How many Ps in the marketing mix after all?
16 août 2007 | Stratégie, Compétences, Chroniques AgentSolo
Does a 6-P marketing mix tell you anything? “Hey, I thought there were only 4 Ps!”, you says. Well, what about 7 Ps, or even 9! Or this: the 4 Ps are dead, viva the 4 Cs!
The science –or the art as you see it– of marketing management seems to evolve. But in this case, do we really have anything new to bite into? Read on…
A Classic Marketing Mix
McCarthy, Kotler et al. taught us some five decades ago that the “marketing mix” was composed of 4 Ps.
• First for PRODUCT decisions,
• Then for PRICING,
• PROMOTIONS, and finally,
• Those that comprise all about PLACE.
Who never heard about these when on a school bench or at a training seminar? As there is always one to question commonly accepted knowledge, we are seeing a plethora of new models about ways to think, plan and make decisions on marketing issues. The masters are challenged! Some of them are worth looking into. Others, well…
Enough letters?
Models are often presented with an acronym to help remember them. The 4 Ps are like that. Many now propose to add Ps to the equation. Here’s a quick review.
Boom and Bitner add 3 Ps to the original 4:
• People : all staff and consumers concerned by marketing decisions;
• Process: all mechanisms and procedures by which products and services are consumed;
• Physical environment : the context in which products and services are purchased.
Weingand add these two to McCarthy & Kotler’s mix :
• Prelude : to underscore the necessary effort to plan things well ahead of actions;
• Postlude: to highlight the need to measure and analyze results after the fact.
The list of other “P” variables goes ...