Filed under: Digital Adoption, Trends by Digado

Ever since Neil H. Borden published his ‘The Concept of Marketing Mix’ article in 1964, marketers have sworn by the ‘the four Ps’, otherwise known as ‘The Marketing Mix’. The four P’s are the parameters the marketing managers can use in various ways to create effective marketing strategies and create value for their products.

Product Decisions
The factor ‘product’ refers to tangible, physical products as well as services. Things that are considered part of the ‘first P’ are Brand name, the function of the product and styling of the object/service.

Price Decisions
Pricing decisions are the financial picture of your products. Is it going to be cheap to undercut competitors, is it going to be priced equal to the competition or exclusively expensive? Will there be discounts possible, and what is the minimum cost and profit margins on your product.

Place Decisions
Distribution is about getting the products to the customer. Some examples of distribution decisions include the location of your store(s) and office(s), getting the product to the consumer (distribution), storage of products and geographical limitations.

Promotion Decisions
In the context of the marketing mix, promotion represents the various aspects of marketing communication, that is, the communication of information about the product with the goal of generating a positive customer response. Marketing communication decisions include the promotional strategy, advertising and budgeting for instance.

Replacing the 3rd ‘P’

This model has been around since long before Virtual Worlds, and I wondered whether this was still up to date. What we see in Virtual Worlds, and a lot of online applications, is the growing irrelevance of the factor ‘Place’ - I tunes doesn’t need ‘warehousing’ - nor is it limited . Shipping becomes part of the actual product, as a premium service and is no longer subject to geographical limitations. Even language barriers (geographical data) are easily broken in Virtual Environments. Thats why I think its time for another ‘P’ to replace the factor Place. This factor is absolutely vital for New Marketing, and Virtual worlds in particular. This will be the P of Participation.

Participation Decisions
Participation is about no longer just sending information about your product. Engage, even stimulate conversation, feedback, collaboration with your potential customers. Explore their communities in an open, transparent way. The communities as you find them on blogs, social networks and Virtual Worlds are your primary source of customer insights trough conversion. They are the ‘sneezers‘, the ones that will talk about you, tell their friends and share their experiences. Be sure to be a participant, instead of a passive spectator in this process.

Posted on: January 15, 2008 | Share on: