A company wants to add advertising. But the product is being returned, salespeople promise something different from the website, and delivery takes longer than the customer expects. In that situation, advertising is not the main problem. It would only bring more people into the same confusion.
This is exactly where I use the marketing mix. Not as the obligatory 4P lesson from school, but as a check that product, price, distribution and communication hold together. For services, I add people, processes and evidence. Seven letters alone will not save anything. Good questions will.
The 4Ps work when you turn them into concrete choices
The classic marketing mix includes product, price, place and promotion. The problem arises when a company describes its current state in the boxes and considers the work done. The point is to uncover decisions and inconsistencies.
A product is not a list of features
The product includes what the customer actually receives: the product or service itself, quality, warranty, support, instructions, packaging and the post-purchase experience. I ask what problem it solves, for whom, and why a customer should believe in this particular solution.
For a service, it is also important to define what is not included. An unclear scope turns into unplanned work, tension and a terrible margin after the contract is signed.
The price must support both the promise and the operation
Price is not just a number beside a button. It includes payment terms, discounts, delivery, implementation costs, the customer's time and the risk of making the wrong choice. A low price can make the first purchase easier. But it can just as easily make the quality service promised by marketing impossible.
That is why I assess price together with margin and delivery complexity. If a company sells individual care at the price of a standardised product, the marketing problem is actually an economic one.
Place means availability and friction
For a physical shop, you deal with location. For an e-shop, inventory, delivery, collection points and product availability. For a B2B service, the distribution point may be a website, a partner's referral, a sales meeting or a tender process.
I look at how many steps the customer must manage and where they have to wait. Every unnecessary handover, unclear form or deadline hidden until the contract increases friction. Advertising will not remove it.
Promotion must tell the same truth as the rest of the company
Communication determines where people learn about the offer, how they understand it and what next step they take. It includes search, advertising, content, email, social media, PR, referrals and personal selling. I discuss their roles in more detail in the article on the communications mix.
The most common mistake is not too few channels. It is one promise in advertising, another on the website and a third from the salesperson. The customer then does not buy because they do not understand the offer — or buys and is disappointed.
For services, people, processes and evidence are decisive
The extended 7P model adds three areas that are difficult to hide in an intangible offer.
- People: who interacts with the customer, what they need to know and where they need support.
- Processes: how enquiry, delivery, complaints, support and repeat purchase work.
- Physical evidence: what helps a customer assess an intangible service — a work sample, process, team, case study or clear deliverable.
A stock photo of smiling people is not evidence. Evidence is something that lets a customer reduce uncertainty: a specific result, a description of the work, real photographs, a public testimonial or an opportunity to see part of the output in advance.
A model coffee e-shop shows why one table is not enough
In the original article, I explained the marketing mix through a model coffee e-shop. One line was fair-trade coffee, the other a more conventional range. Dividing the product lines was important: the same communication, price or evidence does not necessarily work for both.
For the fair-trade line, it would be necessary to document its origin and explain what the higher price means. For the conventional line, customers may care more about taste, availability and delivery speed. For both, an additional service is grinding to the required coarseness. That already affects the process, people's work and costs.
The point is not to invent as many activities as possible. It is to ensure that the chosen product supports its price, is available in the right way and has evidence that matches the promise.
I prepare the marketing mix by product line
One table for the whole company is often too general. An entry-level service is sold differently from a long project, and differently again from ongoing care. That is why I work through specific offers:
- I select one product line or service.
- I describe the customer and the situation in which they buy the offer.
- I review the product, price, availability and communication.
- For a service, I add people, process and evidence.
- I identify inconsistencies, missing data and decisions with the greatest impact.
- Only then do I choose marketing activities and a budget.
The online marketing checklist is a good check. It connects the website, measurement, content and campaigns with what the company needs to decide.
When the marketing mix will not help
It will not help when management fills it in without people from sales, operations and customer care. Nor will it help when wishful thinking is written into it instead of reality. And it certainly will not solve an offer that customers do not need.
The marketing mix has value when it produces choices: what to simplify, what to charge more for, what to stop promising, what evidence to add and which channel should receive capacity. That is less impressive than a colourful presentation. But it gives the company something it can actually manage by.
If you need to examine your marketing mix across sales, the website and operations, see how companies make similar decisions with me.