The new 4 P's of Marketing

Marketing has always been about establishing a relationship with customers and opening up channels of communication so that well-crafted messages can be delivered to the right demographic. The marketing approach of yesteryears has evolved quite rapidly from time and resource intensive productions to nimble and dynamic campaigns. The art of reaching customers has added new dimensions, making lives for businesses more demanding and dynamic.

Today’s marketer is expected to be on top of all the latest trends if they want to influence today’s customers who are savvy and well informed. It becomes all the more critical for marketers to ensure that they have a clear understanding of how their consumers are accessing information and how they are influence in their purchasing decisions. Marketing is about creating the near perfect experience for customers. The new 4Ps must find a place and in fact form the pillars of any marketing strategy aimed at the consumer in new age.

Power of Data – Everyone has data, but only the progressive organizations harness the power of data for business success. Many organizations overwhelmed by data because they haven’t figured out the right approach to manage it in a way that makes it their greatest asset. The experience business hinges on channeling a wide range of data ranges to provide insights that can help make intelligent, data driven decisions on how to reach and retain customers.

Personalization – Marketing campaigns must aim for personalization that reaches out to customers with messages that are most interesting and relevant to them. The messaging must extent to cover multiple media channels and devices in a consistent manner. Omni-channel marketing is based on the fact that customers interact in a variety of different ways with a brand, whether someone is online shopping, wandering through mall or flipping through TV channels, their perceptions of a particular brand have to be consistent and appealing. The power of data gives us the ability to tailor content to match customer’s interests, which in turn increases engagement, revenue and ROI.

Phygital – Our world is evolving from a physical one to an increasingly digital one. The experience business must bring together the best of both into Phygital approach to marketing. Data is not always digital and many organizations have amassed legacy data that can provide a wealth of customer insights. Phygital provides the opportunity to combine the physical and the digital, thereby converging data from different sources in a productive manner.

Platform – It is where all efforts especially those around the earlier Ps, converge. It is crucial to choose platform carefully. The right marketing platform can handle all data, automation, metric management and measurability, execution and is the most important weapon in a digital marketer’s arsenal to engage customers from initial contact all the way through to the sales funnel.

It is believed that Future of marketing settles solidly on these 4 Ps: Power of data, personalization, Phygital and platform. The nature of the experience business will continue to evolve. Many tedious tasks will be automated by a rich and versatile platform and the creative aspects will gain prominence. Numbers and data driven intelligence will continue to become increasingly important as will the ability to visualize data as an extension of our customers. Even as market dynamics shift, the 4Ps will continue to serve as a sound basis for keeping in touch with customer and their changing preferences and succeed in the experience business.