MARKETING PRINCIPLES

Welcome to this weekly series of Blog posts that will focus on the understanding of Marketing helping demystify it for entrepreneurs, small business owners and marketers looking to craft a detailed marketing plan for their product or service. With 11+ Years of Business Experience plus Certification on Entrepreneurship & Marketing from Orange Coast College Business School I am ready to work with you on building your business.  Feel free to join in the conversation by commenting and contacting me directly.

In this initial post we will begin with the principles of Marketing and why they matter to every single business owner out there. A successful marketing strategy takes into account the customers needs and desires in order to provide them with the best product or service at a reasonable price, having great customer relations and loyalty / rewards programs. Long gone are the days of the “Sales Era” (1950’s) when sales men and corporations where creating products for the sake of it in order to cash in on the industrial and financial boom of the times.

Studies have shown over and over that it is much more efficient and profitable to create or design a product to solve a problem or fill a need in the market place rather than creating something first and then going out there to sell it.  Marketers and Corporations have developed a keen ability to see the NEED or WANT in their TARGET MARKET by doing their research in a variety of forms including following influencers on Social Media, running focus groups and surveys to understand their customer as best as possible.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT MY BUSINESS?

Do you have an amazing product or service that you are ready to deliver to world? I bet you do! In order to be successful with it you must be able to identify the ideal end user that would BENEFIT from your product or service. Are you still looking to create that winning product or develop the right skills to provide a service to those around you? No worries using this principle that identifies the NEED or WANT will help you hone in on the right path. In order to inspire you here are some great examples of products that where wildly successful yet where very simple ideas that turned ordinary people into millionaires.

PET ROCK: 15 Million +

Smiley Face sticker: 50 Million +

Slinky: 250 Million +

Beanie Babies: 6 Billion and counting

Now that we have been inspired by those simple ideas that found a niche market that was big enough to make the product inventors millionaires it is time to move forward into developing our own Marketing Mix that begins with our Customer as our focus.  In order to arise the urge to purchase in our customer we must first understand the profile of our ideal customer so that we know how to communicate clearly our message. Pertinent information to gather through primary and secondary research is known as the Sociographics, Psychographics & Demographics that will offer a window into the likes, dislikes and wants of our perfect customer. This information will aide us in crafting our messaging with the right words, visuals and tone that conveys our message in an informative way and smoothly leads our client through your sales funnel.

TARGET MARKET

Basic Questions to Answer

Location:

Age:

Gender:

Income:

Education:

Profession:

Hobbies:

Once we have identified these qualities we can begin to formulate the PLACES our ideal customer likes to visit and spend their time in the real and virtual world giving us an insight into the best media locations to invest our advertising budget.

THE 4P’s

PRODUCT /SERVICE

The right product or service (YOURS!) that solves a problem or fulfills a want.

Place

The locations  you have identified whether virtual or brick and mortar that your ideal audience spends most of their time at.

Promotion

The right sales Promotion through the use of effective ADVERTISING with compelling graphic design that creates an urge in the customer to purchase the service or product.

Price

Offering the right Price for your service or product that takes into consideration the type of market the product or service will be rendered in.

S.W.O.T. Analysis & Positioning

The next step is the creation of our Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats analysis which will aide in our development of our attack plan to carve a space for ourselves in the market.

Given that this post is written for Small Business, Entrepreneurs and Freelancers our best shot is to position ourselves in the 4th tier of businesses and implement a strategy of Guerilla Warfare Marketing. Guerilla Marketing  will help us develop a small enough segment that we can defend from bigger competitors while carving out a niche audience that is big enough to allow us to grow and slowly carve out a permanent space for ourselves in the market.

Thank you for reading this first post into Marketing Principles by Vico Designs

Please share this post with friends and family that would benefit from this and be sure to drop me a line with any questions or input at [email protected] or simply in the Form Below.

-Vico