The 4 P's plus 1 reloaded

Back in January, I outlined the basic 4 P's of marketing in my post, Marketing basics - the 4 P's. As a recap, the 4 P's (plus 1) of traditional marketing are:

• Product - The offering be it a physical product, service or combination of the two.
• Place - The method of distribution (e.g., physical storefront, online.)
• Promotion - The strategy and messages comprising the communication aspects of marketing the product.
• Price - The pricing strategy utilized. This includes discounts and product bundling.
• Positioning (the last P) - How a product or company is perceived in the marketplace.

I came across a post called Marketing Remix, by John Sviokla, that provided a new 4 P's (err... plus 1!) It's an excellent read and demonstrates how marketing is shifting from the traditional view to a newer paradigm. To paraphrase (as well as add some of my own thoughts):

• Product becomes Personalization - Standardized products are giving way to more customizable offerings composed of physical products and the services associated with them.
• Place becomes Presence - The main argument on this piece is that there is much more than just a physical storefront. People can augment everything with simple web searches for more information. The main business concern translates to having a presence where people gather their information and make their decisions.
• Promotion becomes Persuasion - Sending out traditional advertising is a big item in promotion. However, notice the trend towards the proliferation of user reviews (and other social mediums that are not controlled by marketers) for products.
• Price (static) becomes Price (dynamic) - With the availability of information there is a greater ability to do direct price comparisons between products and retailers. Bundling, in-the-moment discounts and specials mean pricing strategies are more dynamic.
• Positioning becomes Preference - Preferences can be interpreted based on things a consumer says, through analysis of their past purchases, through analysis of their search (information gathering) behavior and finally from configuration tools that they use (e.g., a design your own car tool from Volkswagen.)

Please go read John Sviokla's post. It's an excellent read for new age marketing.