The Core Avenues of Marketing: Questions for Marketing Direction

by MJ Petroni, Causeit, Inc. Principal

How does business end up at your door? Or does it? Read about marketing’s “4 Ps” (product, place, promotion and price) and their three new friends (people, process and physical evidence) to find out if your marketing efforts are showing up consistently for your current—and future—clients.

The “four Ps” and their three new friends

There are four critical elements to every marketing plan, according to traditional schools of thought. Define what’s so in the present, and then strategize about what you will have happen!

Product:

How will you have your product relate to your purchaser’s and end-users needs and wants? Can you frame open-ended services as tangible products?

Pricing:

How will you set your prices around your product and services, and do those prices seem reasonable to your customer? Consider framing your service in the form of products (finite, tangible objects like packages with clear results) rather than nebulous open-ended pricing. Could you charge for projects rather than by the hour, so that you get paid more when you work more efficiently?

Promotion:

How will people hear about your product—and you? Consider the many different ways you can communicate your product; we will go into more depth soon. Consider personal, semi-personal (eg target marketing to a particular market segment of existing customers) or broad-based promotion like advertising or direct mail.

Place:

Where will people go to get your product? Is there any new ways they could access your product, like the internet (e-books, e-commerce or newsletters)? Could you sell your product through people other than yourself? For example, some of our trusted partners (like web designers) at Causeit are trained in reselling our products to their customers, increasing the avenues by which people can come to us.

There are three other critical elements to connecting your products and service to your new or existing customers:

People:

Who else will be coming into contact with your customer, and how will that influence their interactions? Are their ways to train those people to reflect your brand effectively and consistently?

Process:

How is the behavior and process of you, your staff and your vendors influencing customer satisfaction? (Consider how consistent an experience at Starbucks is compared to a local shop, which most people prefer, and why). What processes and operations could you standardize, to bring consistency to your customer service and your own work? Consider that spending time working on your business processes can have you see ways to improve your efficiency.

Physical evidence:

What evidence do you have to back up your claims around your product? (Testimonials, studies, demonstrations, measurable results...) What could you do to consistently gather information about your products and services—like tracking the results you produce with clients in a quantifiable fashion (eg, our coaching work has saved or created 57 jobs this year and saved our clients over four million dollars, or our clients have 30% fewer nights where their sleep is interrupted by pain after working with us for three months).

©2008 MJ Petroni and Causeit, Inc. All rights reserved. We are open to re-posting and publication; inquire here.

Posted 17 July 2008.

Photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/squeakymarmot/448551066/ under a creative commons license.