The Book on Marketing: The 7 Ps of Marketing.

THE 7 Ps of Marketing.

The marketing mix is a combination of choices made in a few different areas to satisfy client needs. E.J. McCarthy has previously listed the Marketing Mix's four components. Product, price, promotion, and place or physical distribution are a few of them. These components are often referred to as the "four Ps of Marketing Mix." One further component—people—was added to the 4 Ps as marketing developed as a discipline. Eventually, two additional Ps—Process and Physical evidence—that are tailored to the service industry were introduced. 

These factors are connected because choices made in one area frequently influence choices made in other areas. The term "Marketing Mix" is frequently used to describe this combination or blend of components. Basically, it focuses on the intended audience.

1. Product.

Start by getting into the habit of approaching your product as if you were an outside marketing consultant hired to advise your company on whether or not it is currently in the correct line of work. Address important questions like, "Are your existing product, service, or combination of products and services suitable for the present market and customers? Does this product address a customer's problem in any way?" 

Develop the habit of honestly evaluating your business whenever you aren't selling as many of your goods or services as you would like and asking, "Are these the proper goods or services for our clients today?"

Do you currently offer any goods or services that, in light of what you now know, you wouldn't offer today? Is your product or service, when compared to those of your rivals, significantly better than anything else on the market? What is it if so? If not, could you create a niche where you excel? In the current market, should you even be providing this good or service?

2. Prices.

Price is the second P in the formula. Make it a practice to regularly assess and reassess your pricing plan for the goods and services you sell to ensure that it still makes sense in light of the market's reality. You may need to cut your prices occasionally. It can be reasonable to increase your prices at other times.

At times, you need to do market research to check what comparable products in your business are selling for to make sure your pricing is competitive. Several businesses have discovered that the profitability of particular new goods or services doesn't justify the time and money spent developing them. They may lose some clients as a result of boosting their prices, but the majority still makes money on each transaction. Would you be a good fit for this?

Your sales terms and conditions may need to be modified occasionally. Sometimes spreading out your price over several months or years allows you to sell much more than you are currently doing, and the interest you can charge more than makes up for the time you have to wait before receiving payment. With special deals and promotions, you can occasionally combine goods and services. You can occasionally give out supplemental goods that cost you very nothing to produce but help your buyers find your product prices to be much more enticing.

Be willing to rethink any component of your sales or marketing plan anytime you run into resistance or irritation since business is like nature. Be prepared for the potential that your present price strategy may not be the best choice for the market at this time. Be prepared to adjust your prices if necessary in order to stay competitive, endure, and prosper in a market that is undergoing rapid change.

3. Promotion.

Thinking about promotion constantly is the third bad habit in marketing and sales. All of the ways you inform your target market about your goods or services, as well as the ways you promote and sell to them, are considered forms of promotion. 

Slight adjustments to the segmentation-based marketing and sales strategies you use for your products can have a big impact on your performance. Even minor adjustments to your advertising can result in an increase in sales right away. By simply tweaking an advertisement's headline, skilled copywriters may frequently boost response rates from advertisements by 500%.

Every industry, including large and small businesses, is constantly experimenting with new methods of marketing, promoting, and selling its goods and services. present time? The goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to increase both the volume and quality of website visitors.

But there is one tried-and-true rule, regardless of the popular technique at the time. Whatever sales and marketing strategies you are now employing will eventually become ineffective. It may cease working for reasons you are aware of occasionally as well as unexpectedly. Your current marketing and sales techniques will ultimately become ineffective, and you will need to create new sales, marketing, and advertising tactics, products, and strategies.

While many might assume that Facebook ads and email marketing are currently the most widely used marketing strategies, a large portion of the market has already shifted to new techniques.

The top five advertising strategies used last year are as follows: 

• • • • • • Short-form, silent video advertisements. 

• • • • • • Promotion for mobile game apps. 

• • • • • • Artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

• • • • • • Collecting and promoting data from third parties. 

• • • • • • LinkedIn and other online social networking sites.

4. Place.

The location at which your good or service is actually sold is the fourth P in the expanded marketing mix. Make it a habit to evaluate and consider the precise place where the consumer and salesperson first encounter. A shift in strategy can occasionally result in a sharp rise in sales.

Your goods can be sold in many different locations. Some businesses engage in direct selling, sending their salespeople to meet and converse with prospects in person. Some people use telemarketing to make sales. Others use mail order or catalog sales. Some sell their products at trade exhibitions or in stores. Several businesses partner to sell goods or services that are comparable to one another. Several businesses work with distributors or manufacturers' reps. Many businesses combine one or more of these techniques.

In each situation, the business owner must choose the optimum location or setting for the consumer to get the crucial information about the good or service needed to make a decision. What do you have? What should you modify about it? Where else could you be able to sell your goods or services?

5. Packaging.

The packaging makes up the fifth component of the marketing mix. Make it a habit to step back and examine each visual component of the packaging for your physical product or service from the perspective of a discerning customer. Keep in mind that consumers form an opinion of you or an aspect of your business within the first 30 seconds of seeing you. Minor changes to your product or service's packaging or outward appearance can frequently cause radically different responses from your target market.

You should consider the entire customer experience when planning the packaging for your business, your product, or your service—what they see from the initial point of contact with your business through the purchasing process. To produce a strong first impression, take into account branded packaging.

Your customer is more likely to recall their first interaction with your brand favorably if it has an appealing appearance. Another fantastic addition to bespoke packaging that can encourage people to interact with your brand and encourage recurring interactions is including your company logo and social media handles. 

Packaging describes the exterior appearance of your good or service. Packaging also relates to the appearance and grooming of your staff. It refers to all of the visual components of your business, including your offices, waiting areas, brochures, letters, and more. Every detail matters. Every action either helps or hurts. Everything has an impact on a customer's trust in working with you.

6. Positioning.

Positioning is the following P. You should make it a habit to always consider where you are in the eyes and minds of your clients. When you're not there, how are others imagining you and talking about you? What are people saying and thinking about your business? What kind of positioning do you have in your market, in terms of the particular keywords people use to talk about you and your products?

According to Al Reis and Jack Trout's renowned book Positioning, the key factor determining your success in a cutthroat market is how your customers perceive and think of you. According to the principle of attribution, most clients have a single, either positive or negative, attribute in mind when they think of you. It might also be "service." It might also be "excellence." Occasionally, as with Mercedes Benz, it's "quality engineering." As with BMW, there are occasions when it's "the ultimate driving machine." Every time, the degree to which that attribute is ingrained in the thoughts of your clients and potential customers impacts how easily and for what price they'll purchase your good or service.

Make it a practice to consider how you may position yourself more effectively. Decide on the position you want to have before anything else. What would you say if you could leave your consumers with the perfect impression? What would you need to say or do in every customer interaction to compel them to think and speak in that certain way? What adjustments must you make to the way you deal with clients today if you want to remain the top choice for their needs in the future?

7. People.

People make up the last P in the marketing mix. Make it a habit to consider all of the internal and external stakeholders in your company who are involved in your sales, marketing, and other activities. 

It's amazing how many business owners and entrepreneurs will put a lot of effort into considering every aspect of the marketing strategy and the marketing mix, but then give little thought to the requirement that each and every decision and policy be carried out by a specific person, in a specific manner. The capacity to choose, find, hire, and keep the right people who have the knowledge, skills, and aptitude to carry out the work you need done is more crucial than all the other factors together.

The most crucial strategy used by the top organizations, according to Jim Collins' best-selling book Good to Great, was to "get the right people on the bus, and the wrong ones off the bus." The next phase was to "get the right people in the right seats on the bus" after these businesses had employed the appropriate candidates.

You must form the habit of considering precisely who will carry out each work and obligation if you want to succeed in business. In many situations, you can't advance unless you can find and place the appropriate individual in the proper position. The best company plans ever written are currently on shelf because their authors were unable to locate the crucial personnel needed to carry them out.

Whether you operate an eCommerce business, a physical store, a small business, or a major multinational, marketing is crucial. The 7Ps of marketing will probably remain valid and change along with any new trend, even though trends may change.