New School Take On an Old School Playbook
Revisiting the 4 P’s for the Modern Marketer
The Skinny
Once you know your why for yourself and your customers, the next step is to look more closely at the logistics of how you are running business. Even though this process may seem like a no-brainer, especially for the owner of the company, it’s a good idea to spell out what the business model looks like and how you are taking your product to market. Some may realize there are details that have gotten lost in the clutter, like how high or low you are pricing your product or service versus the value of it. Also, it will serve as a good round up for you to establish where the business is at currently to establish what a champion business looks like to you.
The Fat
Product
Think of this as the sport you play, or the arena your business is in. It sets the norms and rules for which you sell your product. Let’s take the folks at Zappos. At Zappos’ core, they sell shoes. Those shoe products include men, women, and children’s shoes, and they cover a wide range of styles and brands. The thing that sets them apart with their shoe products are their commitment to customer service. As a result, they also sell They sell a wonderful customer experience through their many products. It’s important take all of these factors into consideration with your product. It give a better idea of not only the tangible thing you sell, but the intangible benefit, as well.
Price
The price of a product should start off with the simple dollar value you charge. However, it is also important to compare price to similar products and services on the market to understand more about product’s value. Zappos surely isn’t the only one offering shoes at the lowest prices, nor are they the highest price. They do provide more value for their price, however, with the high quality service and often times free shipping. Integrate the intangible benefit of your product or service when looking at the price of the product compared to the perceived value of the ones purchasing it. This will allow for appropriate pricing of your product and service compared to the value you give.
Place
What is place? Simply put, it is all of the places of which your product or service can be bought or carried out. The place includes storefronts and distribution, as well as e-commerce. If you are a small store downtown, without e-commerce, your place is quite simple. However, if you add a delivery service, the area you cover becomes vital in the place. Today, it is most important to take into consideration the digital competition. You may be the only business offering your product or service on the street, but there could easily be other businesses you do not differentiate against, like an online retailer that single-handedly shrunk the amount of local bookstores. *Cough, Amazon, Cough*
Promotion
Promotion gets into the core of marketing practices. Good ‘ol promotions like 20% off for a limited time are effective in getting folks into your store and trying your product or service. Analyzing what you are doing for promotions must expand into other marketing efforts, like where you are advertising, how long you have been doing it, and the effectiveness of each type of advertisement. It also includes snapshots of social media and website analytics, if you have those. If you have virtually no marketing budget and lean on word of mouth marketing to drive people to the shop, then this is a good place to acknowledge you can do more to increase demand in that arena. This part of your playbook must be nailed down to help you find out where to be spending your marketing resources, whether time or money, better.
The Takeaway
Some may feel this exercise is a bit like reading a playbook you have stored in your mind, but it’s key to understanding what you have going on in your business. Know your key players and what your strengths are, and what has and hasn’t worked thus far. Once you know these things, you will be able to define what goals will mark the top of your business’s ‘A’ game.
