Mailchimp has the tools and resources to help you plan and run effective campaigns, so you can reach your goals. 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. 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. 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: 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:
There are five components to successful product-led marketing that are important for product marketers to take into consideration:
Many factors go into a pricing model. Brands may:
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:
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:
Here are the ways you can use these channels together:
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:
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:
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:
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:
If you get more than one customer complaint about any process, pinpoint what's going wrong and figure out how to fix it. 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. 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.
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:
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. 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.
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. The 4 P's are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
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. |