The Current Marketing Environment: New Rules for the Four P’s
If you haven’t heard the admonition to consider price, product, place, and promotion, perhaps you’ve been living under a rock. Fear not! Marketers who have had this drilled in may be at a disadvantage. Of course those factors are ever relevant and must be harmonious. The change is in the evaluation of the four P’s.
If a company is not striving for a competitive advantage and just “getting by” they will be “passed by.” Even if a business is doing everything right, they need to capitalize on what is right or be forced out.
New Rules for the Right PRODUCT
Consumers are presented with a rainbow of product packages and a plethora of sizes for each item on their shopping list. On the other hand, retailers and manufacturers are striving for streamlined operations and improved profitability.
Traditionally market research involved asking customers what they wanted. Today consumers are so overwhelmed, they don’t know what they want. It is easier for consumers to highlight what is still lacking. Researchers now ask their market for complaints with current choices.
Consumers now make decisions on micro-issues. People buy things for features that seem insignificant because they assume larger issues are standard. They don’t ask if a laptop is durable; they ask if it comes in red. Consumers are more concerned with the number of cupholders in a car than its safety rating.
Another product trend is purchasing based on the psychological value of a product, its personality or brand image. Whether or not consumers LIKE and ad determines their buying habits.
New Rules for the Right PRICE
Obviously the biggest box stores advocate that the right price is the lowest one. Mass merchandise retailers have taken over pricing structures and ignore brand-name manufacturer’s suggested retail price. There is little that can be done to influence the desire of these retailers to operate on slim profit margins.
New Rules for the Right PLACE
The current marketplace dictates that consumers receive products in ways not previously considered. Fast-food chains, once advocating free standing stores, now share the rent with convenience stores. Mass merchandisers dictate inventory quantities and shelf-facing requirements to consumer product companies. General catalogs have moved over for specialized catalogs. Interactive shopping, especially online, has become ever more popular. Even online grocery shopping is gaining momentum.
New Rules for the Right PROMOTION
Coming up with the right promotion has become akin to throwing a dart at a board – blindfolded. As mass media fractures into specialty and niche markets, interest segments continue to narrow. New databases and list services make it possible to target demographics based on zip code. Advertisers experiment with media delivery systems. Messages are fine tuned to the specific desires of the consumer.
This brings us to a fifth rule to add to the traditional list.
The Right ATTITUDE
Rather than focusing on features and benefits, many campaigns are focus on brand building. Consumers see little difference between categories and rather than taking the time to purchase based on product merit, they pick up the item for what (they believe) the brand name represents.
Focusing on image or attitude has lead to advertising that has become increasingly entertaining. Ad agencies now weigh likeability over persuasibility. The question asked is whether creativity gets results. Because of massive exposure and the difficulty in tracking advertising return on investment for brand-building campaigns, the jury is still out.
As highlighted, companies can seem to be doing things well and lose out on market share. A company can appear to be doing things wrong and gain success – if they have the right mindset. As companies trend toward lean and just-in-time manufacturing practices a company need not operate at optimum efficiency to make a profit.
The marketplace can be brutal, but if you understand HOW to compete you will consider a marketing communication campaign that includes the right product, price, place, promotion AND ATTITUDE.