For many MBAs, it’s probably pretty easy to rattle off the 5 P’s of Marketing, right? Just take a ride in your way-back machine to grad school and spit out the following: Product, Price, Packaging, Place and Promotion.
Not bad. But in today’s business and consumer environment, relying on the traditional 5 P’s will not put you and your business or your brand in the winner’s circle. Today, you need to begin breaking through and finding ways to develop communications that dive deeper into how your target segments interact with each other as well as your brand.
It was when I worked at #TBWAChiatDay as a Senior AE that I was first introduced to a newer set of the 5 P’s of Marketing by my then boss Tom Patty (President, World Wide Nissan Account Director at TBWA/Chiat Day). At the time it was quite an eye-opener. It was a lesson that has stuck with me ever since and one that is as applicable today as it was in (gulp) 1997 – And one worth sharing again now.
So, get ready. Here are your newer, non-traditional 5 P’s of Marketing that are more abstract and conceptual than their older brethren. They are: – Paradox – Perspective – Paradigm – Persuasion – Passion
The old 5 P’s were based upon a world dominated by stability, a fast growing economy and much less competitive environment. Our newer set of 5P’s will help us succeed in our customer-in-control world where #disruption has replaced stability, where advances in technology are out-pacing human capacity to adapt and a global competitive environment demands even greater innovations in effectiveness and efficiency.
1.) Paradox: The most interesting thing about paradox is that paradox always contains within it an opportunity. In order to master paradox, you first have to find or identify this opportunity and then exploit the paradox. Successful examples to consider are “Tastes Great, Less Filling” or “Affordable Luxury Car.”
2.) Perspective: This involves the ability to see things in their proper relationship to each other. Here you need to get away from what and how the business/brand view the market and consumer. In contrast, you need to consider and genuinely care about, “what consumer need does my product or service satisfy?” and “How does it satisfy differently and better than competitors?”
In order to be a disruptor instead of a disruptee, a lot of time and energy should be spent answering these questions. And not once a year but every day!
3.) Paradigm: The most critical point to understand about Paradigm is that in a paradigm shift, everything goes back to zero. What does that mean? It means that whatever made you successful in the old paradigm may not even exist or be necessary in the new paradigm.
In order to master Paradigm, you must be able to identify the paradigm shifts that are going on around you and position your brand accordingly.
4.) Persuasion: As marketing and advertising professionals, we are all in the Persuasion business. You know, inducing people to think or do something. In order to master Persuasion you must understand the three essential components of an attempt to persuade:
– You must have a credible speaker/voice – You must have relevant content – You must appeal to the basic emotional drives/needs of the audience
5.) Passion: In the old world of marketing and the traditional 5 P’s, Passion was not all that important. In fact, it was probably a negative. Back then people left their passions at home when they went to work.
Remember, “work” used to be a place people went rather than something they did. In today’s new world order, work has to be more than just a place we go, and passion has to be something we take with us – everywhere we go.
We're in a New Paradigm Today
It’s clear that we’ve already moved into a new paradigm, one in which we have unique, individual products designed for specific needs and wants. Additionally, consumers now have an amazing compliment of choices in all categories and can get information about any subject in nanoseconds with a simple Google search.
As a result, now more than ever, businesses and their brands need to create exciting, stimulating dialogues with consumers designed not just to make a sale but create a long-term relationship.
So the question remains, “Are you still going to count on the old 5 P’s to get the job done?” Or are you ready for something new(er)?
If you would like to find out more about the Newer 5 P’s of Marketing feel free to contact us at //NKST.