The
extended marketing mix is, as the name suggests, an extension of the
marketing mix which was traditionally for products. The 4P’s are also
known as product marketing mix. As services came more into the picture
it was seen that the 4p’s could not justify the marketing mix.
There
were 3 more elements which were necessary to actually explain the
marketing of services. When products began offering services, the
extended marketing mix began applying to products as well (like
Maruti service stations where Maruti is a product and the service
station is a service). These are the elements which were added to the
marketing mix to form the extended marketing mix.
In
the above figure, the product marketing mix are the first four P’s and
the next 3 P’s are added to make the Extended Marketing mix. This
extended marketing mix is also known as the service marketing mix.
The four PS mainly constituted the following 4 elements
Product
Price
Place
Promotions
Product
Price
Place
Promotions
The extended Marketing mix was brought forward by adding the following 3 elements.
Process
Physical evidence
people.
Physical evidence
people.
The same are explained below taking restaurants as a service example
Process in the extended marketing mix -
How can you do things perfectly and make a process which matches
customers expectations? That is the sole job of the process element. Let
us say that you were having a restaurant. Than how many tables will be
there? Will you be serving alcohol? If yes than how many waiters are
needed? How many tables per cook? or how many dishes to divide between
cooks? Thus, deciding on the process which makes the operation easier
and faster is a key role of the extended marketing mix.
To
make the process easier, a service blue print can be designed which
shows how the complete process will happen, from the customer entering
the restaurant to the customer leaving the restaurant and his table
being cleaned. The restaurant managers work is to ensure that the
service blue print is being followed to the letter.
Physical evidence in the extended marketing mix -
Physical evidence are the tangible elements that you add to an
otherwise intangible product to differentiate yourself or your service
from others. So in the above restaurant example, the restaurant can be a
budget restaurant by keeping bare necessary furniture and hiring
minimum people. Or it can be a high budget restaurant where if you are
serving alcohol, you can keep a bar, add good lighting and ambiance,
play some good music, have exotic dishes, have excellent cutlery, so on
and so forth. Imagine a McDonald’s vs pizza hut and the difference in
their ambiance as McDonald’s is more like a budget fast food chain when
compared with pizza hut.
People in the extended marketing mix -
Probably the most important element of the extended marketing mix. The
fifth P that is people is nowadays added in the product as well as the
services marketing mix. This is because managers know that a business
cannot go forward without the right people in the right place.
In
the above example of restaurants, imagine your favorite restaurant and
the serving people there. One restaurant might have a good cook who
makes excellent and tasty dishes and another will have an average cook
who makes average food. Which restaurant Will you visit? It is likely
that your favorite restaurant will have a cook as well as serving
waiters whom you like a lot and you give your orders only to them. Thus
the right people make a solid difference to your business.
Overall, the extended marketing
mix can be applied to products as well as services because process,
people and physical evidence are nowadays very important for businesses
to define their marketing mix.
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