The 7P’s of Digital Marketing- Understanding the Marketing Mix

Courtesy: Skill Circle

What is Marketing?

According to Nickels, McHugh; “Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy the perceived needs, wants, and objectives of individuals and organizations”. Marketing thus revolves around creating strategies that lead to customer satisfaction and delight. The concept behind marketing is still the same but changes in technology, user needs and other factors have led to the evolution of marketing in a new form that we all know as Digital Marketing.

So, how has internet changed the way marketing was done in the traditional era. Internet Marketing which is also known as web marketing or digital marketing has become a necessity for the marketers as they have to devise various strategies to keep pace with the changes in technology. Social media platforms, mobile apps, smartphones, internet-based services, search engines like Google and Bing, web-based video and audio platforms and various other technological changes have changed the way marketing was done in traditional times.

What is a Marketing Mix?

A marketing mix consists of the Four P’s: Product, Price, Place and Promotion and these four elements are used in the right combination by any organization to create a successful marketing strategy. With the rise of the service sector industries these 4P’s needed more elements for making better strategies and better decisions, and this led to the introduction of 7P’s for marketing, and People, process and Physical Evidence were added to the original 4P’s of marketing. The 7 P’s of marketing are also called the ‘extended marketing mix’. Imagine a scenario where you visit a restaurant. A restaurant as a business might use the right mix of four P elements: Product, Price, Place and Promotion to convert a consumer into a customer, but in order to delight the customer it needs an additional mix of a strategy that focuses on having a fleet of trained staff members to serve the customers, processes that help in smooth and timely delivery of the orders, and a good ambience to make the restaurant look comfortable and customer- friendly. Marketing thus has always evolved with time and the core elements of strategy making process have always seen a shift towards the elements that help in creating more customer-focused strategies.

What are the 7P’s of Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing involves various online marketing efforts that involve the use of devices like smartphones, various social media platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook, different video platforms, or advertising on search engines like Google or Bing. Digital marketing is different from traditional marketing, as it is more targeted and easily measurable. Measuring the ROI of the digital campaign provides the marketing department with insights about the success or failure of a campaign, and this helps them in making campaigns with better marketing strategies. The 7P’s of Digital Marketing are given below:

Product

In digital marketing the product is available online and this means there is no physical presence of the product. An ecommerce company like Amazon sells almost all the products through its online selling platform and what it actually needs is to make the product visible to the customer through the images and videos it uploads in the product description page. The product designed for online selling should consider important parameters like the design of the online product platform, physical delivery options for the product ordered online, creating a brand for the product through extensive marketing efforts, and the ease of managing the return and exchange processes for the product.

Price

Pricing element focuses on the perceived value of the product in the eyes of the customer. Even with an excellent online product offering, you have to focus on offering the product at the right price to the customer. Pricing actually depends on the perceived value of the product in the eyes of the customer. A price that is either high or low does not benefit the company, as the product has to match the value it offers to the customer. Pricing has to done by keeping in mind the competitor’s pricing strategy. Organizations of today should not forget that with the availability of search engines like Google and Bing the customers of today are well-informed about the prices of various competing products in the online market. Companies can go for either single purchase model or subscription-based model, but the price of the product should justify the brand value it offers to the customer.

Place

Place as an element of marketing mix involves the use of either single selling platform or the use of various selling platforms. A brand like Adidas sells its shoes and other products through its own exclusive online market platform and also through various other online shopping platforms like Amazon and Flipkart. Before designing the ‘place’ strategy for selling an online product a company should decide on the target customer base and based on that it should design a marketing strategy for selling its online products. Online marketplaces could include social media platforms like Facebook Shop, Dedicated Online Stores like WooCommerce and online market platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.

Promotion

Promotion is one field that has changed in a very visible way with the introduction of Digital marketing tools. The companies today can advertise or promote their products within a limited budget with the help of channels like Google ads and Facebook ads. Any new brand that has a small presence in the market can create visibility for itself with the help of these digital marketing strategies. SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is used widely to gain visibility and to attract the right customers to the online platform. A company can use a mix of platforms like SEM, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Marketing, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Marketing, Instagram and Pinterest to create a promotion strategy for its products and services. Using technologies like AI and Machine Learning a company can collect and analyze data for creating a better and more effective marketing strategy.

People

Online marketing needs trained customer service personnel. Employees handling the distribution and delivery of the online products should also be trained for the job as they are the ones who come in direct contact with the customers. Resolving customer queries and managing exchange and returns is the job of the customer service department and this kind of job requires training to improve customer service and satisfaction.

Process

A company should set KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) for its processes and should track and measure the performance of the company on the basis of these KPI’s. The processes should be smooth, and they need continuous improvements to set a standard quality process for delivering the right results.

Physical Evidence

Physical evidence in online marketing refers to the user interface on the website of a company. Companies should focus on providing an excellent user interface on their website, as that is where the customer is looking out for the details of the products or services he wants to purchase online.

Marketing mix still holds the same relevance for creating an excellent marketing strategy. Companies should recognize the importance of dynamic changes in the nature of marketing and should create strategies based on what is relevant for the customers in any present situation.