The New 4Ps of Marketing

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:52:23 -0400

by Jim Walker

Every Marketing 101 student learns the 4Ps of Marketing: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. However, powered by the rise of social media, a new and dramatically different set of 4Ps is emerging: Participation, Permanence, Portability, and Pithiness.

Participation
At it’s core, social media is about massive, constant, and incredibly diverse participation across every age and demographic. The digital ecosystem that has blossomed over the last few years has created a completely transformational marketing and communications language. This new lingua franca consists of millions - often billions - of Tweets, Pics, Clips, and Apps. Suddenly we find ourselves constantly updating our status, sharing pictures across vast social networks, watching video clips, and using mobile apps anywhere and everywhere. These countless Tweets, Pics, Clips, and Apps are the elemental particles of a newly born participatory communications universe which is rapidly upending everything and anything we ever knew about marketing.

Permanence
Often overlooked in the breathless excitement and fun that surrounds the making and mashing of all these Tweets, Pics, Clips, and Apps into ever more interesting and amazing tools, is the astounding fact of permanence. As far as we can tell from this vantage point in the early 21st century - EVERYTHING in the unfolding digital maelstrom is going to be floating around out there, FOREVER. Whether all of this content becomes like hazardous space junk circling the earth, or settles into rich layers of organic material that future generations will mine for creative genius remains to be seen. Either way, permanence is a critical factor to consider in the launch and maintenance of any marketing campaign. Your messaging, along with the thoughts and messages of anyone who comes in contact with your brand, is going to be tied together in a vast and permanent searchable archive. If you are clear, consistent and honest in your messaging, then this permanence can be leveraged to build a lasting reputation in the marketplace. On the other hand, if your messaging is muddled, changeable and “less than forthright”, then the permanence of the social media universe is going to create a very very very long-term problem.

Portability
As we have discovered, anyone and everyone can crank out an endless supply of Tweets, Pics, Clips, and Apps, but the true litmus test from a marketing perspective is how portable are these campaign elements? In other words, will anyone feel the slightest interest in passing along your content? Keep in mind that portable does not necessarily equate to “massively viral” - rather, the question is - will the people who find you and your product interesting share your story with other people in their network who might also find your story interesting? If the answer is no, then the odds of social marketing failure are rather high. Perhaps certain. However, if the answer is a resounding yes, then be prepared to sell a whole lot of whatever magic you’re selling.

Pithiness
Twitter and Facebook Status are succeeding in an environment of information overload because they are forcing all of us to cut to the chase. Reversing years of endless eMail chains and eye-straining Powerpoint presentations, status updates have re-introduced us to the elegant merits of pithy. The rocket rise of Twitter is in no small part due to their 140 character limit. If you’re not familiar with “140 Marketing” do an experiment and see if your major marketing messages and copy fit in the Twitter box. If not, then it is time to meet and fully embrace pithy. 12Seconds.tv reflects a similar trend in our video viewing habits, while up on YouTube, the ideal viewing length for maximum viral spread is in the two-minute range. Pithy really is the new sexy.

Conclusion
It is no exaggeration to say we are witnessing a massive communications revolution. Tweets, Pics, Clips, and Apps have rapidly become the preferred communication format of 1.5 billion online citizens. In this newly born participatory communications universe, marketers who learn to truly harness the New 4ps of Marketing - Participation, Permanence, Portability, and Pithiness - are likely to find extraordinary success.

Jim Walker is Director of Emerging Media for Cadient Interactive, a digital marketing agency in Philadelphia.
Contact:
jim.walker@cadient.com
@LeaderTweets
jimwalks@yahoo.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimwalks

How Fast We Forget....

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:49:33 -0400

Does learning decay as fast as these sales leads? MIT Study finds that success rate of initial calls plummets within 1 hr. http://bit.ly/s8G8G

The most potent time for training success is within the first 12 - 24 hours after the initial material has been learned! If the new material can be reinforced and used in context during the window of that golden first day - the chances for long-term success are significantly higher. Mr. Ebbinghaus learned this more than 100 years ago. So why do we wait until the end of the marking period to really put students to the test?

Good instructional design: Should be more like a ping pong match, back and forth with the material - learn a little, test a little, rinse, lather, repeat - Less like a hot dog eating contest - how much can we shove in at once…

Smart FM

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:34:19 -0400

Smart FM:

Learning engine driving memory one bit at a time.

One vote for GREATEST commercial EVER

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:34:45 -0400

Nike “I’ve Got Soul”

EVERYTHING you need is already INSIDE!!!!!!!!!!

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:30:21 -0400

EVERYTHING you need is already INSIDE!!!!!!!!!!

"It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and..."

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:53:00 -0400

“It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.”

- Thomas A. Edison

Infinite Feedback

Thu, 21 Mar 1968 00:00:00 -0500

The first law of behavorial psychology: “Whatever you reinforce, you’ll get more of..”

The incredible plasticine minds of the 21st century. Every child should start a permamenent learning blog life stream.

The key will be to develop unique powers of original observation, not merely drown in the recycled tweeter droppings of the fan seeking thoughtless.