Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Fifth P

Marketing text books write of the the marketing mix of four Ps. These are usually specified as product, price, place, and promotion. A fifth P belongs to this framework - passion. It or its lack often determines marketing success. A vivid though unusual case of this is given in the current movie Man on Wire.

The film chronicles acrobat Philippe Petit as he recruited, planned, organized, and ultimately succeeded at staging an event - walking on a wire between the towers of the World Trade Center.

Most such efforts, like most new products fail. What is so vivid is how Petit overcame the usual list of insurmountable obstacles by infecting the entire team with his own passion and optimism.

This contrasts painfully with the glum feelings and gallows humor we sometimes find around ailing products. Why should a customer want a product, which you or your staff can’t be passionate about?

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