Marketing Mix: 4P Model (a.k.a.,"Marketing 101")

In large swaths of the US, the word "marketer" is synonymous with "Business Development," "Sales," or "Advertising."  This is especially true in the SMB (small- and medium-sized business) space, where there is often one person or department wearing all of these hats at once.

At it's purest, the textbook definition is pretty broad.  Stuart & Solomon in Marketing:  Real People, Real Choices define marketing as "the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational changes."  It's big, broad, and deep.

Back in the 1960s a Harvard professor named Neil Borden wrote an article called "The Concept of the Marketing Mix" in a Journal called Science in Marketing.  Soon after, he started sharing the idea in his marketing classes at HBS.  The ideas are simple and straightforward, and the academic marketing community hasn't come up with a better model since.

Extension

First there was Coca-Cola.

Then there was Coca-Cola and Diet Coke.

Then there was Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, and Cherry Coke...and Coke Vanilla...and Coke zero...and...and....

Marketers call this “extension,” and the idea is that consumers will try the new product because it's related to the old in some way.

Ceteris paribus and the MBA

“Ceteris paribus.” I still remember my first year in B-school, hearing this phrase being bandied about like everyone in the room knew what it was. I learned later that I wasn't the only one Googling the phrase after class.Ceteris paribus is a Latin phrase that roughly translates to English as “all other things held constant,” or “all things held equal.” It's used in scientific experiments, finance, economics, and complex models of several stripes. Ceteris paribus is a quick way to say that, if nothing else in the world changes at all, then a change in variable X will create a change in variable Y.

Resolutions for the new year

It's the first day of the new year, and there are several things still on my to do list from last year:  run a 10-k, finish a marketing case with some colleagues I'd hoped to complete by October, and organize my office.  What's on your list?