The traditional marketing mix has four elements: product, price, place, and promotion. These are the choices a business makes about what it offers, what customers exchange for it, where they can get it, and how the business communicates about it. A service-focused expansion adds people, process, and physical evidence, creating the 7Ps.
The four traditional elements of a marketing mix
The 4Ps provide a planning framework for connecting an offer with its intended customers. They are related decisions, not four separate marketing activities: a change to the product, for example, may affect its price, distribution, and promotion.
| Element | What it covers | Questions to consider |
|---|---|---|
| Product | The good, service, idea, or combination offered to meet a customer need. It can include tangible and intangible attributes such as features, quality, functionality, brand, benefits, and packaging. | What need does it address? Which features and benefits matter to the intended customer? What quality, brand, or packaging choices support the offer? |
| Price | What the customer pays or otherwise exchanges to obtain the offering. | How does the price relate to the value customers perceive and the business’s objectives? Costs, demand, competitor prices, and positioning can inform the decision. |
| Place | Where and how customers find, access, buy, or receive the offering. It includes distribution channels and market coverage, not just a shop’s physical location. | Which channels make the offer available to the intended customers? Is it accessible where and when they want to buy or receive it? |
| Promotion | How the organization communicates with its audience and encourages awareness, trial, or purchase. This may include advertising and other promotional activity, including coupons, rebates, sweepstakes, premiums, or special packaging. | What does the audience need to know, and which communication or incentive is suitable for reaching them? |
What the 7Ps add for service businesses
The 7Ps keep the original four elements and add three that make the delivery of a service easier to examine. They are an extension of the 4Ps, not a universal replacement for them; they are particularly useful when the customer experience depends on how a service is delivered.
| Additional element | What it covers | Example planning question |
|---|---|---|
| People | The people involved in producing, promoting, distributing, or delivering the offering. | Who interacts with customers or otherwise shapes the experience? |
| Process | The way the offering is delivered to the customer. | What steps does a customer go through to receive the service, and where might those steps cause friction? |
| Physical evidence | Tangible cues that help customers recognize that a service business exists and understand the experience it provides. | What visible or tangible cues help customers assess the business and its service? |
How to use the marketing mix in a plan
- Define the offer and its audience. Clarify what you are providing and which customers it is intended to serve before choosing channels or promotional tactics.
- Align the value and price. Consider how the offer’s benefits and positioning relate to what customers pay and to the business’s objectives.
- Choose access and distribution. Decide where customers can find, buy, or receive the offering, and whether those channels provide suitable coverage and access.
- Plan communication and promotion. Choose how to explain the offer and encourage awareness, trial, or purchase among the intended audience.
- For a service, plan delivery as well. Consider the people involved, the process customers experience, and the tangible cues that help them understand and trust the service.
If a plan is not working as intended, examine the fit among the elements rather than assuming promotion is the only issue. For instance, communication cannot by itself resolve a mismatch between the offer and customer needs or a channel that makes the offer difficult to access.
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How to compare two marketing-mix plans
There is no universally best mix: appropriate choices depend on the market, offering, customers, and objectives. When comparing alternatives, assess them against the same criteria:
- How well does each offer fit its intended customers?
- Does the price make sense in relation to perceived value?
- Can the intended customers readily access the offer through its channels?
- Is the promotion clear and suitable for the audience and offering?
- For a service, do the people, delivery process, and tangible cues support the intended customer experience?
Where the 4Ps came from
The framework developed over time rather than being the work of a single person. Amazon Ads traces the idea of a creative marketing mixture to James Culliton in 1948, followed by Neil Borden’s refinement of the marketing-mix concept. It credits E. Jerome McCarthy’s 1960 book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach with distilling the mix into four ingredients. The American Marketing Association says Borden popularized the four Ps during the 1950s; these accounts describe successive development and popularization.
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For context, the American Marketing Association defines marketing as: “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” The definition is marked “Approved 2017.” It helps explain why the marketing mix covers more than advertising: the framework considers the offer, its delivery and exchange, and the way it is communicated.
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