A Sustainability Roadmap for Contemporary Marketing Education: Thinking beyond the 4Ps

For generations marketing students have been taught the mantra of the 4Ps. This paper questions the relevance of continuing to teach this framework in the light of changing business, environmental and social demands, and increasing corporate social responsibility consciousness. But rather than replace this established framework altogether, this paper draws from extant literature to argue for the inclusion of an additional two Ps, People and Planet, to which the original 4Ps will be subsumed. After examining popular contemporary marketing texts, we contend that the sustainability imperatives of People and Planet are often omitted from marketers ’ thinking, or relegated to after thought status in a concluding chapter, as they are encouraged to concentrate on a narrower, traditional set of 4Ps. The paper concludes by suggesting that, just as particular marketing contexts, such as services or tourism marketing have done, a more relevant foundation to guide marketers ’ thinking will emerge if the 4Ps framework is subject to review. Against the changing economic, environmental, and social backdrop, the alternative, expanded marketing mix framework proposed in this paper seeks to participate in this review, by encouraging the marketing education discussion