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By Lois Kaufman

Many of today’s largest companies still use marketing principles developed in the 1950’s, when Dwight Eisenhower was president, and long before the Internet, new technology and social media changed marketing forever.

These “pre-Microsoft” marketing pillars were called the 4Ps for:

1. Product
2. Price
3. Place
4. Promotion

What’s missing? The customer!

The 4Ps focus primarily on the product. But it’s the customer, not the producer or supplier, who’s in charge now.

Despite the superstorm of changes in social behavior, technology, communications and customer needs, some companies still cling to these outdated concepts. Only a few months ago, a well-known investment journal did a long article extolling virtues of the 4Ps.

That’s two or three decades out of date.

External forces changed marketing

Customers, B2B and B2C, have many more buying options than ever before, and more information sources to help them make those decisions. New research shows that 70 percent of B2B buyers check online recommendations before making a purchase; 90 percent among consumers.

The 4Ps also do little to recognize emerging challenges and opportunities which will surely keep coming as technology continues to advance.

smartworks has developed a different, modern, research-based, data-driven approach to providing marketers:

• Intelligence that helps test, develop and refine new products, often testing them extensively among potential customers
• Customer and competitive analysis to build the strongest brand positioning, create the most compelling, customer-focused marketing messages and identify the marketing channels most likely reach buyers
• A system to anticipate changes in the marketing environment to proactively react and leapfrog competitors

Marketing more than a campaign

There’s no real beginning and no real end to marketing today. Rather than a single campaign or straight line, think of marketing as a loop, an infinite loop, structured to early detect changing external variables, flexible and agile enough to pivot and proactively react to changing variables.

Since you can enter the loop at any point in the marketing cycle, Infinite Loop Marketing has several key elements.

1. Specially-designed probing research to determine or update customer needs, both functional and emotional, keeping customers at the heart of product development and marketing
2. Testing concepts and determining market potential, continuing through product development and after launch. Competitive analysis is frequently a component
3. Creating brand strategy and creating and validating marketing messages messages, including statistical segmentation to ensure the right marketing messages effectively engage the right groups; then, monitoring effectiveness at critical points on the marketing loop
4. Building agility and regularly monitoring so companies can move faster than competitors to take advantage of advancements in in technology, new media such as virtual and augmented reality, increasing information sources and marketing channels and constantly changing customer expectations

The goal of Infinite Loop Marketing is guide the customer journey rather than just track it.

For more information contact Lois Kaufman at 609-933-7382 or lkaufman@smartworksco.com.