The 4Ps are dead, bring on the 4Es!
The 4 Ps of marketing—product, price, place and promotion—have served as a framework for marketing success since the 1950s. They have survived generations of marketers and have guided many of us along the way across industries, companies and geographies.
But…much has changed since the 1950s and there’s a need to reinvent the 4Ps into something more modern, more in tune with our younger consumers, more relevant to how brands and businesses position themselves today. Let’s bring out the 4Es:
- Experience (replaces Product) - In today’s global economy, simply having the product your customers want doesn’t cut it. Consumers are looking for an experience—something that captures their attention and holds it. It’s a myriad of touchpoints that makes up how your customers engage with your brand and how it makes them feel.
- Everyplace (replaces Place) - Place used to be a distribution channel where your customers would find your product. Now, you need to know where your customers are and engage with them frequently. Everyplace describes how and where your company and the products / services needs to be available and seen.
- Exchange (replaces Price) - The price of your products and services still matter, but it’s more about what they get in exchange. This is where value becomes important. Consider what your value proposition is and define it in terms of a value exchange between you and customers.
- Evangelism (replaces Promotion) - Promoting what you sell is not enough. Your customers (both existing and prospective) wants to know about what you stand for and against and about your values. In turn, your customers will become brand evangelists and spread the word about your store to others.
Author Pamela Danziger first talked about this in a blog post in November 2016 and I have preached and practiced this ever since. I don’t really think the 4Ps are dead (but I needed a provocative title!), it’s just that the 4Ps are no longer enough to capture and drive an increasingly complex marketing strategy in an ever changing world where consumers and technology are creating new paradigms every day.
If you want to hear how 4Ps + 4Es can help you business, please contact me at the CMO Syndicate.
About The CMO Syndicate
The CMO Syndicate is a diverse group of world-class Chief Marketing Officers who rapidly solve growth and profit problems for CEOs, VCs, CMOs, and PE firms. As global CMOs from the world’s top companies, The CMO Syndicate is not a traditional marketing consulting agency, and we are not typical marketing or growth consultants. We are growth experts and operators who actually do the work on a part-time or project basis as outsourced fractional and interim CMOs.