Marketing Mix is a set of activities of marketing interconnected and integrated, and dependent on each other in order to implement the marketing function according to the planned method of him, and knows the marketing mix as marketing tools used by the company with the aim of continued access to the objectives of marketing in the target market, and called these tools are named as marketing mix elements.
The marketing mix is one of the basic concepts of modern marketing. The main principles of this mix are written back to 1948 by James Colton.
He suggested that marketing decisions be defined according to a prescription. In 1953, the president of the United States Association of Marketers, Neil Borden, Marketing Mix) on the recipe, and in 1960 put the elements of the mix, and start all the words in English with the letter (P).
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The 7ps of Marketing – Marketing Mix elements
Once companies and institutions have developed their own marketing strategies, it is important to pay attention to the elements of the marketing mix, which contribute to the assessment of the private activities in the work environment on an ongoing basis.
These seven elements are the right way to achieve the best results for the work in the market. Information about these elements comes from:
Product :
The most important “P” of the 7ps of service marketing is the “Product”. It’s your hero as well as the villain at the same time.
If you get your product right, everything goes right and if your product is faulty then all the other Ps fall with it no matter how much effort you put in.
In case of services the product is “intangible”, “heterogeneous” and “perishable”, it can be touched or seen, you can just experience it.
Moreover, its production and consumption are inseparable. Hence, there is scope for customizing the offering as per customer requirements and the actual customer encounter, therefore, assumes particular significance.
Example of Product – Air travel service provided by the “Etihad Airways”
The core product, in this case, is Air Travel – Etihad airways can customize their product basis different customers that they deal with. They can add different auxiliary services like check-in facility, lounge access, extra legroom seats etc to their core product and make it more enjoyable for their customer
Price:
Creating a pricing strategy for service is tougher than pricing for goods. Unlike goods, where the price is set basis the cost of raw materials, in services, the pricing has to be set by taking a lot of factors into consideration like labor cost and overhead cost.
For example: In the restaurant industry, the final price of the service is not just depended on the food served, the price also depends on the ambiance that you provide to the customers.
For that reason, high-end restaurants charge much more than what normal restaurant charges.
Promotion :
Since service offering can be easily replicated, it becomes important for services providers to promote their brand aggressively so as to have a lasting impact in the minds of the customer.
Different promotional strategies having different core propositions are used by companies to differentiate their service offerings from their competitors.
For services providers like Airlines, Banks and insurance companies it becomes important to heavily rely on the promotion bit.
Place :
Since in service industry, the production and consumption go hand in hand, since the service cannot be stored and transported like goods/products. Hence, the place a crucial role for the service providers and is another important “P” of 7ps of service marketing
Example: For a posh restaurant, it is a better idea to be located in a busy and upscale neighborhood as against to be on the outskirts of the city.
Below are the 3 new elements of the services marketing mix – people, process, and physical evidence – which are not part of 4ps of marketing for goods but are unique only to service marketing.
People :
A restaurant is considered good not just because of the food it serves or the ambience it has, but also mainly due to the quality of staff it employees, and the same is true for the banks and airline industry as well.
People are an important factor in the service delivery process because they are the ones who are catering to the customers.
Process :
The process of service delivery is crucial since it ensures that the same standard of service is repeatedly delivered to the customers. Therefore, most companies have a service blueprint which provides the details of the service delivery process, often going down to even defining the service script and the greeting phrases to be used by the service staff.
Physical Evidence:
Since service offerings are intangible, customers look out for other different cues to judge the service offering.
This is where the Physical Evidence comes into play.
Would you like to sit in a restaurant where the table is dirty, walls are all scrapped off or the servers are wearing untidy clothes? These are few of those cues that you would be looking at for deciding the quality of the service provided.
Conclusion :
7ps of service marketing remains an elusive concept until and unless one has a clear understanding of the core concepts of marketing and what is a marketing mix
Also, read our article the “4ps of marketing” to understand the basic of how to marketing the products and goods.