What Place do the Four P's Have in the Networked Economy?

What place do the four P’s have in the networked economy? The four P’s (Place, Promotion, Price, and Product) still have relevancy in the networked economy. Their meaning is the same but their importance has changed.

Place is no longer necessarily a physical location but now it tends to be more internet based marketplace; like websites, Facebook, Youtube, online shopping sites, etc. Most/all successful companies use websites, blogs, and other social media as an online location for their company.

Promotion methods have nearly changed altogether, many of the old techniques of advertisement (radio and TV ads) have become almost obsolete. The new, more effective method to promote a product or company is through social media, blogs, and the rest of the internet. For example, Blue Cotton, a company that lets you design your own custom t-shirts online, has created much success through their use of the internet. They have a link to their blog, customer reviews, and allow you to post your t-shirt design on Facebook through their website. By using social media and online reviews to promote your product, you can turn your enthusiastic or satisfied customers into advertisers for your product or company.

Product development has changed through the use of internet to receive immediate feedback. With immediate feedback, a company can more easily determine how satisfied the customer is with their product and learn how to improve the products to meet the needs of the consumer. The internet allows customers to tell the companies what they want in a product so the company can create a new product or modify an existing product to suit their needs and boost sales. In the case of Blue Cotton, the customer can get online and basically design their own individual product.

Price is drastically affected by the internet. The internet has thousands of online stores which create competition to keep prices down. The use of internet stores also cuts out some middle men (ex. retail stores) which keeps costs lower.

The internet has many benefits to companies, but the aspect that has the most effect on the four P’s is the ability to reach massive amounts of potential customers and engage in conversation with them.

http://www.bluecotton.com/