1P Marketing – Optimization Through Specialization

The first view of marketing we’ll discuss is referred to as 1P marketing.

The “P” here refers to the 4P’s of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) as identified and popularized by Michael Porter.

With this model leadership views marketing in a limited capacity – often just in a promotional role – vs. the comprehensive definition that Porter outlined.

For example, if the one P is promotion, the marketing team is in charge of advertising, outbound campaigns, lead generation, collateral creation, and other outreach efforts.

I feel like this is a pretty common view of marketing.  And, for the record, it’s not a bad thing.

Promotional activities are often the most common tasks that marketers work on and what they have the most expertise in.

A 1P marketing team is supplemented by additional roles (product management for “product” research and development, sales often covers “pricing”, and senior leadership and/or business development determine the “place” or channels through which the product is sold).

So it’s a team effort.  This allows for specialization in the marketing team and allows them to focus solely on promo.

For smaller marketing teams, this structure may actually be ideal, given the limited bandwidth they have.

However, by design, the 4 main responsibilities are divided which can create silos between marketing, sales, product management, and business development.  This can foster confusion, disagreements, power struggles, and inefficiency if there is a lack of clarity about the company’s direction and go-to-market strategy.

On the flip side, when all teams are in alignment and effective at collaborating, this can be very successful structure.