There are 11 P’s of Marketing, Not Just 4 or 5

When trained as a product manager at Hewlett-Packard in 1982, we were told there were 4 Ps of marketing we needed to consider as we put together our marketing plans.

They were:

1. Price
2. Product
3. Promotion
4. Place

Several years later other P’s were added. First, a fifth one and recently the list increased to seven.

When doing research for my books “Building Insanely Great Products: Some Products Fail, Many Succeed…This is their Story” Lessons from 47 years of experience including Hewlett-Packard, Apple, 75 products, and 11 startups later (See https://wp.me/p39FDx-26r) and “Foundations in the Successful Management” of Products from Wiley (See https://wp.me/P39FDx-25S), I discovered there were four more marketing Ps bringing the total to eleven.

As you pull together your marketing plan, think through each of these Ps and to develop what you plan to do with each one of them. For each of the Ps, you can have a marketing strategy, marketing types, techniques, and tactics.

1. Persona (Do)
2. Product (is)
3. Promise (Branding)
4. Price
5. Packaging
6. Place (Distribution)
7. Promotion
8. Philosophy
9. Physical Evidence
10. People
11. Process

The persona is the thing your customer wants to do. The product is a description of what your product is. The promise is the promise or branding of your product. The price is, of course, the price at which you are selling your product. Packaging is what is holding your product. In the case of an internet product that might be the web page that describes it. The product’s distribution is the place. The promotion is the encouragement you are providing to have your product purchased. Philosophy marketing could be such things as customer satisfaction or only make what the company can sell. The last 3 Ps of marketing tend to be used in the case of a service which is, of course, is an intangible product. The physical evidence is what was done, as a service was performed or a product delivered. The evidence proves to the customer that the service was performed. People means the employees that perform the service. Like the Apple Geniuses at the Genius bar. Lastly, process means the process and systems within the company that affects the service. Like the queue of trouble tickets for support.

Here is an example of “P”s for an Apple’s iPhone:

1. Persona (Do): Mobile internet user
2. Product (is): The Internet in your pocket, user experience
3. Promise (Branding): It just works
4. Price: Premium
5. Packaging: Like opening up a jewel
6. Place (Distribution): Store, On-Line, Carriers
7. Promotion: PR
8. Philosophy: Apple Values that is great customer satisfaction
9. Physical Evidence: Loyalty
10. People: Their employees: Customer satisfaction
11. Process: Total Customer Experience