Are You Aware of the 5 New P’s in Marketing?
First there was the marketing mix and the 4 P’s, but are you aware of the 5 new P’s?
The marketing mix was developed as a process for taking a new product to market. The 4 P’s help define your marketing options in regards to product, price, place and promotion.
The original 4 P’s of marketing are defined as:
Product: The goods (or service) offered by a company to its customers.
Price: The cost to purchase the product.
Place: The activities that make the product available to consumers.
Promotion: The activities that communicate the product’s features and benefits and persuade customers to purchase the product.
Where the 4 P’s fell short was in relation to relevancy and why it’s important that your product is relevant in today’s day and age. That’s where the 5 new P’s come into play. They focus on relevancy and the importance of being a living business.
Relevance over Loyalty
In today’s era, loyalty isn’t enough for your customers; relevancy is now exceeding loyalty. As reported from Kantar Retail, customers are buying because of a brand’s relevance, not due to loyalty-incentive programs. In fact, even top buyers aren’t that loyal. Byron Sharp shared in his book, How Brands Grow, that even the most loyal buyers, purchase from rival brands. To complement this, Sharp stated that 72% of Coke drinkers also buy Pepsi.
While loyalty is important, customers are looking for brands that are relevant to their needs in the moment. Companies need to become more like living businesses where thinking is expanded to include 5 additional P’s that encompass relevancy.
According to the Harvard Business Review, we need to focus more on personalization and to do that we need to look at the 5 new P’s.
The 5 New P’s include:
Purpose: Customers feel the company shares and advances their values.
Pride: Customers feel proud and inspired to use the company’s products and services.
Partnership: Customers feel the company relates to and works well with them.
Protection: Customers feel secure when doing business with the company.
Personalization: Customers feel their experiences with the company are continuously tailored to their needs and priorities.
Adopting the New P’s
We would be lying if we said it isn’t difficult to fulfill and cover all of the P’s at once, but we’ve followed these three guidelines from the Harvard Business Review to assist in our efforts.
Stepping out of our comfort zone: positioning brands with an innovative approach.
Capitalizing on timing: communicating the appropriate message to customers in the utmost relevant setting.
Rethinking loyalty: embracing the pivot as technologies lead customer journeys and captivating customers with relevancy.
It’s time to rethink the 4 P’s and redirect our thinking to these 5 new P’s. How will you make sure to stay relevant?