The “marketing mix” has been a well-known concept in the field since the 1950s and 1960s, but it was E. Jerome McCarthy who first classified the pillars of marketing as the now-famous “four Ps” of marketing . You’ll learn about them in just about any Marketing 101 book today; these four P’s are: product, price, place and promotion. It is widely accepted among marketers that a strategy that considers and is built on each of these pillars will be a successful one. In today’s ever-changing digital world, you can bet that there has been a discussion of adding a “5th P” to the mix when teaching marketing fundamentals. Articles expressing why “ people” or “ personalization” (or some other person-centric P-word) should be added as a “5th P” are abundant online. This makes sense given the nature of the online-first landscape we live in today, where digital and automated marketing reigns supreme. To know your customer is to understand their buying journey and decision-making process — and customers today expect convenience and to be catered to through their preferred digital channels. Most of these cases for the “5th P” are well-argued and in this digital age, a highly targeted audience and a highly targeted marketing campaign is the name of the game. As a B2B marketer or even a B2B2C, creating personalized search ads isn’t as easy as it sounds when your customer isn’t necessarily a regular consumer. An individual may not purchase a business-related product in the same way they would as a consumer for personal use. This is why at Ag Access we think of the “5th P” as Perception. The value in knowing your customer so well lies in knowing how they perceive your brand, product, or service among competitors in the marketplace. Whether it is B2B research or consumer research, marketers and brands must do customer experience research in order to understand how they are perceived in order to drive a better marketing strategy Customer experience design and marketing are becoming increasingly important as we move through this digital era where a competitive advantage may come down to how well a brand is able to safeguard and enhance customers' perception of it. Customer experience research is essential to add to the marketing research mix behind the strategy driving your brand or marketing. It is a must in today’s world in order to continuously monitor, enhance, and maintain a great brand perception or experience. At Ag Access, we’re able to reach the necessary audiences to provide agriculture brands the insights they need to make the best marketing and business decisions. We specialize in research management and logistics and can help execute a variety of marketing research methodologies, even B2B market research. Read more on the Ag Access difference and find out how we can help strengthen your marketing research by downloading our E-Book, “How Ag Experts Can Strengthen the B2B Customer Experience with Market Research” below.
