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

LJ still on course and on the run

More than three decades after Wings folded, Laurence Juber is a man still on the run.

The former Wings guitarist and virtuoso just may be the busiest man in the music industry.

In addition to recently playing a part on tribute albums to Bob Dylan and Linda McCartney, Juber performs almost 100 dates a year, has regular session work, conducts professional workshops, performs on soundtracks for feature films and television and has three upcoming CD releases.

"There's always something going on. Knock on wood, I'm as busy these days as I've ever been, including my days with Wings," says the affable two-time Grammy Award-winning guitar artist.

Juber is scheduled to make an East Coast swing in early 2012 with a handful of appearances in New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

"This trip finds me playing at some new venues and making my solo Broadway debut. The jazz club ambiance of Times Square’s Iridium will no doubt encourage me to stretch out," Juber said. "I’m also looking forward to sharing the bill with Boston Blues Artist of the Year, guitar ace Johnny A, at a pair of shows at TCAN in Natick, Massachusetts. This will be my first time at New Hampshire’s excellent listening room the Tupelo Music Hall. I round out the run with an afternoon show at the Greenwich Library which I’m told has a fantastic concert hall.”

A world-class guitar virtuoso solo artist, composer and arranger, Juber fuses folk, jazz, and pop styles and creates a dynamic multi-faceted performance that belies the use of only one instrument. As a studio musician, he can be heard on recent albums from artists as diverse as Barry Manilow and Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks. He is also featured on the soundtracks to hundreds of TV shows and movies including the Academy Award-winning Good Will Hunting, the James Bond thriller The Spy Who Love Me and most recently, The Muppet Movie.

Known to his fans as LJ, Juber has released 19 acclaimed solo albums. His celebrated arranging skills are featured on two volumes of LJ Plays The Beatles, the first of which was voted among the all-time top ten acoustic guitar records. Juber says fans never tire of hearing him play their songs and he remains endlessly fascinated by their catalog.

"Every time I hear a Beatles record I gain a new appreciation for them," Juber said. "Above and beyond the analytical part of it and creating the arrangements, when I start deconstructing Beatles songs, I find unexpected things. I can never listen to a Beatles record twice and hear exactly the same thing. There’s always something that I’ve missed, or a new discovery where you say, 'Wow, what was that little guitar lick?' Or the way in which the backing vocals come in…there’s always something new to discover in their work."

For more information visit: http://laurencejuber.com/

Tour dates are as follows:
1/11 NYC - The Iridium Jazz Club
1/12 Londonderry, NH - Tupelo Music Hall
1/13 & 1/14 Natick, MA - TCAN Center for the Arts
1/15/12 Greenwich, CT - Greenwich Library


Photo credit Randi Anglin - taken at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium Nov. 2011