Fuck the 4 Marketing P’s

I was talking to Rory Sutherland the other day (he is one of the confirmed speakers for Design for Conversion – New York City 2010) about how I liked his concept of perceived value. And we were also talking about how I hate the 4 Marketing P’s. Check out his TED Talk, because Rory is awesome:

To me it is really unbelievable that exactly 4 years ago I started publishing articles about the Marketing Fallacies (Dutch) coined by Harvard Professor Gerald Zaltman, and that it seems that marketers still didn’t step up their game. There is a really good reason why there is hardly any input needed of marketers  in the Design for Conversion framework, that’s because MARKETERS SUCK!

One fucked up thing marketers do is still work with theories of mind that probably only work on demented lab rats.  So I will also act like a mindless zombie and just repeat what I have already written years ago.

6 Marketing Fallacies

1. Consumers think in a well-reasoned or rational, linear way
2. Consumers can readily explain their thinking and behavior
3. Consumer’s minds, brains, bodies, and surrounding culture and society can be adequately studied independently of one another
4. Consumers’ memories accurately represent their experiences
5. Consumers think in words
6. Consumers can be ‘injected’ with company messages and will interpret these messages as marketers intend

I extended that list in the time with “7. Consumers have a free will”, but if you include cognitive biases this list could go on and on. In general we can note that the freaking 4 P’s  oversimplify this complex world we live in (Dutch).

Rory also mentioned that people at OgivlyOne replace the 4 P’s with the 4 Marketing E’s. Which get closer to the truth, but not close enough if you ask me.

The 4 Real Marketing P’s
So knowing all this, and having seen Rory’s Ted Talk, I would briefly want to introduce the Real 4 Marketing P’s that should do more justice to what (brain) science has taught us.

• Perceived Meaning. Creating meaningful experiences. (meaning as by-product of a evolutionary developed higher cognition)
• Perceived Value. Rory’s TED thingy.
• Perceived Experience. Altering memories by tweaking experiences (peak and end).
• Perceived Knowledge (of Marketers).

So this was a quick introduction I will elaborate more after the 11th of December, after Design for Conversion ~ The Mobile Edition. Summarizing what I have said: We LOVE Rory Sutherland, and we HATE marketers. See you this Friday.