Ronhi suggests another P in the markerting mix- The P of sPace
The P of sPace
I still remember it
from college-the marketing mix or more precisely, The 4 Ps of marketing. If you don’t remember what they are, let me jog
your memory. We had the P of Product. It refers to the physical product that a
company is producing in mass or the intangible service that a company is
offering to its clientele.
We had the P
of Price, and I am sure you can guess with considerable accuracy what it is all
about. We had the P of Promotion which encapsulates the PR exercises,
Advertising and Personal selling and last but not least, we had the P of Place.
The P of Place has a lot of significance in the success of a business. It is the physical location of the business. The place where the customers will get the products the company is offering. But as more and more companies turn to the internet for trade, I think we need to add another P to the marketing mix - The P of sPace. It would refer to the online presence of a company or more appropriately, the company website.
I know you might be thinking,
“Doesn’t the P of Place include the company website?”
Well, that depends on how you look at it. Most modern-day companies that have a physical location also have online presence. But you would be amazed just how many online companies don’t have a physical address. That would explain why many small online businesses don’t have any mailing address on their contact us page - just an email form and maybe a telephone number.
The fact is that there are some companies that don’t need a physical place at all. For instance, supposing I am selling templates for web design, it wouldn’t be necessary to have a physical office. I will not need the P of place. My website will be sufficient.
The advent of E-commerce and online shopping cart tools like virtuemart and content management systems like Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress have revolutionized the way business is done. That is why it is important for marketing thinkers to revise the marketing mix. The way I see it, the P of Place will soon be replaced with the P of sPace. Whether am wrong or not, only time will tell.