Marketing mix: what it is and how to use the 4Ps and 7Ps

The marketing mix is the set of decisions you make to get a product to the people who want it: the product itself, its price, the place people buy it and how you promote it. These decisions are known as the Ps of marketing: four in the classic 4Ps, and seven in the 7Ps, which add people, process and physical evidence for services.

The 4Ps of the marketing mix

The 4Ps go back to Jerome McCarthy, who set them out in his 1960 book Basic Marketing. Each P stands for a group of decisions, and the right answers depend on who your customers are and what they need.

Product

Product is what you sell and what it does for the customer. It can be a physical item, a service or a digital product you sell online, such as an ebook or an online course. The decisions here cover its features, its design, its name and its packaging. Base them on your target audience: which problem does the product solve for them, and which features will they actually use? Leave out the ones they won't.

Price

Price is what customers pay, and it needs to cover what the product costs you to make and deliver, with a profit on top. Your price also tells customers whether you're the bargain or the quality choice, so decide that early and let the rest of your offer back it up. A simple competitor analysis shows you what similar products cost, so you can decide where you want to sit. The way people pay is part of your price too: think about discounts, bundles, and a one-off payment or a subscription.

Place

Place is where and how customers can buy from you. That could be a shop, a market stall, a marketplace such as Amazon or your own online shop. It's usually best to sell where your customers already buy, rather than hoping they'll find you somewhere new. Place also covers the practical side of selling: your stock, your delivery costs and how each order reaches the customer.

Promotion

Promotion is how you tell people about your product and give them a reason to buy it. Common channels for a small business include:

• Local SEO, so your business shows up in search results when people nearby look for what you sell.
• Search engine advertising, paid ads shown with the results when people search.
• Social media marketing, posts and ads on the platforms your customers use.
• Affiliate marketing, where other websites recommend your product and earn a commission on each sale.
• Public relations, such as a story in your local paper.
• An email newsletter to people who have bought from you or signed up.

You don't need all of them. Pick the channels where your customers already spend their time, and do those well.

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The 7Ps of the extended marketing mix

The 7Ps add three Ps to the original four: people, process and physical evidence. The marketing researchers Bernard Booms and Mary Jo Bitner proposed them in 1981 for service businesses, where customers deal with your staff and experience the service as it happens. All three look at how customers experience your business, not just at what they buy.

People

Think about everyone who deals with your customers: you, your staff and anyone who delivers or supports the service for you. A helpful answer to a question can win a customer, and a careless one can lose them. So when you take someone on, look for a person who is good with customers, and tell your team how you want customers treated.

Process

Process in the marketing mix covers the steps a customer goes through to buy and receive what you sell: ordering, paying, delivery and any help afterwards. A smooth process makes buying from you easy, while a confusing one can lose sales even when the product is right. Try buying from yourself as a customer would, from the first visit to the moment the order arrives, and fix any step that's slow or unclear.

Physical evidence

Physical evidence is everything customers can see or touch that tells them your business is real and good at what it does. For a shop, that's the premises and the packaging. Online, it's your website, your product photos and your reviews. Reviews work as social proof, because they show new customers that other people bought from you and were happy. This P matters most for services, where there's nothing to hold before you buy.

Should you use the 4Ps or the 7Ps?

If you sell products and your contact with customers is short, such as items in an online shop, the 4Ps are enough. Use the 7Ps if you sell a service, such as a hairdresser or a cleaning company. The 7Ps also fit when the way you serve customers is part of what they pay for, such as a shop with a subscription. If you're unsure, start with the 4Ps and add the other three wherever customers deal with you directly. The coffee roastery in the example below sells beans, but its subscription and market stall make it partly a service, so it uses all seven.

Your own marketing mix starts with who your customers are and what they need. From there, note one or two decisions for each P, such as your price range or the places you'll sell, and change any that clash before you act on them.

How to put your marketing mix together

1. Write down who your customers are and what they need.
2. Go through each P and note one or two decisions for your business.
3. If you sell a service, add people, process and physical evidence.
4. Check that the Ps fit together, write the mix down in one place, and look at it again when something changes.

A marketing mix example for a small coffee roastery

You run a small coffee roastery. You sell freshly roasted beans online at yourcoffeeroastery.co.uk and at a market stall on Saturdays, and customers can sign up for a monthly coffee subscription. For your roastery, the seven Ps could look like this:

• Product: bags of single-origin beans, whole or ground, with the roast date on the label, and a gift bundle.
• Price: close to other small roasters, with a lower price per bag for subscribers.
• Place: your online shop and the market stall, with delivery by post.
• Promotion: photos on social media, a stand at local events and an email newsletter when a new coffee arrives.
• People: you at the stall, talking customers through the coffees, and a part-time packer who knows how you want orders sent.
• Process: a short checkout, an email when the order ships and a subscription customers can pause or cancel online.
• Physical evidence: the packaging, the stall, photos of the roasting and reviews on your website.

Why the Ps have to fit together

The Ps only work in balance, so you can't decide one of them on its own. A premium price needs a product, packaging and service that feel premium. When the Ps clash, customers get mixed signals. At yourcoffeeroastery.co.uk, the gift bundle comes in packaging that looks like a gift, to match its price.

Look at your mix again whenever something changes, such as a new competitor, higher costs, a new product or a new place to sell. A change to one P, like a new delivery option, usually means checking the others too.

Questions about the marketing mix

What are the 4Cs of marketing?

The 4Cs of marketing are customer, cost, convenience and communication. Robert Lauterborn proposed them in 1990 to look at the same decisions as product, price, place and promotion from the customer's side. They're a useful check that your 4Ps make sense to the people who buy.

Is the marketing mix the same as marketing mix modelling?

No. Marketing mix modelling uses your historical sales and marketing data to measure how much each factor, including each marketing channel, adds to your results. Think of your marketing mix as the plan, and of modelling as one way to measure what its parts achieve.

With your Ps worked out, you know what you sell, who it's for and where they'll buy it. If your own website is one of those places, you can build your website with our website builder and put your marketing mix to work online.