Position, Promotion, Placement and Price.
You know them for sure: they are the famous - and sometimes infamous - 'Four P' that have ruled traditional marketing in the last century in practically all Western countries.
People into marketing, and people not into it but forced to deal with it anyway, should also read and cherish that seminal marketing book about the fifth P that Seth Godin published back in 2005:
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (Paperback)
by Seth Godin
Penguin, 2005
160 pp., ISBN 978-0141016405
What's a purple cow, besides a mainstream cow painted in lilac for some Milka chocolate advertising campaigns?
Take the common cow, a ruminant with coat colors varying from red to black to brown and to white with colored points...
And then imagine seeing one cow... that is actually Purple. Have you ever seen one? Of course not. So you will remember it.
A Purple cow is indeed something remarkable: it is not like everything else you could find or read or experience in a specific setting or situation.
Long story short: it is something original, special, one-of-a-kind, very different from the usual stuff.
In an interconnected world that sees marketing and branding as a must for the individual, personal branding is something everybody should think about and take care of, in order to influence how other people perceive him/her in every kind of situation.
We can't force other people to think exactly what we want them to think, sure thing.
Even with the best personal branding strategy ever, we could still get very weird results or being perceived in the "wrong" way, no matter what.
That said, taking care of the branding part, having clear standards and goals about it, acting on purpose and deciding what one wants to do with it, is still better than going with the flow and hoping that our karma will take care of everything for us. Hint: it will not.
You know them for sure: they are the famous - and sometimes infamous - 'Four P' that have ruled traditional marketing in the last century in practically all Western countries.
People into marketing, and people not into it but forced to deal with it anyway, should also read and cherish that seminal marketing book about the fifth P that Seth Godin published back in 2005:
[Purple cover of one of the many different edition of Purple Cow
How cool is that!?]
How cool is that!?]
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (Paperback)
by Seth Godin
Penguin, 2005
160 pp., ISBN 978-0141016405
What's a purple cow, besides a mainstream cow painted in lilac for some Milka chocolate advertising campaigns?
[Seth Godin playing with the funny special promotional packaging of his book
Purple cow milk is, of course, delicious... and dairy free!]
Take the common cow, a ruminant with coat colors varying from red to black to brown and to white with colored points...
And then imagine seeing one cow... that is actually Purple. Have you ever seen one? Of course not. So you will remember it.
A Purple cow is indeed something remarkable: it is not like everything else you could find or read or experience in a specific setting or situation.
Long story short: it is something original, special, one-of-a-kind, very different from the usual stuff.
[A purple cow?!
Well, we are NOT talking about this poor animal]
In an interconnected world that sees marketing and branding as a must for the individual, personal branding is something everybody should think about and take care of, in order to influence how other people perceive him/her in every kind of situation.
We can't force other people to think exactly what we want them to think, sure thing.
Even with the best personal branding strategy ever, we could still get very weird results or being perceived in the "wrong" way, no matter what.
That said, taking care of the branding part, having clear standards and goals about it, acting on purpose and deciding what one wants to do with it, is still better than going with the flow and hoping that our karma will take care of everything for us. Hint: it will not.
[A huge Purple capital letter
by artOnWear]
Now we have Position, Promotion, Placement, Price and Purple cow. They should be our best friends while dealing with marketing, branding and positioning a product.
While going a step further and seeing ourselves as a product too... Does everybody really need the five P in every kind of relationship? In their day to day life? In their human interactions with friends, business partners, colleagues, lovers, family members, neighbors, acquaintances and so on?
I think you know the answer already. Personal and professional relationships - the good and healthy ones, at least - are one of the most important parts of everybody's life.
While going a step further and seeing ourselves as a product too... Does everybody really need the five P in every kind of relationship? In their day to day life? In their human interactions with friends, business partners, colleagues, lovers, family members, neighbors, acquaintances and so on?
I think you know the answer already. Personal and professional relationships - the good and healthy ones, at least - are one of the most important parts of everybody's life.
[A sweet and fluffy Milka cow plushie
can help us to remember that
the sweetest side of life is also very important...]
Should we think very carefully about which kind of relationship we should have in our life?
And, even most important, how can we position ourselves in the "market" and find our own niche, if we don't know all the variables we should know for choosing the right market?
Sometimes I have the impression that we think to know all the variables already.
We feel great until we discover not only that we don't have a clue about the variables at all, but also that at some point we went in the wrong direction, without realizing it. And so here we are, while suddenly discovering that we spent ages sabotaging ourselves. Going on in the dark for weeks or even months.
Without knowing it, before getting to the point to just get it, at last.
Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.
Zora Neale Hurston [1891-1960]
What to do, after realizing it?
Now we know that we are not taking care of the five P and of our relationships in the right way and that weird stuff happened because of it. Is it still possible to go in a new direction and to save the situation, or it is too late already?
If yes, how?
Is being brave and open and honest just enough for that? Is caring the key, here?
Is love the answer, as John Lennon was used to singing?
Tags: Marketing, Branding, Seth Godin, Purple Cow, Relationships, Four P, Books, People, Quotes
What to read next:
What does it mean to love someone? Orson Welles was used to saying...
Visiting the blog for the first time? Aloha!
Where to start, if you are new
