Other variables in Marketing Mix

Shortly after McCarthy developed the four P's, Borden devised a model with twelve decision variables. They were product planning, pricing, branding, channels of distribution, personal selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, and fact finding (Borden, N. 1964 pg 363).

Another set of marketing mix variables were developed by Albert Frey. He (Frey, A. 1961) classified the marketing variables into two categories: the offering, and process variables. The "offering" consists of the product, service, packaging, brand, and price. The "process" or "method" variables included advertising, promotion, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity, distribution channels, marketing research, strategy formation, and new product development.

More recently, Bernard Booms and Mary Bitner built a model consisting of seven P's (Booms, B. and Bitner, M. 1981). In addition to product, price, promotion, and place, they included people, physical evidence, and process. "People" was added, to recognize the importance of the human element in all aspects of marketing. They added "process" to reflect the fact that services, unlike physical products, are experienced as a process at the time that they are purchased. "Physical evidence" or "peripheral clues" reflects the physical surroundings associated with a service encounter or retail location. Other marketing theorists include "partners" as a mix variable because of the growing importance of collaborative channel relationships.

One more P, packaging, has been added to this list by some people. The rationale is that it is very important how the product is presented to the customer, and the packaging is often the first contact that a customer has with a product.