/personal

Disclaimer: CREF is an idea by Sami Salmenkivi whom I’m currently writing a book with. I claim no ownership of this idea. If you want to get in touch with him, let me know and I’ll supply you with contact details.

The four P’s of marketing: Price, Product, Place, and Promotion. 4P’s is a powerful mantra for successful marketing. Well, at least for successful advertising. All that one-way marketing that’s so 90s and we all love to loathe.

To spice things up, a fifth P has been proposed. This new P stands for Participation and kind of works as a temporary add-on to bring the four P’s to the current millennium.

But (here comes my pitch) CREF on the other hand transforms the 4P model completely to reflect the two-way reality of social media, web 2.0, etc.

Promotion becomes Collaboration

Instead of pushing stuff in the face of consumers, marketers collaborate with consumers.

Price becomes Revenue model

Competing with price only becomes competing with an innovative revenue model. Indirect revenue is the key.

Product becomes Experience

It’s a lot harder to ditch an excellent experience than an excellent product.

Place becomes Findability

Who care if you’re on the top shelf or the middle shelf, on an aisle close to the counter or not, or if you have a cool website. If people can’t google you up, you’re dead.