The decline of marketing: from four Ps to one P

Philip Kotler

Interview with Professor Philip Kottler. Why marketing activities are concentrated on promotion, rather than the other three Ps (product, price and placement).

the decline of marketing

From four Ps to one P

Judie LannonandPhilip Kotler

Judie Lannon: You describe marketing as having declined from responsibility for four Ps to responsibility for only one P promotion. Why has this happened?

Philip Kotler: The work done by people in the marketing department varies with a product's stage in the life cycle. In the case of new product launches, marketing prepares a comprehensive 4P work plan: choosing the product features and benefits to emphasise, pricing the product, placing it in distribution and arranging for extensive promotion. But in the case of mature...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands