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Quick–can you recite the 4 Ps of Marketing? Marketers love clever (and if possible, alliterative), mnemonics. Of these, the 4 Ps is the most famous, having been taught in every marketing class since first coined in the 1960s. It was a way to easily consider the components of a ‘marketing mix’. While such catch-concepts help to explain, it is also a clever marketing trick on the part of the marketers. One aspect of the marketing game has always been to complicate marketing by coming up with new ways to explain it but in reality, just confusing people. The objective of mar-gon, marketing jargon, is to make marketers seem smart like they have an edge. (In fact, I just made up that word, mar-gon, maybe not as catchy as 4Ps, but you get the point.)
Please, be honest, could you recite the 4 Ps? We don’t have to remember them as Siri does. And in some circles, modern marketers are poo-pooing the old Ps as too obvious–and not able to account for some new and even more prominent Ps.
The Original 4Ps
Product is what you’re marketing. This used to be a package, but increasingly has a lot to do with the design and other non-functional aspects.
Price is how much it costs.
Place is where you buy it. Where once that meant stores, it now means everywhere.
Promotion is how you get attention for it. Advertising, PR, personal selling, discounts and now social and influencer marketing are also common parts of promotion.
Two relatively New Ps of Marketing
People is about the skills your team has and if they are current on things like data, analytics, technology, etc.
Process is about the use of automation to execute marketing programs–something that didn’t exist until the last few years and is now part of every marketing effort.
It’s getting confusing, isn’t it. Lots of moving Parts in the marketing mix. But why stop there, at 6 Ps?