided to customers after purchase, including about any delays in delivery;
• The delivery time and method, and the way that the person delivering the product behaves; and
• The helpfulness of staff if the customer has to telephone or message for any reason.

Considering the process from end-to-end and from the customer’s perspective can help to avoid problems later on.

Physical evidence

Physical evidence refers to what the customer ‘sees’ of your product. It shows them what it would be like to own or use it.

It therefore includes your website, or your business premises or shop, models wearing your clothes, or photos of them doing so. It also includes customer testimonials, especially if they are on an independent reviewing site, and not under your control.

Like price, the physical evidence sends an important signal to your customer about your product , so it is important that, for example, your website sends the right impression of your product or service.

A collective endeavour

Marketing as a whole relies on all seven Ps.

It is essential to consider them as a whole, and not in isolation. Customers must experience a coherent view of your company and your product, and that can only come from viewing the customer experience from end-to-end across all seven Ps.

Continue to: Customer Segmentation Strategic Marketing

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7 Ps of Marketing – A Tool for Your Small Business

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The 7 Ps marketing mix is a marketing tool that will help your business to develop it’s marketing strategy by focusing on specific areas. Historically, the marketing mix was just 4Ps, but 3 more were added and it is now suggested that all 7 are considered as part of your marketing and promotional strategy, particularly if you are a service provider.

What is the 7 p’s marketing mix used for?

These 7 Ps are predominantly used by businesses as a focal point and as part of an overall marketing strategy.

They can assist with:

• Defining areas of success in the business that can be replicated and built on
• Defining issues in the business that are holding you back from being more profitable, productive or successful
• Setting objectives and targets – so you can move strategically towards your goals
• Competitive analysis – your business position in the market against your competitors
• SWOT analysis – analysis of your business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

The original 4Ps of the marketing mix tool are:

The additional 3Ps added, are:

• Physical Evidence

Using the 7Ps

You can use the 7 Ps as headings for discussion, of which the findings and conclusions can then be added to your marketing strategy, which should feature as part of your overall business plan.

Some of the things you can focus on under each of the 7P headings, include:

PRODUCT – this could be your SERVICE if you are a service provider

• Is your product branded effectively?
• How do your customers rate the quality of your product?
• Is there recurrent negative feedback about the same thing?
• Are there improvements that could be made?
• Is your product brand strong?
• Do you offer a guarantee?
• Do you have availability or stock?
• Could you take on more customers or orders?
• How does your product compare when it comes to the market price?
• When was the last time you reviewed your pricing?
• When was the last time you altered your price in-line with inflation, or market supply and demand?
• Is your pricing model clear and easy to communicate?
• Do you know your profit margin on each product you offer?
• Do you provide any added-value to your offering?
• Do you offer the most appropriate payment methods for the customer?
• Do you offer credit facilities?
• Do they need updating?
• Do they give the right messages?
• How could you refine your sales process?
• What PR activity are you doing?
• Do you have a marketing budget? Should it stay the same, or change this year?
• Do you network to promote your business?
• Is your product available in the place where your customers shop?
• Is your product visible to your target market?
• Are you visible on social media?
• Do you have the right people to sell your product / service?
• Do you have the right amount of marketing support?
• Are the right people in your team, in the right roles?
• Do you need more, or less resources?
• Could you outsource some of your work to reduce commitment on costs?
• Do you have the right culture within the team?
• Do you have a good recruitment, training and appraisal system for staff?
• Is your sales process efficient?
• Are your processes customer focused?
• Do you have a good process for dealing with technology issues?
• Have you established systems for as many things as possible within your marketing and sales process?

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

• This could apply to the way a service is delivered, including any physical documentation
• What is the online experience if the product is delivered digitally?

These are just ideas and you will for sure come across other questions and thoughts that are relevant to your business.

Why not get your team together (or you partner / best friend if you are a sole trader) and have some fun by trying to really cover all the individual elements of your business. Be constructively critical and also realistic with what you can achieve within certain timeframes.

Why the marketing mix is still used from the 80s until now.

The marketing mix concept may seem dated as it was developed in the 1980s and we now live and work in a rapidly changing commercial environment.

However, it remains effective as the logic behind each of the 7 Ps remains constant yet they are flexible enough to be able to be adapted to suit the new style of communications, for example social media.

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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.

As the Co-founder and Creative Director of Amarra, I intertwine the Marketing 7Ps into our broader strategy for our high-end formal attire brand. It’s not laborious, but an essential aspect of our business for successful marketing. Firstly, Product is always at our core. We handcraft exclusive attire for special occasions, keeping a keen eye on design, textures, and patterns. By focusing on Price, we balance affordability with high-quality craftsmanship, ensuring customers see the value in what they buy. In terms of Place, we’ve expanded our distribution network to over 850 international stores. Promotion is managed primarily through our digital platforms, ensuring constant communication with our audience. For the People aspect, we focus on maintaining a team that shares our vision and commitment to excellence. Process involves streamlining our operations for efficiency, from design to delivery. Lastly, the Physical environment finds its place in the stores we partner with, ensuring they reflect our brand’s ethos. Tracking our results, we’ve seen promising growth with increased global brand recognition and steady sales. Our online engagement rates have gone up, the employee satisfaction score is EXEMPLARY, and expansion into new markets is showing positive projections. So, it’s safe to say that the strategy has been fruitful for Amarra. Abhi Madan , Co-Founder & Creative Director of  Amarra

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 .

As the Founder and CEO at Digital Silk, a leading digital agency, my team and I indeed incorporate the 7Ps of marketing into our strategy. Their comprehensive approach ensures that we leave no stone unturned. Product, price, promotion, place, people, process, and physical evidence – they all form a roadmap to guide our efforts comprehensively. For instance, we treat ‘Product’ as the digital experiences we offer – these are not tangible but are designed to meet and exceed our clients’ needs. ‘Price’ is always customized to ensure maximum value against investment for every client. Our ‘Promotion’ involves high-profile clients like NASA and the IMF, earned through our commitment to quality. ‘Place’ in the context of a digital agency, is every touchpoint online where we interact with leads and clients. Recognizing ‘People’ as an essential element, we have built a team with diverse skill sets, which enable us to handle varied projects with excellence. The ‘Process’ at Digital Silk is firmly guided by a hands-on approach and adherence to excellence, ensuring client satisfaction. We employ continuous tracking and optimization measures for better ‘Performance’. Regarding ‘Physical evidence’, in a digitally-centered business like ours, it’s reflected in semantics and visual elements on our website that present a coherent brand image. This strategy and its systematic implementation have directly impacted our growth and the success of our clients. For instance, through this holistic approach, we’ve achieved an average client retention rate of 92% and seen a consistent 15% YoY growth in our business. Gabriel Shaoolian , Founder and CEO at  Digital Silk

As a seasoned traveler and successful entrepreneur who runs Miss Tourist, a travel resource website drawing 400k visitors each month, I’ve effectively incorporated the Marketing 7Ps in our strategy. Our product, unlike physical commodities, is the vast knowledge and travel advice we offer. Place involves our strategic digital presence, mainly through our website and social media. Price is reflected not in direct charging, but in strategic advertising and partnerships. Promotion methods are varied, including SEO, collaborations, viral content, and more. People focuses on our multi-cultural remote team, each contributing a unique perspective. Our processes are streamlined – from content creation, editing, SEO optimizing, to engagement tracking, it’s all meticulously planned. Lastly, physical evidence is evident in the positive responses, testimonials, and successful travels our audience has had following our advice. According to data analytics, our strategic use of the Marketing 7Ps has contributed to a consistent 15% increase in annual traffic, affirming its importance in our business promotion. It’s not laborious, but a fundamental pillar that shapes our branding and growth strategies. Yulia Saf ,  Miss Tourist .

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 –

• Personalization, and

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.

Related Reads on this Topic:

• How to Grow Views and Engagement to Your Instagram Reels
• How to Use Instagram Reels for Your Small Business
• How to Create Successful Giveaways on Instagram
• How to Gain Instagram Followers on Autopilot using Tech!
• How to Gain Followers and Monetize Your Twitter
• Lead Generation on LinkedIn: A Complete Guide

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.

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.

The reason why the 7Ps marketing model is important is that it gives a foundation for creating useful promotional plans, establishing strong customer relations, driving business growth and gaining competitive advantage in the market. The pillars of the 7Ps model – Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Process and Physical Evidence are key constituents that offer a holistic framework for marketing teams to deliver value to customers and set the stage for unmatched brands. Moreover, this model underscores the need for businesses to understand and meet the wants as well as preferences of their clients. By taking into account people and physical evidence, enterprises may customize their marketing strategies so as to increase consumer satisfaction levels while fostering loyalty which will result into repeat purchases. Over time this concept has been employed in traditional marketing strategies but has equally found its way into contemporary digital platforms through integration. When alluded to across all these touch points it greatly improves on reaching out more clients while at the same making campaigns adaptable based on real time information collected from different sources. For instance, under the Promotion element, social media ads targeting specific audience segments can be coupled with email automation or personalized content delivery. In this case marketers can collect instant analytics about how well their campaigns are performing from various online sources such as blogs or forums hence enabling them track campaign performance in order to adjust messages and optimize targeting thereby achieving higher engagement rates leading conversion rates. When it comes to the People element, AI driven chatbots could be employed for immediate customer service responses based on user behavior during web browsing sessions. Consequently, businesses will have access to instant insights into what customers think about particular products through sentiment analysis carried out over digital channels thereby enabling companies tailor make offerings meet client needs better while improving service quality which drives loyalty even further. Michael Kiel , Founder of  Boat Planet

Yes, at DealA, we integrate the 7P’s into our marketing strategy as an integral component to streamline our business and deliver value to customers. 1. ‘Product’: Our ‘product’ is a user-friendly platform offering genuine promotional codes from over 30,000 brands. 2. ‘Price’: Our ‘price’ is the savings users unlock via our platform, carefully calibrated to ensure they get the best deals. 3. ‘Place’: We have optimized our ‘place’ to be accessible online, thereby reaching a global, digital-savvy audience. 4. ‘Promotion’: Our ‘promotion’ involves strategic advertising, SEO-optimized content, social media, and email campaigns underscored by user behavioral data. 5. ‘People’: Our ‘people’ are at the center of our strategy. We invest in capable talents who incorporate customer insight into each marketing initiative. 6. ‘Process’: Our ‘process’ is technology-driven, focusing on web development, AI and data analytics to streamline user interaction and automate marketing tasks. 7. ‘Physical Evidence’: Our ‘physical evidence’ is the testimonials and reviews from satisfied customers, which serve as social proof of our service quality. We track results using KPIs like website traffic, conversion rate, customer retention, and savings unlocked by users. Over the past year alone, we’ve seen a 35% increase in conversion rates and a 50% increase in customer retention, reinforcing the efficacy of integrating the 7Ps into our strategy. Oleg Segal , Founder and CEO of  DealA.com

In running Or & Zon, the Marketing 7Ps play a decisive role in our strategic framework and are indeed far from being laborious. Rather, I find them to be extremely crucial in marketing a niche, artisanal business like ours. Let’s take ‘Product’ for instance. My team and I ensure that every item we offer is handcrafted, unique and has a story. This is a clear reflection of the craftsmanship so diligently preserved by the artisans we work with globally. Turning to ‘Price’, we prioritize transparency, valuing the time, effort, and skill set invested by each artisan, which reflects in our pricing. With ‘Place’, we’ve leveraged technology and our expertise in e-commerce to make these products accessible around the globe. Our ‘Promotions’ revolve around storytelling and celebrating every individual craft, aimed at inspiring a deep connection with our clientele. ‘People’, ‘Process’, and ‘Physical Evidence’, are predominantly about creating superior customer experiences. For instance, every step of the shopping process on our Shopify platform is made to be simple, smooth and secure. Lastly, ‘Physical Evidence’ comes to life through meticulously crafted packaging that heightens the unboxing experience. As far as tracking results, our key tracking metrics encompass sales performance, customer satisfaction scores and retention rates. Over time, implementing the 7Ps has resulted in increased repeat purchases and a 25% year-on-year growth for Or & Zon. Guillaume Drew , Founder & CEO of  Or & Zon

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 [email protected] !

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Extended Marketing Mix (7P's)

Last updated 18 Feb 2018

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The extended marketing mix (7P's) is the combination of seven elements of marketing that aim to work together to achieve the objectives of a marketing strategy. These 7 elements are: product; price; place; promotion; people; process and physical.

The short video below provides an overview of the Extended Marketing Mix (7P's) concept and there are some additional study notes below the video. 

• Marketing mix
• Extended Marketing Mix (7p's)

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How To Write A Business Plan (2024 Guide)

Updated: Apr 17, 2024, 11:59am

Table of Contents

Brainstorm an executive summary, create a company description, brainstorm your business goals, describe your services or products, conduct market research, create financial plans, bottom line, frequently asked questions.

Every business starts with a vision, which is distilled and communicated through a business plan. In addition to your high-level hopes and dreams, a strong business plan outlines short-term and long-term goals, budget and whatever else you might need to get started. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to write a business plan that you can stick to and help guide your operations as you get started.

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Drafting the Summary

An executive summary is an extremely important first step in your business. You have to be able to put the basic facts of your business in an elevator pitch-style sentence to grab investors’ attention and keep their interest. This should communicate your business’s name, what the products or services you’re selling are and what marketplace you’re entering.

Ask for Help

When drafting the executive summary, you should have a few different options. Enlist a few thought partners to review your executive summary possibilities to determine which one is best.

After you have the executive summary in place, you can work on the company description, which contains more specific information. In the description, you’ll need to include your business’s registered name , your business address and any key employees involved in the business. 

The business description should also include the structure of your business, such as sole proprietorship , limited liability company (LLC) , partnership or corporation. This is the time to specify how much of an ownership stake everyone has in the company. Finally, include a section that outlines the history of the company and how it has evolved over time.

Wherever you are on the business journey, you return to your goals and assess where you are in meeting your in-progress targets and setting new goals to work toward.

Numbers-based Goals

Goals can cover a variety of sections of your business. Financial and profit goals are a given for when you’re establishing your business, but there are other goals to take into account as well with regard to brand awareness and growth. For example, you might want to hit a certain number of followers across social channels or raise your engagement rates.

Another goal could be to attract new investors or find grants if you’re a nonprofit business. If you’re looking to grow, you’ll want to set revenue targets to make that happen as well.

Intangible Goals

Goals unrelated to traceable numbers are important as well. These can include seeing your business’s advertisement reach the general public or receiving a terrific client review. These goals are important for the direction you take your business and the direction you want it to go in the future.

The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you’re offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit in the current market or are providing something necessary or entirely new. If you have any patents or trademarks, this is where you can include those too.

If you have any visual aids, they should be included here as well. This would also be a good place to include pricing strategy and explain your materials.

This is the part of the business plan where you can explain your expertise and different approach in greater depth. Show how what you’re offering is vital to the market and fills an important gap.

You can also situate your business in your industry and compare it to other ones and how you have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Other than financial goals, you want to have a budget and set your planned weekly, monthly and annual spending. There are several different costs to consider, such as operational costs.

Business Operations Costs

Rent for your business is the first big cost to factor into your budget. If your business is remote, the cost that replaces rent will be the software that maintains your virtual operations.

Marketing and sales costs should be next on your list. Devoting money to making sure people know about your business is as important as making sure it functions.

Other Costs

Although you can’t anticipate disasters, there are likely to be unanticipated costs that come up at some point in your business’s existence. It’s important to factor these possible costs into your financial plans so you’re not caught totally unaware.

Business plans are important for businesses of all sizes so that you can define where your business is and where you want it to go. Growing your business requires a vision, and giving yourself a roadmap in the form of a business plan will set you up for success.

How do I write a simple business plan?

When you’re working on a business plan, make sure you have as much information as possible so that you can simplify it to the most relevant information. A simple business plan still needs all of the parts included in this article, but you can be very clear and direct.

What are some common mistakes in a business plan?

The most common mistakes in a business plan are common writing issues like grammar errors or misspellings. It’s important to be clear in your sentence structure and proofread your business plan before sending it to any investors or partners.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business,  an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

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Julia is a writer in New York and started covering tech and business during the pandemic. She also covers books and the publishing industry.

Kelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist covering small business marketing content. She is a former Google Tech Entrepreneur and she holds an MSc in International Marketing from Edinburgh Napier University. Additionally, she is a Columnist at Inc. Magazine.

Home Free PowerPoint Templates Free 7 P’s Marketing Mix PowerPoint Templates

Download Free 7 P’s Marketing Mix PowerPoint Templates

The Free 7 P’s Marketing Mix PowerPoint Templates are business concept presentation layouts. 7 P’s is a continuous reevaluation model for business marketing strategies. These seven P’s are product, price, promotion, place, packaging, positioning, and people. The products, market, and customer’s needs change rapidly. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously check 7 P’s to make sure you are up-to-date with current marketplace.

This market positioning diagram template provides a circular process cycle with market mix core unit. It displays all seven components of marketing concept with the help of clipart icons. For instance, a retail store for market place, shopping bag for packaging, megaphone for promotions, etc. These graphics will assist in creating a mental image of marketing mix elements. In this way, presenter can describe company’s approach toward each component by simply looking at clipart PowerPoint shape.

Free 7 P’s Marketing Mix PowerPoint Templates offers 9 slides with two content layout designs. The circular diagram template shows merge of both 4 P’s and 7 P’s marketing mix. This diagram highlights 4 P’s factors with arrow shapes i.e. Place, Promotion, Price, and Product. There are 7 additional slides of a circular diagram with text placeholders. These slides will help describe strategies and requirements of all seven components individually. The subsequent 7 slides are suitable for staff meetings or training material.

The second template layout of 7 P’s marketing plan PowerPoint template demonstrates a table format. It gives an overview of all seven segments with a brief description of business approach. The plain white PowerPoint background will allow users to easily copy slides into any presentation theme. Simply copy and paste PowerPoint slides by choosing Match Destination Theme option. The Google Slides Theme of 7 P’s marketing mix is also available that users can copy for online presentations.

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