The 5th P of Marketing

On last Friday, I went to a stationary shop to purchase some of my necessary goods. A woman came to purchase some consumer durable items. When she asked for a popular branded item, the young salesman said there were three categories of product lines of the same brand present in that store. The lady asked to view all the three items. The three items had three different price setting. The salesman showed her only two items but did not show her the third one. When lady asked where was the third category of that brand, the salesman simply replied that it is not shown to the general consumers. Because, they can’t afford to buy that item which is priced at a high value. So, it would be better for the lady if she could choose any one of the two items priced lower than the third one. Hearing that suggestion, the lady thought that the salesman was mocking at her economic condition and she insisted on viewing the third one. The salesman smiled, showed her the item of highest value and what happened was the lady ended up purchasing two quantities of that item just to show how rich she was.
Actually, the sales person had excellent marketing aptitude. Somehow he knew that the lady came from an aristocratic family and he willingly mocked at her financial condition which resulted in an excellent marketing.
Later that evening, when I went to my uncle’s house, I saw a magazine named 4Ps on his table. What’s the problem of the marketers is that they always like to think from marketers / company’s point of view. They should understand that marketing is evolved by the marketers but it is actually for the consumers. Unless the salespeople can’t read the consumers thought processes, they can’t market the product.
We know, the four Ps of marketing are Product, Price, Place and Promotion. But unless consumer’s thought processes are mapped with the marketer’s guesses the marketing / sales cycle remains incomplete. So, a fifth P must be added with the basic four Ps. That fifth P may be termed as ‘ Psychology ‘ (of consumers) / ‘ Perception ’ (of marketer about consumers).
When marketers would include this P into the goup of other four Ps, effective marketing will take place and both marketers and consumers will get satisfaction or, may I say ‘Pleasure’?

by Biswajit Ganguly (mail id :- biswajit20793@gmail.com)