The 3 Ps of Marketing Mix: People, Process, and Physical Evidence

The 3 Ps of Marketing Mix

The 3 Ps of the marketing mix is additional elements added to the original 4 Ps of the marketing mix. These 3 Ps include people, process, and physical evidence.

While the previous 4 Ps apply to manufacturing businesses, these 3 Ps are relevant to service businesses. Due to the fact that the 4 Ps were solely focused on physical goods. A number of modern theorists expanded the model to make it more useful for service marketers.

These three Ps are commonly known as the service marketing mix. The idea was put forth by the marketer’s Booms and Bitner in 1981, making the 7 Ps of marketing. They thought that service is fundamentally different from the physical product as such different tools and strategies should be needed to market it.

The main goal of this service marketing mix is to provide better customer service. Let’s understand its components.

People

People are the first components of the 3 Ps of marketing. This includes both employees and customers. Especially includes personnel who are involved in delivering service to customers.

Service personnel who provide value to the customers come in this. Make sure that, you hire the right person who understands the psychology of customers and aims to provide them the better service.

To provide better customer service, it is important that you make your employees well-trained and prepared to serve the customers. It would be much better to update them on how to best serve the customers as the complexities arise in the market.

Related: What is Augmented Product?

And, the interaction between employees and customers should also be done. This is where the employee image comes into play. In addition, service personnel should be treated fairly and be motivated to work for the company.

Process

The process includes a set of activities that your business does to deliver service to the final consumers. The process may include sequential tasks your employees have to do to provide service or sequential steps consumers have to take to get your service.

In a service-based business, there is a process in the backend that makes it possible for service delivery. Creating a service blueprint would be a great move to be transparent about how you serve your customers.

In addition, the process you make to deliver service should maintain its consistency, this consistency helps to ensure the customer’s experience is consistent.

Studying the market, competitors’ way of serving customers, consumers changing preferences, and improving the process of your service is a great way to serve customers better than your rivals. This further helps to maintain a good image in the market.

Physical Evidence

Since the service is intangible you may think about how physical evidence impacts your service delivery. Physical evidence here means the physical conditions of your office from where you offer service. And, it is where the service personnel and customers meet.

For example, when you go to a restaurant, you find the serving table is dirty, the water is not so clean, and the surrounding environment is messy. Would you go there for a launch? Definitely, not.

This is what physical evidence of marketing mix talks about. This refers to the non-human factors like furniture, equipment, design, layouts, etc. should be clean and attractive. Brooms and Bitner defined it as “the service delivered and any tangible goods that facilitate the performance and communication of the service”

Read Next: The 4 Cs of Marketing