The Marketing Mix

The most common question asked of anyone who works in marketing is: "So what do you actually do?" The second most common is: "So what is marketing then?" It is a subject that is quite hard to explain without going into a lot of depth and so marketers often end up saying things like "I make brochures." It is little wonder then that most people see marketing as being the same as "Promotion" - but there are another 6 Ps which make up "The Marketing Mix."

The Marketing Mix defines what areas marketing must address in order to be effective and help the organisation grow. There are several different versions of the mix, but the most common are the "4 Ps" and the "7 Ps" - Product, Price, Place, Promotion (the "4 Ps"), People, Physical Evidence and Process (the additional 3 to make up the "7 Ps").

Traditionally the "4 Ps" has been used for product marketing (e.g. consumer goods). With the growth of the service sector, it was felt that more needed to be addressed as there was no tangible product, so an additional 3 Ps were added. More recently, most marketers have solely used the "7 Ps" because service is now an integral part of most product businesses' portfolio.