The Fifth P: The Buying Process

Webinar Date: September 24, 2009

Webinar Time: 09:00 AM PDT (GMT -7)

Register/Archive: [here]

By taking a process point of view, and asking the key questions about how customers and prospects want to buy, not just "what they want to buy," business strategists and marketing professionals can unleash new creativity in their planning and ensure they keep the voice of the customer in the marketing mix.

Most companies faithfully use the 4 P's of marketing -- Product, Price, Promotion, and Place - to guide their strategic marketing planning. Some have even added an elusive fifth P, variously called People, Presentation, Personality, Partners, and Prospects, but for most executives, the simple four-component framework introduced in 1960 remains the basis for their marketing decision making. Like many frameworks, the simplicity of the 4P model is part of its strength, but this simplicity -- and the relatively static nature of the 4 P labels - can lead marketers to overlook one of the most important and rapidly changing elements of the market: the buying process of customers. By taking a process point of view, and asking key questions about how customers and prospects want to buy, not just "what they want to buy," business strategists and marketing professionals are unleashing new creativity in their planning and ensuring they keep the voice of the customer at the forefront of the marketing mix.

This presentation explains the concept of a "5th P" in the 4 P's of marketing, outlines the key elements of the process view and then uses several examples/cases of how the use of this added dimension improves the planning process.

About the presenter: Mark Carr - Partner, CMG Partners

Mark works with clients to dramatically improve their business results through the development and implementation of innovative business and marketing strategies. He has over a decade of management and consulting experience in the Internet, consumer products, financial services, telecommunications, health care and publishing industries. Mark has co-authored a book and written numerous

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