The Fifth P
We had an interesting discussion in one of our groups the other day, this time about the 4Ps of Marketing, and whether or not “positioning” is the 5th P.
I argued that Positioning was just another go-to-market tool, based on Kotler’s subsequent correction; but my counterpart argued that the 4Ps are about tactics, while positioning was part of your “strategy”.
And he asserted, correctly, that there are a bunch of articles on the topic, and research, and lots of big companies that subscribe to that theory.
Look, if you’re working for a Fortune 100 company, I get it. Some high-level brain trust decides on how they want to position the company and its products in the market, and then the Marketing weenies get to play with the marketing mix, pricing, channels and promotions.
But for the rest of us, and, frankly even for 90% of the divisions of those Fortune 100 companies, especially orphan divisions, positioning is just as fungible as everything else. And, in fact, it may be more-so.
In other words, you may be locked into your product mix. You may have invested heavily in your channels and can’t swap them out. Your ad buys may be committed for a year. And your pricing may be – in fact, is probably – controlled by your competition.
And the ONLY thing you may have to work with on a day-to-day basis is your positioning.
But hey, don’t worry about it. When your strategy fails, being positioned wrong in the market gives you the perfect excuse for blaming someone else for the failure.
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