During marketing trainings that I lead for Cegos, Mix-marketing is often debated, not on its usefulness that no one disputes, but on the number of ingredients that compose it. The question is whether the 4P are still relevant, we speak of 5P, 7P and more recently of 8P. However, by making an overview, we arrive at 10P. So who are they? What is their purpose? Is not there a little too much? Should we find others?
How the marketing mix went from 4P to 10P
Mix Marketing’s 4Ps
Jérôme Mac Carthy creates the Mix-Marketing Model with the 4P, in 1960. Popularized by Philip Kotler, the 4P go around marketing directions. The principle is that an offer offered to consumers is a combination of several components. They are mixed between them and not juxtaposed side by side, so as to represent a global offer to consumers. All the ingredients are in synergy and concretize the same positioning. These 4Ps are still very useful for defining the offer, even in the age of social media and mobile marketing. The 4Ps are:
Product = the product policy (product composition, patent, but also range policy, packaging …)
Price = the price policy (premium or low cost, pricing policy, promotional price …)
Place = the policy of distribution and access to the product (distribution channel, off and online, merchandising …)
Promotion = the communication policy (advertising, media and hos media, operational marketing, web, mobile and tablets, street marketing actions, sponsorship, webseries, viral marketing …)
The 5th P
With the development of customer marketing, customer satisfaction becomes a lever for brand loyalty and reputation. The customer relationship is becoming a full-fledged department in the companies and, with the growth of services, the 5th P is needed: People or the Staff in contact with consumers. Its role is very important: when you go to the checkout of your supermarket, when you join the after-sales service of your ISP, or any other step, there is a person in front of you who speaks on behalf of the brand and, in a way, reflects its image.
7P or extended marketing mix
At the same time, it seems obvious that the 4Ps are insufficient to define the offer in a service society. Many authors including Lovelock, in 1996, developed the 7P model, which adds to the original 4P, in addition to Personnel:
Process = what characterizes the interaction with the user of the service. Because, unlike a product, the service is not storable, it is “consumed” at the same time as it is produced. The term “Servuction” reflects this phenomenon.
Physical evidence = what characterizes the material component of the service is the proof. Because, unlike a product that can be tested (sample) or tried (garment), the service is intangible. It is therefore important to provide material evidence: contract, performance, satisfaction rate …
An 8th P, as Partnership or Partnership
The company is working more and more in a network, with partnerships. This 8th P illustrates the co-development policy between two companies or two complementary brands. Recently, the partnership of Nokia and Microsoft came to illustrate this 8th P, co-branding is another facet, as well as the strategy of exchange of links between sites.
9th P, like Permission Marketing
The term Permission Marketing was created by Seth Godin in his eponymous book. He promotes a new type of relationship marketing and direct communication that involves asking permission from consumers and the opposite is represented by spam. The goal of Permission Marketing is to encourage the consumer, or rather the Internet user and now the mobile user, to get in touch with the brand. In the first place are the programs of conquest and loyalty.
The 10th P, like “Purple cow”
Seth Godin again! Imagine an urban family going to the countryside. First, she is ecstatic in front of a cow in a meadow, and then, what was fascinating at first ends up becoming ordinary, so cows are alike. However, for Seth Godin, this is what happens with the plethora of brands and products that clutter supermarkets, and he proposes in his book, to create a purple cow, that is to say a truly remarkable product to create the ‘interest. So it’s the P of innovation.
What is the P model for?
We must have in mind the purpose of this model to use it well. You can choose 5 P, 8P or 10P. The bottom line is that all these ingredients are in total harmony in order to offer a global product or service consistent with the positioning of the brand. It is on this condition that the offer with its communication, its places of access, its price and all the other P will be distinguished and will find its public.
Which of these new P’s will be next?
Without wanting to outdo, let our creativity express itself. Because are there no other potential P? Which of these 3 new P’s inspires you?
P as Passion = if an offer does not make us live an exceptional moment or a memorable experience, does it have any interest? It could be the P of experiential marketing .
P as Power = if the marketing mix of an offer has no power, strength, or roughness, does it have a chance to emerge?
P as Paprika = after the purple cow, we could look for the cow Paprika, which would bring a touch more spicy and more sensory, it would be the P of sensory marketing.