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Rethinking the four P’s
Tools for B2B marketers
BY RICHARD ETTENSON, PH.D.,
EDUARDO CONRADO ’92 AND JONATHAN KNOWLES
It’s time to retool the
four P’s of marketing
for today’s business-tobusiness
reality. As a
framework for fine-tuning
the marketing mix, the P’s
— product, place, price, and
promotion — have served
consumer marketers well for
half a century. But in the B2B
world, they yield narrow,
product-focused strategies
that are increasingly at odds
with the imperative to deliver
solutions.
In a five-year study involving
more than 500 managers
and customers in multiple
countries and across a wide
range of B2B industries, we
found that the four P’s model
undercuts B2B marketers
in three important ways: It
leads their marketing and
sales teams to stress product
technology and quality even
though these are no longer
differentiators but are simply
the cost of entry. It underemphasizes
the need to build a
robust case for the superior
value of their solutions. And
it distracts them from leveraging
their advantage as a
trusted source of diagnostics,
advice, and problem solving.
It’s not that the four P’s are
irrelevant, just that they need
to be reinterpreted to serve
B2B marketers. Our model
Richard Ettenson, Ph.D.
shifts the emphasis from
products to solutions, place
to access, price to value, and
promotion to education. Just
remember the acronym SAVE.
To learn more, read our
full article in the January-
February 2013 issue of
Harvard Business Review at
hbr.org.
Richard Ettenson, Ph.D.,
is a professor and Thelma H.
Kieckhefer Fellow in Global
Marketing and Brand Strategy
at Thunderbird. Eduardo
Conrado ’92 is Senior Vice
President, Marketing & IT at
Motorola Solutions. Jonathan
Knowles is the CEO of Type 2
Consulting.
Do you pass the Global Mindset airport test?
BY MANSOUR JAVIDAN, PH.D.
As a frequent flier to all
parts of the world, I spend
more time than most people
at international airports.
Whenever possible, I arrive
early at security checkpoints
because I sometimes draw
attention as an Iranian
native carrying a Canadian
passport.
The extra time gives me
an opportunity to observe
my fellow travelers as they
attempt to navigate the
signs and procedures in a
new country. This activity
is a form of research for
me as director of the Najafi
Global Mindset Institute at
Thunderbird.
The institute uses a
scientific self-assessment
called the Global Mindset
Inventory, which has helped
more than 15,000 managers
since 2008 identify areas
of strength and weakness
in nine global business
categories. Although less
precise, the airport test is still
revealing.
People with high levels of
global mindset adapt quickly
to unfamiliar environments
such as busy airports. They
remain calm as they walk
around and figure things out.
Others with provincial mindsets
become stressed or even
angry because things are
different than home.
So how do you fare on the
global mindset airport test?
Even managers with a record
rd
of success at home might fall
flat on the global stage if they
can’t handle the pressure.
Mansour Javidan, Ph.D.,
is the Garvin Distinguished
Professor at Thunderbird.
Is global
mindset in
your DNA?
Thunderbird has created a
psychometric tool that is
changing how global
businesses compete. Learn
more about the Najafi afi
Global Mindset Institute
at www.globalmindset.com.
44 spring 2013