Marketing Basics: The Four P's Are As Relevant Today As Ever
Steve Watkins
Investor's Business Daily February 4, 2002
Summarized and excerpted by Hamilton Consultants
For Harley-Davidson in 1985, a dire financial state forced them to get back to basics-the Four P's of marketing. This focus on marketing fundamentals has turned the company around.
"The idea is that businesses simply have to make those four decisions, says
Philip Kotler, a professor of international marketing at Northwestern
University's Kellogg School of Management...
'They bring such a rich set of questions, there's no excuse for not looking
at them. They cover the waterfront pretty well,' said Will Rodgers,
President of marketing and strategy adviser Hamilton Consultants. He's
worked with Citigroup and GE, among others.
In 30 years in business, Rodgers says, they've come up in just about every
assignment he's had..."
Southwest Airlines and Amazon.com have similarly focused on the Four P's to become industry leaders. Southwest's success has been built on the basis of price and promotion. Amazon has leveraged its customer base to improve sales promotion by presenting customers with customer reviews and other books of potential interest...
"Pricing often gets short shrift, Rodgers says. Companies set the price too
low in an effort to capture customers. But many companies should sell value
instead. Customers are willing to pay more for a better product, he says.
Rodgers worked with Living.com, which typified the bust. It sold furniture
over the Internet. The problem was, it didn't know furniture makers would be
hesitant to sell through its channel, fearing they would put their
traditional sellers in danger. 'They hadn't dealt with the place aspects,' Rodgers said.
The importance of the four P's hasn't changed, Kotler says. But better tools
now exist to develop and implement each."
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Investor's Business Daily © 2002
