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MANY OF US GREW UP with the Four Ps of Marketing: Product, Place, Price and Promotion.

Do you know when the Four Ps of Marketing were invented? In 1960, by Jerome McCarthy.

They were made leading-edge by Philip Kotler in his book Principles of Marketing in 1967.

The Four Ps thrived in a different world. It was a wonderful fantasy world. Marketers were king.

Product differences lasted. Big, obedient audiences could be reached with big, efficient media.

What is the world of marketing today? The consumer has seized control. Audiences have

shattered into fragments and slices. Product differences can last minutes, not years. The new

ecosystem is millions and billions of unstructured one-to-one and peer-to-peer conversations.

Marketing is in the hot seat. So many of the tools and assumptions we grew up with are no

longer valid. Many marketing leaders around the world got promoted into their jobs because they

did two great product launches and three great TV campaigns, and figured out how to work with

a few major retailers.

According to a recent study by Spencer Stuart, the average tenure of a CMO is less than 24

months. And only 14 percent of CMOs have been in their positions with the same company for

more than three years. A CMO Council 2007 report concludes that only one-third of board

members are satisfi ed that their marketing leaders can explain the ROI of marketing.

We need a new framework. And a new tool kit. For starters, we need to throw away the Four Ps

and embrace the Four Es:

from Product to Experience

from Place to Everyplace

from Price to Exchange

from Promotion to Evangelism

Left: The Orange Babies campaign offered a simple exchange – in return for a donation, you

receive a smile. Center: The Hershey’s store in Times Square has one of the highest sales figures

per square foot of any retail space in America. Right: Johnnie Walker’s Personal Digital

Assistant engages loyal drinkers when they are on the go.

Classic marketing instructed us to look at “product” features, fi nd a single consumer benefi t,

and promote this over and over again to our target audience.

But in a world where most product advantages last less than six months, this strategy is losing

relevance. A six-month, product-based advantage is a huge luxury. In financial services, an

advantage may last a few weeks. On eBay, you may be special for a few seconds.

My advice is to stop thinking just about your product and start thinking about the full experience.

And the fi rst step is to discover the Customer Journey. Do you know how customers shop for

your category? Do you know who infl uences their purchases, and where and when their

purchases happen? Do you know what happens after they buy?

If you don’t, you cannot understand the end-to-end customer experience. And you cannot know

where to focus your precious marketing effort. When you think about the experience, not just the

product or the advertising, you can do amazing things.

A few years ago, Hershey’s, an iconic U.S. chocolate company, asked us to put up a billboard ad

in New York City’s Times Square. But instead of thinking about produ cts and advertising, we

imagined a brand experience and created an entire Hershey’s store for customers who visit Times

Square.

The retail space is playful and full of childhood memories, inviting people in for a real -life

experience with Hershey’s and its full range of products.

The store is a huge hit. It’s a focal point in Times Square, as well as a retail store with one of the

highest sales figures per square foot in America.

It used to be that retail was a “place,” but now consumers create their own paths. Marketers need

to understand the full range of possibilities in reaching people.

Instead of interrupting people, today we want to “intercept” them and make contact when they

are most receptive to engaging with us as they go about their day. Here’s what we are doing

about it at Ogilvy. We have created a global network of digital innovation labs, in Singapore,

New York, London, Beijing and São Paulo.

We are hiring different kinds of people. Mark Seeger, the leader of our Ogilvy Digital Innovation

Lab in Singapore, is an engineer, a product designer who worked on the Apple iPod, and a

former rocket scientist at NASA. Not your average agency hire.

Mark and his colleagues invent interesting ways for our clients to connect their brands with their

consumers. Recently, Mark and his team invented a virtual personal assistant who lives on a

mobile phone – and helps the customers of a liquor brand in Asia enjoy life to the fullest. She

tells them about upcoming entertainment promotions, and helps them get reservations and VIP

access. She even has a webcam feature to show them which bar is hot and which bar is not.

It’s no longer only about interrupting to grab attention when people are watching television,

reading a magazine or visiting a retail location. Today we have to intercept consumers on their

turf and on their terms, and that could be anyplace or everyplace.

“Price” used to be very simple: I give you a product, you give me money and I put it in the cash

register.

For many marketers, the focus was on the cost side of the equation: keep costs down so we can

keep prices competitive. Marketing leaders were highly aware of the cost of marketing inputs –

commercial production, agency compensation, TV airtime and print production. But as Oscar

Wilde said, “The cynic knows the price of everything

and the value of nothing.”

Today’s marketing leader needs to be aware of the value of things. In particular, you need to

know what it takes for a consumer to give you precious things like their attention, their

engagement and their permission.

Ogilvy Amsterdam brought the concept of exchange to life in a campaign for an organization

called Orange Babies, which supports African mothers and children who are HIV positive. To

raise money at a big trade show, they offered a simple exchange. People who donated money

saw the effect immediately – in exchange for their donation, they got a big smile. And Orange

Babies earned thousands and thousands of dollars for a great cause.

So, do you understand exchange? Do you know the value of your customers – what they really

bring to you in revenue and profi t over their lifetime? What are you willing to offer your

consumers in exchange for their attention, their engagement and their permission? The marketer

needs to take the first step.

Through much of marketing’s history, “promotion” was sufficient. A single-minded product

benefi t, creatively and persistently promoted, would often be a winning approach.

But increasingly, we are seeing a new and more powerful approach – evangelism. By this I mean

creating a mission and brand experience that are so inspiring to consumers that they engage with

you – and share their enthusiasm with others. What makes evangelism so powerful today is how

it marries the oldest form of persuasion – word of mouth – and the newest – social networking

and Web 2.0.

Marketing in a fragmented, multichannel world needs a powerful heart. The key ingredients are

emotion and passion. As a marketing leader of the future, you must know how to find the energy

and passion in what you are selling.

Which brings me to what we at Ogilvy call the The big ideaL™. Simply stated, a Big Ideal is a

universal, enduring theme that a brand stands for. It’s the emotional center. And we have found

that the best way to locate this emotional center is to start with a deep understanding of what

your brand is really great at – your brand’s best self – and then to connect this to an important

cultural truth or trend that is going on in society. This is a place where you will fi nd energy and

passion.

The Dove brand is over 50 years old. Its heritage was in selling simple and honest beauty

products to women. It was successful, but we all believed there was more potential. It was when

we linked together the brand’s best self with a cultural truth about women and beauty that the

business really took off.

It started with a research insight: after decades of stereotyping by the fashion and beauty

industries, global research revealed that only two percent of women believe they are beautiful.

The leaders of Dove took a different view – women’s beauty today is much more diverse in age

and size and color. Real beauty is what matters.

And so Dove’s Big Ideal was articulated as: “Dove believes the world would be a better place if

women were allowed to feel good about themselves.”

Rather than just tell women its theory, Dove decided to engage women around the world in a

debate. And so the Campaign for Real Beauty was born. It started with a website and a public

relations campaign. Women were invited to join the debate, and millions did. One Dove viral

video, Evolution, achieved such astonishing consumer sharing and free media support that it has

been seen by an estimated 500 million viewers. And the Campaign for Real Beauty has helped

drive Dove sales to record levels.

So it’s time for marketing to move on. Retool. Evolve.

EXPERIENCE Discover and map out the full Customer Journey on your own brand – in your

own country.

EVERYPLACE

Develop your knowledge of new media and channels the way a chef masters new ingredients.

Try new things – do something that doesn’t start with TV or print.

EXCHANGE Appreciate the value of things, not just the cost. Start by calculating the value of

your customers – and what their attention, engagement and permission are worth to you.

EVANGELISM Find the passion and emotion in your brand. Inspire your customers and

employees with your passion.

Source: http://www.ogilvy.com/On-Our-Minds/Articles/the_4E_-are_in.aspx