Your Simple Guide to the 8 Ps of Marketing

The 8 Ps of marketing is product, price, place, promotion, people, positioning, processes, and performance. The goal is to get them working together for your marketing mix. If you can you’ll have a much better chance to attract and convert your potential customers. 

There's no shortage of marketing advice out there.

But buried under the mountains of opinions and marketing theories are nuggets of gold like the 8Ps of marketing ready to be put into practice.

And in this article, we'll show you why and most importantly how. So sit back, grab your favourite Frappuccino latte and let's get cozy.

What is a marketing mix?

A marketing mix is holistic marketing. It's a framework to approach the marketing strategy for your products or services. And it centers on your target market.

It helps you resonate with customers. And it gives direction to various activities and marketing management across departments in your company.

With an effective marketing mix, you can achieve company goals with various elements working together.

The original marketing mix was a top-down managerial approach that evolved into the 4 Ps of marketing - product, price, place, and promotion.

It's since further evolved into the popular 7 Ps marketing mix, adding people, process, and positioning to the mix. And even the 7Cs Compass Model.

But if you're like us, you like to take things a step further. The 8 Ps adds 'performance' to the list.

These 8 Ps are more helpful for a modern marketing mix.

What does a marketing mix look like?

Weed Man is a company I remember from my childhood for being particularly good at putting this altogether.

They're an excellent example of a service marketing mix.

It's a weed-killing service whose core product and sales promotion work together for a services marketing extravaganza.

They successfully combine marketing mix elements to promote their offer and gain customers. 

Their core product self promotes by how green the lawn is. And their sign is one of their advertising tools that work on many levels. 

It signals to people to be aware that there are chemicals present. And also that they can have a green lawn too, simply by calling the number. There's even a referral program. 

These extra marketing mix elements drive marketing objectives in a cost effective way. 

So what are the 8 Ps of Marketing?

Product

The first of the 8 Ps is product. This is the thing you sell. Products are both the tangible and intangible products and services you offer. 

Done well, your product can become a marketing device in and of itself. It can turn customers into brand advocates. 

Think of how Apple's identifiable design choices turned users into brand ambassadors. The white ear buds, logo facing out, and even the iPhone camera distinct designs promote Apple.

Or consider how Hotmail grew to over 12 million users in 2 years through branded email signatures to invite new users.

Marketing services can do this too. Some companies do this with a disclaimer and link on client sites.

Price

Your pricing policies are one of the most important things to nail down. The dollar amount you set for your product or service has ripple effects. 

Your pricing strategy affects your profitability. It can determine who your potential customers will be. And it can affect customer satisfaction.

This is especially true in competitive industries where penetration pricing drives promotion strategy.

This is where new companies, to gain market shares and 'penetrate' the market, undersell competitors and eventually create a race to the bottom.

To avoid this, you'll want to conduct a considerable amount of analysis of your target market.

Cost-based pricing considers the costs involved - labor and resources. But don't forget to factor in the demand and competitor pricing.

It will help you determine a pricing that will speak positively of your product. And it will have a big impact in the success of your marketing department and business development team.

• Price too low and it can impact your brand image.

• Price too high and your target customers may ignore you.
  

Place

Place refers to where your product or service is bought, sold, and experienced. This is very different depending on the business.

Retail is obviously different from digital products online. And products are different from services. 

It is important for there to be consistency. Customer experience should ideally be consistent across all channels. 

Place can also refer to promotional channels.

One of the most important things for a market plan is to determine where your target audience is.

Where can your customers find out about your product/service?

This helps you know where to advertise your offer. A successful marketing strategy will focus on the channels where your target audience spends their time. 

This is why companies will sponsor sporting events or Michael Bay movies in return for product placement.

Promotion

Promotion is all that you do to get people interested in buying your product or service.

It's all of your marketing communications:

• Direct marketing
• Traditional advertising
• Product placements,
• Public relations
• And more...

One of the most effective ways to promote is through integrated marketing communications.

This again refers to holistic marketing. It means you share a consistent message across all owned, earned, and paid media channels.

Your marketing blog, social media (see a comparison of Facebook pages vs groups here), ads, partnerships through public relations, and more.

A shared message across these channels will increase your market coverage and keep you top of mind. 

A digital marketing strategy with online marketing campaigns centered on an honest benefit can help maintain a consistent message at scale.

It helps build familiarity with potential customers. This leads to trust and positive expectations with your brand.

People

People refers to your marketing team and all people responsible for your marketing. And what they think about your prospects will have a critical impact on your marketing efforts. It will bleed through and show in everything they do.

The first step in creating a marketing plan is understanding who your target market is. It's important to understand your audience and create detailed buyer personas.

This will help you speak directly to various needs, goals, and roadblocks of your target market with clarity and purpose. 

That's why an effective content marketing team takes a human approach to the SEO efforts.

Respect and empathy are more than just keywords. They are words with deep meaning and the foundation of a sustainable marketing strategy.

It's critical for everyone involved in promoting your offer, including affiliates to be aligned here. Each plays a role in your overall brand reputation. 

Positioning

Your positioning is what helps you highlight the unique features of your offer. 

It also helps direct and benefit your public relations strategy. How you'll communicate with customers and prospects.

All other aspects of your marketing mix and competitive environment will play a direct role in your positioning.

Consider what you offer and to who. Who are they, what do they want, how can you help them get it.

It can be helpful to create a product mix that matches various markets. This can take time to develop though and you'll want to be very strategic.

You don't want to hurt your brand image trying to please the masses.

It's very difficult for luxury brands to maintain prestige with budget priced offerings.

Processes

This refers to how your company delivers products and services to customers. It other words, your service performance. 

It also affects planned marketing and campaign processes that encapsulate your promotional efforts. This is true at each stage of your sales funnel.

Both products and services require detailed processes. Good processes are a significant competitive advantage. Luckily, with widespread digital integration, we are blessed.

We have access to countless tools to help with sales funnels, re-targeting, and checkout processes. They help maintain a consistent customer experience. 

Combine detailed and refined processes with high standards in customer service and you have a recipe for success.

Processes can also help align your team through fair and standardized key performance indicators. You can set clear, company-wide expectations.

And of course it helps save you the cost of time when training new hires.

Performance

You can judge the performance of marketing efforts not only on the returns of profits but also on reputational gains.

Companies increasingly champion causes their prospects care about through marketing efforts.

The goal is to strengthen connections through shared interests and values.

These are often environmental and social causes trending at any given time. 

Kickstart Your Marketing Mix Today

The 8 Ps of marketing can be used as a marketing mix framework for any type of business or organization. 

It's remarkably effective as a form of symbiotic marketing that applies to all types of products and services.

And it'll help you think deeply about your target segment so that you can spread your message with the most effective customer-focused marketing mix possible.

You may also be interested in following these great tips on how to get your blog noticed.

And of course, you can always let us know if you need any help with your marketing objectives. 8-Bit Content is here to help!