The 7 (formerly 4) P's of Marketing

Once upon a time, in a college far, far away, they taught students the four "P"s of Marketing. In no particular order, they were:
Price
Product
Placement
Promotion

All pretty self-explanatory. You have a product, determine its selling price, the proper placement for that product in stores, etc., then you promote it. And hopefully, people buy it and everyone lives happily ever after.

Not so fast.

Somewhere along the way, three extra "P"s joined in the marketing parade so now there are actually 7 P's of Marketing.

The three "new" P's are:

-- Process: What a consumer has to go through to get the product. Or, what a company has to go through to get a product to market.

-- Packaging: Millions of dollars are spent to develop eye-catching, attention-grabbing packaging that will hopefully cause a customer to pick up the product and buy it.

-- People: the feeling you get from the salesperson. Think about it -- how often you buy (or don't buy) something based on the person trying to sell it to you.

Hard to believe that marketing is even more complicated than before. Any comments?