Recognition Marketing - The 4 "R's" Of Marketing Success

Tips For Marketing Yourself, Your Firm, Or Your Brand

By David Miranda

The basic principles of marketing, 4 P's (product, price, place, promotion) have been taught to aspiring marketers for almost 50 years with gratitude to academics Professors Neil Borden and James McCarthy. The world, however, has changed dramatically in those five decades in ways that would mandate that Professors Borden and McCarthy revise their college textbooks.

There are a confluence of powerful forces that make marketing more challenging that ever before. These include:

• the perishability of preference
  
• time poverty


• uber-choice


• societal A.D.D.


• a wired (and wireless) world

The four P's are less relevant today in the big scheme of things. Product, price, place (channels of distribution), and promotion (advertising, promotion, etc.) are all under siege in ways and means never imagined. Who could have foreseen the impact of email, Amazon, Google, YouTube, iTunes, blogs, social networking, PDAs, cell phones, Tivo, spam filters, Do-Not-Call List, satellite broadcasting, podcasts and so on and so on?

Bottom line? Despite the proliferation of communication channels and choices, people are harder to reach than ever, hence, new thinking is warranted.

The new thinking? The 4 "R's of Marketing.

First, Recognition. "Recognize me as an individual not a statistic."

Second, Relevance. "Don't bother me with things that aren't relevant."

Third, Reward. "I know what's in it for you, but what's in it for me?"

Lastly, Relationship. " Treat me like I'm important and I'll reciprocate".

Note no mention of price, product, place, or promotion.

Why? Do the 4P's well and you have done things right. Do the 4R's well, however, and you have done the right things - those things that matter to the people who matter most - your customers.

Update those marketing text books.