Your Simple Guide to the 8 Ps of Marketing

The 8 Ps of marketing are product, price, place, promotion, people, positioning, processes, and performance. The goal is to get them working together for your marketing mix. If you can you’ll have a much better chance to attract and convert your potential customers.

Ps Marketing

There’s no shortage of marketing advice out there.

But buried under the mountains of opinions and marketing theories are nuggets of gold like the 8Ps of marketing ready to be put into practice.

And in this article, we’ll show you why and most importantly how. So sit back, grab your favorite Frappuccino latte and let’s get cozy.

What is a marketing mix?

A marketing mix is holistic marketing. It’s a framework to approach the marketing strategy for your products or services. And it centers on your target market.

It helps you resonate with customers. And it gives direction to various activities and marketing management across departments in your company.

With an effective marketing mix, you can achieve company goals with various elements working together.

The original marketing mix was a top-down managerial approach that evolved into the 4 Ps of marketing — product, price, place, and promotion.

It’s since further evolved into the popular 7 Ps marketing mix, adding people, processes, and positioning to the mix. And even the 7Cs Compass Model.

But if you’re like us, you like to take things a step further. The 8 Ps adds ‘performance’ to the list.

These 8 Ps are more helpful for a modern marketing mix.

What does a marketing mix look like?

Weed Man is a company I remember from my childhood for being particularly good at putting this all together.

They’re an excellent example of a service marketing mix.

It’s a weed-killing service whose core product and sales promotion work together for a services marketing extravaganza.

They successfully combine marketing mix elements to promote their offer and gain customers.

Their core product self promotes by how green the lawn is. And their sign is one of their advertising tools that work on many levels.

It signals to people to be aware that there are chemicals present. And also that they can have a green lawn too, simply by calling the number. There’s even a referral program.

These extra marketing mix elements drive marketing objectives in a cost-effective way.

So what are the 8 Ps of Marketing?

Product

The first of the 8 Ps is the product. This is the thing you sell. Products are both the tangible and intangible products and services you offer.

If done well, your product can become a marketing device in and of itself. It can turn customers into brand advocates.

Think of how Apple’s identifiable design choices turned users into brand ambassadors. The white earbuds, the logo facing out, and even the iPhone camera's distinct designs promote Apple.