THE SEVEN P’S OF MARKETING MIX

THE SEVEN P’S OF MARKETING MIX

The marketing mix is the set of tools available to an organization to shape the nature of its offer to customers. Good marketers are familiars with the 4p’s of product, price, promotion and place. Early analysis by Borden (1964:58) that marketing mix elements are based on a study of manufacturers industries at a time when the important of services to the economy was considered to be relatively unimportant. More recently the 4p’s of marketing mix have been found to be too limited in their application to services. Particularly problems which limit their usefulness to service are these:

1. The intangible nature of the mix: For instance, the product mix is frequently in terms of tangible design properties, which may not be relevant to a service. Likewise, physical distribution management may not be an important element of place mix decision.
2. The price elements overlook the fact that many services are produced by the public sector without price being charged to the final consumer.
3. The promotion mix of the traditional 4p’s fails to recognize the promotion of services that takes place at the point of consumption by the production personnel. Unlike the situation with the most fast moving consumers goods which are normally produce away form the consumer in which the producer has no direct involvement in promoting the goods to the final consumer. For a bank clerk, hairdresser or singer, the manner in which the service is produced is an important element of the total promotion of the service.

However, the service marketing mix is also known as an extended marketing mix and is an integral part of a service blue print design. The service marketing mix consists of 7p’s as compared to the 4p’s of a product marketing mix-simply said the service marketing mix assumes the service as a product itself. However, it adds three (3) more p’s (people, process and physical evidence) which are required for optimum service delivery. Therefore, an overview of these marketing mix ingredients is given bellow, Adrian (2008:18)

PRODUCT

Products are the means by which an organization seeks to satisfy their customer’s needs. Product in this sense is anything that the organization offers to potential customers whether it is tangible or intangible. After initial hesitation most marketing managers are now happy to talk about an intangible service as product. Thus bank accounts, insurance policies and holidays are frequently referred to as products, sometimes to the amusement of non marketers as when pop stars or even politicians are referred to as a product to me marketed.

Product mix decision facing a services marketer can be very different from those dealing with goods. Most fundamentally pure service are been defined using process descriptions rather than tangible description of outcomes. Elements of the product mix such as design reliability, brand image and product range may sound familiar to a good marketer, but can assume different from goods in that new service development cannot be protected by patent.

PRICE

Price mix decision include strategies and tactical decision about the average level of price to be charged, discount structures, terms of payment and the extent to which price dissemination between different groups of customers is to take place. These are very familiar to the issues facing a good marketer. Differences do however occur where the intangible nature of a service can mean that price in itself can become a very significant indicator or quality. The personal and non-transferable nature of many services presents additional opportunities for price discrimination within service markets, while the fact that many services are marketable by the public sector at a subsidized or no price, can complicate price setting.

PROMOTION

The traditional promotion mix includes various methods of using messages to communicate the benefits of a product to potential consumers. In addition, the promotion of service often needs to place particular emphasis on increasing the apparent intangibility of a service. The promotion mix for service is wider than itself become an important element of the promotion mix.

PLACE

Place in case of service determine where is the service produced going to be located. The best place to open up a petrol pump is on the high-way or in the city. A place where there is minimum traffic is a wrong location to start a petrol pump. Similarly, a software company will be better placed in a business with a lot of companies nearby rather than being placed in a town or rural area.

PEOPLE

People are not the element of service marketing mix. People define a service, if you have a restaurant, your chef and service staff defines you, if you are into banking, employee in your branch and their behaviour towards customers define you. Incase of service marketing, people can make or break an organization.

Thus, many companies nowadays are involved specially getting their staff trained in interpersonal skills and customer’s service with a focus towards customer’s satisfaction. In fact many companies have undergone accreditation to show that their staff is better than the others.

PROCESS

Service process is the way in which a service is delivered to the end users. Lets take the instance of two very good companies, United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Gate-Way insurance. Both companies thrive on their quick service and the reason they can do that is their confidence on their process on top of it the demand of these services is such that they have to deliver optimally without loss in quality. Thus, the process of a service company in delivering its product is of utmost importance. It is also a critical component in the seroce blue print were in before establishing the service, the company defines exactly what should be the process of services/product reaching the end user/customers.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

The last element in the service marketing mix is very important element as said before, services are intangible in nature. However, to create a better customers experience tangible elements are also delivered with the services. Take an instance of a restaurant which has only chairs and table and good food, or a restaurant which has ambient lighting, nice music along with good seating arrangement and they also serve good food, which one will you prefer? the better, which is physical evidence. Several times, physical evidence is used as a differentiation in service marketing. Imagine a private hospital and a government hospital, a private hospital will have plush offices and well dressed staff. The same cannot be said of a government, a differentiator.