What is marketing?
When you run a business, especially a small to medium sized business, you have many responsibilities, one of which is marketing responsibility. It is basically a skill found in every successful business owner.
Many do this every day without realizing it. The key is to use this unconscious competence and ensure that marketing is embedded and understandable by everyone involved in producing, promoting and managing the products, solutions and services you offer to customers now and in the future.
What comes to mind when you think of marketing? Not many people know exactly what the 5Ps of marketing mean, but if any business wants to be successful in its marketing strategy, the best place to start is to fully understand their strength. Product; Everything you sell is a product.
For many, your main product will be yourself. It’s important to be clear about what your product is, believe in it, and sell it as creatively as possible. The design of the product or service you offer needs to be guided by an analysis and understanding of what your customers want, need and are willing to pay for. This is done through research.
Price; Whatever the cost of producing your designated product, with profit and risk built in, should be the price. Too many businesses ignore profit and risk, leading to long-term unprofitability.
Be clear about your value. Also, remember that there is nothing wrong with offering short-term discounts to attract customers who will be profitable in the future.
Place; This is where you present your product to customers and clients. Whether face-to-face, over the web, using social media or over the phone. Few companies use a single place to do business with customers. Most have a set of marketing channels where they meet customers.
The more and more effective these channels are, the greater the opportunities to make sales. Always think, could your product be communicated and sold more profitably using a different medium? Promotion; Promotion identifies all possible communication activities used to make your customers and potential customers aware of your offer, product and services.
Essentially, they are the methods and messages you use to sell your product. The purpose of any promotional activity is to encourage customers and customers to purchase and retain this product. For example, is it about a new service or offering an existing one? Is it about attracting new customers or keeping existing customers at your business? Whatever the message, promotions should be the face of your marketing effort and deliver a compelling message about you, your product, and your business.
People; This is the right customers and prospects for your offer, products and services. This is best done with a segmentation study backed by a robust and up-to-date customer database. The best way to understand the 5Ps is to start using them every day.