The Great Fragmentation: And Why the Future of All Business is Small

CHAPTER 20 Business = technology: the 4Ps revised

After the journey we’ve just been on it’s time to review the 4Ps, which were introduced in the very first chapter. These are the factors of production, the marketing mix — the only real elements that exist in the business environment. As we review each of these you’ll be taken back to each of the individual parts of the mix and reminded of how significantly the world of business has changed. Every single one of the Ps is unrecognisable compared to the pre-technology digital age. Let’s indulge ourselves in a review of them one by one.

Product

The products (and services) we buy, use and engage with have changed forever. We no longer have to accept mass products made for average people living average lives. We can instead find exactly what we want on demand from anywhere in the world. And if it doesn’t exist we can find someone to make it, or we can make it ourselves. We can mash things up. Mass products that do exist will continue to decline into commodity pricing, unless the mass product is ‘customisable’ once we have it in our hands. Just compare your smartphone interface to anyone else’s. No two in the world are the same. We can get any product we want from any geography via the infinite online retail stores and we can co-create using the tools that have been handed over to us by the smarter brand houses out there — the ones that have realised the brand is actually ‘ours’. From sports shoes to media, products are increasingly ...