Idea 22 - The four P's of marketing As the arm of the business responsible for getting the customer's attention, marketing has generated more than a few tanker loads of snake oil. The four Ps, however, has the virtue of being a simple and sound management idea, still much-used more than 40 years after it was first formulated The idea of the four Ps is rooted in 'the marketing concept'. While marketing is self-evidently not the same as production, nor is it the same as sales. Nearly two and a half centuries ago, Adam Smith observed in The Wealth of Nations that the whole mercantile system had been contrived to serve the needs of producers rather than those of consumers. He had put his finger on the basic idea of marketing - or, in his day, the lack of it. From that time, and before, until the early 20th century, business revolved around production. The 'production concept' meant that producers concentrated on goods that they could make most efficientl...