Edmund Jerome McCarthy, an Marketing professor and author, reduced marketing to four basic elements (the 4 P’s):
- Product
- Price
- Place
- Promotion
McCarthy’s list has been referenced and refined since its inception in 1960.
Brian Solis, an author and analyst at the Altimeter Group, suggests that in the age of the World Wide Web, we need to recognize 6 P’s (adding People and Purpose to the basic 4).
Modern service marketers refer to the 7 P’s of service marketing, adding Process, Physical Evidence, and People to McCarthy’s original 4 (click here for more P’s).
The point, there are a lot of P’s, and it’s important to acknowledge each one’s influence over a dental practice’s success. P’s are worth identifying, writing down, and sharing with your team.
A Thought About Our Products:
Dentists sell two products – one is a service, the other is our work. Each product is intimately attached to the other – a perfect crown coupled with terrible service is as damaging for business as great service and a poorly placed crown. Dentists must embrace their patients’ experiences just as dentists embrace the quality of their work.
[Note: patient experience begins in the parking lot]