Product, Place, Price and Promotion 

In one of the 'Dilbert' comic strips, the gag is 'Welcome to Marketing. Three drink minimum.' It s a good joke with some basis in reality. A big part of marketing IS building relationships. It's good to make an office call or keep in touch on the telephone with your clients. When you are working on a big deal, though, you might want to get them out of the office so that they are not answering their phone or taking questions from employees. Whether it's a simple breakfast over coffee and a bagel or a very elaborate junket to a major sporting event, you need a chance to get to know them better and find out what they really want. You'll also get to tell them how all about your business and how you can help them out.  All this while they're not trying to deal with running their business or other situations.

So what is marketing? Is it sales? Is it advertising? Marketing is the part of your business where money is made. You let people know that you've got a product they want, you sell it to them and deliver to them and they pay you. You make a profit; they've got the product or service that they need. To make it easy, marketing people break it down into product, place, price and promotion. These are referred to as the four 'P s' of marketing. They are also what people are talking about when you hear about a 'marketing mix.' You must find the right marketing mix for your clients so you can make money.

'Products' are the things that you sell to people. You might also have a service that they will pay for as your product. Products can range all of the way from goods people need every day to live, like milk, meat or vegetables or they can be very high-end dream products, like a private jet. Having the right product for your target market (that is the people or businesses you want to sell) requires knowing what they need and want.

'Place' refers to how you get your product to your customer. Your product might be something that you produce or it could be something you never see or touch. That is quite possible if you have customers order through you and you arrange to have it directly drop shipped to them from the maker or a fulfillment center. There are a lot of ways to get your product to your customer, so it is important to know if its something they want to see and touch before they buy it. If so, you will probably want to order and stock it and sell it directly from your business. If it is something they don t need to see before buying it, you need to make sure that it is delivered promptly to them and is what they expected when they bought it.

'Price' is pretty self-explanatory but it is very important to your success. Price something too high and you may never sell a single item. Price it too low and you can lose money on every sale once all of your costs of doing business are considered. So although you want to price it attractively so that you can sell it to your clients, we must determine the right price to produce profits.

'Promotion' is how you let people know what you've got for sale. It includes most of the things you think of when 'marketing' is mentioned, like advertising and personal sales calls. You can use a variety of tools to promote your product or service, like direct mail, sales brochures, contests and giveaways. The purpose of promotion is to get people to know what your product is, what they can use it for, to make them really want it and to let them know YOU have it and how they can buy it from you. You want them to think of you whenever they think about your product. Your competitors may be wonderful people, kind to children and always good neighbors. But you want the customers who are looking for your product to know that you can do it better for than your competitors. Maybe you can do it cheaper. Maybe you have got a better product. Maybe you've got it in stock and they don't. Maybe the customer will have more fun buying it from you and you'll provide the customer service that makes them feel special and worry free.

In any case, you control the product, place, price and promotion of what you are offering for sale. Your marketing mix should be something you pay careful attention to because that is how your business will succeed.

ZMG can assist you with a plan to ensure the 4P's are in place and effective.