Marketing existed as a discipline long before the days of social media and smartphones. It was a common business practice even before there was an internet. But the introduction of the internet and its digital marketing offspring has changed how so many companies look at marketing. Unfortunately, the modern trend is to focus solely on promotion without accounting for the full marketing mix previous generations of marketers relied on.
Modern businesses have fallen into a trap: they treat marketing like a digital megaphone. If you’re not sure what that means, there’s a fantastic post on the Forbes website that tells the whole story. It identifies digital marketing’s current identity crisis and its root cause: focusing on promotion and ignoring the traditional ‘Seven P’s of Marketing’.
Companies interested in building brands that withstand the test of time must broaden their marketing strategies beyond digital marketing’s emphasis on promotion. Promotion is still good and necessary, but it is just one component in a much larger marketing mix.
The Holistic Seven P’s
As the Forbes piece points out, pre-internet era marketing was based on a matrix known as the ‘Four P’s: product, price, place, and promotion. Over time, the four expanded into seven. Here is a complete list of the seven components and what they refer to:
- Product –The object or service that solves a real problem or meets a genuine need.
- Price – The retail cost of an item relative to its value proposition.
- Place –The locations (both physical and digital) through which customers can access the product.
- Promotion – The story through which the product is presented to customers.
- People – The culture and service behind the brand promoting the product.
- Process – The journey that carries the customer from discovery to delivery.
- Physical Evidence – The tangible and digital cues that build customer trust.
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When all seven P’s are fully integrated into an organization’s marketing plan, marketing becomes more than promotion. It becomes a process by which a brand establishes a relationship with customers, a relationship that doesn’t really end. From the first moment of discovery, the brand engages with the customer to keep them within the brand family.
The Promotion-Only Trap
Pixsan is a San Diego firm that offers web development, SEO, and digital marketing – all driven by data. While the firm agrees with the need for promotion, it also explains that there is a trap in the practice of making promotion the only focus.
That trap is found in the metrics used to measure success. Web companies and digital marketers can easily measure clicks and impressions. They can study likes and follows with very little effort. But as a marketer’s focus on promotional metrics increases, the importance of the remaining six P’s fades. Eventually, they are ignored altogether.
When promotion is the main goal, digital marketers become end-of-the-pipe sales associates trying to sell products and services they had no part in creating. They do not fully understand what they are selling, so they are incapable of helping their target audiences understand. Here is the real kicker: no amount of promotion will encourage customers to be loyal to a brand whose product or process is flawed.
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A Return to the Seven P’s
Generally speaking, modern digital marketing seems to be drifting. As the Forbes piece points out, it’s time for a return to the Seven P’s. It’s time to start preferring integration over insulation and experience over promotion. It is time to see pricing as a strategy rather than just a financial metric. Returning to the Seven P’s is possible if marketers and executives are willing to adopt a new mindset.