I recently ran across a talk from Oglive One's Brian Featherstonhaugh and was impressed with his take on the traditional (and some might say outmoded) "4 P's of Marketing".

It's no secret that the internet is changing the nature of business communications and marketing. Even ten years ago, books such as "The Cluetrain Manifesto" presented a view of markets as smart and interactive, and suggested that marketing methods needed to adapt to a new paradigm. However, it's a lot harder to go from recognizing a new model or paradigm to finding ways of working within it successfully.

So when I recently ran across a talk from OgliveOne's Brian Featherstonhaugh I was impressed with his take on the traditional (and some might say outmoded) "4 P's of Marketing". Instead of "4 P's", he contends, we should consider instead the "4 E's". One blogger attending the recent Mobile World conference summarized these 4 E's as follows:

• From Product to Experience: It is no longer sufficient to focus on product features, instead marketers need to focus on the full brand experience associated with a product or service. The digital age with its greater interactivity enables marketers to achieve this in ways that have not been possible in the old static mediums.
• From Place to Everyplace: Mobility has enabled consumers to experience products and services anywhere, anytime. No longer is the consumer confined to store locations or other static locations when buying or using products - they can be anywhere.
• From Price to Exchange: The digital world is increasingly about consumer control and intervention. End users don’t just pay for things with cash; they may offer value in the form of attention, participation or information. Thus the digital age can lead to more complex exchanges of value which the marketer needs to consider in product and service development and promotion. And talking of promotion….
• From Promotion to Evangelism: There is a need to unite people around what Ogilvy term ‘The Big Ideal’ - something which inspires people and causes them to evangelise a brand. Brian noted the success Dove has had with its concept of women feeling good about themselves for what they are rather than aspiring to model-like proportions.

I think there are some valuable lessons here, and the case studies Featherstonhaugh presents in the video are thought provoking. I think what struck me most is a realization that the idea of markets in the internet age that was developing over 10 years ago are being borne out today, and, more importantly, that marketers are finding approaches and models for implementation that are successful.