About this Course

Marketing is about your customers. Yet, if we were to look at the marketing activities around us, they are organised around resources. The four P's of marketing is a resource-allocation framework that puts the focus on the company, its products or services. Studies show that most customer acquisition efforts bear no fruit, sales promotions are not profitable, and fewer than 10 percent of new product innovations succeed commercially. Marketing professionals the world over express their frustration at the lack of direction of their efforts. Marketing as a field of practice is in crisis and needs a shift in paradigm.

The 4 A's of Marketing presents a new framework of marketing that unlocks the full marketing potential. The framework re-focuses marketing thought on the customer, enables customer centricity, helps improve marketing productivity and accountability, allows better resource allocation, presents a holistic view of the business and provides specific metrics with which to measure marketing effectiveness.

In this course, we will examine the current pitfalls of marketing and analyse in detail each of the 4 A's as well as their measurement and applications. Since Dr. Jagdish Sheth introduced "The 4 A’s of Marketing" in courses and co-authored a book of the same name, the response has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Dr. David Aaker, acclaimed organisational theorist and consultant, commented, "The 4 P’s can thankfully be retired as the 4 A’s provide a much superior roadmap to delivering great offerings and marketing programs and a framework that will help screen out both strategic and tactical disasters." Even Dr. Philip Kotler, the all-time proponent of the 4P framework, noted, "I believe that the 4A's will rank as an important contribution to marketing theory and practice." Dr. George Day, renowned Marketing and Strategy Professor at the Wharton School of Business, said, “Move over marketing mix. 

The 4A framework wins on every dimension that matters. It is dynamic rather than static, active rather than passive, and requires decision-makers to look at marketing activities and investments from the outside in, by putting the customer value proposition at the center of the strategy dialogue. Best of all, it engages the entire organisation in key marketing decisions.”

Learning Outcomes:

• Craft a marketing strategy for maximum impact
  
• Analyse the effectiveness of a marketing campaign
  
• Design a marketing communications strategy to acquire and retain customers
  
• Re-focus marketing strategies to achieve product/brand success
  
• Increase marketing productivity to attain higher ROI
  
• Develop sustainable marketing efforts for long-term viability
  

Course Outline: 

Marketing Remix: Introducing the 4 A’s

• The Crisis in Marketing
  
• The Doomed Marketing by Objectives
  
• Re-focusing on the Customer
  
• Enabling Customer Centricity
  
• Improving Marketing Productivity and Accountability
  

Thinking Like a Customer

• The Four Roles of Customers
  
• Defining the 4 A's of Marketing
  
• Dynamics of the 4 A's
  
• Leveraging the Full Spectrum of Resources
  

Managing Acceptability

• Key Principles
  
• When Smart Companies Do Dumb Things
  
• Improving Psychological Acceptability
  
• Improving Functional Acceptability
  

Managing Affordability

• What Is Affordability
  
• Creating Affordability
  
• Improving Ability to Pay
  
• Improving Willingness to Pay
  

Managing Accessibility

• What Is Accessibility
  
• Improving Availability
  
• Improving Convenience
  
• Delivering Accessibility by Leveraging All Resources
  

Managing Awareness

• What Is Awareness
  
• Improving Brand Awareness
  
• Improving Product Knowledge
  
• Delivering Awareness Synergistically
  

Apply 4A Analysis

• A Powerful Resource Allocation and Optimisation Tool
  
• Defining and Selecting Market Segments
  
• Diagnosing and Trouble-shooting Existing Marketing Programs
  
• Managing Demand
  
• Implementation and Control
  

Who Will Benefit?

• Organisational executives
  
• Marketing managers
  
• Brand managers
  
• Entrepreneurs
  
• Professionals
  
• Public service organisations
  

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