The most difficult task in running a business is not just putting together resources to set it up, but to market it so that customers want it. You can have a well setup cafe or a store or a company, but if nobody is interested in your services or buys them from you, your business is bound to doom. Harsh but the truth. Hence the need of marketing.
Marketing or promoting your products and services is the best (and the only) way to attract customers. Marketing helps to but your business in front of your potential customers. With banners, leaflets, newspaper ads, hoarding, digital ads, videos, reviews, etc. you can attract the right customers like bears to honey.
But putting together a marketing plan is not an easy task. There are number of factors that can drastically effect your campaign, making it a success or taking the whole thing down.
Putting all the factors together, we have assembled it into the 5 P’s of marketing. These are- Product, Price, Promotion, Place and People.
1. Product
– when you have to market your product, highlight the ‘why’ part rather than the ‘what’ part. Why should people buy it, emphasize on its need in their lives and its benefits. Mention the details why it’s different from other. For e.g. for a cafe, you can market it’s menu, its ambiance and theme, the prices, etc. Some cafe have waitering staff serving in style, in costumes, or simply the cafe can be a great place to leave the hustle-bustle of the daily life. You can also give discounts and have surprise prize sections for the customers. Everybody likes a little surprise.
2. Price
– Here this price can be discussed in 2 aspects- first the amount you set for marketing and second the price of the product.
- Price for the budget – set out the budget for campaign. As there are different ways to market your business- both online and offline, you must have a budget set in mind. Know how much to spend and the duration of spending the money. Which techniques would work for you and which will not. It’s better to study it beforehand and set up the budget accordingly rather than spending it all blindly.
- Price of the product – This is one of the deciding factors when it comes to purchase of the product. How much will the customer have to pay to what you offer. Offering many services at minimum price attracts a lot of customers. Taking the example of Reliance Jio in India. When Jio launched, they offered services like unlimited data and talk time for 3 months. This attracted the customer making it the most desirable network surpassing other telecom providers. With more than 72 million customers, Jio is slowly becoming the choice of people.
3. Promotion
What tempts the customer to buy the product is the way it is presented. You have seen commercials with either celebrities and sports persons or they have an emotional or funny touch. Apart from them, you can also get in touch with influencers of the niche. With this, and other offline methods as a stall in fairs, hoardings, newspaper ads, etc. you will reach a lot of potential customers. Keep in mind the needs and interest of people. You can have variations too. Like in Pantene, they have a different celebrity of that respective country for that ad.
4. Place
The location of both the business and the promotion plays an important role in business being a success. If you have your location far away, you may not have that much customers. If its crowded location with parking problem, that damps the business too. Also the interior of the place attracts the customer. A shabby, unkempt area with unpleasant smell and poor waitering is a BIG NO for the business. That’s why people spend a lot on the location and look of the business. After all, first impressions matter.
Apart from this, the location where you promote your business is also important. If you want to target students and you are placing an ad in the business magazines, that just waste of money and you seriously need either a new strategy or a new team altogether. Target your audience they are mostly spend their time – placing ads and re-targeting them, emailing them, handling out business pamphlets at places they mostly crowd at, etc.
5. People
And last, the people to whom you are pitching. They are the ultimate goals. No business can run without buyers and customers. Focus on people who can readily connect with your products and target them. Make sure they are satisfied. A good word by the customers can lead to new potential customers. Not just the customers, the employees should be happy too. The growth of the company should be their growth too. After all, it’s the horses that pull the carriage, not the man. Under the leadership of talented person, they can learn and grow.
So these are the golden 5 P’s of marketing around which every business revolves. Keeping them in mind while developing a marketing strategy can help you establish yourself as brand, make cash and earn loyal customers.