Beyond the 4Ps – the extended marketing mix

Product

This is the product – or service – that you are marketing. It’s not just about the product itself, but the proposition that goes with it. For example, when buying a new car, the proposition element will be adds-on such as extended warranty, free servicing, which make the commodity of greater value to the customer.

You can also take the same service and create different propositions to appeal to different markets, for example different types of bank accounts.

Brand and reputation, as you might expect, are essential components of the product or service, as they add value and desirability.

Price

Pricing can be broadly set in one of two ways: cost-based or market-based. With cost-based, you work on what it costs to produce (or the time to deliver for a service) and add a profit margin. However, if it is too high, customers may not buy, if it is too low, they may perceive poor quality.

For market-based pricing, this is either tracking against competitors or aggressively going for market share. It can be influenced by limiting supply to increase demand and therefore prices, which is a common strategy used by luxury goods.

Place

These are the channels through which you sell your products and services. It can include direct sales teams (field and or telesales), resellers and distributors, retailers and online sales via an ecommerce site.

If you use multiple channels, it is important to ensure that you have joined up all elements and adopt what is known as an omni-channel strategy. This might include elements such as limits on discounts retailers can make, so that your own online sales are not undercut by your channels.

Promotion

Promotion is the best-known element of the marketing mix and is what most people think of when they think about marketing. It’s the public facing campaigns you run – your website, advertising, digital marketing, social media presence, packaging, events and point of sale promotions.

When designing promotional campaigns, we always recommend thorough planning before you start, ensuring that the campaign is integrated across all the media you will be using and that the brand and messaging are consistent and relevant to the different target markets.

People

Your people are perhaps the most important part of your marketing – they can make or break the customer experience.

Each person in your organisation – and your third party sales channels – is a brand ambassador, so they need to fully understand and commit to delivering the brand values and the desired customer experience.

Just think about times when you have had great customer service, whether in person, on the phone or in live chat, and how that has delighted you as a customer. Sadly, for brand managers, bad service is even more impactful.

Process

Process may not sound very glamorous, but it is essential to delivering an excellent customer experience. By mapping out the entire customer journey, for each type of product/service and sales channel, you can identify how to make the process smooth and efficient.

Once you have all the processes in place, look for technology that helps with automation that can reduce your workload and improve customer communications at the same time. Then keep reviewing it for improvements and ensure that any campaigns you are developing have been incorporated into the process.

Physical environment

Traditionally, this relates to the physical place where customers engage with you, such as a retail store or an office, where you create an environment that is on brand and puts across the values that your brand stands for. Just think about the different environments supermarkets such as Aldi and Waitrose create and how that reflects their brand, customer experience and pricing.

In recent times, this would also include your website, especially an ecommerce site, where UX (user experience) design is an important part of the marketing mix, helping customers to get to their destination quickly, ease of checkout, the overall look and feel of the site.