In Marketing activities, 7Ps is considered an indispensable factor that creates the results of strategies. However, this term is still quite “new” to some of you. So What are the 7Ps Of Marketing? Let’s find out with MarkKnow!
What is 7P in Marketing?
Marketing 7P is also known as Marketing Mix with the main method of operation being using advertising tools to achieve goals in the market.
Marketing 7Ps previously appeared with the 4P model including Product, Price, Place, Promotion. Over time and market demand, this model gradually developed, expanded and became 7P. The new improved model aims to meet complex marketing needs and help businesses achieve greater goals.
What are the 7Ps in Marketing?
7P is a more extensive business model than 4P, so it possesses all the essential strategic elements to promote the brand, including:
Product
The first letter P in the 7P model in Marketing is the product – the core element of the business. Unlike the past, the product at present is not only a simple commodity but also a service.
To clearly understand the nature of the product, Marketing experts have divided the product into 3 different versions including:
- Core Products: Are intangible products but create core values for users.
- Real Products: Are products that can be held, grasped and physically felt clearly.
- Added Products: These are products that differentiate the brand from other competitors in the market. Depending on the nature, this product will include many other added values that customers may or may not have to pay additional costs.
In addition, the main elements of the 7P product in Marketing can vary depending on the market or target audience that the business is aiming for. But focusing on any element, the business also needs to focus on investing resources to promote:
- Quality: To make the marketing and sales process easier and more effective.
- Image: How customers see the product and differentiate it from similar items on the market.
- Brand: An element closely linked to the image, making the brand story more impressive and easier to spread.
- Features: The features of the product or service should be studied to provide benefits to the customers.
- Variants: Are different versions of a product or service that are intended to create an advantage over competitors in the market.
Price
Price is considered one of the most important factors that make up the definition of Marketing 7P. Because in reality, price has a direct impact, even dominating the profit and existence of the business.
Accordingly, once there is an adjustment, the product price will directly affect the entire marketing campaign, customer demand and business sales. Therefore, a new business entering the market should plan or do some of the following before establishing a pricing strategy. Specifically as follows:
- Positioning: To determine where the product is in the market.
- Competition: Price of the product, brand image and competitive quality of the product offered.
- Justification: Make sure the product is worth the price so that customers don’t change their mind after spending time thinking about whether the brand’s product or service fits their needs.
- Discounting: Strategy and planning are needed to maximize customer demand and preferences.
- Payment Methods: Identify payment methods that are suitable for all types of customers.
- Free, promotional, and value-added elements aim to “retain” regular customers and attract new target customers.
Place (Distribution)
In addition to the usual meaning of location, Place is also used to refer to intermediary distribution channels – where goods and services are transferred from the hands of manufacturers to consumers. To be successful in a location distribution campaign, you need to have a deep understanding of the market as well as the potential distribution methods below:
- Wide distribution, creating as many points of distribution and consumption of products as possible. The main purpose is to increase presence and attract customers wherever they go.
- Exclusive distribution to agents to ensure the brand image is always beautiful in the eyes of consumers. This strategy is relatively picky about products, mainly implemented with famous brands such as Chanel, Ferrari, …
- Selectively distribute purchasing channels so that only qualified stores are allowed to distribute products.
Promotion
This is an activity carried out with the aim of bringing the product to the public and at the same time letting them know the reason for choosing the brand instead of competitors. For the Promotion process to be effective, businesses need to pay attention to the following promotional activities:
- Omnichannel Marketing: The consumer journey takes place across multiple devices and platforms. It is important to be present on all the channels your customers are reaching.
- Personalized Experience: Take more personal actions to provide a more friendly and engaging experience for customers.
- Integrated Marketing and Sales: This practice seamlessly integrates marketing and sales campaigns to reduce customer loss across different channels.
- Nurturing Potential Customers: To create the premise for long-term “retention” in the future.
- Branding: Consumers always want to have a good experience and feel secure when buying. That is why, in addition to focusing on products, businesses must actively build their brands.
- PR: Build, maintain and change brand image when necessary.
- Automation: Especially essential in growth, multi-channel development, and cost maintenance.
People
People – People are the center of applying 7P in Marketing. Not only customers, people also aim at:
- Marketer in business.
- Sales team members who deal directly with customers.
- Customer service teams, individuals tasked with “retaining” customers.
- Manager, recruiter, trainer.
Process
The process in the 7P model refers to the process by which a business delivers products to customers. Here are the steps that cannot be skipped to keep the process seamless and smooth:
- Home delivery for both online and in-store customers.
- End-to-end distribution to limit potential issues that arise that impact the buyer experience.
- Customer service includes the processes, systems, and channels that deliver service beyond the initial sale.
- Encouragement to create goodwill with all customer groups, new or old.
- Return and refund in case the customer refuses to buy the business’s products or services.
- Feedback – the process of gathering and applying insights to improve products and services.
- T&Cs are terms and conditions that apply to protect customers from risk.
Physical Environment
The final P in the 7Ps stands for tangible evidence. This element is used to refer to physical items and forms of interaction: products, stores, receipts, packaging, bags, and other branded items that can be seen and touched. Tangible evidence is typically considered in two categories:
- For restaurants, tangible evidence is the surrounding environment, staff uniforms, menus, etc.
- For agents, tangible evidence is website, supply contract,…
The Role of the 7P Model in Marketing
What is the role of the 7P model in Marketing? The 7P strategy in Services Marketing is a comprehensive approach in the field of marketing, bringing many important benefits to businesses, including:
- Identify the Key Factors for Marketing Success: Provides an overview of the key success factors such as product, price, distribution, promotion, people, processes and tangible evidence.
- Analyze and evaluate effectiveness: Create a framework for analyzing and evaluating the effectiveness of marketing strategies, helping businesses better understand what works and what needs improvement.
- Adjust strategy accordingly: Helps adjust strategy to suit each stage of development and market requirements.
- Differentiation: Helps businesses stand out and gain an advantage over competitors through product/service quality, customer service and overall experience.
- Measure effectiveness: Measure and evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing strategy through sales, market share and customer satisfaction.
Through this, it is possible that both the 4P and 7P marketing models bring benefits to businesses when applied in marketing products or services. However, the 7P model is increasingly showing superior benefits.
How to Deploy the 7P Model in Marketing
When it comes to the theory of the 7P model in Marketing, it is quite simple, but the actual application will be very different. Therefore, to implement the 7P most effectively (specifically for SaaS products), please refer to this content immediately:
Introduction Phase
In the introduction stage, businesses should apply 7P in Marketing as follows:
- Product: Businesses check the creditworthiness of target customers.
- Price: Determine the price that is suitable for the group of people with the greatest need to use the product.
- Place: Products are promoted through the website.
- Promotion: What type of advertising is suitable for the users the business is targeting?
- People: Customer service staff and consultants need to be trained to understand the product.
- Processes: Small business customers will be granted access to the service.
- Physical Evidence: Survey to get user opinions, encourage customers who have purchased products to review products on the website.
Growth Phase
In the Growth Stage, businesses can apply the 7P model in Marketing as follows:
- Product: The product is suitable for all audiences and user-friendly.
- Price: Offer a one month free trial to customers.
- Place: Research and optimize availability on different operating systems.
- Promotion: Advertising focuses on the advantages that customers care about.
- People: Rapid hiring process to ensure scalability of customer care and support as sales grow.
- Processes: Large clients will be provided with their own portal for their agents to use.
- Physical Environment: Website needs to obtain SSL certificate.
Adult Stage
At the brand maturity stage, there are adjustments in the implementation process as follows:
- Product: The product needs to be compatible with multiple operating systems.
- Price: Determine if discounts are needed for large customers.
- Place: Determine the location that suits customer needs.
- Promotion: How do your competitors promote?
- People: Implement recruitment policies on Social Media .
- Processes: 24/7 customer support.
- Physical Environment: Present smart and branded invoices.
Recession Phase
Unlike the previous three stages, in the decline stage, brands need to focus on the following issues:
- Product: The product needs to be consistent or of higher quality than the current market leader.
- Price: Determine the profit margin.
- Place: How do different device types affect user experience on your website?
- Promotion: Find ways to measure the effectiveness of each activity and method of promoting the strategy.
- People: Identify the qualities required of employees.
- Processes: Support multilingual website – app versions for international customers.
- Physical Environment: Transparent company address, reputable in the eyes of consumers.
Some Brands Applying the 7P Model in Marketing
To better understand 7P and apply it successfully, please refer to the methods of some big brands such as:
McDonald’s Campaign
- Products: Fast food, mainly breakfast foods such as burgers, french fries, fried chicken, snacks and drinks.
- Price: Provide competitive, customer-oriented pricing. Pricing method is based on demand, no price regulation for franchisees.
- Distribution: McDonald’s has over 14,000 restaurants in the United States alone and 1,270 stores in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. Product distribution is through all channels and is adjusted in different countries.
- Promotion: McDonald’s has successfully applied various forms of advertising such as television advertisements at restaurants, newspapers, the Internet, etc. to connect more closely with customers.
- Process: The company conducts activities to provide products to customers.
- People: Recruit a large number of staff and absolutely do not allow employee dissatisfaction during the working process.
- Physical Environment: In McDonald’s 7Ps of marketing, experience is the final element. These experiences refer to the elements of the physical environment that customers experience.
Coca-Cola’s 7P Marketing Campaign
- Products: Offers a large product portfolio with 500 brands and 3900 beverage options for consumers.
- Distribution: Coca-Cola has a wide distribution system for soft drinks around the world. The company’s products are sold in more than 200 countries across 6 operating regions including Europe, Latin America, North America, Pacific, Asia and Africa.
- Price: The price should not be too high to be beyond the reach of the average customer, nor too low to give the impression of low quality.
- Promotion: TV advertising, outdoor billboards and a variety of other digital channels.
- People: Coca-Cola is also a major employer that focuses on strategic human resource management to help its employees grow professionally and be satisfied with their jobs.
- Process: The Coca Cola System includes Coca Cola companies worldwide and many other bottling partners.
- Physical Environment: Coca Cola’s physical operations are spread across the globe. The company’s physical infrastructure includes centralized manufacturing operations, as well as headquarters and other regional offices in various locations around the globe.
Compare 7P in Marketing with Other Models
Below is a comparison table between the 7P model in marketing and some other marketing models that you can refer to:
| Criteria | 7P in Marketing | 4P (Marketing Mix) | 4C (Customer-Centric) | AIDA |
| Define | Expanded marketing mix model, adding 3 elements: People, Process, Physical Environment to better suit the service industry | The traditional model consists of four main elements for bringing a product to market. | Focus on customers, adapting from the 4P model | Model describing the customer’s psychological journey when approaching a product |
| Key Elements | Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, Physical Environment | Product, Price, Place, Promotion | Customer, Cost, Convenience, Communication | Attention, Interest, Desire, Action |
| Scope of application | Suitable for both products and services, especially the service sector | Suitable for physical products, focusing on product aspects, market | Focus on customer needs and benefits, often applied in modern marketing | Suitable for advertising and communication campaigns |
| Concentrate | Create a comprehensive experience, focusing on people and processes in service | Focus on products, markets; less on people | Focus entirely on the customer and the value the product brings. | Focus on driving customer awareness and desire |
| Advantage | Comprehensive, including soft elements such as processes, customer service and environment | Simple, easy to understand, effective for selling products | Customer-centric, helping to optimize customer experience | Effective in marketing campaigns, attracting and retaining customers |
| Limit | More complex than 4P, requires more effort in service management | Not very suitable for service, lacks soft elements | Lack of specific tools for product management | No clear guidelines for product elements or pricing |
Thus, information related to the 7P model in Marketing has been sent to you by MarkKnow through the above article. Hopefully, with the content provided, readers have clearly understood ” What are 7Ps of Marketing ?” and how to effectively implement the 7P model in Marketing!
Frequently Asked Questions
How Can 7P Help Businesses Increase Their Competitiveness?
Businesses can use the 7P model to create a difference in service experience, thereby improving competitiveness in the market.
How to Apply 7P in International Marketing?
When expanding into international markets, businesses need to adjust the 7P elements to suit the culture, tastes and needs of each country.
Should 7P be applied to all types of businesses?
The 7Ps are useful for service industries but are not always appropriate, such as for businesses that focus solely on physical products.
How to Use 7Ps in Effective Hotel Service Marketing?
First, businesses need to understand each element of the 7Ps and how they interact with each other. Then, they need to develop specific strategies for each element to ensure that their hotel services are accessible and accepted in the market.
How to Measure the Effectiveness of Each 7P Element?
Measuring the effectiveness of each 7P element can be done through different metrics and methods, such as sales, customer response rates, or market research.
Do People Working in Marketing Need to Know and Understand 7P?
Yes, people working in Marketing often need to know and understand the concept of 7P. Because it helps to understand and manage all aspects of a business’s Marketing strategy. At the same time, it is also a factor that makes the employer evaluate you well during the interview process.
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