The 7 Ps of Marketing - A Pocket Guide for Entrepreneurs

There was a time when marketing was dominated by processes like word of mouth, passing down product brochures, and making cold calls. The modern-day marketing, however, is a completely different ballgame. Today, businesses have to add in a blend of successful marketing strategies to take products or services to their customers in places and situations where they are most likely to make the buy.

To tackle this, several companies today are using the concept of the 7Ps in marketing in their business marketing mix. The importance of marketing mix 7Ps can be witnessed through -

• Differentiation from competitors
• Greater flexibility to change
• Identified priorities
• Ability to reach new prospects
• Increased in-company collaboration
• Better customer  engagement
• Building brand identity
• Easy adoption of new strategies 
• Better idea of what is working.

Achieving all these benefits would require you to integrate seven pillars of marketing in your digital marketing strategy.

What are the 7Ps of the marketing mix?

Today, companies use the 7Ps of the marketing mix to evaluate their marketing plan and see if it would help them reach their goals. In order to do that, they would need a clear understanding of what the seven Ps of marketing even stand for. Let’s get to that.

1. Product

Product means anything the business sells - a service, physical product, or even experience. Irrespective of how you position your brand - the identity and tone you set - the product is the basis of any digital marketing strategy. When you think of products, think about elements like their packaging, features, quality, and problems they will solve for the customers. 

Ultimately, the product is what the customers will care about - sometimes even more than the customer service experience.

When building successful marketing strategies around the product, here are the questions you should ask -

• What do customers expect from your product?

• What will the customers be doing with it, and how will they be using it?

• What features would be necessary to address a customer’s requirements?
• What sets the product ahead of your competitor?

2. Price

Price in the 7Ps of marketing is probably the most critical element of a marketing mix. Every product comes at a price; what is important is to know what it would be. You will need to determine how much the customers are looking to pay, the amount you will have to set to cover the overheads and labor costs, the profit margins, and the payment methods.

Any mistake on this end would affect the customers’ perceived value of the product and your ability to gain high ROI. Finding the best balance around price in the 7Ps of marketing mix takes businesses through multiple pricing strategies.

Here are some of those strategies -

When fixing the price in the 7Ps of marketing mix, answer questions like:

• Is the price favorable?
• How is the price compared to competitors?
• Are you offering any discounts?
• Do you have multiple payment models?

3. Place

This part of the 7Ps in marketing refers to the place you will be selling your product or service from. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a physical location but can also be a website, social media profile, or kiosk. 

The place you select carries an impact on how your customers would reach your business and is what differentiates a local brand from a global one.  

When fixing the place part in the seven pillars of marketing, here are some questions you should seek answers to:

• What are the places buyers will be looking for your product?
• What is your distribution strategy, and how does it compare to your competitors?
• Will you remain a local brand, or will you take the global route to sell your product or service?

4. Promotion

Promotion in 7Ps of marketing strategy decides the success of your brand. The more well-strategized your marketing is, the sooner it will reach the target audience and convince them to become your customers. 

The end goal of promotion in 7Ps of marketing strategy typically falls around these categories - raising awareness about a product, increasing sales, building or changing brand image, and generating revenue. 

When defining this part of the 7Ps marketing strategy, here are the questions that should be answered:

• When and how do you want to reach your audience?
• How does your competitor promote themselves?
• When is the right time to promote your business?
• What are the most profitable/high-impact ways to promote your brand?

Answering these and creating a fail-proof promotion strategy becomes easier when you partner with the top mobile app marketing companies.

5. People

One of the most critical success factors behind the seven pillars of marketing is the people working behind it. It is necessary for the teams - across domains - to be experienced, fully trained, and knowledgeable. They should know how different aspects of the processes impact the customer experience. While this part of the 7Ps of marketing revolves mainly around an HR’s job role, the marketing role comes in when the product’s value has to be explained to the internal teams. 

When designing 7Ps in marketing on people's end, here are the things you should consider:

• What are your employee hiring and retention strategy?
• Have you defined the KRA of every team member?
• What is your training practice?

6. Process

From building a product to the part where it reaches the end users is the process part of the seven Ps of marketing. It typically consists of factors like how the business runs, how the service is delivered, how the product packaging looks, the ways your customer will move down the funnel, and more. 

Usually, the more personalized and seamless your business process is, the happier will be the customers as they buy your product.

Ask these questions when fixing the process section of 7Ps marketing strategy:

• How are you making your product personalized?
• What are the inefficiencies in your existing process?
• What is your customer service process like compared to competitors?

7. Physical evidence 

This part of the seven Ps of marketing consists of factors that determine your company’s existence, its genuinity, and the fact that a sale occurred. Usually, the validation that your brand exists lies in having a website, social media profiles, and a well-thought-of post-sale process like emails, downloadable receipts, etc. 

The more trust you are able to show through your product or service, the better will be your chances of getting a loyal user base. One way to address that would be to get your product reviewed by a known digital agency like MobileAppDaily. 

With this, you now have the answer to what are the 7Ps of marketing. The next step would be to relook at your marketing strategy and see if these elements are addressed in the document with unforeseen market changes in consideration. The more predictive your marketing strategy, the better will be the chances of it becoming future-ready. 

We advise not to look at the designing of the 7Ps marketing strategy as a one-time activity but one that you should revisit every time there is a new competitor, you are rebranding, and you change your product creation and promotion strategy. To make the process easier, you can always partner with marketing agencies that excel in the seven Ps.