(1) is the old marketing with a twist (2) old marketing? (3) yep, good ol' Kotler's 4Ps: you can't beat them (4) PRICE, the number that reveals to the world where you are positioning your product; needs to be chosen with incredible care as it is the fastest clue the prospective customer has as to what kind of product and company you are on the cheap & cheerful to expensive & exclusive scale (5) PRODUCT, the total experience which the prospect buys; from Disney to Schulz smart marketeers have shown the importance of shifting your product from commodity to service to brand to experience (6) PLACE or the channel you use; Kotler couldn't have dreamed what would have been available to today's marketeers: the diversity is daunting and exhausting; never has it been more important to consider what your target prospects actual do, read, listen to....and be there for them (7) PROMOTION which in today's heady interrupt driven world is hard to distinguish from the channel or PLACE; what's true as Chris Anderson has recently reminded us, sometimes simply FREE is not enough (8) the twist? (9) the rules-the 4Ps-must be followed (10) but then broken (11) in the old world of work: Kotler's original laboratory, follow the rules and you could sell and sell profitably(12) in the new world of work? (13) there are simply too many players following the rules (13) they are entry to the game (14) whereas they once were the game (15) now you're in, what are you going to do to impress your customer? (16) do what the others aren't doing (17) whatever the field: insurance, consultancy, coffee shop, school...there is a chance to pull ahead but it isn't by copying the competitors. (18) it's by leaping them (19) and that's your assignment: leap your major competitors (20) surprise them (21) shock them (22) steal a 12 month lead on them (23) then do it again (24) and again (25) but how? (26) by working ON your business (27) seriously analysing it and not just doing more of the same but reinventing it (28) tearing it apart and starting afresh (29) thinking about the wild and outrageous things your customers would love and how it might be feasible (29) by not talking innovation but doing it (30) not just post-it notes: that might be creativity (31) but innovation, that's (32) creativity plus action (33) the new marketing is the old marketing plus a twist (34) and that twist is a sideways leap (35) the one the competition knew, simply knew you couldn't take (36) but you did (37) haha (38) if only you could see their faces as they once again resort to 'three for two' offers and 'special rates' (39) the new marketing is so much fun if you allow it to be (40) less blackberry, more brain (41) fewer matrices, more magic (42) less yawn, more yikes (43) VAMOS: let's go, there is work to be done.