The 4Es are like a new way to gun for audience value. For example, how do you promote a useful product that just won’t sell? Well, you need to add emotion and experience in your promotional content in order to convince consumers to buy your product or service. 

The 4Es are focused not only on value and emotion but on why you should sell, when you should sell, how you should sell and who you should sell to. Depending on your brand, you should choose what method works best for you. For example, Nando’s sells its products through the use of satire and humour by poking fun at political and social affairs in South Africa.



This is opposed to brands like Nike, which strives to sell its product through encouragement and hope with slogans such as "every professional was once an amateur, training is the opposite of hoping." This offers consumers a motivation to reach for their goals. 

Now, let’s jump right into it! Here are the 4Es and how they can help promote your brand and attract customers. 

1. The shift to 'Experience' 

The best way to give your audience a great customer experience is to shift your focus from product to brand experience. For instance, with the improvement of technology, going to the mall has now become an option as opposed to a necessity, as consumers can simply order what they need online. But, the experience that they have at the mall is what makes them still want to get in their cars and head to the shops. 

Here’s an example: Let’s say your brand produces cell phones, and you’re looking to release a new model. You can offer your audience a top-notch brand experience by hosting a launch. That way, your audience will have an exclusive overall experience, as they will be able to meet founders, designers, brand ambassadors and anyone else responsible for the success of your brand.  

In the end, it’s all about making a product special and treating every customer that walks into your store like they’re your last. You can do this by offering them a quick product testing, which will allow them to learn more about the product and show off all of its cool features. 

When it comes to selling a product, it is not always about what you're selling, it’s about how you're selling it. You should consider the whole customer experience — everything that happens ‘before purchase, during and after you’ve made the sale. 

If you give your consumers the ultimate experience, it will increase the chances of them buying your products next time. 

2. 'Engagement' with a dash of promotional methods 

Engagement marketing is about selling your brand to audiences through the lens of promotion. This is done by creating content that entices consumers to engage with your brand and building fruitful conversations with them over time.  

It’s also about discovering suitable channels that will allow you to capture the attention of your audience for a long period of time. Think ‘content relevancy’ trimming all the fat, and leaving only what is necessary and is bound to achieve the results. 

A great benefit of this type of marketing is that it allows you to turn audiences into brand ambassadors — much like enhanced network marketing — meaning that they can share their brand and service experience with others. 

 3. The 'Exchange' method replaces ‘Price’

The price of a product is and always will be important; however, price shouldn’t always be treated as the overall factor. You need to consider an option of exchange without competing with other brands by stripping down your price, but not to the point where you're no longer able to make a profit. 

Take a look at the following scenario: Let’s say your competitor has a similar product to yours and, for some reason, they are able to bring down their prices, but you can’t because of economic reasons. 

Tactics that you could consider that won’t affect your pricing but is worthy for the customer is potentially extending the warranty on your products at no extra cost, or attaching some samples of your other products — for FREE! 

You could also introduce a loyalty points programme like the Pick ‘n Pay points card, which allows shoppers to use their points to buy food when they don’t have money or are short of cash. 

In essence, the Exchange method is about selling through product value and giving your customers their money's worth. 

4. 'EveryPlace' kicks out 'Place'

Lately, ‘place’ has become ‘EveryPlace’ —  social media, Internet, television, radio, websites, etc.  —  which makes this ‘E’ all about being discoverable on various platforms. Audiences now have a world of options when it comes to making purchasing decisions, which means that you need to make your brand or services available on a number of platforms in order to reach your audiences and potentially attract new consumers. 

To start, you can utilise social media platforms like Facebook, which has easy features for brands to use, such as website conservation campaigns and interest targeting. This can help navigate possible audiences or demographic targeting, allowing you to see where your audiences are located.  

You can also consider advertising on a streaming service like VIU, which lets you choose between instream and outstream brand placement. This means that while audiences are watching their favourite shows, they can view and click on your advert and learn more about your service or product. 

There are many places where you can market your brand — some platforms are free, some are paid — and depending on your budget, there’s freedom of choice and you can pick according to your affordability. 

The 4Es of marketing give the consumer control over your brand so they can enjoy the full brand experience. Do you agree? Let us know in the comments section below

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Now that you know how the 4Es serve as an alternative to the 4Ps, discover the Three way you can use guerilla marketing methods to sell your brand.