THE 18 Ps of

INBOUND

MARKETING

By Paul Cash, Author of “In Remarkable we trust”

http://tinyurl.com/bb5r8o7

The P was popularized in marketing back in the 1960s with E. Jerome McCarthy’s Four Ps and the Marketing Mix.

Due to recent changes in the business and marketing landscape it’s time to revitalize the power of the letter P to something even more representative of the challenges we all face to move from a push to a pull based model. My Eighteen (18) P model is

designed as a checklist and GPS device that can help guide you

through the complex challenges business leaders and marketers

face in this increasingly multi-channel world.

Why does your business

exist above and beyond

making a profit?

Research from Harvard and

Stanford indicates that the most

successful companies, both in

profitability and longevity, are the

ones who recognize the absolute

necessity of profits as well as the

equally high necessity of having

a purpose beyond shareholder

wealth.

1: PURPOSE

We are living in the

‘People Power Age’.

Never has it been more

important to over commit to

the needs and aspirations of

your customers, love your

employees and take action to

help improve the communities

and societies in which you

operate.

2: PEOPLE

In a world of increasing

competition and a lack

of true differentiation the

real battle ground is in

the minds of your

customers.

Having a strong point-of-view

about the category and market

in which you operate and

exercising this through ‘thought

leadership’ programmes is

critical for both market leaders

and challengers alike.

3: POINT OF VIEW

What a company does with the profits it makes is equally important as how it makes them.

Milton Friedman’s view popularised through the 70s to recent times was that the ultimate social responsibility of business was to generate profits for its shareholders. He went further to suggest any deviation from this by way of corporate philanthropy would eventually be a cost that would get born by the consumer. The reality today is that a new and more compassionate Capitalism is emerging: one that gives equal emphasis to people, profits and planet – the so-called ‘triple bottom line’.

4: PROFITS

One of the new areas of

brand development is in

the field of implicit

communications.

Think of it like brand’ body

language’ i.e. the non-verbal

cues or signals you emit as a

brand that your customers pick

up on. Showing your passion

and that of your employees by

way of social responsibility and

sustainability initiatives is a

great way to reflect the true

energy and culture within a

company. This is a difficult one

for most brands to measure but

hugely important for people

‘looking in’ on your business.

5: PASSION

The sustainability agenda

in many corporations has

become a huge factor in

their ongoing business

strategy.

Not many would argue that in the

past 50 years ‘big business’ has

damaged the health of the world.

One of the most exciting trends in

business today is how we go

about ‘unfu*king the planet’.

Forward thinking corporations and

brands are concerned with trust,

reputation and legacy not just

profit, profit, profit. Think beyond

your own balance sheet, what are

you doing to help repair the

planet?

6: PLANET

We will always have core

economic indicators that

are often unique to certain

sectors i.e. profit per

square foot for retailers or

churn figures for telecom

vendors.

The key change in recent times is

to be more reflective on the real

performance indicators that drive

business success:

1: How does your culture and

employee engagement levels

stimulate success?

2: How does your sustainability

agenda and beliefs help increase

the performance of your supply

chain?

3: How does being easy-to-do

business with drive loyalty?

7: PERFORMANCE

Transparency of what you

do has never been

greater.

For most companies their partners

and supply chain form an integral

part of their go-to-market strategy.

We’ve seen in recent weeks the

issue of contaminated horsemeat

in frozen processed foods and the

issue this has caused brands like

Tesco, Burger King and Ikea.

Your partnership strategy,

especially for brands that sell

‘indirect’ can have a massive

impact on the reputation of your

brand. The key is to work with

partners and suppliers that share

your purpose and beliefs in the

hope that together you can be

better!

8: PARTNERSHIPS

Another great buzz word

of the social era but one

that probably deserves all

the hype it gets.

It’s not rocket science to

understand the positive impact that

can be achieved by allowing your

customers and employees to

participate more in the running of

your business. From a customer

perspective brands like Starbucks

have seen huge WINS with their

My Starbucks idea web site and on

a corporate level companies like

Jive Software are allowing large

corporations to tap into the vast

intellectual capital of their

employees by creating enterprise

platforms to facilitate this.

9: PARTICIPATION

One of the less fashionable aspects of branding these days seems to be the humble ‘brand promise’.

Making them is easy, keeping them is the hard part. In periods of market instability with pressures on costs and high staff turnover a brands promise can often be the first thing to suffer. Your promise however is central to everything you do and should be informed from your purpose and vision. It must be clear, compelling, concise and credible. It needs to act as a rallying call to all your employees and a lighthouse to your customers. Most importantly it needs to flow from your CEO to every touch point of your business.

10: PROMISE

We talk a lot these days about trust, integrity and authenticity as desired outcomes that all brands gravitate towards.

However, in order to get there having pride in what we do is a key ingredient. The only way to give a brand pride is to infuse it through all employees and your supply chain partners. Pride is another great example of a powerful brand signal. Pride is a by-product of having a strong purpose, a great product/service/solution and empowering people to make a difference in their day jobs.

11: PRIDE

Sounds like an obvious one doesn’t it. The importance of a flexible and fluid plan that guides rather than stifles is a key requirement in business.

A 10 year plan, a 5year plan, a 1 year plan – there is no one size fits all plan that’s for sure. The key thing is that planning adds rigour and discipline to the process of setting your business on a course for success and more importantly helping you navigate your way there.

12: PLAN

One of the original Four Ps. Your product is at the core of what you do.

Modern marketing tells us that the old world, product-centric approach needs to be refreshed with a more customer experience centric approach. Today we need to consider the notion of the ‘whole product’ and not just the physical and often functional side of what we do. By wrapping a unique set of services, tools and experiences around our core product we can often transform it into something more compelling and unique.

13: PRODUCT

Here’s a biggy. Price determines profit so it’s of interest to every business person.

How companies and brands price, bundle and discount products and services is a hugely complex area. Mobile phone vendors are notorious for having multiple skews and tariffs which make it impossible to work out the best deal. In recent times through the rise of Smartphones, cashback, codes and voucher brands like Quidco and Vouchercloud have emerged which adds another layer of complexity to brand driven pricing. What’s vitally important in this multi-channel world is to make sure your pricing is simple and consistent.

14: PRICE

From eBay to pop-up

shops, bricks and mortar

to online, mobile apps to

Facebook, TV to

telephone, franchising to

direct selling.

The channels and places that we

can buy from are vast and

growing. Managing this complexity

of touch points is one of the

biggest headaches facing

business today. Choose your

channels and places wisely; they

have a huge impact on brand

reputation and customer

experience.

15: PLACE

We are all well versed in the traditional marketing channels from packaging to advertising, sales promotion to PR.

We’re all learning to blend these with the emergence of social media, content and mobile marketing as well as becoming Chief Data Officers along the way. The critical factor moving forward is to build a credible brand platform first. Focus on shifting from a push to a pull based communications strategy and work heard to earn your customers attention rather than simply buy it.

16: PROMOTION

This is an interesting one because it forces us to think in more detail about the physical artefacts, materials and components that reflect the brand experience we are trying to create.

For example: storefronts and

merchandising, uniforms and

signage take a great deal of

thought in traditional retail

environments but equally

employers are now looking at how

these same aspects lend

themselves to creating better

working environments as well.

17: PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Most organisations today are the result of a complex web of business processes that have been fine-tuned over the years to form the operational side of a business.

This can include everything from recruitment to supplier management, online ordering to customer service. With the advent of new technologies into the marketing department such as email management, web site management, social media analytics and such like more and more processes are being created. In my view the challenge for marketers is to re-invent and re-imagine the processes that have most impact on their business.

18: PROCESS