There has always been a debate among marketers and strategists of which P among the 4Ps of marketing mix is more important. And the answer has always been that it depended on the industry and the market scenario. The answer will remain the same until marketing remains in the corporate world.
Yes, circumstances decide the importance of the individual element in the marketing mix. Looking at the Indian marketplace specifically with an example of the telecom industry, price has become the differentiation factor. There isn’t any attribute or benefit that one service provider offers which the other doesn’t. Thus the customer decides the operator on the basis of the least costly and nearest available.
With white goods and, to a certain extent automobiles, promotional spend has been the major driver. Although there is a product differentiation, it isn’t a compelling reason enough for the product sale. ‘Place’ continues to be the dark and unsung with an exception of FMCG where it is given its due.
Few times, if at all, is the product the focus. In a country like India which is very price-sensitive, marketers have always been focusing on the price, and rightly so. The case isn’t the same in the developed markets. R&D isn’t seen as a off-shoot of strategy. Rather it is thought of as a cost centre with intangible consequences resulting in lack of its effect measured on the P&L. thus the urge to spend isn’t always compelling enough for the marketer. It is seen as a luxury rather than a necessity and the axe always falls first on R&D when the going gets tough in the economy.
Thus we see an Intel, IBM, Oracle or a Google R&D centre in India but not a R&D centre for a Tata or Reliance or a Bajaj. Cost reduction resulting in low-priced products always seems the easier option.
Internationally speaking, Google with its phenomenal growth has always thought of Product development as the focus. Its first product offering i.e. the search engine was free with no promotional spend (all was word-of-mouth). Then came the email service, Gmail. Again it was free with no promotional spend. Other products such as Google Maps, Blogger, Orkut, Youtube followed. All free with only word-of-mouth publicity. It is imbibed in the Google culture where the engineers are given 20% time from among their working hours to pursue their own product for the company. The result is for everyone to see. A gamut of services, all free for the end user.
In an interview, the number 4 in the Company after its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schimdt, Mr. Nikesh Arora said that Google was working on Google TV which was the future of TV and internet in a seamless network. The new philosophy for Google is to ‘set to zero’ the 3 Ps-price, promotion and place with entire concentration on product development. Currently if you have a look at the number of services on offer, its quite staggering. A testimony to the Google’s endeavor of spotlight on product.
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