Adding to the 4Ps Marketing Mix – the 7Ps and why they matter

The 4Ps Marketing Mix for charities are explored here. So why add to these?

The 7Ps is a modification that gives more clarity for the business service industries, it adds in the three additional areas of People, Process and Physical Evidence.

So can these additions help the charity sector too?

People

Are there enough people to support you? Are there enough customers, people, and organisations who will give you the funding you need to do your work?

Your charity or non-profit may well be fulfilling a vital role in many people’s lives, but if there are not enough people who will support you then you will be limited in what you can achieve. However, with about 7.5 billion people on the planet, it is unlikely that there are not enough people who care. It’s just about finding the ones who do and have the means to fund you.

That means identifying who they are, where you can find them, and how to target them. Your target market. You can’t market effectively to people if you don’t know anything about them. You target funders may not be the general public at all, they may be other organisations, government bodies, and foundations. How you market to organisations will be very different from how you market to individuals in the general public.

But there is another side to the People Equation, and that’s your staff. If you have the right people in your organisation then you will deliver a congruent service and message. Congruence is the key to a successful non-profit or charity because trust is a big obstacle in gaining active supporters. Having the right people to deliver your charitable work and it is done with congruence and attention to detail. It is done with passion, and this shows. This is what builds trust, and trust turns into support.

Even the staff and contractors who help you with communications need to be the right people for you. Those who actually care about the work you do, because it shows in the communications they create for you.

People buy from people because people build conversations, relationships, and trust with people.

Process

Your ability to deliver the product or service that your charity provides.

In the previous post about this topic, we started off defining the service or product from a marketing perspective. So again it’s important to remember the supporter in this, they are after all the equivalent of your customer. Your service isn’t fully delivered until all the stakeholders have evidence.

So it is not enough to develop a process that stops at delivering the service to the beneficiary. The supporter needs to know that their funds have indeed been used as intended and their own needs for a better world are being met. So your process needs to include communicating successes of all your projects to the supporters. Charities often do this well with funding organisations who request feedback and evidence but can forget the numerous individuals who have donated small amounts. But managed well these can add up to the majority of a charity’s funding.

Your process is also about being efficient with funds. All stakeholders want to see that their resources are being properly used, that you are maximising your opportunities to raise money, and delivering on promises not wasting time and money on poorly planned projects.

This is a marketing opportunity too. Communicating how funds are used, showing people that you know how to leverage opportunities to raise money and run efficiently. That doesn’t mean doing everything on a shoestring and not paying for professional services. It is the opposite of doing everything yourself, ‘beg, steal and borrow’ style. That doesn’t get the best people, as has been covered in the first additional point. The best people create the best organisations.

The best systems and processes deliver the best results.

Physical Evidence

Other marketers may use this last P to denote Physical Environment, referring to the workplace or shop. But I’m going to use this last P for Physical Evidence.

I have mentioned this in a number of sections already. But just to re-iterate, if you have no evidence, you didn’t do it.

At least that’s how your supporters will feel. The evidence needs to be real and authentic too. Beneficiaries speaking from the heart, live videos of events made by participants, snapshots from mobile phones documenting an event, or a result.

These are all good content because its real, live, and untampered. Better still to have a professional camera crew there, live at the event to cover real human emotions and responses but with better quality coverage. Amateur footage is OK but it can be very tiring for any audience to watch images waving around, barely catching the subject of the shot. However, anything is better than nothing.

Your evidence forms the backbone of how you are perceived in the marketplace. So when possible, get professional coverage. This will make your offering memorable, shareable, and even remarkable (encouraging comments and interaction).

Documenting the physical evidence is what will ultimately make you a leader in your niche.

Again, I hope you have found this explanation of the 4Ps extended to the 7Ps useful for the charity and non-profit sector.

I’d love to know if it helps you or even if you disagree with any of it!

Please leave a comment below, ask a question, or share your own expertise.