We are an organization advocating the 9Ps marketing mix - Product, Price, Promot ion, Place, People, Process, Physical

Evidence, Packaging and Payment. Our memb ership is free, join us and participate. Our goal is to set up a free platform (another website) for members to promote their products and services. Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, comm unicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, c lients, partners, and society at large.* Marketing Mix is a planned mix of the controllable elements of a product's marke ting plan. Traditionally, elements of the marketing mix are often referred to a s 4Ps: Product, Price, Promotion and Place; which was proposed by E. Jerome McCa rthy in 1960. Although Nickels and Jolson suggested the inclusion of Packaging as the 5th P in the 1970s, but it was not well accepted. In the meantime, three Ps have also been added to the marketing mix namely People, Process and Physica l Evidence; which serve mainly the service industry and are widely recognized. Nickels and Jolson's idea to include Packaging as one of the Ps has been examine d through the years, now many marketers believe Packaging should be the 8th P in marketing mix. In 2008, Bryan K. Law of Fox College of Business suggested Paym ent should also be included; as ease and security of transaction plays a crucial role in marketing, especially in this cyber age. It makes a total of 9 element s in marketing; which are the 9Ps. We advocate the idea of using all 9Ps in practicing marketing and using them to help businesses marketing their products. In the future, we will establish a pl atform where vendors can sell their products and services using the 9Ps and cons umers can also participate in the marketing program. Stay tuned!

There are many marketing jobs that require marketing skills - marketing plan, ma rketing proposal, marketing strategy, marketing research and marketing analysis. Once you are familiar with the use of marketing mix, you can play well in thos e areaProduct PRODUCT In marketing, a product is a tangible object or an intangible one for sale. Inta ngible products are service based like the transportation industry, hotel indust ry or insurance.

Examples of tangible object are gasoline and pen. To retain its competitiveness in the market, product differentiation is required and is one of the strategy t o differentiate from its competitors.

For example, a luxury pen made with diamond and 18K gold can be marketed as a wr iting instrument; but it can also be marketed as a piece of jewellery and such p ositioning may differentiate it better and more efficiently.

A junk site for dumping used vehicles could be marketed as a dump site; but a sm art consultant changed it into a car dealership and sold it for 10 times of the

original value. PRICE Price

Price is the amount that a product is asking in the market. It is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, produc t identity and the customer's perceived value of the product. A business may inc rease or decrease the price of product if the product is in demand or other stor es have the same product.

For the same product, the price may have different impact. Here is a real story :

A n e e "

teenager asked his dad to give him one thousand dollars to buy a nice jacket i a department store. The dad struggled a little bit but handed the teenager on thousand dollars to buy the jacket. When the dad asked his son to show him th jacket the next day, his son handed back the money and said: "I didn't buy it.

"Why?" the dad asked.

"When I went to the department store this morning, I found out that the jacket w as on sale. It is now selling for $300 only. I don't want to have a jacket tha t is sold for that cheap." PROMOTION Promotion

Promotion is all the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace. It has four distinct elements: advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion.

Not all products will fit in the same promotion. A designer brand will never us e radio commercial to promote their brand image, while a politician will not use fashion magazines to promote their schemes. PLACE Place

Place represents the location where a product can be purchased or the channel wh ere the product can go through to be placed for sale. Therefore, it is often r eferred to as the distribution channel.

Place may include any physical store as well However, Place may not be exactly a physical . Place is where the product is available or in the mind of customers. Channel may refer ay how your message is delivered.

as virtual stores on the Internet. store where the product is for sale an image of the product is created to the media, the network and the w

Here is a famous story to show how the place may affect marketing:

Two salesmen of a shoe factory were sent to a small country in Africa to exp lore business opportunity. When they came back, the boss interviewed them one b y one.

The first salesman said: "Don't waste your time boss. All the people there do not wear shoes. There is no market for us."

The second salesman said: "No one there wear shoes. We will have millions o f shoes sold and I think we should hire more people to make our production line 24/7." PEOPLE All people involved with consumption of a service are important. For example wor kers, management, consumers etc.

People is an important factor in servicing industries - travel agencies, restaur ants and hair salons. No two persons are the same and no two persons can provid e the exact same service to customers. It is therefore to recruit better people and maintain their service quality in order to attract and keep the customers.

It is common to see: All our technicians are certified ... Our service consulta nts are all well trained and licensed ... All our instructors have over 10 years experience in the field .. etc etc. However, such 'guarantee' can only ensure their people achieve a certain level of education or experience. There is no as surance that their service will be good.

In order to standardize the effect and to minimize the gap among different peopl e, Process is introduced. PROCESS Process

Process is the procedure, mechanism and flow of activities to provide service or to produce a product. The prevailing ISO standards (such as ISO 9001) are desi

gned to help organizations ensure their process can meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders in their field.

A well organized and quality controlled process may reduce the impact of People. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE Physical Evidence

Physical Evidence is the element that allows the consumers to make judgments on that organisation. It includes some of the following: Premises, Websites, Paperwork (such as air tickets), Brochures, Signage (such as those on aircraft and vehicles), Uniforms, Business cards. Just imagine that if you bought a ticket of the 2008 Olympic Games via online; y ou would love to show your friends the 'official ticket' and keep it as a souven ir instead of printing a bar code from your computer. This is one of the exampl es for Physical Evidence PACKAGING Packaging

Marketing people have always emphasized the importance of packaging as it is the way to make a first impression on the customers; especially for the products on shelves. However, some people believe Packaging should be a part of Product and some people think it is a part of Promotion. Because of the advanced packaging today, products are now protected from contami nation, crushing, breakage, and spoilage and it helps in the product to be unaff ected from climatic conditions. Packaging is also helpful in elaborating necessa ry details about the product, company, quantity, ingredients, precautions and si de effects etc.

In some extreme cases, such as some fancy Japanese products; the cost of packing may exceed the cost of the product itself in order to attract customers.

Some say the images of singers, actors and actresses are also packaging - they a re what they projected in your mind. How to package an artist is the KEY TO MKE A STAR. PAYMENT Payment

Payment is the consideration for the delivery of goods and services. It is an e

ase and security of transaction.

Traditionally the retailers would try to provide as many options of payment as p ossible for the convenience of their customers and hence attract more business. Cash, debit card, cheque, gift voucher, and different types of credit card (suc h as VISA, Master, American Express, Diners Club, JBC and Discovery) are commonl y accepted in most establishments, especially the big ones. People do not expec t to carry enough cash to dine in luxury restaurants or to buy designer brands i n the shopping malls.

Many merchants offer bonus points to their customers, such as mileage points off ered by airline companies, club points offered by retail stores and airtime poin ts offered by mobile phone companies. These are all incentives to the customers , but the points are also a kind of payment itself.

In this cyber age, easy and security payment methods are essential for all onlin e transactions. Can you imagine an online store that will accept only cash or a sk its customers to send in bank draft for buying their products? Payment is no t just a tool in marketing, it is one of the essences.

Now, many payment methods use RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology f or faster and more secure payment method. Mastercard's PayPass, VISA's payWave and the Octopus cards are a few good examples.