Marketing with Social Media Means 4 P Shift

4 P’s of Marketing Make Way for 7 P’s of Social Media

In traditional marketing schools, there are 4 P’s in marketing. These are product, price, place and promotion. In the 20th century these were followed as rules and guidelines for marketing anything and the marketer with an acute understanding of the 4 P’s generally succeeded in achieving his/her marketing goals.

The four P’s may also be translated into solution based approach known by the mnemonic, SIVA, i.e.

Product = Solution
Promotion = Information
Price = Value
Place = Access (Distribution)

Social Media Marketing expert Brian Solis recently posted an article about the 5th and 6th P’s in marketing. He believes these are People and Purpose. I agree that these are very accurate additions in in the twenty tens, however I think the shift is much bigger than simply adding these two.

Positioning may be the seventh P in the traditional (older) marketing world. In social media marketing, however, positioning stands for messaging, which can sometimes be frowned upon. Positioning or messaging in marketing has connotations of the wolf in sheep’s clothing, and the stigma of false advertising.

And conversely to Brian at the risk of rattling off several words that being with the letter P, I think the following seven words beginning with P provide a useful picture of the philosophy of social media. I believe we have shifted from the 4 P’s (Product, Promotion, Price, and Place) to the following:

People
Purpose
Passion
Proximity
Participation
Partnerships
Promises

The 4 P Shift in Marketing

We start with People as people are the most important component in any marketing campaign.
In social media marketing, as in life and all marketing, nothing happens without people. Gary Vaynerchuck once said “The people in your life make the world better. People are literally the best thing in the world.” If there are no people to see/hear/respond, there is no promotion.

With the onset of “world of mouth” media, yes that’s not a typo; all people now have a voice and a purpose to share what is most valuable to each of them. Social networks facilitate the human need to connect and share, breaking all previous barriers of place, making the world smaller and giving people courage to participate at their own levels.

The shift from traditional marketing to word-of-mouth marketing is an evolution from a broadcast to the masses sales-like approach to one that is much more focused on community, tribes, followers, fans and connections. Social media marketing is about People first and foremost and people with a purpose.

The next six posts will explore the rest of the new P’s in the context of Social Media Marketing. Please feel free to add your comments below.

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