As you can see on the top right of the blog, I partcipated as a virtual conferencer, using Skype to give my presentation to a live audience, in a Belgian conference on P2P marketing on June 15, without leaving my cozy office in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where it is very hot and humid right now. I find the way this happened in itself significant, since such an intervention would have required a major videoconferencing infrastructure some years back. Now to be honest, the Skype line was frequently interrupted, but the facilitators were highly skilled to talk around the interruptions, and according to their feedback, the whole thing created a very positive atmosphere amongst the audience. Wish I had been there, on the other side. (in fact, the Skype connection was so bad, I couldn’t here them, and they had to type in the questions in the Skype chat module).
I hope that, though I’m no longer involved in the business world, that I said a number of sensible things. But Sviokla and Paoni have said it much better in this overview article, in the marketeers own language. They examine how the four P’s of the marketing mix, are changing into a new marketing remix.

In short, this is a key quote summarizing their long argument and article:

“The remix is from Place to Presence; from Promotion to Persuasion; from Positioning to Preference; from Price (static) to Price (dynamic); and from Product to Personalization. These are the key elements of the new marketing remix. There are no organizations that I know of that contain all these elements but we know that those companies that want to win by having superior consumer insight must be able to manage both the mix, and the remix in the future.”

Here is an interesting quote on what is behind those changes:

” Up until recently, information was usually situated in a given context. When you went to the doctor, you got medical information; when you visited the store, or in your newspaper you received coupons, and flyers. Today, you can get rich media when you are waiting for your dentist, or in line at the Dunkin Donuts. In fact, one of the largest television networks in the country is Wal-Mart TV; the television displayed inside Wal-Mart stores. This seems absurd until you realize that over 60 million Americans visit a Wal-Mart store each day. McDonald’s serves over 50 million people a day, but has yet to realize their potential as a information distribution network.Â

The general trend is that information is flowing to those places where there is a flow of people. With the growth of broadband wireless networks like the ones promoted by Verizon and other carriers, soon tens of millions of Americans will have the ability to see streaming TV, games and other media in their phone – this is yet another extension of the process of information being freed from its traditional distribution moorings. Already the vast majority of car shoppers come armed with information gathered outside the selling environment. But this is not isolated to cars – it is the core of a broad phenomenon of information flowing to where the people, and the curiosity are.Â

In an increasing number of cases, not only is the information moving, but also the ability to transact. The reason that Google is so scary to Wal-Mart, is not just the facilitation of comparison, but, given the interactive nature of the internet, people can also transact and then choose to pick up the goods, or get them shipped. “