Every well trained manager knows about the “four P’s” of marketing. To make a sale, a company must offer the right product to meet customers’ needs, and at the right price. It has to be offered in a place they find convenient and, in order for them to know about it and how it can help them, it has to be promoted well. New research by my colleagues and me, however, suggests that another “P” is growing in importance. Customers also care who the parent of the product is. Provided with plenty of comparable alternatives, and facing plenty of discretionary purchases, they’ll choose to patronize the brand owned by the company they hold in higher esteem.