Kotler Amplifed
12xPs for Progressive Publishers
Welcome to my first Substack.
I’m co-founder at Media Makers Meet - Mx3, a UK-based international events-led B2B media company for the media (publishing) and related tech industry.
There, on the events side, I oversee our event programming and speaker acquisition. I’m fortunate that it gives me access to people around the world who shape industry thinking in one way or the other.
This newsletter - which I call “that coalition” (coming together, collaborating) - is unrelated to that, and its purpose is two-fold:
To write about things that pique my curiosity as/when I can, not so much to say this is how I think it should be done. It’s rather a place to share and hopefully get some comments back that help develop (or squash!) ideas.
As a place where I can simply write about the industry.
At the outset, I should say my way of looking at the world is that disruption is a constant, you either adapt or die. So not so much lament for legacy days here, sorry.
My first Substack
This is my first Substack, so it is a bit of a test. I will use something I wrote a week ago but did not use.
I can’t recall how I came up with the idea to build something for publishers using the 4Ps of marketing, but once I got going, I ended up with 12 - way too many to remember! Event ChatGPT can’t get it right ;)
Kotler Amplified: The 12Ps of Progressive Publishers
The marketing world has evolved significantly since E. Jerome McCarthy introduced and Philip Kotler popularised the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix, namely Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
I started going down a rabbit hole thinking about the 4Ps and all the complexities and Proliferation of Principles facing modern-day Progressive Publisher media. Before delving into the 12Ps, here is a quick recap of Kotler’s 4Ps in the Marketing Mix:
1. Product: What you are selling, which can be a physical good, services, experiences, events, people, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas.
2. Price: What the consumer must pay to obtain the product, which can involve considering factors like discounts, payment arrangements, and credit terms.
3. Place: Where the product is made available to consumers, which includes the distribution channels and ways of delivering the product to the consumer.
Promotion: The methods used to communicate the benefits of the product to the target customers, including advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling
My 12Ps are far from easy to remember, but I think they capture a fair few truths about today’s modern media environment. See what you think ;)
1. Profile: You start with your audience, using data to understand audience demographics and preferences.
2. Product: You develop your business model to address and meet your audience’s interests in mutually beneficial ways.
3. Personalise: As the Internet fragments mass media, those media with more focus and dedication to address the personal needs and interests of their audience segments are winning.
4. Premium: Maintaining a commitment to high-quality output that makes your product valuable in a world of digital noise.
5. Prioritise: There is such a mass of information and entertainment at consumers’ fingertips that you must identify and focus on strategically important areas to maximise impact.
6. Place: Choosing the right platforms and locations (channels and moments) to connect with the audience
7. Promote: Another of the Ps also in the Marketing Mix, this refers to promotional activities across channels to acquire and more deeply engage audiences.
8. Partner: Long a practice in tech with, for example, the App Store, you do not operate in a vacuum and must look for opportunities to collaborate with others. Such partnerships help with impact, efficiencies, and, ultimately, your ROI.
9. Persevere: Modern media business is hard with so much industry volatility, but don’t give up.
10. Pioneer: In a world of constant disruption, publishers must experiment and innovate with new technologies.
11. People: Acquiring and retaining talent and developing the right company culture are top priorities for any publisher.
12. Profit: Developing the ROI through various revenue streams and sustainable growth.
That’s that, pye-pye for now.