The Traditional 4 Ps
If you’ve studied the textbook on ‘Marketing 101’ you’ll be familiar with the 4 Ps of Marketing. If not, let me dust them off for you and lay them out here:
- Product – the thing you are marketing – it could be a product or a service
- Price – the amount of money the end-user is expected to pay for the product. Competitor pricing, margins and the value of your product to the customer will all affect this
- Place – how you plan on distributing your product whether this be in physical stores or online channels
- Promotion – how you plan on getting the word out about your product whether that be advertising, offers, events, PR etc.
They are based on the fact that a successful marketing strategy needs to ‘put the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.’ Although they still have a place in the marketing toolbox, they’re not talked about as much as they used to be. There’s a reason why.
The 4 Ps 2.0
If you’re a marketing executive in 2019 (titles abound these days – Chief Marketing Officer, VP Marketing, Chief Growth Officer, Chief Data Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Customer Experience Officer), you’re responsible for driving growth in your company.
Today, you’re faced with a myriad of issues such as digital transformation, privacy, ad fraud, ad blockers, multi-device behavior, high-demand, always-on customers… On top of that, the sheer volume of digital noise that people are exposed to by millions of brands makes the challenge much more complex. The traditional 4 Ps ain’t going to cut it anymore. A new way of thinking is in order. We need a new set of 4 Ps:
- Purpose
- Personalization
- People
- Profitability
Purpose
Our brand story or brand promise must be clear and simple and the backbone of everything we put out to the public. [Listen to my podcast that explains this in more detail.]
This promise encompasses what our brand stands for in a nutshell. If communicated effectively and consistently, this is the “talk trigger” of our brand that will generate organic referrals and build a loyal fanbase.
Fleshing out, telling stories around and acting on the Purpose is the foundation from which will grow a loyal tribe of raving fans who repeatedly invest in your brand and share your message with others.
This is the air of our 4 Ps. It’s everywhere we are as a brand.
Personalization
The first step in personalization is understanding our niche target audience. Focusing in on our core audience and becoming intimately familiar with their media consumption preferences, life situations and beliefs (demographics and psychographics).
It’s not all about marketing to as broad an audience as we can, in the hope that something sticks. In fact, the smaller and more segmented our audience, the more effective our marketing will be, and the less waste we will incur. Everyone is not our customer.
Once we know our audience, we can deliver personalized messaging followed up with human to human (H2H) dialogue. The old 4 Ps talked about Promotion as a one-way street. That doesn’t cut it anymore.
People crave interaction. Meaningful interaction. This doesn’t happen by itself. We must craft our message to hit the nail on the head every time we interact with a prospect or customer. By that, I mean what we say has to resonate with the receiver and be applicable to their mood, state-of-mind, situation, and intent at that very moment. That’s hard. But it’s how we do impactful and effective marketing. If we get this right, we beat out 99% of our competitors who are still doing it the old way.
This is the earth of our 4 Ps. It’s what keeps us connected to our tribe at a grass-roots level.
People
Leading a marketing department involves leading teams. Success comes from building strong, digital-savvy teams that not only live and breathe the new 4 Ps but who also understand the company goals and Marketing’s role in the Big Picture. Your people are the fuel that feeds the growth engine and makes sure it’s firing on all cylinders. Without the right people, marketing efforts will fall flat. Invest in your people!
This is the fire of our 4 Ps.
Profitability
Accountable marketing executives have Profitability top of mind at all times. It’s what keeps us up at night. There’s no point in running marketing initiatives if they deliver no value or growth to the business. In order to check the box of profitability, we must know our numbers and be on top of our data. ROAS (Return On Ad Spend), ROI (Return On Investment), CLV (Customer Lifetime Value), Brand Value are all key metrics that govern profitability and they deserve laser-focused attention.
Company data should flow through to all parts of the marketing ecosystem for optimal decision-making. This, in turn, drives more profitable marketing initiatives.
Smart use of technology and innovation is also part and parcel of the Profitability box. It’s incumbent on us, as marketing leaders, to recognize and leverage the right technology in the right places in order to gain efficiencies that will drive Profitability. The Martech stack is the starting point for this. Crafting a productive and effective marketing technology stack that leverages machine-learning, automation and deep data insights is a now a non-negotiable.
This is the water of our 4 Ps.
The Four Elements
The new 4 Ps of Marketing I have described tie in nicely with the 4 elements of nature. Air, earth, fire, and water. Think of Marketing as Life and the new 4 Ps as the four essential elements needed to live.
Cheesy? Perhaps. Memorable? I think so!
What do you think of the 4 Ps of Marketing 2.0?
