Emergence of 4 Ps ( Product, Price, Place & Promotion ) of Marketing could be traced back to late 1940s. The original marketing mix or 4 Ps were proposed by Jerome McCarthy. Dr Philip Kotler, Marketing Management Guru, popularized marketing mix approach. Conventional Marketing Mix could be, ideally, defined as putting right product or combination thereof in the place, at right time, and at a right price. The effective use of this model in ones business could help optimizing profits on sustainable basis.
In 1981, Booms and Bitner proposed a model of 7 Ps, comprising traditional 4 Ps plus Process, People and Physical Evidence, which are generally part of Service Marketing. A more customer-centric approach was proposed in 1990 in the form of 4 Cs, revolving around Consumer, Cost, Communication and Convenience. The 4 Cs model later got expanded to 7 Cs (Compass Model), thereby adding Corporation, Competitor and Compliance to the original 4 Cs.
Product refers to goods (tangible) or services (intangible) that satisfy consumer's needs and wants.
Price means the amount consumer is willing to pay for buying goods or services, depending upon perceived value.
Place refers to accessibility, providing convenience to the consumers.
Promotion means Advertisement, Publicity, Campaigns, Tele-marketing and Internet marketing and any other form of promotion.
Process refers to speedy and timely delivery of goods or services, reduction in paperwork, standardization of procedure and transparency & accountability.
People extend to training & development of employees, curbing employee attrition, consumer satisfaction and consumer loyalty & retention.
Physical Evidence means growth in top line and bottom line, increased market share, aeet growth and enhanced brand value.
The original 4 Cs viz. Consumer wants and needs could be mapped to Product; Price to Cost; Place to Convenience and Promotion to Communication. The 7 Cs inclusion of consumers in marketing mix is often criticized, since these are target of marketing whereas other elements of marketing mix are termed as tactics.
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