What is the 8th P

The Marketing Mix was created by Harvard Business School Professor Neil Borden in the 60’s with the initial 4 P’s –  Product (creation and development), Price (where it sits in the market), Promotion (how it will be marketed and sold) and Place (distribution and markets).

Not long after three more P’s were added – Process (how the product elements are delivered), People (perception) and Physical Evidence (satisfaction).  The first 4 P’s cover the marketing of the Product and the next 3 cover the Service.

With the advent of Social Media, marketers suddenly had another aspect to consider, and an increasingly important one.  Up until a few years ago, advertising a brand had been very much a one way process.  That is all changing now and businesses must embrace two way advertising.  Businesses are no longer at the centre of the universe, that spot now has customers firmly in residence!

Customers can now talk back and interact with brands (and about brands) all over the Internet.  Branding is everything and businesses need to look after their brands. But how do they do this with traditional marketing? Did you know that if a customer has a good experience they will tell 4 people, but if they have a bad experience they’ll tell 20! And if that’s on social media, that 20 could virally become 200!

The 8th P applies to Social Media!

There are many ideas out there on what the 8th P should be called, some examples are Personalisation, Passion, Personal interest, Partnership and Participation.  All of these relate to online.

How do you personalise a brand?  To converse online your brand has to create its own personality.  This is formed by the values of the company so the brand becomes a living breathing thing, a human type personality. Your customer needs to understand who you are.

Your online brand advocates need to be passionate and really believe in the product and care about your customers. It needs to be genuine or your customers will see right through it.

Personal interest is all about interacting with your customer, getting to know them, their interests, what makes them tick. It’s not just about pushing your brand online or doing a hard sell anymore.

It’s about partnering with your customers online, listening to them, giving them what they want and making them feel important.

Omnichannel marketing (rather than multichannel) is the choice that customers now have to engage with businesses, whether that be instore, website, social media, making payment or telephone, etc. Brands must ensure they allow their customers to use as many channels as possible to engage. Brands need to share the customer’s journey, walking alongside them at every moment and being readily and easily available during any part of the experience.

Overall, it’s about particpation, in the online community and with your customers.

The 8th P is about injecting Personality and Passion into your brand, creating Personal interest by Partnering with your customers and engaging them through Participation.