Are the 4Ps old news, or merely rapidly expanding in meaning?

Marketing has become a novel field in this century, attributed mainly to the advent of social media and the digital evolution that has turned marketing from local to international with brands becoming global commodities (Ries, 2017). The future is still evolving and what’s in store for tomorrow may change and challenge marketing as we even know it today. Recent trends revolve around building brands and not selling products, using information as the basis of marketing activities, content marketing and PR as opposed to traditional advertising, a leap even from digital marketing, multiple brands under one umbrella and even pursuing visual communications (Gruhler, 2018; Ries, 2017). Artificial Intelligence, Big Data (Gruhler, 2018) and visual search – the latest in technology which allows users to search images (Jones, 2018) are all being integrated and aligned to marketing, thus bring to users’ Experience, Exchange, Everyplace and Evangelism; the 4Es of the new marketing mix of the technological world (Carter, 2017; Danziger, 2017). With the arrival of these 4Es, what does entail for the famed 4Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion)? Have they been left behind in a bygone era, is the question which leads us to the topic of my article.

Danziger (2017) explains how the 4Es have replaced the 4Ps which is summarized in the diagram below.

It is worthwhile noting that while she says the 4Ps have been replaced by the 4Es, the wording used is not quite that straightforward. While, I wholeheartedly agree that consumers now expect to be wowed by the 4Es, and marketers are doing their best to provide this, I believe the 4Ps still remain very relevant. I see the adoption of the 4Es as an add-on to the 4Ps of the marketing mix. As Danziger (2017) very clearly explains it in her article, today’s consumers want to be wowed by an experience when they purchase a product, they want more in terms of perceived value for their products than they spend in monetary terms, they do not want to be limited by a physical location for purchasing their product and they want to purchase their products on their own terms. When it comes to Evangelism, Danziger (2017) mentions content marketing, social media, traditional public relations, influencer blog posts, and word-of-mouth marketing as being parts of this ‘E’. In turn making me think of Evangelism as Promotion using the latest tools of marketing. While there is no doubt that the new generation of consumers identify with brands which give them an unparallel experience, engage with them, make an emotional connection with them and still retain the element of exclusivity (Chrzanowska, n.d.) the famed 4Ps remain the foundation of any brand’s marketing activities.

Let me explain… using Apple as an example. Apple has truly got the right mix of the 4Ps in place. They’ve got fabulous products that consumers love, the pricing strategy adopted is accepted by consumers as they perceive Apple products to give value for money, Apple has many places in which they sell their products (while in a bygone era this was only at physical stores, now Apple products are found in the digital space as well), and they unquestionably promote their brand and products using the varied marketing tools available today. Now let’s add-on the 4Es. Apple markets its products as an Experience, their tag line “Think Different” is the start of this. Consumers believe they are exchanging money for a far more valuable product; thus, the Exchange is taken care of. Everyplace, certainly Apple is available everywhere and Evangelism which uses new promotional tools is a complete success with Apple, one example being their Instagram page and the ‘#shotoniphone’ hashtag. So, yes, Apple has also got the 4Es exactly right!

So, can the 4Ps and the 4Es co-exist? I believe this is exactly what they do. The 4Es are our changed view of what the 4Ps mean today. They are the expanded meaning of the 4Ps in the context of the changing market place, a result of digital disruption combined with more demanding consumer wants and expectations, and globalization leading to global brands. This leads me to my original question, the title of this article – Are the 4Ps old news, or merely rapidly expanding in meaning?

For me the 4Ps of the marketing mix will remain the foundation on which brands bring their products and services to the market place in a way that changes with time and consumer expectations… leading us very conveniently (if I may say so) to the 4Es of the new marketing mix!

What are your views?

References

Carter, D. (2017, April 24). The 4Ps are out, the 4Es are in. Growth Cubed. Retrieved from https://www.growthcubed.com/2017/04/24/4ps-4es/

Chrzanowska, N. (n.d.). 9 Thoughts about the future of marketing. Brand24 Blog. Retrieved from https://brand24.com/blog/the-future-of-marketing/

Danziger, P.N. (2017, July 25). Retailers need new tools for marketing: Forget the 4Ps, embrace the 4Es. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2017/07/25/retailers-need-new-tools-for-marketing-forget-the-4ps-embrace-the-4es/#41aac7fe6412

Gruhler, T. (2018, April 18). Five trends shaping the future of marketing. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/04/18/five-trends-shaping-the-future-of-marketing/#7f74b224d369

Jones, M. (2018, September 27). Forget AR: Visual search will be the hottest e-commerce tech among millennials. MarketingTech News. Retrieved from https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2018/sep/27/forget-ar-visual-search-will-be-hottest-e-commerce-tech-among-millennials/

Ries, A. (2017, April 14). Five revolutionary changes in marketing since the turn of the century. AdAge. Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/al-ries/revolutionary-marketing-turn-century/308635/