How to use the 7Ps Marketing Mix
The 7Ps marketing mix—product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence—helps businesses plan, analyze, and optimize strategies to meet customer needs and achieve growth.
With so many tasks to juggle as a marketer, a cohesive marketing strategy can help provide focus to successfully promote a product or service to your target audience.
But while you may be familiar with the ‘4P Marketing Mix’, the ‘7Ps of Marketing’ is an expansion of that and includes Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Process, and Physical Evidence.
So how can you use the 7Ps framework to create an effective marketing strategy that serves target markets and delivers on business goals (plus get some great brand examples to guide you)? Let’s find out!
What is the 7Ps marketing mix?
The 4Ps of marketing (later known as the 7Ps of marketing) was established in 1948 by Professor of Marketing at Harvard University, James Culliton. It consisted of Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion and was made up of the strategies and practices a company should use to drive a business and promote products.
In the 1980s this framework was expanded to become the 7Ps (People, Process, and Physical Evidence) to include unique aspects of service delivery, such as the importance of the workforce, procedures involved in service, and the environment in which the service is provided.
The benefit of the 7Ps marketing mix is that you can use them to execute your marketing plan and help in your day-to-day decision making through your marketing campaign and strategy.
Think of business objectives, planning, market positioning, customer segmentation, etc as the backend of your marketing strategy. The 7Ps then become the front end, what the customer actually sees and how you reach that customer.
Let’s look at each of the 7Ps so you know what each one encompasses.
1) Product
This is the actual commodity being sold and is at the forefront of the marketing mix.
The product or service is what your customer cares about so it’s worth putting time and resources into making it the best it can be!
By taking a product-led approach, you can focus on:
- Features
- Design
- Packaging
- Market position
- Quality
So how can you leverage a product-led approach to augment your offering as part of the 7Ps marketing mix?
- Understand the needs of your customers by creating detailed buyer personas so that you target the right people at the right time on the right channel.
- Know what’s important to customers (e.g. sustainability, authenticity, corporate social responsibility, etc)?
- Let the product speak for itself. You can do this by letting customers try before they buy, through free trials, freemium plans, or offering demos. This not only shows that you believe in your product, but you can also get people into the marketing funnel early to engage and nurture.
- Shout about your product by sharing testimonials and promoting user-generated content.
- Ask for opinions by seeking out feedback on social media channels, through email or market research so you can make your product better.
Brand example – Apple doesn’t just sell phones — it sells an ecosystem by integrating hardware (iPhone), software (iOS), and services (iCloud, Apple Music) to make the product more than a device and appealing to a customer.a
2) Price
Price is an integral part of the mix and is the only element that directly generates revenue. All the other elements drive cost.
In addition, pricing has a large strategic value to marketers as it guides the customer’s perception of the product. As a result pricing, is a sophisticated science involving psychological pricing, value-based pricing, dynamic pricing, and subscription models.
When developing your pricing strategy as part of the 7ps, you need to consider:
- How your pricing compares to your competitors
- Will you offer discounts or sales promotions?
- Will you use different pricing dependent on quality or bundles?
- What is the perception of your brand (high-end or value?)
- Can you sacrifice profit for long-term growth?
Brand example – Spotify uses tiered pricing such as free with ads, premium individual, family, and student plans. This dynamic pricing model helps to maximize market penetration and user retention.
3) Place
The Place element is more than a physical place, it’s about being in the right place at the right time to meet the target customers.
This could be the location of a physical store, or ecommerce store, but it’s also about market coverage and being able to sell products online or offline.
What do you need to consider for the place element of the 7Ps marketing mix?
- Where do people look for your products (e.g. social media, search engines, etc.)?
- Do they require a tactile experience (i.e. to touch or feel it)?
- Is there a benefit to working with a third-party like Shopify or a well-known store?
Brand example – Nike has transformed distribution by offering its products though flagship stores, ecommerce, and mobile apps and leveraging consumer data to optimize inventory and customer experience.
4) Promotion
This element involves promoting a product and brand to the target audience and covers all the ways you communicate with and persuade your target audience to purchase.
But it’s more than just advertising, it should include various key objectives like boosting brand awareness, engaging customers, influencing attitudes and perceptions, and rewarding behaviors through initiatives like customer loyalty programs.
Consider adopting an omnichannel marketing approach to be visible on several channels and provide a seamless customer experience.
“[Omnichannel marketing] is a marketing tactic that is cohesive, first and foremost, between traditional marketing tactics and digital marketing tactics that creates synergy between all of them,” said Matt Santos, VP of Products & Strategy at Neil Patel Accel in a DMI podcast.
Effective ways for you to use the element of ‘Promotion’ successfully are to:
Drive personalization through content marketing and email
- Segment your audiences based on demographics or behavior to tailor messaging
- Use A/B testing to see what resonates with your audience
- Experiment with new channels to see performance (e.g. Bluesky or WhatsApp)
- Ensure consistency across channels with a brand style template and content marketing guidelines
Brand example: Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign is a masterclass in emotional branding as it aligns with social values while maintaining visibility of its range of products across multiple platforms.
5) People
The People element includes everyone involved in a business and those who come into contact directly and indirectly with customers.
The people you employ can have a huge impact on the success of your business and your products or services.
To ensure the people you hire can have a positive impact on the marketing mix you should:
- Offer relevant training to develop skills
- Promote continuous learning so employees can constantly upskill and learn new skills
- Invest in the company’s culture and personality of the brand
- Encourage employees to have a customer-centric approach in their roles
- Look to hire and retain the right talent for your business
Brand example – Online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos prioritizes cultural fit over anything else. According to Entrepreneur, the company conducts a cultural fit interview, which carries half the weight of whether the candidate is hired and new employees are offered $2,000 to quit after the first week of training if they decide the job isn’t for them.
6) Process
The Process element of the 7Ps marketing mix refers to the systems and workflows that deliver the product or service to the customer.
After all, customers aren’t just buying a product or service, they are also investing in an experience that starts from the moment they encounter your company through to purchase and beyond.
Elements to consider in this part of the framework include:
- Are there internal process barriers in the way to delivering the best customer value?
- Are your distribution channels reliable and cost efficient?
- If you rely on third-party companies, are they reputable and reliable?
- Do you have enough staff and resources to deliver the product at all stages?
- Are your staff experienced and knowledgeable enough to execute all processes (e.g. automation tools, CRM integration, etc)?
Brand example – Amazon’s checkout and delivery process is engineered for speed and convenience, setting benchmarks for ecommerce experiences globally.
7) Physical Evidence
When a customer decides to try a product or service for the first time, they don’t really know what to expect. So the Physical evidence element of the 7Ps should focus on helping the customer ‘see’ what they are buying’.
This involves providing tangible cues that reinforce the brand experience (particularly important in delivering services) such as:
- Product packaging
- Store layout or design
- Website UX or app design
- Staff appearance and behavior
- Digital receipts, brochures or business cards
- Customer reviews and testimonials
- Branded merchandise
Brand example – Starbucks uses physical evidence like branded cups, store design, and ambient music to deliver a consistent global brand experience.
Conclusion: The 7Ps Marketing Mix
The 7Ps marketing mix is important as it allows you to execute your marketing strategy in a material way.
It can guide how you deliver your marketing strategy to the customer through a product that you promote, price, and make available in locations, in line with your strategy.
For services, you can account for the additional 3Ps to decide on the people delivering your service, the process of the service delivery, and the physical evidence surrounding the actual service delivery.
Try the framework to see if it can help create an effective marketing strategy.