The ultimate guide to marketing mix: 4Ps, 7Ps, 8Ps, 4Cs, 7Cs
- Alberto Carniel
- Dec 27, 2019
- 11 min read
Updated: Dec 30, 2025
What are the variables a company must control to successfully implement a marketing strategy for each target market?
What does “marketing mix” mean, what are its different models and how can it help organizations?
In this article, you will learn how to use and master a marketing mix to improve your business’ bottom line.
This is an evergreen concept in the #MarketingPlan and determines the right company orientation toward a marketplace.
Let’s get started!
Table of contents
THE 4Ps OF MARKETING MIX
The marketing mix is one of the main pillars of a marketing strategy.
It’s a set of levers that guides decision-making across the entire process of bringing a product or service to market—from launch planning to scaling, to defending market share when competition gets ugly.
Over time, multiple marketing mix models have been developed.
But the one that (still) sits at the foundation of most marketing frameworks is the 4Ps model, introduced by E. Jerome McCarthy in Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach (1960).
McCarthy grouped marketing activities under four dimensions:
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
That’s why we call it the 4Ps of marketing mix.
Product
Product is what satisfies consumers’ needs and wants.
It can be tangible (a physical good) or intangible (a service, an idea, an experience).
In plain English: what are you selling—and why should anyone care?
This “P” includes decisions connected to:
Features and functionality
Design and performance
Quality and branding
Packaging and variants
Warranties and after-sales support
What are the main components of a product?
Kotler and Keller describe a product as a set of layered value, often visualized through the five product levels model.
Here’s the model in practical terms:
Core need / core benefit: the fundamental problem you solve
Actual (generic) product: the basic offering with essential features
Expected product: what the customer assumes will be included
Augmented product: extra services/benefits that exceed expectations (support, warranty, delivery, onboarding, etc.)
Potential product: future upgrades and evolutions that extend the product lifecycle
Example (hotel):
Core benefit: a place to rest
Actual product: bed, towels, bathroom
Expected product: clean sheets, quiet room, decent mattress
Augmented product: Wi-Fi, room service, free city map
Potential product: spa, gym, personalized “welcome” perks
The same idea for services
This product-level logic can be adapted to services in a simplified way:
Core service: the main problem-solving benefit customers seek
Supplementary services: invoicing, order taking, exceptions, information, consultancy, safekeeping…
Delivery process: customer role, time, staff, systems
In Services Marketing, Christopher Lovelock and Jochen Wirtz group the key facilitating and enhancing elements into the Flower of Service model.
Facilitating elements (they make the service usable):
Information: conditions, pricing, terms, how-to guidance
Order taking: how the transaction is handled + feedback during the process
Billing: clarity, timing, transparency
Payment: the moment a prospect becomes a client
Enhancing elements (they make the service memorable):
Consultation: tailored expertise and advice
Hospitality: comfort, waiting experience, “being welcomed”
Safekeeping: privacy, security, and trust protection
Exceptions: flexibility and special handling that build loyalty
One critical product concept: the product life-cycle
A fundamental factor marketers must consider is managing an offering through its life-cycle.
Raymond Vernon formalized the product cycle view in 1966.
The classic five stages:
Development: validation and build (most ideas never reach market)
Introduction: awareness grows, revenue still low
Growth: demand and profits increase, competitors enter
Maturity: growth slows, competition intensifies, price pressure rises
Decline: the offering becomes obsolete and revenue drops
This is where marketing becomes very unromantic and very real.
You either refresh, differentiate, reposition, or milk and exit.
Adoption timing: innovators → laggards
The product life-cycle also connects to how fast people adopt innovation.
Everett M. Rogers describes adopter categories in Diffusion of Innovations (1962).
The adoption curve is composed of innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.
Innovators: pioneers, test early (often price-incentivized)
Early adopters: visionaries, less price-sensitive, seek advantage
Early majority: pragmatists, adopt when benefits are proven
Late majority: conservatives, adopt when risk is low and price is lower
Laggards: skeptics, resist novelty, choose convenience
If you want your innovation to move through the life-cycle, you need a marketing strategy that evolves across these groups.
The AIDA model
Another way to frame the purchase journey (for both products and services) is AIDA:
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
AIDA is often used for landing pages, sales pitches, and promotional assets.
“The mission of an advertisement is to attract… then to interest… then to convince…”
(Commonly attributed to Elias St. Elmo Lewis and discussed in later advertising effectiveness literature.)
In my digital marketing strategies, I typically use inbound methodology, which is more complete and better suited to modern customer journeys.
Still, AIDA remains a useful “quick mental checklist” when you’re building persuasion assets.
Price
Price is the cost to buy a product/service.
For consumers, it represents money exchanged for benefits.
For companies, it’s the revenue lever.
Price is also the only element of the marketing mix that directly generates profit.
Everything else creates costs.
What affects pricing?
Internal factors often include:
Fixed costs (lease, depreciation, insurance, etc.)
Variable costs (labor, materials, packaging, etc.)
Company objectives
Production capacity
Product life-cycle stage
Brand positioning
External factors often include:
Competition
Target segment
Economic context
Demand
Laws, regulations, taxes
Substitutes
Distribution channels
Culture
Before choosing a price, ask:
What do we want pricing to achieve?
Common objectives include:
Maximizing profits
Maximizing ROI
Short-term survival (strategic loss tolerance)
Preventing new entrants
Maintaining status quo (stability)
Supporting cash flow
Reinforcing high quality perception
Two common approaches: cost-based vs value-based
Cost-based pricing starts from production cost and adds markup.
It can work well for commodities, but it risks underpricing if customers would happily pay more.
Value-based pricing starts from perceived value:
How much is the target willing to pay for the outcome?
It’s powerful—but requires deep audience insight.
Five classic pricing strategies:
Price skimming: premium price early, then adjustments over time
Penetration pricing: low price to enter a competitive market
Prestige pricing: high price to signal quality/status
Competition-oriented pricing: price anchored on competitors
Psychological pricing: pricing just below round numbers (e.g., ending in 9)
Promotion
Promotion includes all advertising, programs, and activities (online and offline) used to foster a product/service.
It varies by:
Segment served
Positioning
Lifecycle stage
Competitive environment
Channel dynamics
Place
Place is where people can buy the product/service.
It can be physical (a store) or digital (e-commerce).
The key is access: how easily can your target get the offer?
THE EVOLUTION OF MARKETING MIX:
7Ps, 8Ps, 4Cs AND 7Cs
Around two decades after McCarthy’s 4Ps, theorists started proposing broader models—especially to better represent the complexity of services and modern marketing ecosystems.
The 7Ps of marketing mix
In 1981, Bernard Booms and Mary Jo Bitner expanded the model for services.
The 7Ps add three dimensions:
People
Process
Physical evidence
People includes everyone involved during the buyer journey:
Employees and partners
Customers themselves
The interactions among customers (yes, other customers can ruin your service experience)
Variables that often affect “People”:
Recruitment and training
Uniforms and role clarity
Scripting
Queuing and waiting management
Complaint handling and recovery
Social interaction management
Process includes the mechanisms and decisions that ensure smooth delivery:
Designing processes
Blueprinting / flowcharting to identify bottlenecks
Standardization vs personalization decisions
Locating fail points
Monitoring performance and KPIs
Operational manuals and guidelines
Physical evidence includes the environment and tangible cues surrounding delivery:
Facilities and equipment
Spatial layout
Signage and symbols
Interior design and ambient conditions
Material design (menus, brochures, stationery)
Artifacts (souvenirs, mementos)
Booms and Bitner famously defined it this way:
“Physical evidence is the service delivered and any tangible goods that facilitate the performance and communication of the service.”
The 8Ps of marketing mix
Kotler and Keller propose an expanded view aligned with holistic marketing, which emphasizes interconnected marketing activities across the organization.
This model builds from the 4Ps and adds:
People
Processes
Programs
Performance
You already know people and processes.
So, what are the new two?
Programs represent the company’s overall portfolio of marketing activities.
It’s basically the “integration layer” that forces you to ask:
Are all our initiatives aligned, or are we running random campaigns that don’t talk to each other?
Performance expands outcomes beyond just profit and revenue, including:
Profitability
Brand equity
Customer equity
Social responsibility
Legal responsibility
Ethical responsibility
The 4Cs of marketing mix
In 1990, Robert F. Lauterborn reframed the 4Ps with a customer-first lens in Advertising Age.
The 4Cs are:
Consumer
Cost
Convenience
Communication
Consumer: start from what prospects need and want, not what the company feels like producing.
Cost: price is only part of the customer’s total cost of ownership.
That total cost can include:
Time cost (accessing or learning the product)
Effort cost (switching or implementing)
Opportunity cost (not choosing alternatives)
Psychological costs like conscience and guilt
The cost of conscience shows up when purchases have ethical/social implications.
For example, fast-furniture has environmental consequences, and it can create a conflict between “cheap + trendy” and “responsible + sustainable.”
Jennifer Nini (Eco Warrior Princess) captured the dilemma with a brutal (and fair) question:
“Can a company that relies on a low-cost, high-volume business model that encourages mass-consumption ever be sustainable?”
Ellen Ruppell Shell highlighted IKEA’s relentless pricing logic in Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture:
“IKEA designs to price… [to] squeeze out the lowest possible price.”
That’s cost of conscience.
The cost of guilt appears when brands activate guilt feelings and then position their product as the solution (classic example: “treat your kids” dynamics at checkout).
Convenience: all factors that make buying easier—finding the product, getting info, completing the purchase.
With the internet and hybrid buying models, “Place” becomes less about geography and more about friction.
Communication: a two-way dialogue.
Promotion is traditionally outbound.
Communication includes broader interactions and cooperative touchpoints between seller and buyer.
A digital adaptation: 6Cs
A common digital adaptation expands the 4Cs with:
Content
Community
Because in digital, you don’t just sell.
You educate, build trust, and keep a community alive with relevant content.
The 7Cs Compass Model
Koichi Shimizu proposed an alternative approach aimed at mastering co-marketing variables (later formalized in his Advertising Theory and Strategies work).
What is co-marketing?
Co-marketing is when multiple companies collaborate on a project and pursue a shared marketing goal.
They work together to market and promote a shared offer (content, campaign, co-branded initiative, etc.).
It differs from co-branding, where brands combine capabilities to create a superior joint product/service.
Shimizu’s broader co-marketing view also includes:
Co-creative marketing: consumers participate in creation (beta access, feedback loops, UGC platforms)
Commensal (symbiotic) marketing: mutually beneficial partnerships between organizations
Lee Adler described symbiotic marketing like this:
“An alliance of resources or programs… designed to increase the market potential of each.”
Varadarajan and Rajaratnam later outlined multiple “modes of symbiosis” (joint ventures, licensing, technology exchange, shared distribution, co-promotions, franchising, etc.).
According to Shimizu, the 7Cs include:
Corporation: competitors, organizations, stakeholders
Commodity: co-created goods and services
Cost: total customer cost (not just price)
Channel: the marketing channels that move the offer from production to consumption
Communication: two-way interaction
Consumer: needs and wants (often mapped to “compass” directions)
Circumstances: external uncontrollable factors (political/legal/ethical, social/cultural, economic, weather, etc.)
This model has been criticized for including the consumer as a “tactic,” since customers are the purpose of marketing—not a lever.
Still, it’s a useful framework when partnership ecosystems and co-marketing are central to growth.
HOW TO USE MARKETING MIX FOR SUCCESSFUL MARKETING STRATEGIES
A marketing mix highlights the key dimensions to control in order to make a successful marketing strategy.
But what actually is a marketing strategy and how can it be built?
The image below represents the main four marketing strategies.
If this matrix feels familiar, it’s because it aligns closely with the logic behind Porter’s generic strategies.
Cost leadership
When a company targets the whole industry and keeps costs low (for both seller and buyer), it pursues cost leadership.
A cost leader is usually:
Extremely efficient in manufacturing and logistics
Focused on high volume and standardization
Strong in supplier relationships and purchasing power
Built around tight margins and tight operations
In many cases, cost leaders run one dominant marketing mix.
Targets include:
Mass market coverage
Limited differentiation
High production quantities
Low margins (by design)
Examples: Walmart, Auchan, IKEA.
Key elements recap:
Logistics and production efficiency
High volume of standardized products
Preferential access to raw materials
Incentives tied to quantity goals
Low prices
Mass marketing
Limited differentiation and markup
Differentiation
A differentiation strategy aims to increase brand esteem and make offerings unique.
Differentiators typically invest heavily in:
R&D
Experience design
Brand communication
They often sell lower quantities with higher margins.
Differentiators typically need multiple marketing mixes, tailored to:
Different products
Different personas
Different use cases
Different channels
Examples: Apple, Starbucks.
Key elements recap:
Product/service uniqueness
Prestige perception
Excellent communication
Consistent innovation
Lower volume, higher markups
Focus on costs and focus on differentiation
These are strategy variations where the company targets a specific segment instead of the full industry.
Focus on costs: cost leadership within a niche (requires extreme cost mastery)
Focus on differentiation: differentiated offering for a niche (mix must be highly tailored)
Ansoff’s growth marketing strategies
Igor Ansoff outlined core growth paths in Corporate Strategy (1965), often visualized as the Ansoff Matrix:
Market penetration: sell more of the same product in the same market
Often needs strong promo investment and/or pricing leverage
Market development: bring the same product to new markets
Partnerships can help
Repositioning a use case can broaden demand
Product development: create new products for the same market
Requires continuous R&D and validation
Often becomes a connected product line (e.g., a full supplement line for runners)
Diversification: new products in new markets
High risk and high cost
Partnerships, mergers, and joint ventures can reduce capability gaps
Example: Dollar Shave Club expanding from razors into a broader men’s personal care range.
CONCLUSIONS
Personalization and differentiation tend to require multiple marketing mixes.
If you approach the market without truly considering consumer preferences, you usually end up relying on one mix—and you’ll compete mainly on cost, distribution power, or scale.
What marketing strategy do you consider more appropriate for modern times?
Should a startup aim for one marketing mix or multiple marketing mixes from day one?
Tell me yours in the comments below—I’m curious to hear you out!
References
McCarthy, E. Jerome. Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. Homewood, IL: R.D. Irwin, 1960.
Booms, Bernard H., and Mary Jo Bitner. “Marketing Strategies and Organizational Structures for Service Firms.” In Marketing of Services, edited by James H. Donnelly and William R. George, 47–51. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association, 1981.
Kotler, Philip, and Kevin Lane Keller. Marketing Management. 14th revised ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2012.
Vernon, Raymond. “International Investment and International Trade in the Product Cycle.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 80, no. 2 (May 1966): 190–207.
Rogers, Everett M. Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1962.
Lovelock, Christopher H., and Jochen Wirtz. Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy. 7th ed. Pearson, 2011.
Lauterborn, Bob. “New Marketing Litany; Four P’s Passé; C-Words Take Over.” Advertising Age, October 1, 1990, p. 26.
Shell, Ellen Ruppel. Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. New York: Penguin Press, 2009.
Ansoff, H. Igor. Corporate Strategy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965.
Adler, Lee. “Symbiotic Marketing.” Harvard Business Review (1966).
Varadarajan, P. “Rajan”, and Daniel Rajaratnam. “Symbiotic Marketing Revisited.” Journal of Marketing 50, no. 1 (1986): 7–17.
Shimizu, Koichi. Advertising Theory and Strategies. 1st ed. 1989.