4. Criticise on Marketing Mix
4Ps delimits four distinct, well-defined and independent management processes. Despite the consistent effort by many
physical businesses to deal with the 4P in an integrated manner, the drafting but mainly the implementation of the P
policies remains largely the task of various departments and persons within the organisation. Even more significant
thought is the fact that the customer is typically experiencing the individual effects of each of the 4Ps in diverse
occasions, times and places, even in case that some companies take great pains to fully integrate their marketing
activities internally (Constantinides, 2002; Wang, Wang and Yao, 2005). However, a study by Rafiq and Ahmed (1995)
suggested that there is a high degree of dissatisfaction with the 4Ps framework. Even, Overall these results provide
fairly strong support Booms and Bitner’s (1981) 7P framework should replace McCarthy’s 4Ps framework as the
generic marketing mix. Development of marketing mix has received considerable academic and industry attention.
Numerous modifications to the 4Ps framework have been proposed, the most concerted criticism has come from the
services marketing area (Rafiq and Ahmed, 1995).
The introductory marketing texts suggest that all parts of the marketing mix (4Ps) are equally important, since a
deficiency in any one can mean failure (Kellerman, Gordon and Hekmat, 1995). Number of studies of industrial