Beginner Guide to Marketing (Part 1)
If you realized, everyone is a salesperson. We have to persuade our parents why we need the latest iPhone, we have to promote ourself during job interview to get the job, we need to convince our boss why a pay increment is necessary…. as a entrepreneur your chances of success depends on how you market your business. That is why it is important to teach yourself internet marketing in order to market for yourself, your brand and product/service.
Before you begin to learn about internet marketing, let me begin with traditional marketing: Foundation of marketing mix- A business tool used by marketer introduced since the 1960s. It helps businesses to review and define the key factor that affect their product or service marketing so they can plan the right strategy or tactic to promote its product or brand. This is still applicable to the modern digital world and it is still widely use by marketer, although it may not always work… But as an entrepreneur, if you are just starting out, it is critical to cover the underlying ground.
Here you will see marketing revolutions from 1960s, 1980s, 1990s … and it is still changing every single day.
The Fundamental of Marketing: From 4Ps to 7Ps Marketing Mix
In the 1960s, the 4Ps marketing mix was introduced which consists of the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion). It was designed where businesses are selling product. But as the years goes by, businesses starts to get more competitive with service being taken into consideration, hence in 1980s, it was extended to the 7Ps (People, Process and Physical environment)
The 4Ps Marketing Mix
Product
Whether the company is manufacturing the product or buying it for a resale, the company is required to make careful consideration such as:
Product design, features, technology, quality, usefulness, warranties, packaging, branding, service, support, appearance, functionality.
All these factors can determine how you differentiate and position the product within the market. Remember the word differentiation, in this dotcom century, you must be differentiated in order to become successful otherwise you will end up like any other business selling the same offer.
Promotion
This is the method use to communicate your company product or service to your target market. Depending on what the company wants to communicate to its target market, they will decide on the best method to execute the activities out to deliver the message across. The promotion method includes advertising, direct mailing, public relations, sponsorship, personal selling, sales promotion and internet marketing- The broader subject which you must learn.
Place
This is how a business uses to get its product or service through the distribution channel to its customer.
Thus, a few factors to consider are:
– Where is your target market located?
– Distribution channel (offline or online) use to deliver to your target market. Accessible? Sufficient parking lots for stand alone shop?
– Payment methods available and solution available for your customer to pay you. Easy to pay? Receipt?
– Transportation used to deliver the products or service. Convenient?
– Storage to keep your product.
Price
Price used to be the most important factor that makes customer decide whether to purchase your product or service as compared to other competitor. But these days more people are seeking for convenient and solution… nevertheless price still somehow play a part so give yourself sometime to strategize it before pricing your product or service since price will affect sales and profit.
Here are some factors you might want to consider when pricing your product:
– Competitor pricing
– Target market who are willing to pay for it (Lifestyle, Income, gender, age)
– Fixed and variable cost
– What is your marketing goals and objective?
– Positioning strategy (How you want to position your businesses in the market)
The Extended 7Ps Marketing Mix
People
This is extremely important for a company in a ‘Service’ industry such as coaches, hair stylists, banking services etc. Very often the service delivery occurs during the interaction between the customer and employees as customer are paying for their service and not a physical product. Thus, to do a specific task well required having the right person hired and the person must possess the right skills or knowledge.
Process
It is crucial for a service company to look into various mechanisms and procedure that help deliver the product or service to its customer. If you realised, most service companies have a flowchart indicating the standard detail delivery process. Let’s take a look at Ikea restaurant. In order to buy food, customer are expected to form a snake queue to collect the trays, drinks, food and proceed to the cashier to pay money. It is a standard delivery process that every customer is aware of. Without the process, I doubt the queue will be chaotic and this flowchart is to ensure quick delivery process.
Physical environment
It is said that the physical environment would have an indirect influence on the consumer buying decision or the overall service experience they have unconsciously. Therefore, it is important to consider the customer five senses in the environment since everyone receive the sensory information differently. Some examples to consider are the smell, lighting effect, the type of music, the temperature or layout of the store and how presentable the sales representative is etc. This is to create a nice ambience that would allow leaving a good impression for the customer as they are paying for an experience or comfort. This is extremely important for a luxury business as they need to justify their price, high quality product, a strong positive brand image and service. In short, an overall excellent experience for its customer. Just take star bucks for instance, their ordinary coffee recipe allows them to charge a higher price.
Right, after all, traditional marketing is not what can take you to the next dotcom level for your online business success.
To take everything a non-marketer needs from a business from zero to hero online, you have to learn the science of internet marketing.
Well, let’s begin now…
