For decades, marketers have relied on the four Ps — price, product, promotion and place — as staples of strategic planning. In 1960, E. Jerome McCarthy proposed the four Ps in his book, Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach, and they are still relevant today. But there have been big changes in the cultural landscape since 1960, culminating with the digital explosion during the pandemic. And that’s why the fifth P — payments — has proven to be an essential part of the marketing mix in 2022. Customer journey improvements now extend all the way through the payment journey, too, because buyers want to seamlessly transact on their terms, with their preferred payment methods.
