
The 7 elements (or 7 P’s) of marketing are the extension of Jerome McCarthy’s popular 4 P’s of marketing in line with the modern business environment. The 7 P’s of marketing are Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence, and Process. Focusing on these elements mainly aims to boost the brand image, which will eventually benefit the bottom line.
Incorporating these marketing mix elements into a comprehensive marketing strategy ensures that marketing efforts effectively reach and influence target customers. Digital marketing channels play a crucial role in implementing marketing campaigns and engaging with the target market. Understanding and leveraging these basic marketing principles can significantly impact the success of a business’s marketing strategy.
This comprehensive guide will cover all 7 p’s of service marketing in restaurant in great detail with tips for better implementation. Let’s get started.
7 Ps of the marketing mix for restaurants
1. Product
Customers will visit your restaurant for one big reason – your product (and service). Because of this, focusing on your product quality is highly important. Implementing a strategic pricing strategy ensures that your offerings are competitive yet profitable.
Whether you’re a small business owner or managing a local restaurant, understanding and meeting the expectations of your target audience is key. Additionally, a well-thought-out promotion strategy can attract new customers and retain existing ones.
Cultivating a strong company culture that prioritizes excellence in product and service delivery further enhances the overall dining experience, fostering customer satisfaction and loyalty. Here product refers to everything your customer is going to experience at your restaurant, including:
- Food and drinks
- Presentation
- Variety of cuisines
- Seasonality
- Special and new items
The more you focus on improving your product lines, the more traffic you earn. However, that’s not the only benefit.
Benefits of a strong product line:
- Sustainable competitive advantage: When customers find your restaurant good enough to try dishes beyond traditional offerings, you gain a long-term edge over competitors, excluding other factors like promotions or discounts.
- Improved brand reputation: 92% of consumers are likely to visit a restaurant they get referred to by their close friends and family. When you keep improvising on your product excellence, every amazing customer experience will turn into a snowball effect, increasing daily footfalls through organic buzz.
- Stronger customer loyalty: Great food builds a loyal customer base. You might draw people for the first time through a catchy ad or promotion, but they will only return for experience. When you work on product quality, you earn loyal customers who set the base for a stable revenue stream.
Tips for better implementation:
- Bring seasonal twists by introducing limited-time cuisines made with fresh, local ingredients
- Learn your customer preferences to refine or expand your product line
- Play with presentation, such as plating techniques, to make your dishes visually appealing
Example: McDonald’s, one of the world’s leading fast-food restaurants, is known for offering a diverse range of food options without compromising quality. For instance, you will find several options under burgers such as Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, and Double Cheeseburger. There are several options under Quarter Pounder burgers such as Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe, and Quarter Pounder with Cheese Bacon.
2. Price
How you price your menu impacts your profit line and customer experience. The key is to price your food in a way that positively influences both elements. This process involves many factors, such as competition, location, production cost, ambiance, etc. Keeping all these factors in mind, successful restaurants use four different strategies to set their menu prices.
These strategies are integral to the overall marketing plan of the restaurant. Alongside pricing, implementing effective promotional strategies such as SMS marketing and sales promotion can further enhance customer engagement and drive sales.
Four menu pricing strategies are:
- Cost-plus pricing: Simply adding a desired profit margin over the total cost of production.
- Good, better, best pricing: Customers should be able to choose between different versions of the product with additional features such as combo options or meal varieties.
- Fixed pricing: Pre-set menus with multiple food items are listed for a single price.
- Demand-driven pricing: Popular items are priced higher to build solid revenue, and less popular items are moderately priced to increase sales volume.
Benefits of a robust pricing model:
- Revenue generation: Price is the most important single factor in generating profits. If you know how to increase the average order value per customer, you will naturally add more profit to the table.
- Brand image: You can easily build a brand image by strategically playing with pricing. Selling good quality food at a high price can earn you the exclusivity tag, whereas slightly moderate pricing can tag you as a “budget-friendly option” on review websites.
- Reduced discount reliance: A well-optimized menu pricing can save you from running frequent discounts and maintain healthy profitability while attracting customers.
Tips for better implementation:
- Focus on offering perceived value to customers, not just budget-friendly foods.
- Regularly track your food and operational costs to adjust future pricing decisions.
- Leverage happy hours, lunch specials, or early bird discounts to attract customers during off-peak hours.
3. Promotion
Restaurant promotions are important for attracting new customers, retaining existing ones, and boosting the bottom line. The way you promote your restaurant motivates your customers. A whopping 61% of customers look for discounts, special offers, or bundled meals in your promotions. However, customers also find your promotions impactful if they are unique, relevant, and transparent compared to your competitors.
For instance, Burger King’s ‘Whopper Going Moldy’ ad went viral when the popular burger restaurant chain launched an innovative ad campaign to promote the removal of artificial preservatives from its products.
However, promotions must be strategic considering the competition and huge shifts in consumer habits. For instance, molding your regular restaurant ads around promoting disposable cutleries makes sense as 57% of customers prefer restaurants with a sustainability practice.
Most importantly, you should create the right mix of different marketing channels to promote your restaurant for maximum impact. This could include a combination of online and offline marketing strategies.
Benefits of strong promotion element:
Apart from driving profit, here are some unique benefits your restaurants can experience for solid promotional practices.
- Increased visibility: When you promote through a strong, relatable message using the right marketing channels, you generate a buzz in a crowded market.
- Drive traffic: Promotions are not just the key to attracting new customers but also your chance to attract those customers who might be on a budget or hesitant about a new place.
- Taste new menu items: Promotions can be a great way to introduce new menu items and gauge customer interest, allowing you to diversify your product line in the future.
Tips for better implementation:
- Use digital and offline promotion strategies to learn what works best for your restaurant.
- Check what promotion strategies your competitors are using and try to do better.
- Always budget smartly for your promotion to avoid overspending on promotions.
4. Place
Your restaurant location and atmosphere can significantly impact your marketing success. For instance, a restaurant positioned at the front of a building can gain maximum visibility and attract more customers than other areas. Similarly, rooftop restaurants close to offices and entertainment centers remain highly in demand for their overall ambiance and experiences.
Benefits of having a strategic placement:
- Increased visibility and traffic: Choosing a location like a busy street corner or a shopping mall can attract new customers who might not be hungry but looking for a good place to socialize.
- Improved brand image: Imagine your restaurant close to a scenic view, like a sea or a zoo, it can attract customers looking to have the best moments close to those spots.
- Long-term sustainability: When customers find your restaurant easy to access and with sufficient parking space, it benefits those with families or disabilities. If the area has ongoing plans for new residential and commercial projects in the future, it could fuel your long-term growth.
Tips for better implementation:
- Design a memorable ambiance that resonates with your brand identity.
- Ensure your restaurant is accessible to people with disabilities.
- Offer convenient parking options.
Example: If you have ever noticed, Starbucks places its cafes in high-foot-fall traffic spots with convenient accessibility, such as train stations, shopping malls, and airports. They aim to profit from commuters and busy professionals looking for a quick coffee or a convenient place to meet for a business chat.
5. People
Here, people do not refer to customers alone but to anyone in contact with your business, including staff and influencers. When you understand people’s needs and deliver on those expectations, you naturally improve your brand position and mint healthy profits.
For instance, from a customer’s perspective, focusing on ‘People’ means delivering good experiences with your food quality, ambiance, pricing, and staff behavior. From an employee perspective, it would focus on motivating and training staff to provide better service and make them feel pride in their work.
Benefits of focusing on people:
- Loyal customer base: When you focus on delivering exceptional customer experience without hurting your profit margin, you earn loyal customers who keep returning for more.
- Reduced employee turnover: Highly engaged employees with high job satisfaction are likely to stay and thrive, reducing your employee turnover that directly impacts the quality of service.
- Natural brand advocacy: Proud employees and happy customers become your organic marketers who are more likely to recommend your restaurant to their network and speak positively about your brand image.
Tips for better implementation:
- Train your staff with excellent service skills.
- Hire staff with friendly personalities.
- Encourage staff to go the extra mile to create a positive customer experience.
Example: Again, Starbucks would be an excellent reference for restaurants focusing on the ‘People’ aspect. This popular coffee brand puts its baristas through rigorous training on how to meet and retain the product quality the brand is known for. Additionally, part of its training encourages baristas to learn customer names and personalize interactions – a smart move to create a positive experience for customers and staff alike.
6. Physical evidence
Did you know over 56% of customers prefer restaurants with eco-friendly packaging? That is just one of the many benefits restaurants leverage that acknowledge physical evidence as the crucial element of the marketing mix. Physical evidence indicates those elements customers use to evaluate the service, before and after consumption.
There are different aspects of physical evidence, such as ambiance, tableware, cleanliness, menu presentation, packaging, etc. Post-pandemic, customers are more concerned about the quality of food they consume. Using leak-proof and spill-proof containers that keep the food warm during delivery leaves a good brand impression on your customers’ minds.
Benefits of bespoke packaging :
- Scope to enhance customer convenience: When you take care of your customers’ small conveniences, such as adding extra cutlery, napkins, and hand sanitizer sachets to delivery, you leave a lasting positive impression on your brand.
- Positive brand persona: Let’s say your competitors use permeable cardboard or paper bags for food delivery that absorb strong food smells, leaving customers missing that fresh oven-baked aroma with home deliveries. But when you improvise your packaging, for example using vented containers with moisture-absorbent liners, it retains the fresh smell of hot food- fostering an enjoyable dining experience at home. This little improvisation on physical evidence will create a positive brand image.
Tips for implementation:
- Invest in attractive tableware, plateware, and presentation techniques.
- Invest in good quality packaging that keeps your food fresh for long hours.
- Consider creating multi-sensory experiences like music, aroma, and lighting for customers.
7. Process
The more specific and seamless your entire management process is, the better you get at achieving personal and exceptional customer experiences. In simple words, process refers to your operational procedures and mechanisms.
For instance, your staff should be trained on a clear protocol for managing reservations and greeting customers upon arrival at their table. Similarly, there should be clearly defined steps for taking orders, processing them, and communicating information between the waiter and the kitchen. This can include the scope of improvisation. For instance, you can use digital menu ordering with POS (Point of Sale) systems for accuracy and efficiency like Restroworks which helps restaurants worldwide to increase efficiency by offering a unified restaurant management solution.
Benefits of having a strong process:
- Improved accuracy: When you run a restaurant with well-defined procedures, it minimizes errors and the need for correction with order management, information exchange, and billing.
- Cost control: Streamlined operations based on clear instructions help minimize food waste, keep inventory in check, and optimize staff efficiency—all of which contribute to cost control.
- Scalability: When you get success with a well-oiled system, you can replicate it as you expand your chain with new restaurants at new locations.
Tips for better implementation :
- Implement online ordering systems, mobile apps, or self-service kiosks for customer convenience.
- Standardize food preparation procedures to maintain consistent food quality.
- Utilize advanced technology like POS systems to streamline operations.
Example: Take Domino’s Pizza, for example. Their global success is the result of replicating a well-oiled system that ensures process efficiency, quality control, and customer experience in all of their outlets around the globe. Even their protocols for dough preparation techniques, topping portion control, and baking times have been standardized to retain taste and quality, irrespective of the outlet customers order from.
Conclusion: 7 P’s of Service Marketing in Restaurant
All 7 p’s of service marketing in restaurant hold significant importance to boost the brand image and benefit the bottom line of the restaurant. However, catering to each of these elements with equal focus might be a challenging affair without prior experience. In this regard, leveraging advanced technologies can help restaurants attain process visibility across all 7Ps and make informed decisions to drive profitability and growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
The 7 P’s of marketing are Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence, and Process.
Although all of the 7 Ps are important in the service industry, the 4 Ps that every service industry must target are people, product, price, and place. However, focusing on all Ps and maintaining the right balance between them can help the service industry achieve long-term success.
People refer to anyone coming in contact with your business. In this regard, having friendly staff who know how to engage with customers is the perfect example of the 7 Ps of marketing mix for a restaurant.