How to improve your marketing strategies
When a company is advertising its product in any given area, we as consumers rarely try to understand the science behind it. Extensive strategic plans and dispositions are employed to ensure the information reaches every consumer available in the area.
Marketing the product includes a lot of ideation and strategies. While the goal is to increase consumer awareness of the product – the way it’s advertised differs from company to company. Every company follows marketing tools and manoeuvrings as per its visions and missions. However, the entire approach comes under the term called “marketing mix”
What is a marketing mix?
The marketing mix is a title initially introduced by Prof. James Culliton in the 1940s. The term is fundamental to any business & its combination of different factors influences the consumers to purchase the product. All the influential factors are decided by the marketers of the company, who are also called “mixers of ingredients”
What factors attributed to the marketing mix?
The attributes define as per the type of product you are selling. Briefly, there are two major types.
- Product Marketing
- Service Marketing
Traditionally, there have been 4 Ps for product marketing but, as the times have changed so, has the theory evolved. In service marketing, the marketing mix extends by an additional 3 Ps. Here is the list,
- Product
- Price
- Place
- Promotion
- Process
- People
- Physical Evidence
A proportionate mix of these properties will undoubtedly give the marketers immense success in their firm’s marketing.
Product is the first variable of the marketing mix. It comes first because your business depends on the product you are selling to the consumers. The first thing you prepare while running a business is what your product must be. How does it satisfy the users’ needs, why should a consumer choose your product over others & what is the look, feel, and life-cycle of the product?
Other characteristics that define a product are its branding and packaging, customer service, returns and, warranties.
Price is the value of the product that people are willing to pay for. It also helps you to know the value of your company. The selling price has various factors that need to be defined before you charge your product. It includes the cost of making, the labor charges, retailer’s profit cut, and the competitor’s price.
By understanding the placement of your product’s demand, you would determine the willingness of the consumer to pay. Thus, deciding what your product’s market price is.
Place implies the platform you choose to sell your product. Be it a store, a supermarket, or online – you need to learn the consumer’s interests and cover the market accordingly. Before the pandemic brought everyone to a halt, people used to go to malls and supermarkets to buy their commodities. But, due to the fear of getting the deadly virus, everyone has gone virtual these days.
Right from businesses to consumer goods, everything is being dealt with online. These days, even firms prefer online mediums to find leads and conduct meetings instead of arranging to visit the location. It has created great opportunities for online businesses.
Online B2B businesses are booming, thanks to the new norm that the world has adopted. For lead generation for their marketing, companies prefer the famous online platform GetEmail.io. This website not only helps you get the official contact or we can say Find an email address of the professional but ensures it’s the right one. GetEmail.io also comes with a chrome extension to LinkedIn, where you can find the email addresses of your connections quite easily. It has helped many marketers to find leads and generate numerous deals.
Promotion When this word comes to our mind, all we think about is the heavy advertisements that the firms engage in to promote their product. However, that isn’t the only way. There are sales promotions, direct marketing, public relations, etc.
While promoting your brand framework, you need to consider the communication strategy i.e., What to communicate, the medium to use for communication and your target audience.
Additional 3 Ps are incorporated when it comes to the service sector,
Process is a scheme and flow by which the service delivers to the consumers. Scrutinizing the manner would require making a detailed analysis of all the steps followed. It includes lead generation, creating a sales process, providing the service, collecting the feedback, and managing the relationships.
From the time you sell your services to the point where you take the feedback and rework, it comes under Process.
People are the consumers that actively participate in the supply and demand chain. Depending upon their demand, supply is delivered. The great question remains, “What does the consumer want?” It is the ultimate question for which answers keep changing with the changing times.
Being a firm you need to keep taking in the latest information and update your product and service accordingly. Active interactions with the clients, interaction with employees and clients will provide you enough insights to improve on your service quality that matches the needs.
Physical evidence Let’s say you’ve come to a salon for a haircut. You get a fashionable haircut and pay the bill for it. It is a service you’ve received & the physical evidence is the bill. But, that is not just enough; the physical evidence includes all the types of equipment used to cut your hair, the interior design, the logo of the salon.
The conversation and confirmation of the communication between the buyer and the seller also come under the physical evidence.
When all the above aspects are taken into consideration while creating a brand and service will put you way ahead of your competitors. Utilize these factors for not just analyzing but also for optimizing your business strategy.
