By Darren Nicol, SundaySky
The evolution of the ad-tech landscape has redefined what marketers need to do in order to stay ahead of competitors and meet consumers’ shifting demands. Every marketer is taught early in his career about the four P’s of marketing — product, price, place and promotion. While these remain important attributes for every marketer, changes in consumer behavior combined with other factors such as mergers and acquisitions in the ad-tech space have created a new set of P’s that marketers must consider to meet consumers’ ever-increasing expectations.
The new four P’s of marketing — personalization, programmatic buying, proprietary solutions and partnerships — add a new dynamic to how brand marketers should work with vendors to keep up with the latest best practices in storytelling and analytics, especially as today’s marketing suite converges with customer data and technology.
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1. Personalization: A dramatic shift in how brands engage with consumers has created a demand for highly personalized, data-driven content. Advances in technology have created a world where consumers now demand personalized experiences. Marketers must use data to shape messaging and ensure that content is highly personalized and relevant. Marketers should evaluate the ability of a vendor to fill the missing personalization aspect with data-driven marketing.
2. Programmatic buying: Procter & Gamble, the world’s biggest media spender, recently announced that it plans to buy 70% of its U.S. digital media programmatically by the end of 2014. This news is sure to cause marketers that have resisted programmatic buying to reconsider their stance. Other companies such as American Express have already shifted 100% of digital buying to programmatic. Programmatic buying is essentially an auction-based system where ads are bought and served across the Web to a specific audience in real time. Whether marketers like it or not, programmatic is the future of buying ads, so they would be wise to partner with a vendor that is on board with this shift.
3. Proprietary solutions: Partnering with a vendor that offers a proprietary solution can greatly assist a marketer in differentiating his brand in the marketplace while meeting consumer expectations. Typically, marketers don’t have internal resources or the budget to develop in-house solutions. By partnering with a vendor that offers a proprietary solution that aligns with overall strategic brand imperatives, and uses industry best practices and innovation to differentiate in the marketplace, brands can increase ROI, maintain a competitive edge and meet overall consumer demands.
4. Partnerships: Establishing key strategic partnerships with vendors is a key factor in ensuring marketers are equipped to meet the increasing expectations consumers. The evolution of the ad-tech landscape, combined with an increasing number of mergers and acquisitions in the space, has created a requirement for marketers to look externally to develop strong vendor partnerships in order to stay ahead of the game and differentiate from competitors. More often than not, marketers that rely solely on in-house resources and technology cannot meet consumer expectations or provide a holistic consumer experience. Forging strategic vendor partnerships is essential for marketers to keep up with best practices in data-driven personalization, storytelling and analytics.
How are you utilizing the new four P’s of marketing in your overall marketing efforts? If implemented correctly, which one could have the greatest impact on your business?
Darren Nicol is the director of product marketing at SundaySky. He is a seasoned marketer and new business specialist with more than 15 years of global media and agency experience.
