Discussion on 6Ps framework with Prof. Kotler and Denzil

PROF. Philip Kotler, widely regarded as the Father of Modern Marketing, has spent decades helping the world think beyond merely “selling more stuff.” From his early 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) to the later 7Ps, he repeatedly refined the marketing toolkit to suit the realities of each era. Now, in a recent conversation with Sri Lankan veteran marketer Denzil Perera during his visit to Prof. Kotler in Illinois, Chicago, Kotler outlined a fresh, values-driven evolution of his thinking: a 6Ps framework.

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This new model doesn’t discard the classic Ps. Instead, it lifts marketing out of its narrow commercial lane and places it inside a broader human, social, and planetary context. Kotler’s view is simple: in an age of climate anxiety, social fragmentation, hyper-competition, and stakeholder capitalism, marketing must serve a higher order of purpose. That’s why his 6Ps begin not with product or promotion, but with something more fundamental.

Kotler’s first and most important P is Purpose. “Every organisation, brand, or person needs to have a purpose,” he emphasised.

This is more than a mission statement framed in a boardroom. Purpose answers why we exist beyond profit. Kotler has long admired companies like Unilever, whose leadership openly declared that, “brands with purpose grow.” By citing the Unilever global leadership example, he is underlining that purpose is not a decorative slogan but a strategic engine: it aligns employees, attracts customers who share values, and gives the organisation a moral north star.

In the age of conscious consumers, social media scrutiny, and Gen Z’s demand for authenticity, purpose becomes the first filter. If the “why” is weak, the rest of the marketing plan is just noise.

The second P is People. Here Kotler is making an old truth newly urgent: if you don’t take care of your people, they won’t take care of your customers.

He told Perera that organisations often leap straight to first building employee experience. But satisfied, respected, fairly treated employees become brand ambassadors automatically. In service economies—banking, hospitality, education, healthcare—this is especially true. Marketing, therefore, is not only an external activity; it is an internal culture project.