If you’re looking to grow your business, marketing can be an effective source of growth. One of its key tools is the marketing mix, a set of 4 levers that can be activated to grow a product, a product range or a brand. The 4 levers of the marketing mix are product, price, promotion and place. It is there often referred to as « the 4Ps ».
Since its inception, some have proposed a 5P, 7P or even 10P marketing mix model.
In this training course, we explain how to build a marketing mix, which model to choose and how to activate these marketing levers effectively to grow your business. 👇🏻
The marketing mix in a nutschell
The marketing mix is certainly the most widely used marketing tool in business. First popularized in 1960, it still guides companies wishing to draw up a marketing plan and implement a marketing strategy.
Despite its age, it’s still an incredibly useful tool: the marketing mix enables companies to plan and coordinate their marketing actions in a coherent way, thanks to 4 levers: product, price, communication and distribution.
Product
The product is what you offer your customers to satisfy their needs. You can ask yourself 3 questions to define it:
- What am I offering our target, our customers (what goods or services)?
- What needs will our product meet?
- What are its features? This includes the product’s design, features, quality, brand, packaging, associated services – in short, everything the consumer benefits from.
👉🏻 Read our full article on customer needs and expectations.
👉🏻 Read our full article on defining a product policy
Price
The price has to be set in such a way that it is perceived as acceptable by customers, while still allowing the company to make a profit. On paper, it’s quite simple and intuitive. But it’s often more complex when you get down to the nitty-gritty.
However, by answering 3 questions, you should be able to see more clearly:
- How much does it cost you to manufacture and distribute your product or provide your service?
(You’ll then need to add a margin)
- What price are your customers willing to pay for your product?
What are your (future) competitors’ prices?
You’ll need to decide how to position yourself in relation to them (below, on the same level or above).
There are several possible price positioning strategies:
- penetration
- alignment
- skimming
But defining a pricing policy doesn’t just mean defining the price, it also means defining all the pricing conditions: price, rebate, discount, sales promotion, credit conditions, payment conditions and so on.
👉🏻 Here’s everything you need to know about pricing policy.
Promotion (communication)
The majority of communication campaigns aim to raise awareness of a brand or product and convince a target audience to buy it.
Unlike price, communication seems more intuitive. But… beware! Without the right structure, your campaign is unlikely to work. This structure involves rigorously defining a target and an objective. So there are two fundamental questions to ask yourself:
- Who is my target?
- What is my objective, and what do I expect from this campaign?
This pillar encompasses all marketing communication activities used to publicize the product and encourage its purchase, to increase desire for the product. This can include advertising, public relations, personal selling, sales promotion, social network marketing, etc. The aim of promotion is to create awareness, arouse interest, stimulate desire and incite action.
👉🏻 Here is a detailed description of our communications policy
Place
To define a distribution policy, we need to answer two questions:
- Where will my target find and buy my product?
- How will they get it delivered?
The distribution policy concerns the distribution channels used to make the product available to consumers. This can include retailers, wholesalers, online distributors, a marketplace, physical points of sale, etc. The choice of distribution channel must be adapted to consumers’ buying habits and the company’s strategy.
👉🏻 Here you’ll find all the elements you need to take into account when drawing up a distribution policy
The mix, an indispensable business tool
By using the 4 Ps, companies can design attractive product offers, determine competitive prices, choose the right distribution channels and implement effective promotional campaigns.
The marketing mix also helps companies differentiate themselves from competitors by creating a unique value proposition for consumers. By using these elements in an integrated way, companies can achieve their business objectives, increase market share, build customer loyalty and generate profitable sales.
A tempting program, you may say. But for this to happen, your marketing mix needs to be built consistently, so that there are real synergies between the four levers.
The key to an effective marketing mix: consistency
Consistency and synergy
The marketing mix is made up of 4 levers: product, price, communication and distribution. These levers must be activated coherently. For example, if I want to increase the selling price of a product, I’ll need to change the product’s characteristics: make it of better quality, add new features or rework its design.
Similarly, if the price of my product rises sharply, the way I distribute it may have to evolve from intensive, unlimited distribution to more selective, high-quality outlets. Consistency is therefore essential.
I regularly compare the marketing mix to a cake recipe. 😋
If you mix four good ingredients (flour, eggs, sugar, butter), your cake will be good.
If you add one wrong ingredient (salt instead of sugar, for example), then the whole cake will be a dud. The same goes for the mix. If you create an excellent product for your customers, but at an average price, the majority of them will think your product is of poor quality and won’t buy it.
Conversely, if your price is high and your product average, the customers who do buy it will be disappointed.
Let’s take an example
A woman receives a brochure from a leather goods brand and discovers a handbag that attracts her. The brochure is elegant, the paper thick and glossy. She goes to Galeries Lafayette in Paris and, among all the brands with a high-end or luxury positioning, heads for the corner of the brand in question. The sales assistant, trained, clear and polite, praises the quality of the leather and tanning, as well as the fact that it is handmade in France.
The bag costs €500, which is more than the average bag she usually buys, but he is reassured by what he sees (the brochure, the elegant place of distribution, the qualities described by the salesman and the materials used) and so she buys the product.
A few days later, the bag’s handle broke. The consumer is disappointed. This disappointment stems from a lack of coherence in the marketing mix: given the distribution policy (Galeries Lafayette), the communication elements (an attractive magazine, the sales assistant’s reassuring speech) and the price (very high), she expected a top-of-the-range, superior-quality product and was therefore disappointed.
She wouldn’t have been disappointed if she’d bought the bag on the street for a few dozen euros, as it would have made sense for it to be of low quality.
Back to the buyer whose bag has just broken. She returns to the store, and there are two scenarios:
- In the first scenario, the salesperson apologizes, offers to take charge of the bag to repair it, and makes a commercial gesture to the customer because he understands her disappointment. In this case, the mix becomes coherent again: the fact that the bag broke was an accident, and the brand does everything in its power to put things right, with excellent after-sales service to match the price paid.
- In the second scenario, the sales assistant questions the customer and the way she uses the bag, asks her if she’s put too many things in it, tells her that they don’t have a repair shop and that the bag has been used, so it can’t be refunded or exchanged. The mix remains incoherent, and the customer remains disappointed and will not buy another product from this brand. The brand’s marketing mix is inconsistent and therefore ineffective, and will not create long-term value for the brand.
The most important thing to keep in mind is the consistency of the mix.
5P, 7P, 10P a more suitable mix?
The 4Ps of the marketing mix date back to the middle of the 20th century. Some people wished to add other levers:
- People
- Processes
- Physical environment
This gave rise to the 5Ps and 7Ps.
People
How can the members of my organization be ambassadors for my product?
This refers to the people involved in delivering the service, including staff in direct contact with customers. It’s important to have qualified, trained and competent staff to deliver a satisfying customer experience.
Processes
How can you continuously improve your product, guarantee its quality and reduce costs, while offering your users the best possible experience?
It refers to the processes used by the company to deliver the product or service. This includes operational efficiency, supply chain management, return policies, customer service, etc.
Physical evidence
How does your brand image translate physically (on your premises, through your packaging, website, etc.)?
This refers to the tangible elements that support the product or service offering, such as the physical environment, facilities, packaging, visual elements, guarantees, testimonials, etc.
These last two levers (process and physical evidence) give rise to the 7P marketing mix.
Like many marketing professionals, I don’t find it particularly useful to talk about the 5Ps or the 7Ps. Indeed, in my opinion, the 4P marketing mix already includes these dimensions: if we consider that the « Product » lever contains everything that is offered to the customer in exchange for a certain price, then human services are part of it, as is the user experience. The same goes for processes and physical evidence.
For example, why do we pay so much more for a Mac than a PC? Because it offers a whole range of benefits: comfort, stability, ergonomics, design, top-of-the-range after-sales service and so on. For me, in this case, everything comes under the Product pillar.
On the other hand, I believe that, like any tool, the more stuff it contains, the more unusable and ineffective it becomes in real (business) life.
A little history : who created the marketing mix (4P)?
The marketing mix concept was first established in 1942 by Neil Borden, Professor of Advertising at the Harvard Graduate Business School of Administration. At the time, the marketing mix comprised 12 variables, not 4. Borden claims to have been inspired by the « ingredient mixer » concept used by his colleague James Cullinton to describe the mix of marketing levers.
It was later taken up by Jerome Mac Carthy in 1960, who reduced the marketing mix to 4 main groups: product, price, point of sale and promotion.
But it was Philip Kotler who popularized the notion of the marketing mix and made it one of our flagship tools. Philip Kotler is considered one of the fathers of marketing, and is the author of some of the most widely-read books on the subject.
As I explained above, some experts have proposed other extensions to the traditional model: the 5P marketing mix and the 7P marketing mix.
The marketing mix’s 5P
The fifth P in the marketing mix, often overlooked but just as crucial, is people. These are the people who interact directly with customers and play an essential role in delivering quality service. Whether in a retail store, restaurant or call center, staff are the human element that brings the customer experience to life. Employees can influence customers’ perception of the company and its products or services.
Proper training and management of staff is essential to ensure positive customer interaction. Employees must be well trained in product knowledge, company policies and customer service skills. They must also be equipped with the qualities needed to deliver an exceptional customer experience, such as courtesy, empathy and problem-solving skills.
Staff can also play a role in communicating the added value of the product or service. Their in-depth knowledge of the product, their ability to provide accurate information and their capacity to answer customer questions all contribute to building customer trust and satisfaction.
In addition, staff can act as a valuable feedback channel for the company. They are often in direct contact with customers and can provide valuable information about their needs, concerns and expectations. This feedback can help the company improve its products, customer service and overall marketing strategy.
The 7Ps of the marketing mix
That said, it’s worth mentioning that some marketing professionals have expanded the model to include other important aspects. For example, some have suggested adding the P for « process » to emphasize how a company’s internal processes can influence the customer experience. This might include manufacturing processes, service delivery processes or customer relationship management processes.
In addition, the P of « physical evidence » has also been suggested to emphasize the importance of tangible elements that help build customer credibility and trust. This can include the physical appearance of a store, the packaging of a product, the visual elements of a website, or customer testimonials and reviews.
Our other contents related to marketing mix :
👉🏻 All information on product policy (marketing mix)
👉🏻 All information on pricing policy (marketing mix)
👉🏻 All information on communication policy (marketing mix)
👉🏻 All information on distribution policy
