Marketing, the sum of activities involved in directing the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica!

To me, marketing is a lifestyle. Its always finding ways to make your product or service more relevant, useful, and likable but also a way to communicate your product or service value and to create value to end-user.

EVERYBODY is in marketing, EVERYBODY.

As I’m writing this I’m wearing a pair of Jordans on my feet, Nike sweater, Jordan t-shirt, Huawei smartwatch with my Samsung on the side.
We are all walking marketing and brand. Don’t believe it? What are you wearing? Are there any logos on you? Sure they are because you are promoting some company or a lifestyle.

Regardless if you are in sales, customer service, finances, or IT, you are in marketing, because what you do and how you present yourself reflects on you and your company’s reputation and culture.

MARKETING IS NOT ADVERTISING BUT ADVERTISING IS MARKETING

There are many other forms under the marketing umbrella:
– Advertising
– Content Marketing
– Social Media
– Market Research
– Copywriting
– SEO…

New forms of marketing are being created as you read this. Never form si AI marketing. Wiss discuss that in some other post.

It started with the 4Ps of marketing:

When trying to explain marketing it usually starts with the 4Ps: Product, Place, Price, and Promotion.
The strength of the 4Ps approach is that it is a memorable and practical framework for marketing decision-making. Each of these 4ps is complimenting each other since you can’t have a product or service and not have a price for it.

Product

The product or service that your company wants to sell to customers. This entails everything from the product design, the convenience of the product, the technology your product uses, and warranties. In order to be relevant to the everchanging market you should often look at your product or service and honestly answer these questions:

• Are my products/services suitable for the market and customers of today?
• How does it rate next to competitors? Do you have and what is our point of difference?

Marketing research is crucial steep as it will show you whether the market for your product or service exists and whether or not the product or service has a chance to be successful.

Place

The place is where your product or service is sold, and how it is sold.
Your product or service can be sold via physical stores or online. Both need to be taken into consideration and decide from which you can profit the most.
Some businesses use direct selling as they send their salespeople out to meet and talk with prospects. Some sales through catalog or mailorder. Some sale at trade shows or even joint ventures with other similar products. A lot of businesses are using a combination of these methods. You really have to think of where your ideal customer will go and find out about their habit so that you can place your product in front of them.

Price

Kinda self-explanatory. You want to have the best price possible to remain competitive, to make your customer want to buy your product or service while knowing your marketplace.
Sometimes to keep the right balance you will have to lower or to raise your prices.
Consumers use price as an indicator of product quality or benefits.  High-priced brands are often perceived to be of higher quality and become less exposed to price cuts of competitors. Sometimes you will have to change the terms and conditions of sale. You might need to spread your price on a month or year basis and that might be the click you need to sell more of your product. You also might want to consider combining products and services together with special offers or promotions and you can also include a free additional item that will cost you very little but can make your price seem more attractive to your customer.

Promotion

Promotion is fun (p)art in this 4P marketing mix as it entails all the ways we will reach our customers and share with them the value our product or service brings. This can be done with social media, advertising, sponsorship…It is important to be updated on relevant new ways of promotion since it changes so quickly and one day maybe it’s a new app, maybe a new social media platform, maybe you need to change the design of your web page. The promotion process also involves a lot of A/B testing until you find what would be the right fit for promotion for your ideal customer. Keep in mind that whatever worked 5 years ago might not work now. When you notice that your promotional activities are not contributing or making your profit you need to develop new sales, marketing, and advertising approach, offer or strategy.

Then additional 3Ps were added:

Later on, somebody said “Hey People are also important (Lol) as well as Packaging and Positioning”

People

To me, the people factor is the most important one!

People love to do business with other people and not bricks or walls or product

You should really be focusing on recruiting, hiring, and retain the proper people since they are the ones that are important for customer satisfaction and to keep your company culture. Remember that many companies cannot separate the product or service from the people who provide it. You can have the best product in the world but if you have wrong people presenting it in the wrong way you will have a hard time managing your business.  Your people are your greatest asset if you clearly explain the company goals, mission, and vision and they follow the company culture guidelines. Whatever you think of doing in your marketing strategy it will mostly have to involve a person doing it.
Anyone who meets a customer is making an impression and that can be positive or negative.

Packaging

The packaging is the way your product or service appears from the outside.
Remember that people form their first impression about you within the first 30 seconds of seeing you or some element of your company.
You want to have a “total package”. To do that you have to see/improve every way your potential client can contact you and find a way to improve their vision of you. Something to think about:
How do you answer your calls?
Do you say WHATS UP? or Hello, you reached XXX how can I/We help you today?
How does your social media looks like or your web page?
How does your office look like? Is it clean, is it dirty, is it a creative mess? How would you feel if you are walking into your office as a customer?
How does your employee look and behave? Are they kind or are they in a bad mood not dressed properly?

These are all the areas you can improve on to make a great first impression that can boost your sales and maximize your profit.

The Takeaway

• Go through these 7Ps and see in what areas you can improve your product or service.
• Keep it relevant to today’s market and customer
• Look at your product form a critical point of you or as an end-user