Marketing Mix: How Many Ps In Marketing - 4Ps, 7Ps, 11Ps or More?
One of the most famous concepts in marketing is the marketing mix or the 4P's of marketing.I will look at the traditional marketing mix, how the marketing mix has been extended for service marketing with the 7Ps of Marketing.
I then consider just how many Ps there are in marketing since there have been many derivations of the marketing mix. In the comments section, you will find many different versions of the marketing mix based on a wide variety of Ps of marketing.
Which is right for you?
Whatever gives you new insights into making your marketing more successful.
The Marketing Mix or 4 P's of Marketing
The marketing mix was designed as a simple way to focus on the main elements of marketing for a business and to create a marketing strategy either at business, product or campaign level.
Some clever marketer played around with the words and realised that the concepts could be described with words beginning with the letter P - and created the 4Ps of marketing.
- Product - what you are selling
- Price - how much you are charging for your product
- Promotion - how you tell people about your offer i.e. your product and price
- Place - how people can buy your product
To sell the right product (that customers want) at the right price (which customers can afford and are willing to pay) at a convenient place using effective promotions.
Each element of the marketing mix should be consistent, fit together and reinforce the other elements.
So you don't market a premium product at a "pile 'em high" price.
You don't market a premium product with tatty "done from home by your 9 year old daughter" promotional material - unless of course it is targeted at people with 9 year old daughters.
And you don't sell your premium product at the local flea market.
Remember the marketing mix is about consistent fit.
Criticisms Of The Marketing Mix and the 4 P's of Marketing
The marketing mix has been a mainstay of teaching marketing to students and professionals for fifty years although, like any well established idea, it is also criticised.
One thought is that it is too product focused and doesn't translate well into the growing service based economy we live in - see the Service Marketing Mix below).
Others criticise the marketing mix as a tool for setting marketing strategy because it doesn't have a goal - or I suppose beginning with P that should be Purpose - making a profit, generating quick cash flow, a low priced front end product which opens up the opportunity for future sales.
Without establishing purpose, how do you know if you have a marketing mix which is suitable?
An equally relevant criticism is the internal focus - where is the customer in the discussion of marketing, which however you dress it up, is concerned with persuading particular customers to buy.
So in this case, we should be adding another P - for purchaser to keep the focus on the target customer, what they want, need and what motivates them.
And if marketing is about wanting customers to buy, the traditional marketing mix is for suppliers pushing products into the marketplace and not customers pulling products out of the potential suppliers based on their needs and wants through market research.
I can't think of a word beginning with P for the research issue so at the moment I'm going with Push/Pull to communicate the idea in a new marketing mix. (Please leave comments with any suggestions).
If customers need to feel confident before they buy - to know, like and trust you - then there is no mention of the development of Personal relationships which are an essential element of 21st century marketing.
Just to recap I have suggested that the marketing mix is missing:
- Purpose (normally profit)
- Purchaser
- Push/Pull
- Personal relationships
In my MBA I was taught the traditional marketing mix based on the 4Ps and also taught the Service Marketing Mix or the 7Ps of marketing.
This picked up the traditional marketing mix of Product, Price, Promotion and Place and added:
- People - services are performed by people whose performance influences the quality of the service delivered and perceived to be delivered.
- Process - it's not just the attitudes of the person that matters but the process they use to provide the service.
- Physical evidence - services are intangible so the customer looks for physical clues about the quality.
So far we have the original 4Ps of marketing, the extra 3 Ps added in the Service Marketing Mix and my four based on critiquing the marketing mix.
That takes us up to 11 Ps of marketing.
UK Marketing expert Fraser Hay published a list of the 5 fundamental principles of marketing:
- Positioning
- Packaging
- Promotion
- Persuasion
- Performance
Then I Started Brainstorming About Marketing
Do the 15 Ps identified so far summarise what marketing has to offer and the important characteristics of marketing?
I don't think so.
The first marketing book I ever read - getting on for 25 years ago was Offensive Marketing by Hugh Davison - it got me hooked. That book used an acronym of POISE.
- Profitable - even in loss leading campaigns and image advertising to build brands, there has to be a clear path to profit.
- Offensive - perhaps Proactive would be more suitable in this situation.
- Integrated - your marketing has to Pull together and not consistent of a scatter gun approach of different campaigns which send out conflicting messages.
- Strategic - I mentioned Purposeful earlier
- Effective - it has to work. Marketing that creates results is an investment, marketing that produces nothing is a waste of time, effort and money so the best P I can come up with is Perform - this is different to Fraser's performance which I believe relates to the product or service you provide.
We are bombarded with marketing messages and spam coming into our email inboxes so Seth Goden's concept of Permission Marketing is becoming increasingly relevant - and Permission is another P.
And isn't marketing about helping a customer finding a solution to a Problem?
Aren't customers motivated by the thoughts of moving away from Pain or towards Pleasure?
One of the key factors I stress in my marketing coaching is the need to be intentional - to decide what you want and to work out how you will achieve it - i.e to Plan your marketing.
Further thinking brings in two extra Ps - you need to have Periodic communications since one message won't do the job and you need to be Persistent.
In fact because of the difficulty of building up the know, like and trust factors, one of the most successful marketing strategies is to work through Partners who are already trusted.
And what is the most important thing that determines whether a customer buys - what is going on inside their heads - logically and emotionally which brings in the twin forces of Psychology and Perceptions.
The New Marketing Mix
Have I convinced you that seeing marketing in terms of the traditional marketing mix of the 4Ps or the service marketing mix of 7Ps is too simplistic?
So how does the new marketing mix appeal - the 27P's of Marketing (and counting)
- Product
- Price
- Promotion
- Place
- People
- Process
- Physical evidence
- Purpose
- Purchaser
- Push/pull
- Personal relationships
- Positioning
- Packaging
- Persuasion
- Performance
- Profitable
- Proactive
- Pull together
- Perform
- Permission
- Pain
- Pleasure
- Periodic
- Persistent
- Partners
- Psychology
- Perceptions
OK what key marketing concept have I forgotten? Inevitably there are bound to be things that I have missed so please leave a comment and let me know.
One P That Marketing Isn't
There is one thing that marketing can never be.
Perfect.
Whatever you do can be improved.
And the 27s Ps of the new Marketing Mix are a good place to start.
In the comments section, I have outlined various versions of the marketing mix / Ps of marketing model.
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