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Marketing 4 Pā€™s

 

Marketing’s 4 P’s are simple: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. By using the Marketing 4 P’s,
you’ll be able to fine-tune your business to drive more sales and higher profits.

Marketing 4 P’s: Product

The #1 “P” of Marketing
is Product. It’s no good creating the
best product in the world, even if
people need what you are delivering,
if they are not prepared to pay for
it. Conversely even if the product
or its packaging or marketing is not
exceptional, if it’s fulfilling a need
it is likely to be bought.

It’s essential to know what’s going
on in your market, what your competitors
are up to and what your customers are
looking for, now and in the future.
Small businesses are at an advantage
as they can react to market changes
far more quickly than bigger organisations,
often creating a niche that can be
difficult to break into.

Marketing 4 P’s: Price

The 2nd Marketing “P” is Price. The price you charge for your product or service must:

  • Cover your fixed and variable costs
  • Make you a profit
  • Be appropriate to the target audience
  • Be consistent with the brand image

In other words you need to identify your target customers and understand their buying behaviour and decision making process. You also need to decide where to rank your product against other competing products and make sure your pricing policy is consistent with this. For example if you’re promoting a product as luxurious and top-of-the-range you need to price it high to maintain the image; if you’re promoting a budget everyday product you need to price it low so it’s consistent with customer expectations. Running a ‘buy one get one free’ type of offer is appropriate for the budget brand but would do major damage to the luxury one.

Marketing 4 P’s: Promotion

The 3rd “P” of Marketing
is Promotion. How you choose to promote
your business is often based on cost,
particularly in the early days. You
need to consider who your most likely
target customers are and then consider
where and how they are most likely
to hear about your services. Do not
fall into the trap of thinking that
printed advertising is essential for
your business as there are many other
ways to raise its profile, such as
press releases, sponsorship and by
providing free content to magazines
or websites in return for mentioning
your company name.

You should ensure your promotional
materials are consistent with your
brand image. For example, if your product
is high price/high quality this needs
to be reflected in the language you
use and the imagery and quality of
any printed materials. If, on the other
hand, you’re providing a budget dog
walking service simple flyers to post
through local letterboxes maybe sufficient.

You also need to consider what aspect
of your product makes it more attractive
to your customers than your competitors’
products. Put yourself in your customer’s
shoes ā€“ why should they buy from you?
What will your product do for them?
These are your unique selling points
(USP) and they should be used consistently
throughout your promotions to ensure
you are selling the benefits of your
product rather than just describing
what the product is or does. Your USP
could be response time, delivery time,
after sales service, exclusivity of
design ā€“ try not to make price your
USP; it is the easiest one for your
competitors to beat you on and if you
get into a price war your margins will
be eroded to nothing.

Your promotions can range from the
conventional to the more outlandish,
but you should take care to keep it
consistent with the brand image you’re
trying to build. Make a point of asking
each new customer how and where they
heard about your business so you can
identify which of your promotion activities
is the most successful.

Marketing 4 P’s: Place

The last but certainly not the least
of the Marketing 4 P’s is how you sell
your product or service to your customers
should be dictated by what you can

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