The evolution of Digital Marketing has been quite remarkable.
The ubiquitous usage of the digital marketing mix has been observed in a variety of methods. Now, Digital marketing strategies are applied everywhere from businesses hiring a digital marketing expert to startups harnessing influencers to advertise their goods. Because of the rapid growth of digital marketing, every company wants to learn how to launch an online business or establish an online presence as quickly as feasible. While organizations have evolved over time, our good old marketing books have struggled to keep up with the shifting marketing landscape.
The 4 Ps of Marketing is a well-known (and often overused) marketing jargon.
Don't you believe it's time we looked at Digital Marketing through the same lens as the 4Ps now that the world is turning digital?
What are the 4Ps of Marketing?
Well, this blog can help you understand the concept of the 4 Ps of digital, namely, process, people, platform, and performance, and how it provides new methods to fulfill customers' requirements and personalize messaging for audiences that anticipate it.
1. The first element of Marketing Mix: Product or Service
In the past, things could be handled, examined with the human eye, and even sniffed to discern their genuine quality and value in the store. Total e-commerce sales accounted for 5.2 percent of total sales in the fourth quarter of 2012, up 15.8 percent from the previous quarter, per the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce. With more and more transactions shifting online every day, it's becoming more difficult to grasp and be convinced that you're making the appropriate purchasing decision when you haven't seen or felt the object in person.
More than 95% of new products launched by established companies each year fail, according to an AcuPoll study.
However, it is essential to consider that although you're selling online doesn't mean you shouldn't care about quality or that it doesn't matter to the customer. In reality, in today's digital and extremely social shopping environment, buyers may seek out and find evaluations for the product that they are contemplating purchasing all over the Internet. Low-quality goods will be detected fast, and you may forfeit the transaction.
Nowadays, features and advantages must be genuine and distinct from the competitors. Consumers will indeed assess your product's quality, durability, and pricing when determining whether or not to buy, whether in a store or on your online, so make sure your brand delivers.
2. The second element of Marketing Mix: Price
Price is actually a governing factor in determining a purchase choice at any period in history or today. Although price and budget are important factors, there is no doubt that if you don't address the quality of the product, discounts, and special deals, your business will suffer greatly. As a result, ensuring that your price-value equation is correct is critical to your success. To justify paying a premium price, customers expect a high-quality, distinctive product at a competitive price. Customers may be driven mad in your favor with an exclusive promotion or discount.
Finally, clients will frequently be prepared to pay a greater price if you have developed a respected premium product that can fulfill quality requirements. Consider the difference between Tanishq's silver bracelet and Giva's silver bracelet. Despite the fact that the product is nearly the same, the brand names have vastly different pricing and value perceptions. As a result, Tanishq's will always demand a significantly greater price for its items than Giva’s or almost any other jeweler could.
3. The third element of Marketing Mix: Promotion
The many ways in which you inform the buyer about your goods are referred to as promotion. The largest distinction between traditional marketing strategies and internet marketing is promotion and placement. Traditionally, radio, television, print, and outdoor media have been used to advertise items. FSIs (or Free Standing Inserts) were also extensively used in consumer packaged goods to promote new items and give coupons within their weekly newspaper. While coupons may be monitored at the register/point of sale, other forms of advertising, such as television and radio, are more concerned with impressions and brand recognition than with accelerating sales and customer action.
The entirety of today's digital marketing, on the other hand, is quantitative and powered by analytics, behavior monitoring, as well as ROI (Return on Investment) metrics. Email marketing, search marketing (both organic and paid), targeted banner advertisements, online sponsorships, content creation, social media, and more are all examples of digital marketing channels. These quantifiable approaches put you, the marketer, in charge of testing and adjusting your marketing mix as you go, rather than making a large one-time investment in television advertising for the entire year that may or may not perform as well.
4. The final element of Marketing Mix: Place
Place refers to the location of your product's sale, and it's also known as distribution. Whether you sell your goods in your own retail store or your website, via Amazon, Etsy, or even at the local farmer's market, each place has its own set of advantages and disadvantages to contemplate. Furthermore, the market now is far more globalized than it was even just a few years ago. Over the past decade, things have changed greatly!
Back in the day, local or regional stores were the only option to conduct business following a B2C or B2B model. However, with more and more possibilities available now, you'll need a considerably larger Rolodex to get in touch with the correct individuals and obtain your merchandise.
You must consider several aspects, including which style of sales environment would best promote your items- a web store or Direct-to-consumer sales? Next, consider what profit margins you may tolerate, if you sell to someone else to resell your product, you must account for the price to them in addition to the price you propose to the end customer. Finally, you must also check if your product can/should be marketed outside of your local market (city, state, country, continent, etc.). As a result, the two Ps that have necessitated the most change for marketers vs. brand managers are place and promotion.
Extensions to the Marketing 4 Ps:
New marketers propose extending the four Ps of marketing to include services. They are as follows:
People in Marketing Mix:
Customization is the key to engagement in this digital era. Those days are gone when a single mass message could reach all customers.
Consumers are 80 percent more likely to make a purchase when firms provide a customized experience, according to studies. And, as customers expect greater customization, the people who advertise your product, both internally and externally, become the link between the classic Ps and the new Ps.
CRM is really about people and connections. By offering data to segment audiences and sketching out consumer connections with your firm, implementing a successful CRM application may really increase teamwork, collaboration, and customer relationships. Consumers still care about price, product, and promotion—but without customization and the people who make those relationships possible, audiences may never discover what they're looking for in your brand.
Process in Marketing Mix:
All businesses aim to provide a seamless, efficient, and customer-friendly experience – and this cannot be accomplished without the proper processes in place behind the scenes. Understanding the stages of the customer journey – from making an online query to seeking information and completing a purchase – allows us to evaluate what processes are required to guarantee the consumer has a great experience.
How long will it take for a consumer to receive a response after making an inquiry? How long does it take from arranging a meeting with the sales staff to the meeting actually taking place? What happens when they place their order? How can we ensure that reviews are created following a purchase? How can we utilize technology to improve the efficiency of our processes?
All of these factors contribute to a pleasant client experience.
Physical Evidence in Marketing Mix:
In a digital era, what is the role of physical evidence? Certainly not! So...a here's a question for you:
When was the last time you made an online purchase based on customer feedback?
This is one of the most extensive instances of physical evidence available online. These review/comparison websites, ranging from TripAdvisor to TrustPilot, employ tangible evidence from public reviews to distinguish items from their competitors.
Have you ever been so taken by a product that you decided to express your opinions on social media? Because you are sharing your experiences with the public, this might also be considered tangible proof. Many social influencers advocate and evaluate items, which aids customers in making purchasing decisions.
Are the 4 Ps of marketing still viable?
For several years now, the 4 P's have been the foundation of numerous digital marketing success stories. And it's not without cause.
Even as customers' online activities change the ways we distribute our messaging and engage with our audience, focusing on pricing, product, promotion, and location make perfect sense.
However, with the ever-increasing availability of advertising digital solutions and fresh data sets, businesses must focus on employing technology to nurture tailored experiences. According to recent surveys, 81 percent of customers focus their work online before entering a store, and 74 percent become annoyed when communications and offers are irrelevant to their interests. For marketers wanting to develop meaningful engagements with consumers across digital platforms, customer relationship management (CRM) is a vital component of a successful marketing strategy.
It is estimated that 80 % businesses fail, and the most common cause for failure is a lack of understanding of end-user demand.
Bob Lauterborn (professor of advertising at the University of North Carolina)
CRM and the new digital 4Ps—product, price, place, and promotion—provide new approaches to fulfill customers' demands and personalize messages for audiences that expect them.
Why do digital marketers need to mind the Ps of marketing?
Even the tiniest of these niches offers a lucrative possibility for digital marketing services for small businesses. According to KPMG India's Media and Entertainment report 2019, given the rising digital user base, there would be a broad range of socio-economic characteristics, consumption patterns, and tastes.
The global online user base is expanding in size and importance. This tendency appears to have taken on with machine learning and recommendation engines, and digital companies have invested in improving the efficiency of identification on their platforms. A significantly bigger digital population that is diverse across numerous dimensions – age, wealth, culture, manner of access, and so on – provides marketers with a plethora of alternatives and obstacles:
Consumer Segmentation:
In today's digital world, marketing companies must take into account not only the apparent socio-demographic factors that distinguish users, but also factors such as gadget choice, the serviceability and resilience of available communications infrastructure, and the willingness to conduct business online.
Hyper-Localization:
Did you know? The smaller the market, the more relevant and compelling the advertisement will be. In simple words, a flood of niches, such as digital marketing blogs and advertising, will demand hyper-local content. Both information and services may be hyper-localized because of this capability. It could also aid in bringing the primarily offline SME community on board, allowing them to cater to their intended catchment region.
Customized Engagement:
Digitalization is 'always on,' and marketers have various means to reach out to their customers. A platform that allows individuals to interact and build communities is an entrepreneur's dream because most of the personality analysis is already done when like-minded people get together spontaneously. As they provide a brand-safe, restricted case environment for marketers, OTTs will draw greater advertising expenditure.
Performance Marketing:
On digital platforms, brands will have to pay considerably greater emphasis to campaign management alternatives. This can range from just paying for clicks to full-fledged attribution, in which the consumer's path from awareness to purchase is recorded. Return on investment in internet ads will become increasingly important, especially because India accounts for about 9% of worldwide ad fraud.
Fix for Privacy Issues:
Brands will need to strike a compromise between traditional monetization strategies. They are still mostly based on advertising and the growing concerns about security on online platforms. While there is an evident trend toward performance marketing, it necessitates the collection of more and more precise data about consumers in order to be effective.
Wrapping Up!
While technology has progressed since the introduction of the 4Ps, customers' core needs have not. They want to be valued as well as acquire items that are valuable. CMOS must demonstrate that they are providing value to customers across all contact points as the pace of technology and big data accelerates. They must also link achievement to financial objectives like revenue and market share. The New 4Ps of Digital Marketing and CRM serves as a road map and a link between the original 4Ps and today's dynamic marketing environment.
