The 4Ps
- Product — what you offer: features, quality, range, packaging, related services.
- Price — what it costs, with which tiers, discounts, terms. See pricing strategy.
- Place — where and how the customer finds it: channels, stores, online, coverage.
- Promotion — how you make it known and chosen: advertising, digital, public relations, promotions, sales.
The 7Ps for services
- People — who delivers the service: in services, staff are part of the product.
- Process — how the service is delivered: timing, steps, ease.
- Physical evidence — what the customer sees and touches: the premises, the materials, the website, the receipt.
The three extra Ps exist because a service can’t be seen before you buy it: the customer judges it by who delivers it, how it works and the cues that come with it.
How to use it
1. Start from positioning
The mix turns a choice already made into decisions: for whom, against whom, with what promise. Without clear positioning, each P gets decided on its own.
2. Decide each lever with its recommendations
For promotion, this also means the media mix and the calendar.
3. Check the pairs
For each pair of Ps: do they reinforce or contradict each other? A premium product sold in discount stores, a high price with communication that’s all about discounts, wide distribution for a product that needs expert advice: these are tensions to resolve before launch.
4. Close the gaps
Where a tension remains, choose which P to change. The easiest lever to move is usually promotion, but it isn’t always the wrong one.
The most common mistakes
- Four separate plans. There’s only one mix: the levers have to be decided together.
- Promotion = advertising. It includes everything that says something about the brand, sales included.
- The 4Ps for a service. Without people and process, you neglect exactly what the customer judges.
- No consistency check. Contradictions between levers show up later, in the sales figures.
