« European Blogosphere | Main | Open Source Gold Mines »

Comments

Kevin Dugan

James: Great post. Maybe what we're seeing here is less one of the four P's dominating and more of an evolution of the customer's role in, and impact on, the four P's.

Skype *should be* defending the product. They're first to market! They live by different rules. Rules that will change when a real competitor emerges in their space. They should also be engaging their most passionate customers in a dialogue. Is this promotion? Not necessarily. Is it product development? Possibly.

Regardless, I do not think any of the P's are dead...just changing. We'll still have marketing-centric companies (P&G) and product/engineering-centric companies (Skype) they'll just work differently with their customers in an age of participation.

Now for a consumer example of how the marketing spend/promotion CAN make an impact, look at Target vs. Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is the top retailer...their annual revenue makes up more than half of the top 10 retailer's annual revenue. Then there is Target as the fifth largest.

Target spends about $100 million more than Wal-Mart on marketing. After a few years of Target making designer products affordable, Wal-Mart is changing its approach to compete with Target.

The product is still crucial in this example, but a very creative approach to marketing, backed by a bigger budget, is making an impact for Target. Why else would Wal-Mart advertise in Vogue?
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2005-08-25-wal-mart_x.htm

April

Although I hate to admit it, promotional schemes seem to fail 90% of the time. Now that the consumer has the power to decide what he/she wants, he/she will choose what they will be exposed to and what they wo'nt (for the most part...except when the consumer is attacked by guerilla marketing).

I explore this subject even further on my blog too. You can check it out at AprilatIC.blogspot.com.

Let me know your thoughts...

Lucas Skowronski

Though so useful this post that I've used it like basis to post in another blog at a business administration class course at the university UFSM - Santa Maria - Rio Grande do Sul - Brasil.
And I agreed that the Product is in the center of the universe and that Propaganda should be informative only.

Lucas Skowronski

Though so useful this post that I've used it like basis to post in another blog at a business administration class course at the university UFSM - Santa Maria - Rio Grande do Sul - Brasil.
And I agreed that the Product is in the center of the universe and that Propaganda should be informative only.

embroidered shirts

always on the lookout for some good promo items thanks for that info

The comments to this entry are closed.