Marketing Isn’t Your Problem — The Missing Three P’s Are
Marketing has been a buzz word for decades now. It has become synonymous with a broad range of outreach – from advertising, social media, websites, and emails to networking, digital media, content, and SEM. While these – and more – are all forms of “marketing”, in actuality they represent only one part of the full marketing process.
Neglecting these first essential 3 P’s and jumping straight into promotion will derail the efficacy of your marketing outreach and waste time, money, and effort. Often, when businesses decry that their marketing is not working, the root cause is that these three Ps have been bypassed.
So, let’s take a look at these foundational Three P’s of Marketing, one at a time, and the hidden costs of ignoring them.
1. Product
What are you REALLY selling?
At first glance, this may seem like a superficial question. But it’s worth digging deeper.
Go beyond the immediate tangibles of your products or service, from their features to their benefits and their place in their lifecycle — development, introduction, growth, maturity, or decline. Look at what you want to sell from the eyes of your customers, and how to augment your product to increase value. What do prospects want? What do they really need? What problem do you solve for them? It’s possible that your ‘product’ may mean slightly different things to different people.
Look at your competition. Will your product hold its own in the marketplace? We have seen products underperform, not because their “marketing” wasn’t good enough, but because the product itself didn’t stand up against its competition. What did that mean for them? Marketing dollars that delivered marketing ROI in qualified leads to their website and 5x the average for time spent on a website, but not the sales they hoped for. Why? Because prospects ultimately decided to buy from a competitor.
If you don’t understand what your product really is, then your prospects won’t either. If your product quality and value do not stand out against your competition, then all the marketing dollars in the world won’t drive the sales you seek. Don’t overmarket but underbuild your product.
2. Place
Put simply, how can people access what you have to offer?
Determine the best channels of distribution and commerce to put your product/service in front of likely purchasers at the right time and place. Again, take your cue from your audiences. Where and how do they find and buy your type of product?
Start with what suits your customers best and make sure your operations and processes are seamless. That requires strong alignment and communication between your marketing, sales, and customer service teams to ensure message continuity, fluid processes, and a buying optimized experience.
Not mapping out your distribution methods and the supporting operations needed can cost you in missed opportunities, channel conflict, unmet expectations, and ultimately an unsatisfactory customer experience. Trying to counteract negative reviews and lost customers will cost you marketing dollars better spent elsewhere.
3. Pricing
This third “P” of marketing is not only about how much,
but also about how to package and price what you sell to suit the needs of various audience segments or distribution channels. Can you create a subscription service, sell content, package for bulk sales, package and price differently for different platforms, or incorporate your product into a larger offering? Understand the role of pricing in product and purchase decisions.
Again, always go back to your customers and your competition. Know your margins, stay relevant, provide customer-centric options, and focus on what is most profitable for you.
At last, the Fourth P!
Promotion
By working through the core Three P’s decisions, you will have evidence-based insights and answers to guide your marketing tactics. You will know WHAT you are marketing, to WHOM, WHY, and for HOW MUCH. Now, you are ready to promote!
Save time and money and gain better results by building successful marketing outreach upon a solid foundation of those first Three P’s.
More about Deborah
