Make the Move to the 7 P’s of Marketing

For about the past 50 years marketing was the understanding and implementing the Four P’s – Product, Price, Promotion and Place.  This concept of Marketing was introduced by E. Jerome McCarthy in the 1960s, which has since been widely used by marketers and held strong until the internet became the new way of marketing.  Marketing has changed and continues to change, with some experts saying there are now seven P’s to marketing.  The additional P’s are: Physical evidence, People and the Process.

So let me use a current personal situation to illustrate some of the new marketing concepts and uses:  I wanted to purchase a replacement remote for my garage door opener.

I went to the Internet and used one of the search engines to look for a remote and low and behold I found many sources for the product – local stores, the manufacturer’s site, distributors, and even Amazon and eBay.  And I was able to find what I wanted in the middle of the night when none of the local stores were open (24/7 purchase cycle). Well, that took care of four of the P’s – Product, Promotion, Place and Process.  Well let’s not leave out the price.  For one unit the price was $30 and then came along several other options – such as how many remotes I was looking for.  I was able to purchase three units for just $50 with shipping included.  Then there was another option – how fast did I need the remote?

I did not make the purchase at that moment, but waited several days.

Guess what happened for the next several days. Reminders popped up on most of my social media sites and then came other information – such as similar items purchased by others who had also purchased a remote.

One of the rules of sales in most situations is a potential customer must be touched seven times before they make the purchase.  These follow ups are important and the Internet makes it easy to accomplish and noninvasive for the customer.

Let’s look at another situation. I knew what I wanted and went to the local store only to find the last one had just sold.  What did I do? I went on the Internet and went shopping.  In some instances we can find out if another store has it in stock, at what price, and we can even compare products without going to a second store.

Most recently, I was working on a non-standard product and needed a part.  No local store had the part and I needed to complete the job for pick up by the customer the next day.  I went online, found the part, ordered it around 9:30 a.m. and they guaranteed delivery by 6 p.m., the same day. It came on time with the correct part.

So, the question is:

Does your business use any of the new marketing and sales strategies to assist customers to quickly find your business, solve their problem and make it easy to purchase, with many different delivery options?

Consider the 7 P’s of marketing, whether you have a physical location or an online business. Making it as convenient as possible for your customers to purchase from you is key to creating repeat customers.