There are 8 P’s of Marketing namely – Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Positioning, Processes, and Performance. These 8 P’s work together for our marketing mix to do a profitable business. If you excel in this marketing mix, you have better chances of attracting people and converting them into your customers.
So, Let’s get starts with understanding a deeper concept of the 8 P’s of the marketing mix. It will drive the marketing campaign and generate more leads with a high conversion ratio.
What is Marketing Mix?
A marketing mix is holistic marketing. Its main aim is to approach the marketing strategy for your products or services and it centers on your target market. It helps you resonate with customers and it gives direction to various activities and marketing management across departments in your company.
With an effective marketing mix, you can achieve company goals with various elements working together.
The original marketing mix was a top-down managerial approach that evolved into the 4 Ps of marketing – product, price, place, and promotion.
It’s since further evolved into the popular 7 Ps marketing mix, adding people, processes, and positioning to the mix. And even the 7Cs Compass Model.
But if you’re like us, you like to take things a step further. The 8 Ps adds ‘performance’ to the list.
These 8 Ps are more helpful for a modern marketing mix.
Who invented the 8 Ps of marketing?
The 4 Ps definition is a set of business principles devised by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960. In 1967, Philip Kotler defined the marketing mix as a set of controllable variables. McCarthy was an American marketing professor who taught at Michigan State University and he’s the author of several books on business management, marketing, and advertising.
So, who invented the 8 Ps of marketing?
In his book “Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach”, Professor McCarthy proposed the 4 Ps marketing mix as a tool for developing a marketing strategy.
Later, the 4 Ps extend to the 7 Ps of marketing. In 1981, professors Bernard Booms and Mary Jo Bitner published Marketing strategies and organizational structures for service firms where they presented the 7Ps of the marketing mix.
The 8 Ps definition adds performance to the 7 Ps definition and it has become widely adopted by businesses across all industries because it’s simple to understand and apply.
8 P’s of Marketing
1. Product
The first P is the product. in the 8 P’s of marketing. It is the heart of a successful marketing strategy. Products are the things that you sell to earn a profit. It can be in the form of tangible and intangible products and services offered.
Products should be made in such a way as to meet the needs and want of the target audience.
We need to inform the customers about the features and benefits of the products to persuade them to purchase the product. Customers are drawn to products that offer value, meet their needs and make lives easier.
For example – Apple drove the maximum audience towards its business with logo design, which is quite unique and innovative. It is known for its innovative and high-quality products. The company’s products are marketed as being cutting-edge, stylish, and easy to use.
2. Price
Price is the next important factor in the marketing strategy that determines whether the results are favorable to a business or against it. Before calculating the manufacturing cost of the product, we should study the market to understand the capability of the customers to pay for the product which we are manufacturing.
The pricing strategy should be such that it can drive a maximum number of people to become customers, handsome profit, and growth of the business.
If you get it wrong, you could lose customers to your competitors. When you price your product too high, people may be unwilling to buy it. If you price it too low, you may not make a profit.
So, the pricing strategy affects profitability. It can determine who your potential customers will be and it can affect customer satisfaction.
This is true in the competitive business world, where pricing drives promotion strategy. This is where new companies gain market shares and ‘penetrate’ the market, undersell competitors, and eventually create a race to the bottom.
To avoid this, you’ll want to conduct a considerable amount of analysis of your target market and put a reasonable amount of price for the product to gain brand image, profit, and target customers.
For example – the price of an iPhone is high compared to other smartphones on the market. This is because Apple has positioned itself as a premium brand and charges a premium price for its products.
3. Place
Place refers to where your product or service is bought, sold, and experienced. Products are sold in retail or digitally online.
Depending on the product, we decide how to sell and where to sell the product. We must define an area to sell our products to the target market at a lucrative price. The place can also refer to promotional channels like sponsoring sporting events, and movies.
If you’re selling a product that needs to be stored in a warehouse, you need to find a place that has the necessary space.
First, you must understand the differences between national and international markets. Rolling out any new product in the local or national market is much easier than in the international markets due to the competition, differences in market expectations, and audience mindset.
Similarly, the demand for products in retail and online it’s quite different. It depends not only on the products but also on where you want to roll out your newly manufactured sets of products. For example, if we consider the US, people will always prefer to buy online. But when we consider a developing country like Bangladesh or Pakistan, the retail chain of business will be more lucrative.
4. Promotion
Promotion is how you influence your target audience to become prospective buyers for your business. It will include preparation, persuasion, and appeal.
There are three different ways to promote the product. Direct marketing is where you verbally get the word out about the new product being launched in the market, while traditional advertising means using banners, pamphlets, and several other mediums for marketing the product. You can also try PPC, social media campaigns, and online marketing.
It makes people aware of the newly manufactured products in the market and targeted customers get attracted towards it.
Promotion means talking about the products. Its features, and how the product benefits the customers and makes their lives easier. It is like giving messages to customers through all channels.
A shared message across these channels increases marketing coverage and creates a brand image in the mind of customers. It helps build familiarity with potential customers. This leads to trust and positive expectations of your brand. For example – Coca-Cola is one of the most well-known brands in the world and it spends billions of dollars on promotional activities each year.
5. People
Next, P in the marketing mix is the target audience or people. We need to understand which section of the audience to target to get the maximum revenue for the business.
You need to have a team of people who are responsible for promoting and selling the product, creating and executing the marketing strategy, and managing the business.
The team should work together to complete the company’s goals and objectives. It has a critical impact on our marketing efforts.
That’s why an effective content marketing team takes a human approach to SEO efforts. Respect and empathy are more than just keywords. They are the foundation of a sustainable marketing strategy.
For example – Let’s say your business is involved with manufacturing outdoor furniture. Your target audience should not be the entire residential customers. This is because not everyone living in a house wishes to get a set of outdoor furniture. Instead, your target audience will be those who like to spend time in nature, have a backyard or lawn that can be used to place the furniture, and so on.
For example – A company might have a marketing team that is responsible for creating and executing the marketing plan. The team might also include people who are responsible for advertising, public relations, and social media.
6. Positioning
Positioning means your standing in the market. It will involve what you offer, the audience to whom you are offering, how you communicate with customers and prospects, what the audience wants, how to help the audience get the right product, and several such aspects.
It also helps direct your public relations strategy. All other aspects of your marketing mix and competitive environment will play a direct role in your positioning.
All other aspects of the marketing mix together create this marketing mix i.e., positioning in the market.
It takes time to develop the positioning and the company must be very strategic. The company should not hurt the brand image to please the masses.
It is very difficult for luxury brands to maintain prestige with budget-priced offerings.
7. Processes
Processes define the strategies and techniques that a business adopts to deliver products to customers.
To be successful, businesses need to have an efficient process in place. This includes all aspects of the business from manufacturing to sales and marketing, packaging of the materials, branding, shipment management, and other aspects as well.
Processes need to be aligned with the companies’ objectives and goals through fair and standardized key performance indicators. They also need to be efficient so that the company can compete in the market effectively. It can set clear, company-wide expectations and it helps to save the cost of time when training new hires.
8. Performance
Last but not the least, we have a performance marketing mix. The performance of the business depends on the return on investment, brand reputation in the market, and the total revenues earned through marketing strategies.
The goal is to strengthen connections through shared interests and values. These are often environmental and social causes trending at any given time.
Conclusion
The 8 Ps of marketing can be used as a marketing mix strategy for any type of business or organization.
It is remarkably effective as a form of symbiotic marketing that applies to all types of products and services.
The prime benefit of using the mix is that it contains strategies that target multiple aspects of a marketing funnel to drive more revenues and sales for the business.
Although there are several types of marketing mixes, the 8P’s is said to be the best one.
After all, the biggest player in the tech market, Apple implemented it and took the revenues to billions in a few days.
