Frameworks of Marketing: 5 Frameworks You Should Know
Written by Hannah O’Toole
The 5 Frameworks of Marketing
The Frameworks of Marketing offer a structured method for planning and implementing your marketing strategies. This helps businesses to identify target audiences better, establish clear goals, effectively measure performance, and make data-driven decisions. As a result, companies can optimise their campaigns and enhance their overall impact, leading to improved marketing outcomes and better coordination among teams. Click the quick links below to find out about the 5 frameworks of marketing:
Frameworks of Marketing 1: 7 P’s Marketing mix
Who created the framework: The original 4 P’s (Place, Product, Price and Promotion) were created by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960, then the additional 3 P’s (Physical evidence, Process and People) were added later on in 1982 by Booms and Bitner.
In what year was it created: 1960 then updated in 1982.
What is the 7 P’s Marketing Mix Framework
The marketing mix incorporates the strategies and activities used to satisfy customers and position a brand. This includes the traditional 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and the service-oriented 3Ps (People, Process, Physical Evidence). Effective marketing strategies touch on many areas, which the Marketing Mix ensures you cover.
1. Product – referring to a company’s offering, product or service; when developing your ‘product’, you need to ensure it always aligns with your customers’ core needs. The challenge is always to ensure you have created the right’ bundle of benefits’ (the collection of advantages or positive outcomes a customer receives when purchasing a product or service). Always think back to how value can be added in any way.
2. Price – When valuing your products and services, it is essential to get the cost right. Doing your research on what your customers are willing to pay, what your competitors are charging, as well as the demand for your ‘products’. Price is a strong indicator of your position within the market (lower pricing can lower the brand’s value), which is important to remember.
3. Place – Place defines precisely where a customer makes a purchase; these purchase points could be anything from your website, a physical store or any other online spaces where people can buy, including distribution channels, direct sales or intermediaries. This section of the Marketing Mix will also help you decide on the logistics, storage, and transportation behind how you deliver your products or services to the end customer.
4. Promotion – Promotion is about communicating your messages with your customers. This can be done in multiple ways, such as through branding, PR, social media strategy, offers, newsletters, etc. Your promotion is important as this is how you will capture attention, showcase what makes you different from competitors, and stand out for people to make a purchasing decision with your company.
5 . Physical Evidence – Physical evidence provides tangible cues of quality, reassuring customers, especially new ones or those paying upfront, that what they believe they are paying for is exactly what they are getting. Physical evidence can be anything from testimonials from previous clients to viewing your homepage on your website, showing your abilities and expertise within your field through imagery and experience.
6. Process – The correct process can significantly impact your customer’s journey and experience. Making sure you have efficient and up-to-date processes is so important. For example, when a customer contacts you to book a consultation, what is your goal wait time? If they buy something from your website, do you have multiple purchasing options, such as PayPal or Apple Pay, to make it easier for them? It is important to consider every touch point for your customers and what processes can be implemented to improve them.
7. People – Those who work for your company are at the forefront of making a good impression when customers/ clients get in contact. In that moment they represent the brand and everything it stands for, and how helpful and willing your employees are to go above and beyond will create an opinion that will last, and this is why no matter how your staff are talking to your customers, whether this be via email, on the phone or through social media comments it’s so important that high levels of customer stratification are met.
Frameworks of Marketing 2: Porter’s 5 Forces Model
Who created the Porter’s 5 forces model? Michael E. Porter.
In what year was it created: 1979.
What is the Porter’s 5 forces model
Porter’s 5 forces model was created to help marketers analyse the competitive forces within their industry. It allows businesses to understand exactly where they currently sit within the industry, find competitive advantages and, therefore, be able to create strategies for growth. As the name suggests, there are 5 different areas to focus on:
Competitive rivalry: Competitive rivalry is the first of the five forces. You begin by examining the number and activity of your competitors. Compare yourself to everyone around you and see what they are doing, how they are doing it and what impact they are having. Organisations usually find themselves cutting prices if there are high competition levels.
Threats of new entrants: It is always important to evolve as time passes; potential new competitors could enter your market at any point and shake up the game. This is why checking your position within the market is essential. What are the barriers to entry? Analysing these can help you evolve your company and make it harder for newcomers to create a real threat to your business.
Bargaining power of buyers: Buyer power is where the number of buyers is lower compared to the number of suppliers within an industry; if this is the case, then it can be very easy for the buyer to switch to a competitor with lower prices. In industries such as food retail, buyer power is high, and this is why companies within this industry will always be offering the best discounts and loyalty programmes and have high marketing budgets to entice and capture the largest share of the market possible.
Bargaining power of suppliers: Depending on the number of suppliers there are for a specific product can depend on how high they value their goods; if a company can only use one supplier, then the power of the supplier is high and will have a decisive influencing factor on the price of your goods. The more suppliers available, the more competitive prices among them, which can benefit the company as they are more likely to receive a better price when buying their stock.
Threat of substitute products: The threat of substitution is the chance of your consumers finding a different option to satisfy their needs. This could be because it is cheaper, better, or both. The threat of substitution rises when consumers find it easy to switch to a different product. However, you can significantly reduce this threat by ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction.
Frameworks of Marketing 3: The AIDA Model
Who created it: Elias St. Elmo Lewis
In what year was it created: 1898
What is the ADIDA Model
The ADIA Model stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. It was created by Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898 and is still used by many marketers today.
This marketing framework describes each customer’s stages when making a purchasing decision and helps businesses create effective strategies for their marketing campaigns.
Attention – grab your customers’ attention; we can do this in many different ways, from a social media campaign to a leaflet drop. Always think back to your target audience, your most effective outreach to them, and what will spark their curiosity and grab their attention.
Interest – Now that you’ve got their attention, it’s time to get your audience to discover more about you to increase their interest. They want to learn more, so here is where you can provide the information about your products or services; you want them to understand more about you, which makes them feel you offer something they have an interest in.
Desire – Once you have captured their interest, you need to turn this interest into a desire. This is where building trust and reputation can help. For example, someone may have seen your product on social media, which grabs their attention; they may then look at your page to find out more about you, creating interest. Within the following weeks, if they begin to see reviews of your product and how it can help people to change their lives, this interest becomes a desire for them.
Action – Once desire has been achieved, you must spring into action. You must turn their passion into a done deal and get that conversion. To do this, you need to ensure everything has been put in place on your end to ensure that can happen as smoothly and quickly as possible so nothing can make them revoke their decision. Again, linking back to selling a product online could be making sure your website is quick, provides a great user experience and has multiple purchasing options for your customer.
Frameworks of Marketing 4: The STP Model: Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
Who created it: Philip Kotler
In what year was it created: 1969
What is the STP Model?
The STP model stands for segmentation, targeting and positioning and is one of the most commonly used marketing frameworks. Depending on who your target audience is depends on which marketing activities you should put your budget towards. This model helps you find the most valuable segments for your business. You can then create targeted and positioning strategies for your marketing campaigns to ensure what you are communicating with your chosen audience is as personalised and effective as possible.
Segmentation – The first step within this model is to identify your audience’s specific needs with segmentation. Segmentation means dividing your market into groups with similar needs using variables to create these groups. Each segment needs a unique marketing strategy. Consumer variables include demographics, location, lifestyle, and buying habits. Business variables include company size, location, business situation, purchasing process, buyer profiles, and operations.
Targeting – With market segments defined, targeting requires choosing the optimal segments. We assess each segment’s needs, our service capabilities, and potential returns. This analysis guides our decision on which segments offer the best opportunity. Targeting strategies include undifferentiated (one approach for all), differentiated (unique mixes for multiple segments), concentrated/niche (focus on one segment), and customised (an individualised approach).
Positioning – With our target market defined, we must establish a clear position that resonates with their needs. Positioning means defining our value and differentiating ourselves from competitors. We can establish a good position in the market by looking at our products/services and where they sit in the market, pricing, distribution, and advertising.
Frameworks of Marketing 5: SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
Who created it: Albert Humphrey
In what year was it created: 1960s
What is the SWOT analysis model?
The SWOT analysis model is a tool businesses can use to help them understand their current position within the industry by looking into an organisation’s internal strengths, weaknesses, and external threats and opportunities. As mentioned, there are 4 factors which are looked into; let’s dive into them.
Internal Factors
Strengths – When looking at your strengths, consider where your business excels; we can examine this further to see what is already working. We can learn from this and use similar techniques in other areas needing additional support. Finding out what areas you do best in, what makes your organisation different from competitors, and what appeals to your target audience are great ways to start.
Weaknesses – Weaknesses are areas that stop the business from performing to its full potential; many people suggest working on your strengths first to understand what is deemed as success and failure. Spending time analysing your internal weaknesses allows you to work on these areas, which will then, in turn, help you to see higher levels of success externally. Focus your analysis on your resources, systems, people and procedures.
External Factors
Opportunities – Opportunities can arise from multiple different areas; they come after looking into the weaknesses of your business, which can then be turned into opportunities. They could also come from an analysis of what your competitors are doing within their companies, which you could benefit from. We can also find opportunities by looking at our business goals and see what needs to be done to reach them. For example, a goal may be improving the customer experience, which could be met by increasing the organisation’s resources.
Threats – Threats come from anything that could negatively impact your organisation or things out of your control. These can include changes in requirements, supply-chain issues or cybersecurity issues. Spending time anticipating any potential threats can help us to prepare for the worst-case scenarios that happen. Although we cannot wholly work towards them not affecting the company, we can have strategies to minimise the impacts they cause. Some things may initially present themselves as a threat to a business, such as evolving technologically; however, the correct strategy and working with these threats can even lead to opportunities within the future of the business.
So now you know these top 5 marketing framework models, it’s time to put them to the test! As mentioned earlier, these frameworks will help you identify target audiences better, establish clear goals, effectively measure performance, and make data-driven decisions. There’s nothing to lose, only strategy to gain.
