I found this blog article and I thought it was interesting because, lately, I have been giving a lot of thought to the Four Ps of Marketing.
http://www.holland-mark.com/blog/2009/09/the-five-ps-of-social-marketing/
My thoughts about this subject center around the question “Are the Four Ps of Marketing Still Relevant in Today’s World of Marketing?” I am wondering if we need to shift completely away from traditional marketing and concentrate solely on new marketing methods.
Even though we are hearing a tremendous amount of talk about social media, my feeling is that the best marketing strategies will involve the blending of new and traditional marketing activities. Who is to say that social media will not help you in your goals when you are working on your marketing strategy for Product, Price, Place and Promotion? Social media can play an important role, for example, in your branding strategy. But should it be your only method of marketing when you are planning marketing initiatives for your branding strategy? I don’t think so but I do think, coupled with other activities, it may be the perfect complement.
When I look at Mike Troiano’s Five Ps of Social Marketing, I am noticing an overlap of activity, planning and thought process when I also look at the Four Ps of Marketing.
This is my visual version of how I see the overlap.
Planning, for example, refers to determining your goals and what you want to accomplish in business terms, not in social media terms. Even though we are talking about planning and how it applies to your social media activity, this planning really must integrate properly with your strategy and planning as it applies to your product (for example—branding or customer support), place (for example—distribution channel or market coverage) or promotion (for example—sales promotions, advertising or public relations and publicity).
This is just one example of overlap. Without much thought, I am sure you can easily see how Programs (from the Five Ps of Social Marketing) and Promotions (from the 4 Ps of Marketing) overlap and can integrate new marketing methods with traditional.
Marketing today is exciting and can be fun with all the new tools and methods available to us. Experiment and see how you can blend new and traditional marketing in your overall marketing plan.
Four Ps of Marketing: http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/