What’s often frustrating as a PR and marketer is that whenever times get tight on the sales front, or the economy takes a dive, it is often the marketing budget that is cut. I always urge businesses to reconsider cutting their marketing at a time when it is most needed to gain competitive advantage and help drive sales.
To help your business grow or stay healthy at such a time you need to differentiate yourself from the competition and add value.
It helps if you understand the importance of the Ps in your marketing mix. They stand for Product (or service) Price, Promotion and Place. You can also add People, Physical Evidence and Processes. So how do you use the Ps to help you profit?
Product – Look at your product in terms of core service, expected service and differentiation. What do you offer as part of your buying experience that makes you different, better, or specialised?
Price – People rarely buy on price alone, they also balance value and money. A customer choosing a cheaper option is opting for less value. So what can you do to make your customers stay? Differentiate, and specialise in services, products or markets. Therefore your expertise and experience is more important than the price point to the customer. Always conduct a break-even analysis. This provides you with a cost point you know you cannot go below.
Promotion – This is about your image, your reputation in the market. It creates awareness and helps to improve customer loyalty. Promotion can also help even out supply and demand over the course of a financial year.
Place – This is where you sell your goods or service in the market. Whatever the place, you need to make it easy for your customers to get to and buy from you.
People – The people at the coalface, the ones who interact with the customers, these are the people who are representing your company and your brand. Companies who train their staff, embrace customer service, and empower staff to solve customer issues and encourage them to work happily as a team have the winning formula to creating successful service.
Physical Evidence – This is the way you carry your brand out into the market. From truck livery to labelling on boxes, how does your customer perceive you?
Processes – A company normally has many different systems. One for accounts, one for sales and possibly even a separate one for marketing. Have you ever looked at how this works? Your company is only as good as the weakest link in your processes. Audit your own company. Start right from the initial customer contact and work your way through the order being placed, completed, billing and even customer complaints. Get your staff involved in the process and then tear it apart and as a team fill in the holes. If you were a customer coming to your company, why would you come to your company and how would you like to be treated?