Promotion
The marketing community has revolved a main concept for the last 50 years. In the move from the production mindset to marketing/value mindset, Jerry McCarthy created a framework as a way for marketing managers to guide their marketing campaigns and efforts. This framework has been called the 4 P’s – Promotion, Price, Product, and Place.
Now, even though this is a marketing concept, it revolves around the idea that marketing involves every area of the organization and is applicable to virtually any business in the world.
The first P we’ll be discussing is Promotion.
Promotion is what most people think of when the word “marketing” pops into their head. According to Joe Cannon (author of Essentials of Marketing):
“Promotion communicates information between buyer and seller (interactive is a great method whether via personal selling or with a blog where comments allow you to interact) or others in the channel to influence attitudes and behavior. Different communication methods might include advertising, public relations, personal selling, after-sale customer service – and a wide range of social media. All of these can be used to build relationships with customers. Such relationships are incredibly valuable.”
Promotion involves all of the communication involved in getting customers into the sales pipeline. As stated above, this could be posters, TV ads, Pay-per-click ads, or even your companies’ Facebook page. Every message you put out to your customers is involved in promotion. This piece of the 4P Puzzle is the most closely related to your branding. It’s usually what tells prospects what kind of brand you are, what you sell, what your prices are, etc.
If you run a local company, this aspect of the Ps is probably the least accessible to you. You likely don’t have the budget for a multi-national Superbowl ad spot, and don’t have the opportunity to put up an ad in Times Square. However, the sign you place in your front window is just as powerful to your local customers. The Facebook promotion you launch, the signs in the store, the smile on your face as the customer walks in are all promotional items. They should be targeted towards a very specific audience, one that relates to your product selection and has the potential to bring in customers.
If you’re a little different and operate in the online realm, then you’re more likely looking at drastically different promotions strategies and decisions. The good news: you get more feedback. You get click-through rates on PPC ads, Impressions from your facebook news feed, and on and on.
Good questions to ask yourself going into any Promotion decision: Does this reflect our brand correctly? Is this what I would tell a customer if we were standing face-to-face? Is this the message I REALLY want to be sending?
Price
The 4 P’s are a framework that have guided marketing decisions for the last 50 years in most successful marketing firms and companies.
However, they’re good for every manager in an organization to be familiar with and have a clear knowledge of, as they relate to all the areas of a business. Today, we’re talking about Price. Now, price is probably pretty intuitive and obvious to you already, but have you considered how it affects your branding and marketing?
In the words of Joe Cannon:
“Price is the amount of money charged for the something of value. Price should include an understanding of costs, various tiers of pricing, discounts and allowances, etc.“
With that in mind, price is more than the sticker that you put on your merchandise or the landing page you filter prospects through. Price is a fantastic indicator of how your customers (and prospects) view your brand, store, etc.
You don’t go looking for a porcelain vase at a dollar store. Even if it were the best vase the world-round had to offer, you (and almost anyone) would have a hard time buying that it was, in fact, the world’s best-made vase.
The same rule applies to high-end items. You know that Gucci purse you (or your wife) have been lusting after? Is it REALLY worth $3,000? Did they really spend almost $3,000 on materials? Unlikely. But there are some big spenders out there that own it, and the price means it absolutely must be quality, right?
Price tells people how quality your item is in relation to your competition. If you’re significantly lower in price, than a sub-conscious decision is made that it’s likely made out of cheaper materials. If you’re priced significantly higher, then experience tells us that it’s likely made with more care and hand-selected materials.
This is one of the many reasons why daily deals can be devastating to a business. When you send out a daily deal, you’re telling everyone that you’re targeting that your product is really only worth half of what your normal pricing represents. It’s a dangerous slope to start down.
So, keeping your pricing in mind is essential to ensuring that your customer is getting the right message. Whether it be a “freemium” model like Flickr, or keeping your prices slightly higher or lower than the guy around the corner, you have to keep the psychological impact of your prices in mind.
Product
According to Joe Cannon, Product is defined as:
“Product is the need-satisfying offering of the firm. This can include decisions about branding, ancillary services, warranty, packaging, features, and benefits.”
Now, this is pretty open-ended. Your product could be the blog you’re trying to get people to watch, or the sunglasses you’re trying to hawk.
However, it’s not just the product. It’s the quality of the product, the style of the product, the packaging of the product, the experience of using the product, the experience of buying the product, even the way your product is disposed of. While it may seem like the simplest part of the marketing equation (if not part of it at all), it actually drives everything about your product.
The easiest way I’ve found to identify or equate to the over-arching philosophy of “product” is find and figure out the differentiation of your product. Look at, feel, and think about your product. What adjectives come to mind when you do this? Cheap, quality, mediocre? Contemporary, traditional, stylish, ugly, beautiful? Thoughtful, aesthetic, metallic, plasticky, creative, boring the list goes on and on.
This should be pretty close to what a customer or prospect thinks of your product when they see it, touch it, or think about it. It’s what you need to consider while designing, releasing, or marketing your product.
If you dive even deeper, all of these items should be derived out of what your target market will want and need. If “product” doesn’t match what they expect or desire, you’re not going to sell many units.
Place
According to Joe Cannon, Product is defined as:
“Product is the need-satisfying offering of the firm. This can include decisions about branding, ancillary services, warranty, packaging, features, and benefits.”
Now, this is pretty open-ended. Your product could be the blog you’re trying to get people to watch, or the sunglasses you’re trying to hawk.
However, it’s not just the product. It’s the quality of the product, the style of the product, the packaging of the product, the experience of using the product, the experience of buying the product, even the way your product is disposed of. While it may seem like the simplest part of the marketing equation (if not part of it at all), it actually drives everything about your product.
The easiest way I’ve found to identify or equate to the over-arching philosophy of “product” is find and figure out the differentiation of your product. Look at, feel, and think about your product. What adjectives come to mind when you do this? Cheap, quality, mediocre? Contemporary, traditional, stylish, ugly, beautiful? Thoughtful, aesthetic, metallic, plasticky, creative, boring the list goes on and on.
This should be pretty close to what a customer or prospect thinks of your product when they see it, touch it, or think about it. It’s what you need to consider while designing, releasing, or marketing your product.
If you dive even deeper, all of these items should be derived out of what your target market will want and need. If “product” doesn’t match what they expect or desire, you’re not going to sell many units.