The History of The Four Ps of Marketing
Prior to the introduction of the Four Ps of Marketing, 1950s America believed that advertising was the end-all-be-all to selling products. The success of a product was seen as correlated to how you talked about and positioned the product.
When the Four Ps were introduced in the late 1960s, they shed light on a more holistic picture of marketing. The success of a product was no longer perceived as dependent only on advertising, but also on how well the product aligned with the customers’ needs, how easily customers could access it, and how it was priced.
Why The Four Ps of Marketing Need to Evolve
The Four Ps surfaced as a new approach to marketing because people realized that several factors contributed to the success of a product.
Based on our recent experience with uncertain markets, we need to evolve our approach again and build upon the Four Ps of Marketing to help organizations thrive. The last few years have amplified the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) nature of our world, making it apparent that we need to be more agile in our approach to marketing.
The Shift from Traditional Marketing to Agile Marketing
Unlike traditional marketing, agile marketing is rooted in agile values, principles, and an agile mindset. It focuses on putting customers at the center of what we do, running frequent experiments, learning quickly from failures, and releasing value often.
Adding the Four Ps of Agile Marketing
Along with the original Four Ps of Marketing, these additional Ps capture the key elements of agile marketing that are necessary for organizations to inspect and adapt to shifting markets and customer needs.