Here’s where the rubber hit the road in marketing. “Presentation” is the act of presenting, displaying and strategically putting forward any of the different 9P’s© and/or its components to your potential customers (or “People,” including suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, sales force, marketing intermediaries, clients, employees, partners, and/or others).

Look at your products and the marketplace. Review your competition. Develop and refine your assets and your strategic marketing objectives, strategies and tactics in the marketplace.

Can your customers, clients or users tell the difference between your product or service and your competition? Do the potential customers know “how it is different” or are they even aware of your product or service? Will they pay a premium?  Stand in line? Would they go out of their way to acquire your product or service?

Why is your product or service better? How is it different? That’s where “presentation” comes in.

Let’s look more closely at “Presentation,” one of the nine elements or components, along with Planning, People, Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Partners, and Passion:

Presentation is linked to “Planning,” plus reviewing and using the other nine P’s. As a marketing professional look at “real” product and service experiences, enabling consumers to feel the brand. As part of “presentation,” we also think of “events and experiences,” (which are also a part of Promotion).

Traditional marketing is based on target audience impressions/ views/ clicks/ exposure, while experimental marketing involves engagment with consumers.

Presentation is closely aligned with “experiential” marketing, or event marketing.

An example of using “Presentation” to your advantage:

• Some products from Apple are “perceived” to have a better user experience, better designed, a better presentation, which are also talked about by both users and non-users. “people” will stand in line to acquire Apple products. Fast Company reported in July/August 2014 that it’s the engineering culture of the company and the way the whole organization was structured to help support product design. Everyone in the organization is striving and thinking about better designed products for the marketplace…making a better “presentation” of products and services to users and potential users.

Partnering with charities and their efforts may bring in promotional marketing influencers who may be interested in helping communicate your charitable causes and events.

Presentation can be bad, too. In February 2017, bad “presentation” had significant branding and promotional implications with “the official accountant for the Academy Awards,” PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), at the ‘17 Academy Awards live from Hollywood. 

A huge accounting mistake, turned into a brand nightmare, by PwC. Management did not get the correct envelopes to the star presenters, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. The accountancy firm has overseen the counting/votes for the Oscars ballots, 83 years. Called the most “spectacular blunder,” in the history of the Oscar ceremony, when the award for best film was mistakenly presented to “La La Land,” instead of the actual winner, “Moonlight.”

Not using “Donuts” in their name? Dunkin’ Brands tested using just the name Dunkin’ at some units in California. The chain’s promotion has used the one-word name for more than ten years. They are emphasizing the brand’s coffee and beverages.

But some companies get presentation in a deep way. Disney does not have employees at their Disneyland and Disneyworld theme parks, but rather, “cast members”. They are always “on”, and presentation is everything. Disney is concerned with cast members’ hair, makeup, costumes, body language, and ultimately “performance”.

As a brand manager you want to encourage and enable potential consumers and “allow” them to feel and experience your brand, rather than a competitor’s brand and that is where product, promotion, place and presentation are linked.

*Created by Larry Steven Londre. Copyright 2007.

Can your customers, clients or users tell the difference between your product or service and your competition? Do the potential customers know about “how it is different” or are aware of your product or service. Why is your product or service better? How is it different? That’s where “presentation” comes in.

Let’s look more closely at “Presentation,” one of the nine elements or components, along with Planning, People, Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Partners, and Passion:

• Presentation is linked to Planning and reviewing and using the other nine P’s:
  • This “P” or “Presentation” is the act of presenting, displaying and putting forward any of the different 9P’s© and/or components to your customers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, sales force, marketing intermediaries, clients, employees, partners, and/or others. It include channels of distribution and “place” variables
  • As a marketing professional look at “real” product and service experiences.
  • Enabling consumers and “allowing” them to feel the brand. As part of “presentation,” I also place “events and experiences” under Promotion.
  • While traditional marketing is based on target audience impressions/ views/ clicks/ exposure, experimental marketing involves engaging with consumers.
  • Presentation is closely aligned with “experiential” marketing, or event marketing.

Some examples of using “Presentation”:

• Some products from Apple are “perceived” to have a better user experience, better designed, a better presentation, which are also talked about by both users and non-users. But Fast Company reported in July/August 2014 that it’s the engineering culture of the company and the way the whole organization is structured which help support product design. Everyone in the organization is striving and thinking about better designed products for the marketplace…making a better presentation of products and services to users and potential users.
• Partnering with charities and their efforts may bring in promotional marketing influencers who may be interested in helping communicate your charitable causes and events.
• In February 2017, not a good “presentation” which has branding and promotional implications for “the official accountant for the Academy Awards,” PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), at the 2017 Academy Awards.
  • A huge accounting mistake, turned into a brand nightmare, by PwC not getting the envelopes correct to the star presenters in Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. The accountancy firm has overseen the counting/votes for the Oscars ballots, 83 years.
  • Called the most “spectacular blunder,” or a real doozy, in the history of the Oscar ceremony, when the award for best film was mistakenly presented to “La Land,” instead of the actual winner, “Moonlight.”
• Not using “Donuts” in their name. Dunkin’ Brands tested using just the name Dunkin’ at some units in California, The chain’s promotion has used the one-word name for more than ten years. They are emphasizing the brand’s coffee and beverages.
• Disney does have employees at their Disneyland and Disneyworld theme parks, but rather, “cast members”. They are always “on”, and presentation is everything. Disney is concerned with cast members’ hair, makeup, costumes, body language, and ultimately “performance”.

As a brand manager you want to encourage and enable potential consumers and “allow” them to feel and experience your brand, rather than a competitors brand and that is where product, promotion, place and presentation are linked.

For more Marketing insights, ideas, concepts and Marketing solutions: Go to Londremarketing.com and look under “Articles and Resources” and the 9P’s/Nine P’s ©2007. Specifically you will find them detailed at 9P’s/Nine P’s or Nine P’s/9P’s of Marketing.

*Created by Larry Steven Londre. Copyright 2007.

Last month Larry went to a presentation on the “Death of Retail,” at the UCLA Economic Forecast. He mentioned to his table that the bet for over/under on the mentions of “Amazon” would be 99.

He wasn’t far off.

Amazon is influencing everything. Plenty of mentions on the mega-shopping site, Amazon instead of retail and malls. So what’s new in advertising and promotion? It’s on Amazon.

Just look at this recent piece from thestreet.com about brands teens are beginning to hate, but the article IN THE TITLE says “Amazon isn’t one of them”.

Retailers are looking for more presentation and a better display of their product, whether in store on online. The question is, how do you do that online?

Well, for $500K Amazon will allow brands to enhance their product pages on Amazon. The pages will include a “from the manufacturer” section with a dynamic and dominant presentation.

Londre has his nine P’s and one of those P’s is “presentation.” Here’s a great example which blends “Product,” Promotion” and “Presentation.” a more dynamic presentation. These pages will include wide-screen videos and interactive, multimedia displays. They are called “premium” pages, and the $500K is per brand per year.

It’s a virtual shelf space to encourage clicks and buys.

This is arguably the newest type of virtual slotting fee!

Using the nine P’s of Marketing, we put this under dumb “Presentation” and dumb Promotion“ by Sherwin Williams, the paint company.

Sherwin Williams won’t be paying $1 million. Why?

Sponsored by Sherwin Williams, the paint company, has a big paint can promoting itself at Angel Stadium. The can is behind the left-center-field wall at the stadium.

The copy reads, “Angels home run in the can $1,000,000.” If a home run is hit in it, they pay the Angel Baseball Foundation charity $1 million.

Yesterday Justin Upton of the Angels hit a home run.

Sherwin Williams won’t pay off. Why? The home run didn’t land in the can but bounced in. Really?

They may have had fans, customers, store managers, but they also had TV and radio. Plus all of the social media today.

What is this “P” or “Presentation?” It is the act of presenting any of the different 9P’s© and/or components to your customers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, sales force, marketing intermediaries, clients, employees, partners, and/or others.
We find that this example can fall under Presentation, Partners and Promotion.

Just dumb, under many of the nine P’s of Marketing. Totally lost sight of the goal: building good brand awareness and brand association. Net result: the exact opposite.

Right now, $1 million to the charity is a lot cheaper than the damage bad PR and presentation is doing to the brand.