Q: The 4 P's and Why You Should Know All of Them

The second view of marketing we’ll talk about is the 4 P’s of Marketing. This is the model Michael Porter is famous for popularizing. Once again, the four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion. As we discuss in the last post, often marketing is limited to only focus on one of the P’s. Frequently, promotion is the main area of responsibility for marketing while the other P’s are managed or co-managed by sales, product management, business development, or the leadership team. With the 4 P marketing structure however, the marketing leader (often a VP of Marketing or Chief Marketing Officer) is responsible for all of the four P’s. The value of this model is that, because you have one person or group overseeing all four aspects, you can eliminate confusion and misalignment that often occurs with different owners. Therefore, ideally, y0ur go-to-market strategy should be more effective and your execution of your plan more efficient. One big caveat though. This structure requires a marketing leader with sufficient knowledge of each of the 4 disciplines. That can be a difficult role to fill. More commonly, marketing professionals have a background in one or two of the four, but less frequently all of them. The alternative is to find a marketing leaders who is very skilled at managing others with more domain expertise in each of those areas. Ideally, you’d like some who has a little bit of both – the ability to delegate to specialists within their department and enough experience in broader marketing concepts to know when their team is on the right path or off-target. If you are marketing leader or a professional with ambitions to be in leadership, expanding your knowledge to understand the basics of each of the four P’s can go a long way in furthering your career. Check out the next post another type of marketing structure: SMP.

Q: 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.

Q: Who's My Audience?

One of the things we’ll inevitably cover is a fundamental concept in marketing – determining who your audience is. So you might be wondering, who is the audience for this blog. Fair question. More on who this blog is for: For those just starting out The first group I’m thinking about as I write these posts are those of you who are just starting out in marketing and/or business. You have the smarts, you have the ambition, and you have the work ethic it takes to do something incredible. The one thing you’re missing is experience. Hopefully this blog provides you with the knowledge you need to accelerate your growth. For those who want a fresh perspective Others of you have a wealth of experience but might be feeling stuck. We’ve all been there. One of my goals is that I hope to offer new ideas that might challenge your understanding of how you market and engage with customers. Another is just to reinforce and clarify concepts that you may have learned but have lost sight of. Sometimes it’s good just to have an outside voice echo the things you’re thinking about to give you the confidence to push through. For me Ok, I’ll level with you. This blog is really for me. Of course I hope others get something out of it. I hope that I can answer some questions or at least generate some new ones in your mind. But if nothing else, this project is way for me to explore what it means to create and influence in business and how to do those things more effectively. No matter where you are in your career, I hope this content is helpful and motivating. Don’t forget to subscribe to get the more from Vennspire. Also I invite you share any posts you find interesting with your network. Best of luck as you work on the things that inspire you.

Question 1

5 Things New Marketers Should Know

Accepted Answer

Most new marketers don’t struggle because marketing is “hard.” They struggle because it’s invisible—the rules are simple, but the judgment calls are constant, and nobody prints a manual that says “this headline will 100% work, congratulations.”

Here are five things worth learning early, before you waste too much time optimizing the wrong things.

1. Attention is the real currency, not clicks

Clicks are just accounting. Attention is the asset. If you can’t hold someone’s focus for more than a few seconds, you don’t have a marketing problem—you have a relevance problem.

Great marketers don’t start with “How do I get traffic?” They start with “Why would anyone care long enough to do anything next?” If your hook doesn’t land, your funnel is already empty.

2. Your audience doesn’t want your product—they want a better version of themselves

This sounds dramatic, but it’s basically always true. Nobody wakes up emotionally invested in your SaaS dashboard, your course, or your service stack.

They want relief, status, confidence, time, money, or simplicity. Marketing is translating features into identity upgrades. If you skip that translation step, you end up describing things instead of selling them.

3. Good marketing is mostly positioning, not tactics

Tactics are easy to copy. Positioning is not.

You can steal someone’s ad strategy, their email sequence, even their landing page structure. But if you don’t understand why they win in the customer’s mind, you’ll just copy the shape of success without the substance.

The uncomfortable truth: the best marketer in the room is often the one who picked a clearer angle—not the one who worked the hardest on execution.

4. Distribution beats creativity (more often than people admit)

A brilliant campaign with no distribution is a diary entry. A mediocre campaign with strong distribution is a business.

Early marketers tend to over-index on making things “perfect” and under-index on getting them seen. In reality, consistency of reach beats brilliance of message more often than it should.

If nobody sees it, it didn’t fail creatively—it failed operationally.

5. Most “best practices” are context-dependent myths

Marketing advice is usually correct… somewhere.

But “post at 9 AM,” “use short captions,” “long-form beats short-form,” and similar rules are not laws of nature. They are patterns extracted from specific audiences, platforms, and time periods.

The skill is not memorizing rules. It’s learning when to break them without breaking your results.

Marketing rewards people who can sit in ambiguity without panicking. The good news: that’s not talent. It’s exposure. The more campaigns you run, the more you realize there is no final answer—just better guesses, faster feedback, and slightly sharper instincts.

Question 2

How to Reach Your Target Audience More Effectively: A No-Fluff Guide for Real Businesses

Accepted Answer

Let’s start with a simple truth: if you try to speak to everyone, you end up speaking to no one. It’s like shouting into a crowded room with a megaphone, hoping the one person you actually want to hear you doesn’t duck for cover.
So how do you really reach your target audience? Not just attract eyeballs—but the right eyeballs. The kind attached to customers who actually care, click, and convert. Here’s your no-fluff, jargon-free, witty-yet-useful guide to making that happen.
Step 1: Know Thy Audience (Like, Actually Know Them)
You wouldn&#8217;t start dating someone without at least learning what they like (or at the very least, checking their LinkedIn). The same principle applies to your customers. Who are they? What keeps them up at night? What do they wish someone would just fix already?
Build a detailed customer persona:
Demographics: Age, gender, income, job title, etc.
Psychographics: Values, goals, fears, hobbies (yes, even pickleball counts)
Behavior: Where they hang out online, what they read, how they buy
Pro Tip: Talk to real customers. No, really. Surveys, interviews, support tickets—they’re a goldmine.
Step 2: Find Their Digital (and Physical) Hangouts
Once you know your audience, it’s time to go where they go. If your dream customers spend all day on LinkedIn, stop wasting money on TikTok ads (unless your dream customers are also 19-year-old dance influencers).
Here’s a cheat sheet:
LinkedIn = B2B, professionals, decision-makers
Instagram = Visual brands, lifestyle, fashion, food
TikTok = Gen Z, humor, trends, bite-sized content
Email = Everyone (yes, even your mom)
In-person events = Trade shows, conferences, local meetups
Think of this like fishing: use the right bait in the right lake.
Step 3: Speak Their Language (Not Yours)
Let’s be blunt: nobody cares about your &#8220;industry-leading, cutting-edge solution&#8221; unless it solves their actual problem.
Your messaging should:
Address a specific pain point or desire
Use words your audience actually uses
Feel like a one-on-one conversation, not a sales pitch
Bad example: &#8220;We offer scalable CRM solutions that optimize your sales pipeline.&#8221;
Better example: &#8220;Tired of chasing cold leads? Our CRM helps you close deals faster, without the spreadsheet headaches.&#8221;
Step 4: Test. Tweak. Repeat.
Here’s where most brands fumble: they pick one marketing channel, run one campaign, and if it doesn’t go viral by lunch, they panic and change everything.
Don&#8217;t.
Instead:
A/B test your headlines, visuals, CTAs
Track metrics that matter (leads, conversions, not just likes)
Refine your message based on what works (and doesn’t)
Remember, marketing isn’t magic. It’s iteration.
Step 5: Stay Consistent (Because Trust Takes Time)
Would you trust someone who changes their name, outfit, and voice every time you see them? No? Neither would your customers.
Consistency builds trust. So make sure your brand voice, visuals, and values show up the same way across:
Your website
Social media
Email campaigns
Ads
In-person interactions
It’s like showing up to every date as your best self. Over time, they start to believe you.
Bonus Round: Real-World Example Time
Meet Bella&#8217;s Baskets: a small gift basket company targeting HR managers who send employee appreciation gifts.
Before: Bella ran random Facebook ads saying &#8220;Great gifts for everyone!&#8221;
After: Bella built a persona: HR Hannah, mid-30s, overworked, needs quick and thoughtful gift solutions. Bella focused on LinkedIn and email, using headlines like &#8220;Make Employee Gifting Effortless.&#8221;
Result? 3x more leads in 6 weeks.
Why it worked: Bella stopped shouting into the void and started speaking directly to Hannah, where Hannah already hangs out, in language Hannah actually responds to.
Final Thoughts: Be Useful, Be Human, Be Patient
The brands that win aren&#8217;t the loudest. They&#8217;re the clearest. The most helpful. The ones who understand their audience so well it feels like they read their minds.
So go ahead. Get to know your audience. Find them. Speak to them. Test what works. And whatever you do, stay consistent.
Because reaching your target audience isn’t about selling harder. It’s about connecting better.
And that’s something your competitors can’t fake.

Question 3

Marketing is Everything

Accepted Answer

In this post, we&#8217;re going talk about another way of looking at marketing that is often called in &#8220;marketing is everything,&#8221; or ME for short.
Through this approach, marketers are involved with shaping more than products and promotion of them.  They&#8217;re involved with shaping the values of the company and the entire customer experience.
This concept is especially important for companies that are serving marketing with a lot of competitors and a lot of products in the category.
When the customer has more choice, they have more power and often buy based on criteria that go beyond feature-function.
In fact, in these markets, consumers may make purchasing decisions more qualitative aspects of a company.  Today&#8217;s consumer factors in how a company interacts with their customers, the values the company holds, and the customer experience the company creates.
The ME concept is especially important in business-to-consumer companies.  But I would say that our expectation of consumer brands has influenced our expectation of any business interaction.
So more and more, I think B2B companies will need to consider how they can view their operations through an ME lens.
Therefore the role of the marketer is changing in a couple of ways.
 
Marketer as Customer Advocate
The first has to do with customer advocacy.
Today&#8217;s consumer wants more options and more specificity in their choices.  The niche is becoming the norm.
In order to uncover the level of detail in product features that will drive action, the marketers really need a continually feedback loop with their customer base.
Instead of creating products for customers, modern companies should strive to create products with customers.
Therefore, the marketer&#8217;s role is expanding to have more a more intimate relationship with their customer.
Marketing teams need to engage with customers constantly and understand them on a deeper level than they have in the past.
Many B2B are really proficient at this, creating custom solutions or at least using beta sites to refine their offering.  Consumer brands a are likewise taking note and developing products and even marketing campaigns through crowd-sourcing efforts.
Regardless of the tactics, it&#8217;s clear that marketing teams will need to be more in-tune with markets if they want to compete.
 
Communicating Beliefs
Another important shift in the tone of modern marketing is the inclusion of messages that have more to do with beliefs that offerings.
This stems from a desire by customers to support companies that share common values as them.  They want to know that their dollars are contributing to a greater good and will quickly find an alternative if the company they have been doing business with doesn&#8217;t share their ideals.
This affects marketing in two ways.
First, marketers need to find a way to highlight their company&#8217;s beliefs in a way that isn&#8217;t too on-the-nose.  There&#8217;s a fine line to walk here.  Customers are savvy, so any attempt to do this in a contrived or cynical way will get flagged for what it is &#8211; co-oping causes for profit.
However, when belief-centric marketing is done right, it can be very effective.  The key is authenticity.  Focus on delivering  a message that is true to your company&#8217;s real ideals.
This leads me to the second way this changes the role of the marketer related to communicating beliefs.
Marketers can play an important role informing and coaching the company&#8217;s leadership team about what their customers value.  This is a step beyond traditional buyer personas.  But given how important values are to purchasing decision for the modern consumer, this should be something marketers focus on.
 
Crafting a Brand Experience
Another way that marketers&#8217; role expanded under marketing is everything is in creating a comprehensive brand experience.
Given that customers have what seems like unlimited options, they choose products based on which companies give them the best user experience.
Buying decisions aren&#8217;t just made on features and benefits but influenced by the way the company make a customer feel throughout the entire customer journey, including the purchasing process and support process.
Companies that craft better brand experiences create brand loyalty. This leads to repeat buyers and increased revenue.
In many cases, the credibility that&#8217;s generated with a good brand experience enables a company to expand their product category and offer new offerings.  Think of companies like Apple or Amazon that fall into this category.
Therefore for companies with the marketing is everything (ME) approach, all aspects of your operation need to be on-brand.
Think about the companies that you like to engage with.  What role do you think markers had in the experiences that you have with that company?
 
The Role of Enablement
While there is obviously some benefit to having oversight across all operations, not all companies need to have a &#8220;marketing is everything&#8221; approach in order to be successful in achieving alignment.
That is, marketing doesn&#8217;t need to be the owner of all those processes. However there is a case for integrating elements of marketing across the organization.
Create brand guidelines and corporate communication standards for all teams to abide by.  The are elements that marketers are well-versed in and very useful in maintaining consistency.  Define everything from the fonts and colors to the tone of voice and visual style of your brand.
Also, consider creating scripts and educational resources for your sales and support team messages so everyone is talking about your offerings in the same way.
By having a consistent presentation and messaging , it sends a signal that the company is professional, credible, and sophisticated.
 
Putting ME into Practice
If you&#8217;re a business owner think about the role that marketing plays and judge whether or not you should take a marketing is everything approach.  Even if you don&#8217;t restructure your org chart, consider what you can learn from your marketing team in order to improve your operations and create a more meaningful brand experience.
If you&#8217;re a marketer, think about how you could help other parts of your organization that go beyond the 4Ps talked about the previous post. Therefore you can create more value for the organization and increase the your own influence within the organization.

Question 4

The 4 P's and Why You Should Know All of Them

Accepted Answer

The second view of marketing we&#8217;ll talk about is the 4 P&#8217;s of Marketing.
This is the model Michael Porter is famous for popularizing.  Once again, the four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion.
As we discuss in the last post, often marketing is limited to only focus on one of the P&#8217;s.  Frequently, promotion is the main area of responsibility for marketing while the other P&#8217;s are managed or co-managed by sales, product management, business development, or the leadership team.
With the 4 P marketing structure however, the marketing leader (often a VP of Marketing or Chief Marketing Officer) is responsible for all of the four P&#8217;s.
The value of this model is that, because you have one person or group overseeing all four aspects, you can eliminate confusion and misalignment that often occurs with different owners.  Therefore, ideally, y0ur go-to-market strategy should be more effective and your execution of your plan more efficient.
One big caveat though.  This structure requires a marketing leader with sufficient knowledge of each of the 4 disciplines.  That can be a difficult role to fill.  More commonly, marketing professionals have a background in one or two of the four, but less frequently all of them.
The alternative is to find a marketing leaders who is very skilled at managing others with more domain expertise in each of those areas.
Ideally, you&#8217;d like some who has a little bit of both &#8211; the ability to delegate to specialists within their department and enough experience in broader marketing concepts to know when their team is on the right path or off-target.
If you are marketing leader or a professional with ambitions to be in leadership, expanding your knowledge to understand the basics of each of the four P&#8217;s can go a long way in furthering your career.
Check out the next post another type of marketing structure:  SMP.

Question 5

1P Marketing - Optimization Through Specialization

Accepted Answer

The first view of marketing we&#8217;ll discuss is referred to as 1P marketing.
The &#8220;P&#8221; here refers to the 4P&#8217;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 &#8211; often just in a promotional role &#8211; 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&#8217;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 &#8220;product&#8221; research and development, sales often covers &#8220;pricing&#8221;, and senior leadership and/or business development determine the &#8220;place&#8221; or channels through which the product is sold).
So it&#8217;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&#8217;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.

Question 6

3 Views of Marketing

Accepted Answer

I&#8217;d love say that marketing&#8217;s role is clear-cut and easily defined across all types of companies.  Unfortunately that&#8217;s not the case.
The role marketing plays in an organization is largely dictated by the views of the CEO or leadership team.
Over the next few blog posts we&#8217;ll take a look at 3 different views of marketing that you might run into in your next position or consulting gig, namely:

1P &#8211; Marketing with one primary function, usually promotion
4P &#8211; Marketing is responsible for product, price, place, and promotion
ME &#8211; &#8220;Marketing is Everything&#8221;

[Philip Kotler covers this and many, many other important topics beautifully in a lecture you can view here. Definitely required viewing!]
For before we dive in, I&#8217;d like to comment that none of these philosophies are wrong.  Each has their merit, and each can be useful if implemented pragmatically.
Furthermore, I think it&#8217;s natural for a company to shift between different marketing structures as the organization evolves.
For instance, many start-ups will begin with a more integrated, more comprehensive view of marketing and more responsibility falls to the marketing team.
Often, this is out of necessity.  Maybe you only have 2 people in your company.  Chances are, in the early days, one of you will be designated &#8220;the marketing guy&#8221; and will be responsible for covering all of the 4Ps.
As the company grows, specialization naturally occurs, allowing for other groups to carry some of the burden the individual shouldered in the beginning.
So if you part of leadership, consider what your marketing can and should handle as you set expectations and staff the company.
If you&#8217;re a marketing professional, understand how the organization you are hoping to work for views marketing and make sure it matches your goals before joining their ranks.  What type of work do you really want to be doing?  Does the organization view those tasks under marketing&#8217;s purview.
 
Ok &#8211; enough context.  Check out Part 1 on 1P marketing structures in the next blog post.

Question 7

Who's My Audience?

Accepted Answer

One of the things we&#8217;ll inevitably cover is a fundamental concept in marketing &#8211; determining who your audience is.
So you might be wondering, who is the audience for this blog.  Fair question.  More on who this blog is for:
 
For those just starting out
The first group I&#8217;m thinking about as I write these posts are those of you who are just starting out in marketing and/or business.
You have the smarts, you have the ambition, and you have the work ethic it takes to do something incredible.
The one thing you&#8217;re missing is experience.
Hopefully this blog provides you with the knowledge you need to accelerate your growth.
 
For those who want a fresh perspective
Others of you have a wealth of experience but might be feeling stuck.  We&#8217;ve all been there.
One of my goals is that I hope to offer new ideas that might challenge your understanding of how you market and engage with customers.
Another is just to reinforce and clarify concepts that you may have learned but have lost sight of.  Sometimes it&#8217;s good just to have an outside voice echo the things you&#8217;re thinking about to give you the confidence to push through.
 
For me
Ok, I&#8217;ll level with you.  This blog is really for me.
Of course I hope others get something out of it.  I hope that I can answer some questions or at least generate some new ones in your mind.
But if nothing else, this project is way for me to explore what it means to create and influence in business and how to do those things more effectively.
 
No matter where you are in your career, I hope this content is helpful and motivating.
Don&#8217;t forget to subscribe to get the more from Vennspire.
Also I invite you share any posts you find interesting with your network.
Best of luck as you work on the things that inspire you.

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