Using the Right Marketing Mix to Promote your Business
Marketing Mix is the set of tactics and action that a one uses to promote its brand, product or service.
They are different things that make up the marketing mix and the most known are the 4Ps which are Price, Product, Promotion and Place. However has marketing becomes more customer centric, the 4Ps have been replaced to focus less on the brand/product and more on the customer. We know that customer is king and marketing works best when the target audience doesn’t feel like they are being marketed to, therefore to better follow trend, the 4Ps has been reinvented to a new marketing mix called SIVA.
Before, I begin explaining what SIVA is, let’s quickly run through the 4Ps.
What Are The 4 P’s?
PRODUCT: This refers to anything you sell or any service you offer.
PRICE: The price of the product or service.
PLACEMENT: This refers to where the product is sold, who it is sold to and how it is distributed.
PROMOTION: This represents all of the communications (advertising and public relations) used in the marketplace.
As seen in the definitions above, the 4Ps are largely product focused and in past times, all the a brand owner needed to know before putting out his/her product or service were what product/service he was offering, the price at which he wanted to put it out for, how he wants to distribute and of cause the ways he needs to market it. But right now, If a business owner puts forth his brand presenting it in this manner, an average customer wouldn’t buy. Hence SIVA.
What is SIVA?
SIVA is the reinvention of the marketing mix as we know it. SIVA is the customer centric model and it stands for Solution, Information, Value and Access. This system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded to provide a customer focus.
- Product has become Solution: Customers do not want to buy your product, no matter how awesome it. They don’t want to know how much time you spent creating it, what they want to know and what brand owners need to project is the solution their product or service provides. They want to buy solution to their needs or product. They want to know that the service you are offering is actually a solution that they need. In other words, the product or service isn’t the focus, the solution it would provide is what is the focus.
- Promotion is Information: As in inbound (customer-centric) marketing promotion that is centred on just promoting your brand doesn’t cut it anymore. The best way to promote your brand is not to outrightly promote it, but rather to give your target audience valuable and relevant information that makes them realise how much they need your brand services/product. Customer-centric marketing focuses on creating content that resonates with your audience and appeals to their emotion. To do this, you need to provide value by giving information around your niche that informs, enlightens and or entertains them. This way they get to interact with your brand and patronize it without actually feeling like you marketed to them.
- Price is Value: In the SIVA model, the price of your product isn’t the cost but the Value you have placed on it. In other words, you aren’t marketing the cost in economic sense but rather in terms of value and what it means to those buying it. In this model, what you market is ‘investment’ not just mere ‘expenditure’. People do not want to spend money except they believe that they are getting value and making an investment. SIVA advocates setting the price of a good or service based on the value a product offers to the consumers.
- Placement is Access: In the SIVA model, brand owners have to learn to give consumers access to products and services when and where they want it instead of dictating where a consumer has to go to get it. These days even beauticians are willing to come to your home to do your hair. You have to understand that the customer is King and therefore, go where they are. Put your brand where they can easily access it. Give them options, make it easy for them to locate you.
What is the importance of the marketing mix?
All the elements of the marketing mix influence each other, therefore when handled right, can give a business great success. Marketing mix maximizes a brand’s chances of achieving steady, continual success in its operations. A marketing mix also ensures that a company remains responsible to its customers.
Specifically, Marketing Mix when used right helps in the general perception of the brand because it makes the customers feel important and like their needs are met. It helps in differentiation from one’s competitors, it new product development and when done right, largely increases the ROI of a business.