The 7Ps of marketing

In our very first article, we talked about one of the basic concepts of marketing called the marketing mix or the 4Ps of marketing (link: ). Later, the concept was further extended to include 3 more Ps and it’s now called the 7Ps of marketing. With constantly evolving markets and customers, it is important to focus on all 7 elements of the concept to devise a fool-proof marketing strategy.

Let us go back to our chewing gum business. You did everything that you can by focusing on the 4Ps – Product, Price, Promotion and Place but still your sales are not picking up. You are facing stiff competition from giants like boomer and Wrigley’s and you decide to now explore the remaining 3Ps of the marketing mix.

People: This element includes all the people who are directly or indirectly involved in marketing and selling Chewy chewing gum. This includes employees who are involved in the design, manufacturing, packaging, marketing and the final sales of your product. It also includes managers and other employees who indirectly impact sales.

For your product to sell, it is important to have the right people on board. Chewy’s employees should have the right set of skills and alignment with business objectives to make significant contributions to the business.

Physical Evidence: This includes any evidence that can prove that your product exists and that consumers could purchase the same. Factors like packaging, shop displays, invoices, brochures, posters and banners are all evidences that prove that Chewy is available for consumption.

Other aspects like having a website and social media pages where Chewy’s fans talk about how they love the gum and its flavour, are also considered as physical evidence.

Process: This element covers all the processes and activities that are involved in delivering the product to your consumer. This encompasses manufacturing, the sales funnel, distribution and even customer relationship management. Process becomes significant in any business because optimizing the same can help the business save costs and therefore reap more profits.

Alignment of all processes and activities is also highly essential to make sure that the beloved Chewy chewing gum reaches its consumers.

Fortunately, there are no more Ps to learn and a good understanding of the 7Ps would help craft the marketing strategy for our chewing gum business. The 7Ps can be used as a marketing tool for any product and service. A good examination of all the elements would help us understand where we are lacking in our strategy. However, remember what we told you in the first article. This is just one of the tools of marketing so use it wisely and only in places where it’s required.