Whenever a marketer sets out to improve, augment or adapt the four Ps, they reveal the absurdity of the exercise and reinforce why product, price, place and promotion remain the core concepts of the marketing mix.
I have a four-year-old. At some point after she was born we read that it was good for young children to enjoy as much rough and tumble in their early years as possible. So, we encouraged it and ended up with the game of ‘Angry Mountain’. It’s not a complex game. I lie on the bed just before bedtime and my daughter sneaks up and beats the shit out of me.
As she got bigger it got to the point where it was getting painful, so I have been gradually leading her away from Angry Mountain. We are almost there. But sometimes she misses the physicality of it. Every now and again when I am watching TV or having a beer or looking out of a window she will sidle up and punch me in the balls. Obviously, I love my daughter. But these occasional moments of unexpected suffering test that love.
That’s how I also feel about my 30-year relationship with marketing. From the very outset I never loved anything so much. But on a regular basis marketing will test my love with the occasional blow to the extremities. These blows land with such force that, for a few seconds, I genuinely question my affection.
Groin pain
The most common disciplinary groin pain I endure comes from our industry’s recurring need to refashion the marketing mix. It’s not an exaggeration to suggest that, at any moment in time, there will be a marketer somewhere on the planet drawing a bold red line through the words ‘four Ps’ and replacing them with something – anything – else. Our heresy is as common as it is dumbfounding.
Adweek was making my balls ache last week with its virtual masterclass on challenger brands. One of the speakers – Jeremy Lowenstein, the CMO of underwear brand MeUndies – contrasted the four Ps of product, price, promotion and place that are taught to marketers with the “real” four Ps of marketing, namely: purpose, performance, personalisation and (deep sigh) pride. Just give me a moment.
I can get into a lot of trouble with marketing snowflakes when I suggest…
