{"id":633835,"date":"2018-03-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-25T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/latest-news\/articles\/the-fifth-p-of-marketing\/"},"modified":"2019-02-06T12:42:36","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T11:42:36","slug":"the-fifth-p-of-marketing","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/articles\/the-fifth-p-of-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fifth P of Marketing"},"featured_media":636332,"template":"","meta":{"_has_post_settings":[]},"schools":[],"areas":[22,24,26],"subjects":[],"class_list":["post-633835","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","areas-sales-marketing","areas-strategy","areas-technology"],"custom-fields":{"wpcf-article-leadin":["The classic tenets of marketing neglect a key concept of the digital age: people. Knowledge of the community is the cornerstone of any marketing campaign. Accurate analysis of communities is the key to achieving consumer engagement with brands."],"wpcf-article-body":["Communication\u2014particularly the areas of marketing<\/a> and advertising\u2014has been heavily impacted by digitalization. Media and methods have changed as brands have shifted their outlook in today\u2019s palpably globalized<\/a> world. Branding is a private hunting ground for peregrine falcons\u2014by some measures the fastest animals on earth. This cultural shift has been bolstered by rising investment in digital media campaigns over the past few decades. Television was once the premier platform for spreading messages, but the Internet has upended the rules and transformed us all into multiconnected, overinformed customers. In the face of this technological<\/a> avalanche, the four classic Ps of marketing\u2014product, price, place, and promotion\u2014seem incomplete and obsolete. Nowadays, the most important P is people.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe new marketing mix <\/strong>\r\n\r\nMarketing<\/a> departments and agencies must begin by turning their attention to people. When publicizing a product or service, the first step is to understand the community. Once you\u2019ve done that, you can gradually introduce sales<\/a> and customer-service processes, but without neglecting consumer engagement\u2014a key concept in this day and age.\r\n\r\nThe growth<\/a> in sales<\/a> of wearables<\/a> is just one indication of society\u2019s widespread embrace of mobile devices, not to mention the vast amount of information now available anytime and anywhere. Understanding this degree of dependence on new gadgets is the first step towards winning the tough battle of marketing<\/a>. Adopting the digital culture is synonymous with understanding the customer.\r\n
Companies have made people\u2014in the broadest sense of the term\u2014the centerpiece of their strategy, and their business models have shifted accordingly.<\/blockquote>\r\nThe humanization of companies<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThis new paradigm is also transforming companies into centers for the study of human behavior<\/a>. This broadens the range of possibilities: besides customers, companies can also study their own employees and society at large. Companies have made people\u2014in the broadest sense of the term\u2014the centerpiece of their strategy<\/a>, and their business models have shifted accordingly.\r\n\r\nToday\u2019s companies have their sights set on three objectives: developing a strategy<\/a> that generates value in the social sphere, providing experiences that reliably satisfy consumers, and maintaining an empowered staff in a collaborative work environment. These three deeply intertwined pillars are the key to addressing the challenge of business transformation.\r\n

\"La<\/p>\r\nThe aim of marketing<\/a> is to engage with interest groups\u2014starting with employees. The great aspiration of any marketing department or agency is to act as an ambassador of a product or brand. Engagement can be summarized in five principles:\r\n

    \r\n \t
  1. Data-driven marketing<\/a>.<\/span> Data leads to knowledge, and knowledge leads to profitability. Relationships are created through bidirectional messaging and this data traffic is analyzed with technology<\/a>, practically in real time.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Communities create trust.<\/span> Consumer reviews are considered 12 times more reliable than a brand\u2019s messaging. In fact, millennials trust customer reviews more than their friends\u2019 opinions. Most factors that influence a purchasing decision emanate from users, not companies. Marketing<\/a> has shifted from the target to the community.<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Media companies and content producers.<\/span> Besides making toys, Lego has transformed its product into the star of movies and video games.<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. Creativity in payment channels.<\/span> With the consumer at the center of the action, greater community engagement can be achieved by offering more\u2014and more creative\u2014payment channels.<\/li>\r\n \t
  5. Digital experiences integrated into products.<\/span> An initiative by KLM illustrates this principle. On its booking website, the airline introduced a system that allowed customers to connect with fellow passengers through social media. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the initiative allowed KLM to become acquainted with digital experiences.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n
    Most factors that influence a purchasing decision emanate from users, not companies. Marketing has shifted from the target to the community.<\/blockquote>\r\nThe value of failure<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAn entity\u2019s conception of failure provides a clue as to whether it is successfully adopting this 2.0 culture. Fear of failure has no place in 21st<\/sup>-century strategy<\/a>. Trial and error is the new mantra. Indeed, the theory of \u201cfail often, fail quick, fail cheap\u201d is the very definition of innovation<\/a>. Today\u2019s companies spend a lot more time implementing plans, measuring their impact, and adapting their strategy according to the results of this analytical exercise.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\u00a9 IE Insights.\r\n\r\n "],"wpcf-article-extract-enable":["1"],"wpcf-article-extract":["By Fernando Polo<\/strong>. The classic tenets of marketing neglect a key concept of the digital age: people."],"wpcf-article-summary-enable":["1"],"wpcf-article-summary":["In the digital age, the four classic Ps of marketing\u2014product, price, place, and promotion\u2014seem incomplete without the most important P: people. Companies have made the quest to understand human behavior the centerpiece of their strategy. Consumer engagement is the new key concept for marketers. The five principles of engagement are data-driven marketing, community-driven generation of trust, content creation, new payment channels, and the incorporation of digital experiences into products. In today\u2019s world, companies must embrace innovation, lose their fear of trial and error, and adopt the \u201cfail often, fail quick, fail cheap\u201d theory."]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/633835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"schools","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/schools?post=633835"},{"taxonomy":"areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/areas?post=633835"},{"taxonomy":"subjects","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/subjects?post=633835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}