Marketing planning is ostensibly simple, and everyone seems to have an opinion about how it should work. If that’s true, then why do so many growth initiatives fail?
I have worked with B2B companies and helped deploy dozens of growth initiatives over the past three decades. I’ve worked with very bright people. And yet, they wasted thousands, often millions, on projects that never achieve the returns they expected.
E.J. McCarthy, a marketing professor at Michigan State University, introduced the concept of the "Four Ps" of marketing in 1960. He promoted it as a way to guide the marketing mix. These Four Ps—Product, Place, Price, and Promotion--remain the blueprint for many marketing organizations.
This model is simply not adequate for today's growth-oriented companies and marketing organizations. Here’s why.
Continue reading "The Missing Piece in the Four P’s of Marketing" »






