Are the marketing fundamentals appropriate for B2B?
B2B Excellence is a weekly newsletter that curates the best B2B marketing content from the brightest minds in our industry.? I like to share provocative, intelligent, and original POVs that challenge conventional wisdom and create a conversation.
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Are the marketing fundamentals appropriate for B2B?
?+250 comments and counting after this remark. “The idea that the "4 Ps" are still "of marketing” is pure arrogance. “
?Established back in the 60s, the marketing four Ps was coined by Professor Jerry McCarthy, who designed this helpful strategic framework to provide marketers with a helpful guide for success.
?Product, price, place, and promotion have lasted decades as a cornerstone for marketing excellence.
?But do these core principles remain as valuable as they once were?
?Ferdinand Goetzen shared his overarching views on the 4Ps.
?The reality of the "4 Ps" today:
Product: Marketing doesn't own the product. We should feedback signals from the market, but most of the time, we don't even do that. At best, we plan the occasional product launch with a landing page and a newsletter nobody reads.
Pricing: Please, marketing often has almost 0 say on pricing = sales, Product, Founders, Commercial leadership. Maybe we get to join a meeting about it.
Promotion: Yay, we actually do this! Although most don't do it well.
Place: Wtf does this even mean in a modern b2b tech company? If it means channels, then it should just be part of promotion.?
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Has marketing moved on?
Is this POV skewed by Saas /Tech marketers?
Are the marketing fundamentals as relevant today as they were in the 60s?
Is it about ownership or input?
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The articulated counter argument by none other Mark Ritson quickly dismisses this notion.
His opening gambit was quick to reinforce his perspective. “Marketers should have a say in all 4Ps but one more than any other – the one they are well placed to help improve. “
This is a brilliant, opposing counterargument to his views challenging the role of the 4Ps. One of Ritson’s final parting shots eclipses his views.??
“We are paying the price for a generation of morons who changed the 4Ps or added inane new inputs that all, incredibly, also began with P. While doing so, Professor Jerry McCarthy’s original point – that these were the four levers that marketers could pull to impact consumers – was lost in a sea of purpose, pride, people and pants.”
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Data Literacy for Marketers
We talk a lot about being “data-led” as marketers.?
?But what strategic decisions are we making with the mountains of data we have?
We’re awash with data, but interrupting it, with context,? and leveraging insights to make more intelligent decisions is something we need to get better at.
The overview of Data Literacy by Dale W Harrison.
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What Data Literacy is:
The ability to read, understand, and communicate data effectively. It involves not just interpreting raw numbers but also understanding the context, asking relevant questions, drawing accurate insights, and being able to make informed decisions.
What Data Literacy is NOT:
It’s NOT the ability to do a lot of math or know how statistics works (that’s math literacy). You can always bring someone in to do the math for you…but you cannot bring someone in to do the thinking for you!?
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I have not got round to listening to the full live recording, I’m hoping this gets turned into a podcast for ease of listening chaps. But watch the full episode with Dale W Harrison and Liam Moroney here and the summary to Data Literacy via a post here.
Conversations and articles I like
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Brand + Demand Strategy & Execution for B2B Companies | Marketing Strategy Consultant | Host of The Brand Burger Podcast ????? | Marketing Leader, Drummer, Natural Bodybuilder
3 周At a first glance, the commentary is confusing: What IS the case with What SHOULD be the case and then arguing with a hidden premise that because it IS the case, the 4Ps SHOULD be different. There are really two trains of thought you could take here: 1: The 4Ps are still fundamentally relevant and the problem is that we've moved away from them 2: The 4Ps are foundationally no longer relevant and for this reason, we ought to move away from them I still side with 1, though I'll add that I think the Mental & Physical Availability model is actually a more robust, though complementary, model to the 4Ps.
Turn GTM Data into Profit | Sales, Marketing, Pricing | B2B & B2C Long Consideration Products/Services
3 周Thanks for the mention Chris Peters ! Indeed the quality of the signal erodes over time. For me, there are three key pillars: product, price, and promotion. The truth is, you can’t gauge your marketing’s impact without a clear view of how effective your product and pricing are. Marketing might drive tons of traffic to the site and increase perceived value, but if the price doesn’t fit or the product disappoints, conversion and retention will suffer. That’s why assessing marketing based solely on revenue or pipeline misses the mark. It can be useful, sure, but it overlooks these critical factors.
CEO, Storybook Marketing | MarTech contributor
3 周Thanks for the mention Chris Peters! We’re going to be hosting the full episode, but I love the idea of making it into a pod episode! Cami we should chat about this ??
B2B Influencer Marketing to grow pipeline. CEO @ Flooencer. Obsessed with business influencer marketing.
3 周Flattered that you read my content, let alone tag it ??