FreshBooks redefines Four P's of Marketing

FreshBooks Redefines the Four P’s of Marketing: Parachutes, Pedicures, Pancakes and Parking

For over 50 years E. Jerome McCarthy’s 4 P’s of Marketing have gone unchallenged and unchanged, while the world of business has transformed itself in nearly every conceivable way. Noting the seismic shift in small and independent businesses, FreshBooks (www.freshbooks.com) commissioned an esteemed panel of business scholars and experts to redefine the 4 P’s for a new era of entrepreneurs taking the world stage.The result of their extensive 3-year study is being heralded as the new paradigm in business education, with business schools scrambling to update their curriculums. “This is like the Twilight of the business world,” says Professor John Frescalibros of Gray University, New Hampshire, “it happens once in a lifetime, there are four of them to swoon over, and it makes me squeal like a teenage girl.” Academic publishing house Grow McHill reports university-wide halts in book orders as faculties await new literature around the study.Below is a summary excerpt from the study defining the New 4 Ps of Business:

Parachutes 
A major commonality among subjects of the study was a thrill-seeking mentality marked by the desire to work for oneself in light of the risks usually faced by entrepreneurs. Often described “like jumping out of an airplane and not knowing if the parachute will open”, participants tended to be more independent and strong-willed than their 9 to 5 counterparts.
Pedicures
Independent business owners have both the time and the disposable income to indulge in domestic luxuries, most popular of which are massages, facials, and pedicures. Small business owners are 2.5x more likely to have a standing appointment at their local spa than those who do not work for themselves.
Pancakes The 21st century entrepreneur is defined by his/her mobility between home office, client office, and all points in between. There has been a significant trend towards ‘uninhibited inspiration’, where business owners do their work when and where they want, oftentimes at home during breakfast (also observed to be most productive when eating pancakes.)
Parking Coupled with high mobility are high transportation-related costs. Dubbed the “2:10 Phenomenon”, entrepreneurs consistently outrun their parking meters by 10 minutes when on business travel, resulting in an average increase of 26% in transportation costs (due to parking tickets) over the typical full time employee.

The new 4 Ps - adapted from the original Price, Product, Promotion, and Place – were “deliberately identified to represent a new crop of entrepreneurship that hinges on mobility and convenience” according to the study. Some dissenters have described the study as biased and skewed in its research, but the majority of academics and business community leaders are embracing it whole heartedly.Case in point, cloud accounting software provider FreshBooks is footing the bill for anyone who purchases any of the New 4 Ps when invoiced using the FreshBooks mobile app from September 1st to September 21st, 2012. The first 40 invoices for each New P (160 total) sent to FreshBooks via the mobile app will be paid by them for one of the following:

• Parachuting - Enjoy a thrilling skydiving session on FreshBooks. They’ll reimburse you up to $100 USD for your experience.
• Pedicure - Need an hour of bliss? FreshBooks will gladly send up to $40 USD for a pampering pedicure.
• Pancakes - Mmmm breakfast! FreshBooks will fork over up to $40 USD for enjoying a delicious pancake breakfast - so be sure to share the treat with friends.
• Parking – They’ll happily pay up to $40 USD to park anywhere you please so this time, choose the best spot on the street.

For compete rules and how to enter, visit http://www.facebook.com/FreshBooks