Small Business Marketing Strategies

College marketing courses teach the four Ps, in a marketing mix and are defined as product, price, placement and promotion. These four Ps are essential in developing a marketing strategy. The marketing aspect of business takes into account what your business is going to sell and how it is going to sell it. It is how your company markets itself. What your business produces to sell is a reflection of what you company is all about. In other words, your product could be your company's brand, and your company could be a brand on its own such as Coca-Cola or Starbuck's Coffee. Whether your business produces duck decoys or electrical services, your goal is to build and sell a quality product that will ultimately be your company's brand. Basically, we need to build a better mousetrap! Why is it that Starbuck's coffee is larger than Gloria Jeans'Coffee or Seattle's Best Coffee? (Starbucks has recently purchased Seattle's Best Coffee). I am sure some of it has to do with capital investment and timing, but most of Starbuck's success is the result of marketing its coffee as a brand and developing the brand so that it is well known. This is known as brand awareness and brand recognition. We are all aware that Starbuck's exists and we are very knowledgeable of the company as a brand. As consumers, we are all brand conscious shoppers, even though we may not be aware that we are. For example, what does GE stand for? Most consumers would say that GE sells washers and dryers, so GE must stand for washers and dryers. Actually, GE puts more emphasis on the quality of everything they produce, which results in consumers buying most of the things GE produces, whether it is washers and dryers, home appliances, financial services, or airplane engines. As consumers, our perception is that GE produces high- quality products. The same could be said for Carnation in the western U.S. (Nestle USA has discontinued the Carnation brand). Back in the sixties, the Carnation label meant that contented cows produced the condensed milk in the can. Does the mood of a cow really affect the flavor of the milk? Carnation made us believe that it did and that their condensed milk tasted better than the rest. So what is it that you produce that distinguishes you from your competition? Some will say that your pricing should set you apart from everyone else. This may not be true because your pricing could affect the perception of your product. Consumers may interpret the price of your product as a reflection on the quality of your product. Be careful when apply price to your products. Wine is an excellent example. Most people believe that higher priced wines are better wines. This also may be false. Quality makes a wine good, and many wonderful bottles cost less than $10. Unless you are like Microsoft, where the demand of your product is greater than the supply, you cannot be as flexible with pricing as you might think. Consumers are fickle: Anything you do to annoy them could cause them to stop doing business with you in the future. So, what separates you from the rest of the business owners in your field? It could be pricing, service, or quality. It should be that your product is unique and that it satisfies a specific need for consumers. For example, if you are a doctor, lawyer, mechanic, plumber, or electrician, you will always be able to market yourself as such. Everyone needs your expertise. Keep in mind, though, that everyone does not need poor service, high prices, or poor quality. Your field is saturated, and consumers have choices. On the other hand, some consumers will go with the first company they might see in the yellow pages or on the web. So your goal should be to separate your product by producing a quality product or service making yourself the first choice your customers think of when they realize they need something. There are "barriers to entry" that marketers develop to keep competition at bay. What are the barriers that keep your competition at bay? Placement has to do with the channel of distribution in which you sell product. For example, if you own a successful bakery and you want to grow your business by offering your baked goods to more than your current client base, where do you sell? Currently you may only sell to the customers in your neighborhood, but let's say you would like to grow your business and start selling to the local grocery store bakery or the local university foodservice establishments on campus. Placement identifies your distribution direction. Let's think of other strategies that separate your business from the rest. I think poor service is easy to figure out. If your business treats your consumers poorly or really doesn't care about consumers after they have purchased your product, it will only be a matter of time before consumers pass the word along. Word of mouth is also an effective marketing tool. Again, unless you have such a unique product like Microsoft did 20 years ago, you should take customer satisfaction into account. As small business owners, we don't have the luxury of television advertising. We must rely on positive word of mouth. It is the best and least expensive advertising a small business can have. The quality of your product and the quality of the service you provide is going to get around. I like to think of marketing strategy development as brand building. Everything you do to manage your business should incorporate brand building. When you are having staff meetings, ask everyone to think about the impact decisions have on your brand. As your staff engages customers, they should be thinking of ways to make such encounters a better experience for your customers. When we think of marketing, the first thing some of us think about is getting our name recognized. This is known as promotion, it's about getting your good name out there as opposed to just advertising. You are promoting your company and you are prmoting one particular product or all your products. Marketing your company or products through print advertisements and billboards is a great avenue. But I want to make sure you understand the value of marketing a good company or product rather than just approving the advertising budget. You need to understand what it is that you are trying to tell consumers about you and your business. They are going to want to know who you are and what you sell. Consumers also want to know about the quality of your product, and they will also want to know if your company is good at what it does. That information can only come from their experience with your product and your company. Think of it this way: You never get a second chance at making a first impression. When you are ready to advertise, it is important for you to know whether you have a unique product or service and if your product or service is a quality product or service. Most important, you need to know that you can satisfy consumers' needs. Do you know what you customers really need from you? Let's look at this scenario: Let's say you have the budget for a billboard advertisement on Main Street and your agreement is for three months. In three months, 5,000 possible consumers of your product see your advertisement. Twenty of them are interested in your service. Of those, let's guess and say that 10 never call, because they just simply don't call. Four of them call but decide, for whatever reason, they're not going to purchase just yet. We need to find out why we lost those four potential buyers. If we don't understand our product, we will never know why we lost those potential consumers. Three of the 20 potential consumers just don't call because they heard negative comments. The other three actually come to us and buy our product or use our service, but wait; we made mistakes during the transaction and two of the last three are dissatisfied. Here is the marketing question: "What did we lose by all that"? Well, let's take into account the cost of the billboard advertisement, the cost of losing potential consumers, and the negative impact of our brand. We lost a lot! I can't put a dollar figure on it, but I can tell you that we lost some serious money in this example. How; future business? You MUST know your business inside and out before you present it to the general public. Part of this process takes into account some form of management, most of which is marketing. That means marketing the right product at the right time. We can market our product directly to specific groups of consumers, but we can't do that until we know what it is we sell, how we sell, the quality of what we sell, consumer expectations, and our own expectations. Consumers can tell if you know what is happening in your business based on how you market your product. I always say; consumer perception can make or break your business, unless you have supply and demand advantages. Here's something fun. Notice your purchasing habits the next time you go to the grocery store, notice your buying habits. Why do you buy what you buy? Think about it. Marketers play to particular stimuli that consumers react to. As a business owner you should create marketing stimuli that entice your future customers. Differentiate your business and your product or service. Create large barriers to entry, keeping your competitors at bay, and develop products or services that meet the needs of your customers.

About the author

Luis Luarca is the President of Allectus LLC, a management consulting company helping small to mid size businesses and is the author of "Business Management for Business Owners; How to Manage Your Small or Mid Sized Business". http://www.allectus.com

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