For the uninitiated 4Ps is product, price, place and promotion. These,
my friends, are the most important tenets of tactical marketing a marketer would swear by. Under no circumstances is one in the field of marketing ever supposed to forget either the number or the associated concept!
Not that I am Vatsyayan or as far as I know he was any one of my ancestors, many of my friends think that I should share my views on sex. Not in the same way as I think about it but as they suggested time and again. For example, the whole “women pay sex as the price for marriage and men pay marriage as the price for sex” or several other mundane topics. Nonetheless since sex is essential and also always a topic for discussion at least twice in one second in some part of the world it deserves a few words. I am going to pen my few words through a marketer’s eye and I think this 4 word marketing concept will help me analyse this 3 letter word aptly.
Hence I begin with the product itself, sex: is the act between, well since Adam and Eve it was meant to be between a man and woman but then came along the Greeks and homosexuality was ok too, two people. It is the most intimate act between two people, essentially to procreate but also for entertainment, satisfaction and a host of other emotions not all honourable.
It’s no wonder then that Avril Lavigne sang:
He was a boy, she was a girl
Can I make it any more obvious?
The product is accessorised too. There are paraphernalia to protect, to get things up, to get things down, to get things going and more. The product is sold and not just as it is but on tapes and online, it is sold as pornography across the world and is a lucrative business. The product was meant to bring two people together so that they could connect on all levels- physical and sublime. It was meant to be an act between a man and woman (I will keep it simple by considering its only one form- between a man and a woman) which could lead them to appreciate each other better. Aside of that it was meant to excite and bring to rest those hormones which raged in our bodies. The product has attractive packaging- if you know what I mean!
The price as axiomatically said is marriage. Of-course you could actually go to the market and buy it. This is not a cheap commodity though and is illegal in most countries in almost all continents! In my opinion the price for sex between consulting adults or just experimenting teenagers is built into the endless cell phone recharges, roses, chocolates, assignments done, combined studies, free rides, dinners, drinks, movies, pit-less cups of coffee. There’s also after-sales service, may be this is the only product for which both parties pay the price. Now, I might sound sexist or traditionalist or both, but I think in the end women pay more of a price than men for this act with or without the marriage.
Place for sex? You would be surprised that islands like Maldives are thriving not because of their scenic beauty but the millions of honeymooners flocking there for the sex amidst the scenic beauty. Same for many island countries and if the exact tourism garnered by honeymooners or by those with a quenchless thirst for “doing it” in exotic locations was estimated I believe it would have to be at least a one-fourth of the entire touring population. The act for most people happens in a bed but the options touted to make it more innovative are gazillions- from the pool table to the trial rooms in crowded stores.
Sex has not needed much promotion but in the last few decades magazines like Cosmopolitan, Penthouse, and Playboy and all other sorts have promoted it in small measures. Men buying lingerie for women and women wearing boxers, both sexy moves I think, can be accredited to nobody but these amazing books.
I have not answered any cosmic queries about sex or expressed my views about teen sex or anything but I do think we should be able to discuss it more and not in the hush tones as we do now. Alas, this would only spoil much of the fun in talking about it…
We went on a steamer sailing in the Yamuna for the entire day. It was a great day. This I say not for myself, but for cinema which without being Indian still reeks of Indianness. Slumdog Millionaire won 8 Oscars and literally swept all audience at the Kodak theatre off their feet. I woke up at 7:00 am and watched the entire show with zeal as if I would be betraying my Indian citizenship if I didn’t root for slumdog. Well so I did. And up until the show got over despite my mother’s warnings I saw and cheered. After which I got ready and helped her pack the basket of goodies- pakoras, cashews, chutneys, peanuts, lotus seeds, grapes, papaya, rabris, napkins, n sweets.
