MODERN MARKETING
Principle # 9: Mind Your
P’s (and You Can Forget
About the A’s)
By Timothy R Pearson
L
earn from the master of
penetration.
Preference is more crucial than
differentiation.
Do your consumers brag about
your brand?
Today, in our data-abundant, Internetoriented world - driven increasingly
by the evolving nature of personally
applied technology - marketers
must have more than a shallow or
46 ModernBusiness
November 2016
superficial understanding of the
customer or consumer. In this new
world, the three P’s (penetration,
preference, and price-value ) must
replace the three A’s (availability,
acceptability, and affordability)
because they are more relevant
to driving sales and to creating
consumer or customer demand.
Penetration and the Digital
World
Penetration does not simply refer to
how deeply a brand has penetrated
a market. It also refers to how
deeply a brand has penetrated the
consciousness of the consumer.
And, in this new digital world, to
drive penetration, marketers must
create a desire for the product that
stimulates purchase. To accomplish
this, marketers must enter the
consumer or customer’s mind by
making connections that are relevant
to the environment and to their
mind-set. Marketing must create
an “ownable” environment for the
product or service, which requires