What are the 7 p's and how does ASOS use the 7 p's?

Marketing mix is different factors that a business uses to help meet its marketing objective which will therefore allow the business to provide their product or service to the market. There are seven main factors which are known as the 7 P’s, these are product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence.

Product:Products are the goods or service that the business is providing to attract their customers. Businesses will have to ensure that they can provide a wide choice to there customers. There are also other factors that the business will have to think about like branding, packaging, quality and many other things.

At ASOS they sell a wide range of branded products which are similar to what has been seen on celebrities. They sell clothes for men and women and this includes items like footwear, coats, shirts and several others. They have also recently introduced a new line of children clothes which is known as little ASOS and also sell branded beauty products like Bourjois. Although ASOS as operating from online they sell similar products to what can be found in high street stores however they still sell high quality products at low affordable prices.

Price:Price is the amount of money that a customer will have to pay to the business for the service and products they have received. Businesses will have to ensure that the price they charge their customers is a reasonable prices so both the customers and the businesses are happy.

At ASOS they have a reasonable pricing strategy, however some of their products are expensive. The price depends on what sort of product that the customer is purchasing. Most of the products are sold are products which are similar to what celebrities have worn but sold at cheaper, affordable prices. The main difference between the high street stores and ASOS is that there is a delivery charge. Currently 7% of the users make a purchase with an average basket size of £39.32 to £48.80. At ASOS they have regular sales when the products are reduced by 50% or more and these products are sold in the ASOS outlet section of the website.

Place: Place is where & how the customers can use the service that is provided by the business. The business will have to ensure that they are in the right location & will have to consider things like distribution channels, they will have to ensure that a wide range of customers have easy access to the business, market coverage & many other things.

ASOS are a click this means that they provide the goods through the internet only. This means that there will be no stores for the customers to visit and they will have to log onto the website to look at the products and to purchase them. The business will have a warehouse or some other facilities where the products will be kept and the products will be sent from here. ASOS.com delivers their products to customers all over the UK and there is a delivery charge for this, however in some occasions the delivery charge is not applied.
They have a head office which is located:
Greater London House
Hampstead Road
London
NW1 7FB
UK

Promotion:Promotion is the way that a business promotes itself to make the customers aware about what products and services they are providing. There are many methods of promotion these include, advertising, promotion, public relations, personal selling and many more.

ASOS.com attract customers by always having a range of promotions like discount codes. They also advertise by promoting the business may sending registered customers with emails regularly with information about new products and sales. Also once a customer has purchased from the website they recieve leaflets and booklets in the post and ASOS also advertise in magazine. The main method of promotion is their website. It includes information and images of the products. There are fashion blogs which include information about the latest fashion trends and news about celebrities, and cat walk model videos of products that are being sold on the website. ASOS also advertise on social networking websites as well like Face book and Twitter. On these websites, ASOS have created an account which customers are able to join and by doing this they will be regularly updated about new products and fashion trends.

People:People are the employees that work for the business, without the employees the business will find it difficult to operate as they complete the day to day running tasks. The employees represent the business and must ensure that they provide good customer service as it will help to promote and the sell the product or service. Therefore the employees will have to ensure that they are knowledgeable, friendly and are dressed appropriately.

At ASOS the way that the employees provide customer service is different to what is provided in stores. This is because it is not face to face it will either be through the phone or email. These employees will have different skills and they will be required to deal with any problems that the customers has and may also be required to work in the warehouse and make sure that the right goods are sent out. ASOS will also have employees that have good web designing and marketing skills they will be in charge of monitoring and controlling the website. At first they started they only had 47 employees and now they are employing 250 people. This also shows that the business is growing and therefore more employees are needed. The employees are needed for the human and physical resources department as ASOS have had a 90% sale increase over a 12 month period.

Process:Process is the procedure that takes place from when the customer is interested in a product or service to when the customer completes a transaction. A business must consider the following things in their process: procedures, controls, accessibility, information flows, payments, booking, speed and time of delivery.

At ASOS the shopping process is different in comparison to shopping at an high street store. This is because the customers are not able to feel or try on the product, they are only able to view the images that have been placed on the website. The products that they wish to purchase will be kept in an basket and then the customer will have to pay by using credit card and this will go through secure technology like gateways. Then the customer will have to wait to recieve their goods via post.The customers will not recieve face to face customer service and if they need help they can leave feedback or look at the FAQ section of the website, this is therefore a different process to what would take place in stores.

Physical evidence:Physical evidence is the image of the service and product provided to the customers. When customers purchase a product or service they must have physical evidence that the transaction has taken place for example receipts. The physical evidence will also include things that represent the business like facilities e.g. building and layout.

ASOS are a click business which means that the operate from the internet and there is no store for the customers to visit, therefore there is no physical evidence. The physical evidence that the customers will have is the reciept that they recieve with the products that they ordered. At ASOS there main concern will be the apperance of the website, they will want to ensure that it is easy and convenient to use and it is regularly updated.