Changing consumer priorities are forcing a marketing rethink, says WPP AUNZ study
The traditional 4Ps of marketing need to be rethought as consumers are changing their attitudes towards ‘protection, privacy and power’, says WPP AUNZ in a survey that found Australians frequently lie about their behaviour and beliefs.
WPP AUNZ interviewed 2500 people in its ‘Secrets & Lies, Uncovering the Underbelly of Australia’ survey which analysed the difference between what Australians tell others against what they think or do.
WPP AUNZ chief strategy officer, Rose Herceg: “Our research shows that Australians lie about all sorts of things”
The survey found Australians regularly lie about money, family, finances, their job and happiness.
“As a nation we often view ourselves as honest, decent, kind and generous. Not prone to hyperbole and immune to hot air,” WPP AUNZ chief strategy officer, Rose Herceg, said.
“We’ve marketed ourselves to the world as straight-up, straight-talking and fair dinkum for decades.
“But our research shows that Australians lie about all sorts of things and some of those lies are whoppers. We commissioned this research and partnered with a leading anthropologist because we wanted to understand the reasons behind our desires to keep secrets and tell lies. We wanted to help our clients better understand the people they’re trying to connect with.”
In the report 49% of respondents admitted to misrepresenting themselves and found women are more likely to share their real selves with close friends or family while men are more likely to show their real selves to colleagues, neighbours or even their barista.
The research also found Australian under 35s are suffering from a crisis of confidence with 66% regularly giving up a task because they think they have too little ability. 63% claimed they need continuous encouragement to do their jobs and 59% feel resentment if they don’t get their own way.
Anthropologist, Michael Henderson, engaged by WPP AUNZ for the survey, commented: “Keeping secrets and telling lies is a fascinating aspect of human behaviour.
“It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that secrets and lies are bad, that they’re unethical and should be avoided at all times. But our intent for keeping secrets or telling lies relates to basic human desires – protection, privacy and power.
“We keep secrets and tell lies to protect ourselves or prevent knowledge from falling into the hands of others. We do it to maintain a sense of privacy in a social setting or to maintain power.”
WPP AUNZ CEO, Mike Connaghan added: “Product, price, place and promotion have historically been the foundation of marketing.
“Secrets & Lies shows that our behaviours are driven by three new Ps – protection, privacy and power – that should also be considered by marketers. This has the potential to change the way organisations think about and communicate with audiences.”
Utter crap.
Product, price, promotion, place are still absolutely foundational.
Either bad wording from Ms. Herceg and Mr. Connaghan or WPPAUNZ is once again losing their mind.
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I am not sure of any modern CMO’s who speak of the 4P’s. But it is an interesting study flaws aside
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It’s an interesting by-product of the group structure that all the operating companies either benefit or suffer from group level “thought leadership”. Do all the agencies sign up to this stuff? Should we expect to see these new Ps underpinning strategy work from the various brand agencies and PR consultancies? How will it be activated? Or is it just a bunch of sound bites? Brand Asset Valuator is an example of some older WPPIP that tried to play a similar role…
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