Most people who have studied business or marketing, or even just done some casual research on the web, have come across the concept of the ‘four P’s‘ of marketing. First put forward back in 1960 by E J McCarthy, the idea that the right marketing mix is found by getting four things right – product, place, price and promotion – is one that works well at a rudimentary level, and was probably very true in its day. However, in modern marketing, 56 years on, we have learned a lot more, as well as having experienced massive changes (like the onset of the internet, social media and mobile technology) that have made things like ‘place’ sometimes less important, and sometimes even irrelevant.
Of course, thinking in terms of ‘P’s’ is catchy and easy to work with, so in keeping with the alliterative theme, here are some other P’s you might want to consider in your own marketing mix. If you are struggling with getting your marketing activities to do what you want, this may also be down to how complicated the whole thing has become in modern times, and so the best approach can often be to get some experts on the case – check out this website for help.
People
If you are considering using direct marketing in your marketing strategy, you don’t just need the right product at the right price in the right place at the right time, you also need the right people selling it. This means choosing people to engage with the public you’d like to become your new customers who represent what your brand stands for.
Having young, upbeat, trendy people doing direct marketing might work well for your fashion or tech brand, but may create a strange juxtaposition if you are selling a more mature, serious product like insurance, where smart, competent and professional people will give a more appealing feel. If you are doing direct marketing for a women’s beauty brand, you won’t want a bunch of men in suits, and if you are promoting a family friendly product for moms, you probably won’t get the best results with hip teenagers as your promotional team.
Matching the people doing your marketing to your brand doesn’t only matter when you are dealing with face to face marketing situations, either. If you try to use things like blogger outreach or use Instagram celebrities to gain publicity for your products, having endorsements from people your target audience find relatable rather than anyone you can get is also very key.
Packaging
Not all products have packaging, of course, and if you are service based then you may think this doesn’t apply to you at all, but actually ‘packaging’ doesn’t just mean the box that something comes in or the user manual that comes with it, but also other things related to business that people interface with, like your website and the design of any customer service portals they have to use.
Where real packaging comes into play, people are now more environmentally conscious than ever before, and you need to know how much your target market values the look and usefulness of your branded packaging compared with whether it seems wasteful and whether it is easy to recycle. Where the things that make up your ‘package’ are online, accessibility, usability and design are all key to getting this ‘P’ right.
Presence
Another modern P that is hugely important for marketing is your presence, whether locally or online. Local presence means being an established business that is among the first people think of or recommend to friends for what you do, and can even mean being highly recognizable locally thanks to memorable TV, radio or billboard ads. Online, it can refer to how dominant you are in search engine results, how active you are on social media, and how much buzz you can generate with things like viral campaigns. Presence is about brand recognition and when you have it, it can have a huge impact on how easy it is to win new business, so having the right presence and working to build it is a crucial part of your marketing strategy.
There are other things beginning with P that come into play with marketing too, for instance positioning, and even sometimes politics can be things you need to think about. However, by just adding these three new concepts to the original four you can create a better vision of your marketing mix and plan for more prosperity.
