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The chart below shows the changes in information resources used during the first half of 2009 (Source: MarketingSherpa.com).
Click on the chart to see a larger version.
You read over and over again about how companies must continue to advertise during a recession to snatch market share from weaker competitors and reposition themselves when the recovery does happen. I read an article on BtoB Online about two companies that have put that theory into practice.
The first one is Emerson. Kathy Button Bell, CMO of Emerson had this to say, “Although we are in a difficult economic period, it is a great time to be able to move ahead competitively with our advertising.”
Emerson has launched an integrated marketing campaign that includes TV spots, radio ads, print ads that are running in publications such as The Economist and The Wall Street Journal, diorama ads in major airports around the country and online ads.
To track and measure the new campaign, every ad includes the URL of a specially created microsite or landing page. There, visitors can see Emerson's solutions at work in the real world. For example, at www.emerson.com/milwaukee, users can read about how the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is using Emerson garbage disposals to convert food waste into electricity.
The campaign is also running in South America, Europe, the Middle East, India, China and Japan.
The second company that has launched a new ad campaign is ON Semiconductor. Print and online ads highlight the company's products being used in consumer electronics and industrial applications. The target audience is design engineers in North America and China. Here is a sample print ad from the new campaign.
First, a little history: The 4 Ps describing the strategic position of a product in the marketplace were first used in 1948 when James Culliton said that a marketing decision should be a result of something similar to a recipe. Then in 1953, Neil Borden, in his American Marketing Association’s presidential address, coined the term “marketing mix.” E. Jerome McCarthy, a prominent marketer, was the first to propose the 4 P classification in 1960. Since then, McCarthy’s definition has become widely accepted as the classic 4 Ps of marketing.
What are the classic 4 Ps?
Product — an object or a service that is mass-produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units.
Price — the amount a customer pays for the product.
Place — the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel.
Promotion — all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace.
Criticism of the classic 4 Ps
Over the years, the classic 4 Ps have received a fair amount of criticism. Peter Doyle, in his book Value Based Marketing, claims that the “marketing mix” approach leads to unprofitable decisions because it is not grounded in financial objectives such as increasing shareholder value. He argues that a net present value approach maximizing shareholder value provides a “rational framework” for managing the marketing mix.
Some people claim that the 4 Ps are focused only on consumer markets and are not applicable to industrial product marketing. Others claim it has too strong of a product market perspective and is not appropriate for the marketing of services.
Continue reading "Is the New Alphabet Soup of Marketing “M’m! M’m! Good?”" »
Right off the bat let me admit that this post is a plug for my company and the recent launch of our redesigned Web site.
Those of you who have been involved in a site launch know the feeling. After months of hard work, it is a thrill and a sense of relief to finally see your baby come alive on the 'Net. Of course, you want to keep fine-tuning things and look upon your site as evolving rather than a finished project.
Now for the plug – the focus of our company and the new site is to help industrial, B2B and technology marketers find an experienced source for improving their marketing programs to drive sales.
Here's a quote from the news release we sent out yesterday, "Technical and B2B marketers will find the new Web site a very helpful source for industrial marketing. Tiecas, Inc. is a Houston-based marketing communications company that has been helping engineering, technical and industrial companies improve their marketing programs to drive sales. Marketing done by an engineer, convenience of a one-stop source and 20 years of industrial marketing experience are what makes this company stand out."
You can read the entire release on PRWeb. BTW, this is a great distribution service! It helped us get our release on Google News and Yahoo! News.
Do check out our Web site and let me know what you think.
Achinta Mitra
I am the founder and President of Tiecas, Inc., a Houston-based industrial and B2B marketing communications company. Over the last 21 years, I have had the pleasure of working with a variety of manufacturing, engineering and technical services companies. It has been a fascinating journey observing, influencing and learning, how real-world technical and B2B marketing works.
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