It is normal to hear about the 4-Ps of marketing: Product, Place, Price, and Promotion, which act as a guideline for marketers to implement a marketing strategy. In fact, it is normal to hear that in an effective marketing program, the 4 –Ps all are “mixed” to successfully achieve the company’s marketing objectives.

However, in recent years more P’s have been added to the marketing mix, especially when is about services marketing and consumer relationship.

For example, Booms and Bitner (1981) suggested additional Ps:

“People: All people directly or indirectly involved in the consumption of a service.
Process: Procedure, mechanisms and flow of activities by which services are consumed.
Physical Evidence: The environment in which the service is delivered”

Furthermore, in the context of relationship marketing it has been argued that an additional “P” to the marketing mix could be partnerships. The reason for this addition is the growing focus in marketing toward long-term orientation.

One more P, packaging has been to the mix by some people. The reason is because the importance of how the product is presented to the consumer.

Moreover, Robert Lauterborn (1990) claims that the 4P’s should also be seen from a consumer’s perspective or 4’C’s. This is converting Product into “customer solution, Price into “cost to the customer”, Place into “convenience”, and Promotion into “communication”

There is no clear “yes” or “no” regarding the usefulness of any possible extension to the traditional 4-Ps approach in marketing. But the true is that beyond the traditional P’s grouped by E. Jerome McCarthy, more concepts has been created and added to the marketing mix depending of the application of marketing and objectives established.