Marketing Needs the 5th P

Why Payment Now Belongs with Product, Price, Place and Promotion as a Key Decision Lever

By Bob Fetter, SVP of Pluris Marketing

Since the 1960s, - the smartest of marketers have developed an offer taxonomy based on the 4 Ps—product, price, place and promotion. For years these 4 Ps have helped us marketers measure, classify and optimize different offers against one another based largely on these trigger points, allowing for an organized and optimized marketing mix that drives revenue with the most efficiency.  And that taxonomy-- or process of determining how all the offers from brands should be broken down into distinguishable pieces, has held its grip on the marketing industry.

Stick a Google-Shaped Fork in Barnes & Noble

Everyone hailed the Nook as smart business. Now, thanks to the very same company that powers the Nook, it’s going the way of disco -- fun while it lasted, but an impractical long term way to groove.

The hype around Google’s new Nexus 7 tablet is mostly surrounding its threat to Amazon, and while there may be merit there, the striking first casualty is Barnes & Noble. With brick and mortar bookstores and physical reading of books declining in favor of e-readers, Barnes & Noble announced plans earlier this year to this one from Peter Svenson of the Huffington Post, I am convinced that the Nexus 7 will provide me a far better experience than my Nook or a continued relationship with Barnes & Noble would. Here are my top 3 reasons as follows:

Over, Under, Missing Completely and “The Simple Truth”

3 Most Common Communication Failures Preventing Loyalty Program Success

You have heard this from your significant other. It’s the different between the playoffs and the title, a good education, and a raise. Yet marketers somehow forget it. I am speaking of course, about proper communications. They are the centerpiece of your personal relationships, and the vortex of any good loyalty program. And no matter how good you think you are at it, there is always room for improvement.

In a recent post,  I delved into gamification of  loyalty and in the midst of illustrating how real-time, location based, rewards platforms are often better suited than traditional loyalty programs,  I only gave proper communications passing reference- even though effective communications is and will always be the driving subtext of any loyalty program.

Loyalty is Not a Game, or Is It?

With all the new entrants and a different playing field, loyalty marketers are not ruing as they did in the good old days when they had the consumer gaming dynamic all to themselves. Quite the contrary -- there is palpable excitement surrounding what the growing shift in consumer behavior means for their programs. Armed with a seemingly endless choice of game mechanics, technology platforms and social networks to enable new programs and a new set of consumer experiences, the loyalty sector is now more relevant than ever.