7 P's and 4 A's | MARKETING MIX | PRODUCT & SERVICE MARKET

There are many abbreviations and jargon in marketing. Out of them the most famous and the most important jargon in marketing is the 7 P's and 4 A's of marketing. The 7 P's are the product marketing mix whereas the 4 A's are the service marketing mix.

The 7 P's

These 7 P's are used as a check before launching the product in a market. These are the major features that the companies consider as the first step in product initiation or even during a product enhancement. The abbreviation of 7 P's are

• Product

• Price

• Place

• Promotion

• Packaging

• Positioning

• People

Product:

This describes the product that is manufactured by the company. That is the product description that details about the sector of the product like FMCG or automobile or sports, etc.,.

Price:

Price gives the range under which the company has launched the product i.e. elite price range or intermediate price range. For example in chocolate industry 5 star is in the intermediate category and ITC exquisite chocolate is a premium brand. Apart from classifying the price range of the product the price fixing is also done through several interesting formats for example prices ending with odd numbers or prices in 9's like 99, 999 or even bulk discount sales.

Place:

This describes the place where the product is launched. For example we can consider Mc Donalds they introduced customized spicy rice varieties into their meal combo in India since Indians like spice in their meals!!!

Promotion:

This includes the advertising strategies that the company uses to create the expected perception among the customers hence, it is always important to keep track about the level of creating positive awareness about the product among the people.

Packaging:

"First impression is always the best impression" so it is very crucial to attract customers from their first sight on the product. This can happen if the packaging of the product is perfect and attractive to the customers. The appropriate pictorial description of the product is also to be given through the packaging, that is if the product is from the diet and fitness category then suitable pictures like cereals or healthy images that describe the product should be present in the packaging that is attractive to the target population (the people seeking or in the fitness field).

Positioning:

Positioning is also a part of another jargon from marketing that is STP, which means Segmenting, Targeting and positioning. Segmenting is the form of dividing the target population from by different features like their age, gender and several other demographics. Targeting is the final selected population that are to be focused to promote the product. And now coming to positioning, it is placing of the product among the various categories of people like elite, intermediate and common. Apart from this there is also another perspective of positioning that is placing your product in the market among the competitors in a right and unique way. Placing your product in a more unique and creative way in the market gives us competitive advantage from our competitors!!!

People:

It is always important for every head of the company to think from the perspective of other employees also. Hence the people should be hired by keeping in mind the attitude that is needed for the role and comparing it with the attitude of the selected candidate.

The 4 A's

For every company that is trying to assess itself in the service sector they have to follow the 4 A's of the service marketing mix. The 4 A's are

• Acceptability

• Affordability

• Accessibility

• Awareness

Acceptability:

This scale, assess the level of acceptability form the customers towards their service. The major characteristic here is the satisfaction of the customer.

Affordability:

This feature denotes how affordable and reasonable the service is to the customers. Here other features additional to the price like complementary offers or discounts are also taken into count.

Accessibility:

This describes how easily available the service is for the customers. They expect the contact methods and other formalities to be easily handled so that the expected service is done as early as they expect it. The location and the availability of the service centers also plays a pivot role.

Awareness:

This similar to the concept "promotion" from the product marketing mix category. This explains how much the people are aware of the service that is being provided and about the beneficial points of the company. This requires very clever and creative advertising strategies.

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